March daily: out like a lion
My reply to violence: sorry, Lenny.
Not much gives me hope these days, but I do take heart from this - I’m not seeing that accursed Bernstein quote everywhere this time around.
That was early 2017. In early 2025, they’re cancelling the visas of foreign students who have participated in political protest and sending people who are here legally to prisons because of their tattoos. Women are dying after miscarriages and the Vice President is sitting petulantly in Greenland and the economy is shuddering and…
Making music more devotedly and intensely or whatever - Lenny, sweetheart, this is an emergency. Your UWS friends and all the people in America who think they are rich enough to survive this do not need your safe lil statement about music making as protest. Especially since for you that would have been what - Mahler? Mass?
Not that I know what to do, mind you.
I do know this. This is when we stand up for everyone we can in whatever way we know how to stand up. And we acknowledge how scary it is, even as we realize what weak sauce that fear is. I’m scared about my retirement accounts and the future of the academy, and those things are way down the long list of immediate dangers, which more and more people are facing every day.
So, this little list. I’m so grateful to everyone who’s reached out to say it means something to them. I hope you are making your own lists and talking about the people whose art and ideas are meaningful to you. I hope you’re reaching out to them to say thank you, buying their stuff, programming it.
I hope you are finding ways to say out loud that the forced march back toward a whitewashed history is wrong, inaccurate, soul-crushing, and damaging. And then, finding ways to help others say it.
The peril of this moment feels real. If you need someone to link arms with, I’m here.
March 24: Michael Kelly
Michael has slowly and surely become a force in vocal music spaces through his personal kindness, his freaking excellent singing, and pride in his identity. Opera, song, festivals, teaching - Michael does it all and shares how to do it with generosity.
March 25: Tracy Cox
Do you seek an operatic soprano who can melt your face but also be the fiercest, funniest, forceful advocate? Tracy is a nationally recognized fat activist and has both challenged and taught the opera world about how messed up it is about human bodies, especially big ones, especially women’s.
March 26: Tonia Sina
Tonia Sina invented the idea of intimacy coordination in her master’s thesis and spread the practice across the theater world. In opposition to the old, romantic/authoritarian idea that actors should be ready to open themselves physically and emotionally to anything, Sina was a pioneer in constructing practices that prioritized actors’ bodily autonomy.
March 27: MUSE
MUSE’s mission is to cultivate more racial equity in theatrical music departments by providing access, internships, mentorships, and support to historically marginalized people of color. WHAT IS NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THIS is my question.
March 28: Equity Arc
You’ve heard about their cancellation at the Kennedy Center. Now read more about their mission, their work, their success, and their incredible impact. And about the recreation of the cancelled event!
March 29: Sonata Mulattica
Poet Laureate Rita Dove’s 2009 work, extensively researched and gorgeously written, explores the relationship between Beethoven and George Bridgetower, the Black violinist who was the original recipient of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (after a personal falling out, the composer ripped out the dedication to Bridgetower and sent the sonata to a Viennese violinist). This book of poetry is an artist’s entry into a story of human trafficking, what talent buys and what it doesn’t, and how far artistic loyalty goes.
March 30: Blue
This opera was commissioned by the Glimmerglass Festival in 2019 (just look at the list of grantors! A true American project!) and has since been performed across North America and in Europe. Like As One, its small forces have made it even more attractive to a whole array of presenters. So, like As One for trans issues, Blue has served as an entry point for countless opera lovers into discussions about being Black in America, and in the space of classical music. It’s also served as a career-changing work for multiple artists.
March 31: Classical music #MeToo
The p***y-grabber has been re-elected, women are being investigated and prosecuted for miscarrying - it’s hard to remember that, not long ago, we seemed to be making strides toward physical autonomy through solidarity, and telling our stories. Tarana Burke started the movement; in classical spaces some courageous people took it forward. Even today, mid-backlash, I am wildly grateful to everyone who spoke and who speaks their truth.
I’ll never believe that we have to leave out the awful parts of our history in order to prove our love and loyalty.
thanks for reading.
Okay, I have to defend my boy here... the Leonard Bernstein quote was never meant to apply to ALL violence. It was his response to JFK's assassination. He was grieving his dear friend-- oftentimes, all we can do with one death we can't reverse is to throw ourselves into art we think would have meant something to them, to try to connect with whatever we can find of their legacy and memory. It was never meant as a reply to an onslaught of constant, ongoing violence like we're seeing now. I can't stand seeing it misused, same as you... but it was also never meant to be universal. It doesn't apply to what we're living through; I think Lenny would agree.