By John Lehrack–
What includes polyester, bell bottoms, disco balls, and the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band (SFLGFB)? The band’s celebration of turning 45 and dedicating its annual Spotlight concert to music from the ’70s!
The Band was born in 1978 as the first openly gay musical organization in the world by a Daly City music teacher originally from Kansas named Jon Sims. It only seemed fitting to current Artistic Director, Pete Nowlen, to celebrate the Band’s birthday with music from the era of nascent LGBTQ+ rights and what he considers a zenith of musical styles.
Spotlight on the 70s happens on May 20 at 6:30 pm at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St in Oakland (12th Street BART is around the corner). The Band will play music from ABBA, Village People, Carole King, Queen, Elton John, and more, and will feature San Francisco drag legend Donna Sachet and Bay Area theatre phenom Phaedra Tillery-Boughton as hosts and solo performers. Spotlight will also showcase the world premiere of Awakening by Roger Zare, the winner of the Band’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) composer commission. Doors will open at 6:30 pm with a pre-show and open-mic piano bar of ’70s music, hosted by yours truly. Come early, sing, drink, and check out the silent auction items. Then get ready for a musical trip down Memory Lane with the Band joining at 7:30 pm for the main show. Tickets are available at https://tinyurl.com/mr23spfw
I had the opportunity to sit down with both SFLGFB’s Artistic Director, Pete Nowlen, and award-winning composer, Roger Zare, to talk about the show and Zare’s composition Awakening. Our talks encompassed a wide variety of topics, but the question I asked both of them was about Awakening and how this new piece, written in 2022, connected to a concert of music from the 1970s.
Zare’s initial reaction to learning of the composition commission was to think about identity. He said, “We all have our own identities and some identities have been suppressed by society and others have been embraced. The idea of awakening is allowing you to find your true identity and really be who you should be, because a lot of people don’t really know who they are for quite a lot of their lives.”
Awakening was inspired by the coming out stories of some of Zare’s friends and their realizations at some point in their lives that helped them be true to themselves. As the child of a Chinese mother, who came to the U.S. via Jamaica, and a white American father, Zare shared that composing Awakening helped him reflect on his own identity as an Asian-American who doesn’t feel he is part of any one group, but part of a lot of groups.
Zare revealed that the work is in two very different musical styles. He begins in a minimalist “boxed-in” style and limits the range of the instruments. The opening clarinet solo (an homage to his clarinetist friends who came out to him) is initially limited in range and expression. Then it discovers it can do things “outside of the box” and begins to explore, moving into jazz idioms that allow the instrument to find its true identity and for the band to then celebrate this. The composition ends with a clarinet solo that “affirms who they really are and finds comfort in this identity.”
Zare concluded our discussion of the work by telling me, “It becomes a narrative of the clarinet trying to find its identity and break out of societal bonds. Societal repression is represented by muted brass who are kind of yelling at the clarinets and woodwinds to stay in their box. The brass eventually removes the mutes, helps prop up the clarinet, and joins with them. Other instruments gradually unmute and join in the new jazz style of the composition when it really breaks free.”
For conductor Nowlen, the themes represented in Awakening reflect personal awakening and the back-and-forth the queer community experienced with society in the ’70s as we started to awaken and claim our identity. He said, “The ’70s were a watershed moment when LGBTQ+ folks realized we are a community, which in turned helped birth the Band.” He said he is “wild” about the piece and the compositional method used by the composer: “Awakening is fresh and innovative in its compositional approach. The theme is consistently apparent and accessible for the audience, while avoiding the presence of cliché or vacuous sentimentality. Roger’s deft compositional hand has created a piece of the highest level.”
Nowlen had known of Zare’s other works for quite some time and was thrilled to receive this submission for the composition commission.
The 1970s impressed fond and vivid memories upon Nowlen. With 4 older siblings who came of age in the decade, he grew up in the ’70s and graduated high school in 1980. He feels that decade was an amazing period for music, hallmark wardrobe, and fashion styles. Aside from Awakening, he is excited about a planned ’70s medley that features over 20 musical quotes from television and radio, and that will be the focus of a fun music trivia competition for the audience. Nowlen said that he is an “ecstatic fan” of ABBA and also adores the band transcription of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen that will be performed at Spotlight.
Both composer and conductor agree that the ’70s era was a time of awakening and self-discovery, when people found who they were and so much of society was opening up. Awakening was commissioned and written prior to the concert theme being adopted, but could not be more appropriate for the show.
Zare is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Appalachia State University in North Carolina and has previously taught at Illinois State University. He began studying piano at age five and violin at eleven. He started composing when he was in high school, which is when he discovered this is the area of music he loves most. He is primarily a composer of orchestra and concert band works, but has also written for other musical combinations. He holds degrees in music from the University of Southern California, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His uncle is a renowned professor of science at Stanford University and his niece, a member of the queer community in the Bay Area, is a professional French horn player.
On May 20, don your tie-dyes, get out your flashiest apparel, and come support the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the Official Band of San Francisco!
John Lehrack is the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band Event Production Manager and is the Band’s pianist.
Arts & Entertainment
Published on May 4, 2023
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