To the Middle East and Back Again :: The Boston Gay Men's Chorus Traces a 'Circle of Life'

With spring about to spring, Boston Gay Men's Chorus (BGMC) invites you to "Circle of Life," a joyous celebration of this season of rebirth, on March 19 and 20 at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall.

True to BGMC form, "Circle of Life" features pop classics such as the titular song by Elton John and the Supremes' "Up the Ladder to the Roof," along with innovative new works showcasing BGMC's penchant for drama (the good kind) and high-tech theatricality.

In the latter category is the East Coast premiere of "#twitterlieder: 15 Tweets in 3 Acts," by composer James Eakin and lyricist Charles Alan Silvestri, a lighthearted, multimedia take on life through the pithy lens of Twitter. In the former is "Capable of Anything," a commission by Joshua Shank that was inspired by BGMC's groundbreaking tour of the Middle East last summer.

We recently caught up with BGMC Music Director Reuben M. Reynolds, III, to discuss "Circle of Life" and these exciting new works.

Q: The new works you'll be performing are intriguing, so let's please cut to the chase. Tell us about "Capable of Anything."

A: We commissioned Joshua Shank, a gay composer from Austin, Texas to write a piece based on our tour of the Middle East-we were the first gay choral group ever to perform in the region, which we did last June. Josh actually came with us to share the experience and interview the guys. He used what he saw and heard as material for "Capable of Anything."

Q: The piece has four movements. What can you tell us about them?

A: The first movement, "Peace," actually premiered during the Middle East tour. Josh wrote it beforehand, based on interviews with chorus members about when they felt most at peace. It's a beautiful piece of music, and it got an amazing reception on the tour.

Q: Yes. I seem to remember a Boston Globe story about how "Peace" came together.

A: That's right. The second movement, "Joy," is a metaphor for our common humanity. It's based on our visit to the Dead Sea and you know, everybody floats in there no matter what because of the high density of salt. One of the chorus members looked around and he said, "You know the wild thing about this? There are all kinds of people here. Turkish, Iranian, American, British, Arabs, Israeli-and every single person floats exactly the same in the Dead Sea." The idea is that they're all different in some way, but at that point they're all exactly equal and the same.

The third movement, "Justice," quotes from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in favor of marriage equality, news of which the chorus learned upon arriving in Istanbul during the tour.

Q: Where were you when you heard the news? I love asking LGBT people that question because everyone remembers.

A: Well, that's an excellent question in this case because we were standing outside the Hagia Sophia, which was built in the year 537. It's been an Islamic mosque, it's been a Christian church and now it's called a Temple of Holy Wisdom and it's a municipal museum. So we're standing there, totally in awe of this whole thing and this Englishman said something like, "Who is this SCOTUS judge? What is he doing?" He was talking about the decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that had just come down about same-sex marriage.

It blew Josh's mind to hear the news while we were waiting to enter the Hagia Sophia. He said, "Here we are, going into this Temple of Holy Wisdom and that's just what's happened. Holy Wisdom has descended upon our homeland." That was his take-away from it. Josh and his partner had decided they weren't getting married until they could do it in their home state of Texas. Thanks to the Supreme Court, they got married the day after he got back from the tour. I love that story, and "Justice" actually includes some text from the Supreme Court decision.

Q: So how does all of this end? Tell us about "Tomorrow."

A: "Tomorrow" is a triumphant anthem for the future. One of the things that Josh was most enthused by is the guys in the chorus and their belief in changing the world. And their belief in helping other people, showing other people how change happens. So he wrote this fun, uplifting, just really powerful piece about if you believe you can change the world, all you have to do it start and before you know it, it's done. And he talks about how things have changed for our community. We're now capable of joy. We're capable of justice. We're capable of peace. All you have to do is start the process, and before you know it, it's done.

Q: Wow. How can "#twitterlieder: 15 Tweets in 3 Acts" ever measure up to that?

A: Oh, it will, believe me! "twitterlieder" is by composer James Eakin and lyricist Charles Anthony Silvestri. "Lieder" is the German word for song. So these are Twitter songs. It's a set of 15 tweets, all quite short-less than 140 characters each-that were written by Charles to talk about an entire life from birth to ending.

Q: How do you squeeze a whole life into 15 tweets?

A: Well, it's divided into three acts-Youth, Middle Age, and Old Age. They're each short little scenarios, like a birthday. Then you're at school where, OMG, this totally creepy guy asked me to the school dance! In the second act, Middle Age, you're getting married and you're busy. But you realize you're on a merry-go-round and you have to sit and stop and reclaim what's important. And in the third act is old age and it talks about really finding love again.

Q: Short and to the point, like Twitter.

A: Exactly. But what is kind of incredible is we're tying things together with contemporary music. We start out with Natasha Beddingfield's "Unwritten." Your life is unwritten-you can make anything of it that you want. Then we go into the first act of "twitterlieder," which is "Youth." At the end, after the graduation, we'll do Jason Robert Brown's "The New World" -it's a new world out there and I'm going to make mistakes, but I'm going to grow and open myself to all the experiences that happen with me.

The second act, "Middle Age," includes a song I've always loved and been dying to do it for years: The Supremes' "Up the Ladder to the Roof" -won't you come up the ladder to the roof with me so we can be closer to heaven. That takes us from "Middle Age" into "Old Age." It's a wonderful metaphor for finding love so that we can be even better. So we can go into the last stage of our lives wildly, madly in love.

Q: Yes, but we all know how this ends. Please pass the Kleenex.

A: Well, the concert is called "Circle of Life," and death is part of it. We perform that song at the end of the piece. But the show is so uplifting because even in "twitterlieder," and in Josh's piece, and in everything else we sing in this concert, we're talking about growing through life and finding new experiences. Finding new love, new friends, new people. I think it's an incredible, moving concept to realize where you are on this incredible journey through life.

Q: What else can people expect from "Circle of Life?"

A: This concert is going to be entirely different from anything you've ever seen. We have added a huge visual element to it. So there will be a big screen covering the organ in the front of Jordan Hall. There are all kinds of different visuals going on. For "twitterlieder" we've created a character we call Robert Everyman, Jr. and we created our conception of what a Facebook page from 30 years ago would look like and we put him on it as a baby from the first, and we follow him as he grows up through life. So there's this incredible visual element that goes along with the music. In so many different ways, this is going to be an unusually different experience, but really, really moving. It's one of those times where the journey of the entire concert is much bigger than the individual pieces we put together in it.

- Courtesy of Boston Gay Men's Chorus

The Boston Gay Men's Chorus presents "Circle of Life" on Saturday, March 19 at 8 pm and Sunday, March 20 at 3 pm at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. Tickets start at $20 (before ticket fees, $5 additional walk-up) and are available online at www.bgmc.org or by calling 617-542-SING (7464)