The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir and Gold Standard Singers

The Nebraska Wesleyan University Choir and Gold Standard Singers travel to share compelling music and uplifting stories that inspire resilience, compassion, and hope. The tour program will feature Jake Runestad's dramatic musical soliloquy from the heart of Beethoven, A Silence Haunts Me, and the choral suite from Craig Hella Johnson's poignant and powerful Considering Matthew Shepard.

A Silence Haunts Me

In A Silence Haunts Me – After Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament, Jake Runestad creates a monologue in Beethoven’s voice for choir. Frequent collaborator Todd Boss has taken the fundamentals of Beethoven’s letter and spun it into a libretto that places the reader/listener into the same small, rented room as one of the most towering figures of the Romantic Era. Runestad sets the poetry with an intense, emotional directness and uses some of Beethoven’s own musical ideas to provide context. Stitched into the work are hints at familiar themes from the Moonlight Sonata, the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Symphonies, and Creatures of Prometheus.

Considering Matthew Shepard

Considering Matthew Shepard was created in response to the anti-gay hate crime that took Matthew’s life in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998. It is a three-part fusion oratorio that incorporates a variety of musical styles. Johnson includes a range of texts by poets including Michael Dennis Browne, Lesléa Newman, Hildegard of Bingen and Rumi. Also included are passages from Matt’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents Judy and Dennis Shepard, and newspaper reports.