Windy City Performing Arts to Perform TYLER'S SUITE, 3/21

Windy City Gay Chorus and Windy City Treble Quire will present two performances Legacies of Hope on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 5pm and 8pm at St. James Episcopal Cathedral (65 E. Huron, Chicago, IL). Advance purchase tickets are available at http://www.windycitysings.org for $10-$30.

Legacies of Hope honors the lives of the countless LGBTQ youth who are at risk in our communities, and will feature the Midwest premiere of Tyler's Suite. With music curated by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show), Tyler's Suite honors the memory of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student and classical violinist who took his own life after being cyberbullied for being gay by his college roommate.

Windy City Performing Arts (WCPA), in collaboration with the Tyler Clementi Foundation (www.tylerclementi.org), co-commissioned Tyler's Suite with six of the country's other leading gay choruses, (San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, New York City Gay Men's Chorus, San Diego Men's Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale/Dallas, and Seattle Men's Chorus) to tell the story of Tyler Clementi's life through the voices and experience of Tyler and his family. It is the hope of the Tyler Clementi Foundation that the hauntingly beautiful lyrics and music of Tyler's Suite will "shine a light of hope and endless possibility" for all at-risk youth and their families. Foundation members, including Tyler's mother, Jane Clementi, will be in attendance at both Chicago performances.

Giving voice to the lives of these youth, and singing in the stunning St. James Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Chicago, Windy City Gay Chorus (WCGC) will present the Midwest premiere of Tyler's Suite, an original, multi-movement work curated by Stephen Schwartz and created by top American composers of this century. Set to lyrics by Pamela Stewart with sections by John Bucchino, Ann Hampton Callaway, Craig Carnelia, Nolan Gasser, Jake Heggie, Lance Horne, and Stephen Schwartz, Tyler's Suite highlights the impact and consequences of bullying.

In conjunction with WCGC's presentation of Tyler's Suite, Windy City Treble Quire will perform music inspired by the stories of other youth whose experience of prejudice also served as a catalyst for social change. Composed and arranged by WCPA's Artistic Director, Paul Caldwell, and his collaborator, Sean Ivory, these songs tell the story of LGBTQ people in the Holocaust, the children who initiated the Soweto Uprisings, and a young girl who survived the Rwandan genocide.

The daily struggles for acceptance, compassion and love by at-risk LGBTQ youth are stories we hear about frequently. Too often, however, they are accompanied by the tragic news of promising lives cut short by suicide as a result of the relentless bullying by peers, and a society which marginalizes and compromises their very existence. By singing their stories, WCPA hopes to create a musical experience that will change people's hearts and minds toward love, acceptance, and respect for all people.

Celebrating 36 Lyrical Years, WCPA is Chicago's premier LGBTQ choral arts organization encompassing Windy City Gay Chorus and Windy City Treble Quire. WCPA celebrates diversity, honors creativity and cultivates pride through the transformative power of music and the arts.

Performances of Legacies of Hope are Saturday, March 21 at 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Cathedral (65 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL).

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