Quorum Boston presents Drag Messiah: A very Allston Christmas

Yes on 3!

Performance Dates:
August 17, 2018
7:30PM
MIT Building 6, Room 120
77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139
Aug. 17 event on Facebook

August 18, 2018
7:30PM
First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist
3 Church St, Cambridge, MA 02138
Aug. 18 event on Facebook
Quorum Boston on Facebook

(Cambridge, MA) Since its writing, Handel’s Messiah has been used as a fundraising concert for various causes to benefit society. In Handel’s time, that was the Foundling’s Hospital for London orphans. Quorum will be performing Drag Messiah: a Very Allston Christmas* in order to raise awareness and donations for Freedom for All Massachusetts, a trans-lead organization that is working to protect the ways in which Massachusetts currently allows trans people to use public accomodations (including but not limited to bathrooms) that align with their gender identity. These protections – which allow trans people to live, work, and move through society with basic dignity – also help prevent violence and discrimination against trans people. An anti-LGBTQ group is trying to repeal them, and Freedom for All Massachusetts is working hard to prevent that from happening through public education and awareness. We will have more information, volunteer sign-up for those interested, and VOTER REGISTRATION!

Written by a queer composer who participated in drag culture and wrote many cross-gendered opera roles, the Messiah as performed by an LGBTQ chorus (some of whom will be in drag) will bring awareness to and celebrate the diversity of gender in our Boston community. It will be a very exciting and high-quality concert, and our aim is to use the popularity of the Messiah and the newfound public interest in drag to support the trans community, which is often marginalized from both the classical music and drag scenes, spaces which should be open to all. We will be performing the entire piece with a guest orchestra of historically-informed instrumentalists, in a setting both intimate and powerful. You have not heard this piece performed with as much emotional authenticity as you will this August.

*What’s Allston Christmas?
It’s that time in August and early September when people scavange treasures left on the sidewalk or put in the trash by departing renters. It’s is a working-class celebration of new life and valuing what has been discarded by others, concepts which are also foundational to the queer experience. Handel’s Messiah – a larger-than-life oratorio about birth, rejection and punishment at the hands of those who don’t understand your worth, and the triumph of good will and promise for a better future – is the perfect piece to sing for this occasion.

Quorum Boston is an LGBTQ vocal ensemble that performs music almost exclusively by LGBTQ composers (like Handel!) in order to combat the erasure of queerness in the classical music canon and help new voices be heard.

[Updated 6/21/2018]
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