Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus

Last updated

The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus was a Boston-based non-audition chorus that supported the transgender community through music, outreach, and research. [1] [2] Founded in 2014 by Sandi Hammond, faculty member at the New School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is thought to have been the second transgender choir in the nation, the first being the Transcendence Gospel Choir of San Francisco. [3] [4] The chorus held its first public performance on April 9, 2015, at the First Church in Boston. [5]

During the following two years, the chorus received a large amount of local and nation media attention, garnering stories in O, The Oprah Magazine , Local and National NPR stations, ABC News and others. [5] [6]

The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus does not exist anymore. After two sold-out debut concerts in downtown Boston,[ citation needed ] Hammond stepped down in October 2016. [7] during an intense debate about the impact of media exposure on the group and also the fact that she herself is not trans. A small group of volunteers continued a self-led, volunteer song-circle for several months under the new name, Boston Trans Chorus. [8]

The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus has sparked the creation of similar groups in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Kansas City, and Manchester, New Hampshire. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan Womyn's Music Festival</span> Feminist music festival

The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, was a feminist women's music festival held annually from 1976 to 2015 in Oceana County, Michigan, on privately owned woodland near Hart Township referred to as "The Land" by Michfest organizers and attendees. The event was built, staffed, run, and attended exclusively by women, with girls, young boys and toddlers permitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirk Franklin</span> American gospel musician

Kirk Dewayne Franklin is an American songwriter, choir director, gospel singer, and rapper. He is best known for leading urban contemporary gospel and Christian R&B ensembles such as The Family, God's Property, and One Nation Crew (1NC) among many others. He has won numerous awards, including 20 Grammy Awards. Variety dubbed Franklin as a "Reigning King of Urban Gospel", and is one of the inaugural inductees into the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.

Camp Trans was the name of an annual demonstration and event held outside the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in Oceana County, Michigan. This demonstration was held by transgender women and their allies to protest against the Festival's policy of excluding trans women from attending, until the Music Festival's end in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucas Silveira</span> Musical artist

Lucas Silveira is a Canadian vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. He has composed and performed folk music and rock music, and formed and played in the band The Cliks. Silveira is credited as the first openly transgender man to have signed with a major record label. He also writes about LGBTQ issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender</span> Gender identity other than sex assigned at birth

A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.

The Zamir Chorale of Boston, founded in 1969, is a choral group that performs Jewish liturgical pieces, major classical works, music of the Holocaust, newly commissioned compositions, and Israeli, Yiddish, and Ladino folksongs. Zamir has been recognized by American Record Guide as “America’s foremost Jewish choral ensemble.” The documentary film Zamir: Jewish Voices Return to Poland, about the Chorale’s 1999 trip to Eastern Europe, was shown across the country on public television stations. Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi, of The New York Times, called the film “an unforgettable video experience.”

The McDonald's Gospelfest is an annual gospel music festival, talent competition, and fundraiser in Newark, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reuben Zellman</span> American rabbi and musician

Reuben Zellman is an American teacher, author, rabbi, and musician. He became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.

Grace Weber is an American R&B singer, songwriter and producer from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. She is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Over her career, she has written for and collaborated with artists such as Chance the Rapper, Masego, Vic Mensa, Francis and the Lights, Westside Boogie and Towkio, as well as winning a Grammy Award. Weber has performed on national television shows including Showtime at the Apollo and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Washington, D.C., and its environs are home to an unusually large and vibrant choral music scene, including choirs and choruses of many sizes and types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Voice Children's Choir</span> Utah Childrens Choir

One Voice Children's Choir is an American children's choir in Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yvette Flunder</span> Bishop of the United Church of Christ

Yvette A. Flunder is an American womanist, preacher, pastor, activist, and singer from San Francisco, CA. She is the senior pastor of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in Oakland, California and Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.

The Transgender Memorial Garden is a memorial to transgender people killed by anti-LGBTQ violence. It is located at 2800 Wyoming Street in the Benton Park West neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri.

Bobbi Jean Baker was an American transgender activist and minister.

The Transcendence Gospel Choir, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is the first documented transgender gospel choir. It was founded in 2001 by record producer Ashley Wai'olu Moore, with Yvonne Evans as its first conductor, and was a community choir and music ministry affiliated with the City of Refuge United Church of Christ.

Sandi Hammond is a Boston-based musician and business woman who founded Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus, the second all-transgender chorus in the country, in 2014. The first, the Transcendence Gospel Choir, was established in San Francisco in the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Gay Men's Chorus</span>

The Boston Gay Men's Chorus is a group of vocalists located in Boston, Massachusetts. The group currently has over 300 members and has been directed by Conductor Reuben Reynolds for over 20 years. The group is heard by over 10,000 audience members per season and has performed across the globe. The chorus performs songs from a wide variety of genres and song selections have been described as "hopeful and optimistic". The chorus has had over 1,600 members during its history and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, and Jordan Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laith Ashley</span> Model, actor, activist, singer-songwriter and entertainer

Laith Ashley De La Cruz is an American model, actor, activist, singer-songwriter and entertainer of Dominican descent.

The following is a timeline of transgender history. Transgender history dates back to the first recorded instances of transgender individuals in ancient civilizations. However, the word transgenderism did not exist until 1965 when coined by psychiatrist John F. Oliven of Columbia University in his 1965 reference work Sexual Hygiene and Pathology; the timeline includes events and personalities that may be viewed as transgender in the broadest sense, including third gender and other gender-variant behavior, including ancient or modern precursors from the historical record.

References

  1. "Mission Statement/Proclamation". Butterfly Music. Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  2. Petersen, Lilli (December 8, 2015). "Trans Chorus Helps Members Sing With New Voices". Refinery 29. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  3. Binkley, Collin (December 8, 2015). "Transgender singers find their voices in Boston choir". AP The Big Story. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  4. Marech, Rona; Writer, Chronicle Staff (2004-04-18). "SAN FRANCISCO / Singing the gospel of Transcendence / Nation's first all-transgender gospel choir raises its voices to praise God and lift their own feelings of self-love and dignity". SFGate. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  5. 1 2 Tan, Avianne (December 10, 2015). "Boston Chorus Empowers Transgender Singers by Helping Them Find Their Voices". ABC News. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  6. Donaldson, Zoe (June 2016). "The Surprising Way This Woman Is Helping the Transgender Community". Oprah.comZoe Donaldson. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  7. Adler, Richard K.; Hirsch, Sandy; Pickering, Jack (6 December 2018). Voice and Communication Therapy for the Transgender/Gender Diverse Client: A Comprehensive Clinical Guide, Third Edition. Plural. ISBN   9781944883317.
  8. "Boston Trans Chorus – Arts & Business Council of Boston". artsandbusinesscouncil.org. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  9. "Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus". New Music USA. Retrieved 2019-03-23.