Philadelphia Orchestra’s Pride Concert carries on despite NEA funding cut

The gays must go on Despite a federal grant cut to the Philadelphia Orchestra s annual Pride Concert hundreds of queer Philadelphians and straight allies packed into the Kimmel Center s Marian Anderson Hall for the free music celebration this week This is the Philadelphia orchestra s fourth annual pride celebration and concert Danielle Allen vice president of mentoring and population for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts advised Billy Penn before the concert Unfortunately like so a great number of other nonprofits we lost critical funding from the National Endowment for the Arts The cuts are part of broader actions precipitated by Elon Musk s Department of Administration Efficiency DOGE Despite this loss Allen explained the organization decided to still trudge forward The orchestra received a large matching grant from a donor Dr James Dougherty to keep the night afloat Our friends from the LGBTQIA plus society are people just like we all are people and they are musicians and they are entertainers Allen explained We re making music together We re bringing elation to our society A Pride concert and celebration The evening s music celebrated local LGBTQ choirs queer performers gay composers and modern queer anthems The night s conductor and music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick N zet-S guin donated his fee for the evening s concert In these times of uncertainty and change and ridiculousness we are here to bring people together through the power of music to create understanding to speak to the human spirit N zet-S guin announced Tonight and every night we hold true to our values to be authentic collaborative exceptional and inclusive N zet-S guin hosted the evening with Martha Graham Cracker the tallest hairiest drag queen in the word according to the campaign This was their second pride concert together Graham Cracker hosted the show with N zet-S guin at its debut four years ago Martha Graham Cracker takes the stage Julia Binswanger Billy Penn The queen wore a regal gold Elizabethan dress with a frilly collar and cut panel in the front to show off her legs which were indeed wonderfully hairy The two bantered acting out small bits and playfully flirting between pieces and reminded the audience of the night s importance What makes these traditions so incredible is how we continue them year after year pushing forward no matter what Graham Cracker mentioned Really the path of progress can feel very slow like we re being pushed backwards at times Indeed the path of progress is never straight she reported coyly pausing for applause It s gay It s lesbian It s bisexual It s trans In a night that could have been filled with anger and fear N zet-S guin and Graham Cracker set a celebratory tone filled with satisfaction heart and defiance The concert featured four local choirs the ANNA Crusis Feminist Choir the Philadelphia Gay Men s Chorus the Philadelphia Voices of Pride and the Transcendent Choir of Philadelphia Each group embraces LGBTQ voices The singers all sat above the orchestra wearing bright jewel tones I m a proud mom declared Brenda Dyer who came to assistance her son in the Transcendent Choir which is Philly s first and only trans and gender-expansive population choir This year there s been a lot of attacks against people s right to be who they are and as the mother of a trans son it s worrisome she disclosed He s an adult but he s in a place in Philly where he s safe he has a good neighborhood and he has a good job Frank Donatelli Brenda Dyer Ali Weil Leo Kitchel came out to endorsement friends and family in the concert Julia Binswanger Billy Penn Sponsoring Pride Pride feels a little different this year Corporate sponsors for Pride events which were once a given when June rolled around now aren t a sure bet Organizations this year are more hesitant to back parades and queer events and the queer society has also been less likely to accept sponsorship which can feel opportunistic or purely promotional And now with NEA funding restructured finding money to fuel LGBTQ celebrations can take more creativity than it has in new years The orchestra s pride event kicked off with a pre-concert filled with drag artists like Lisa Lisa Hannibal Lickher Mister Right and That Queen Booths for local LGBTQ organizations lined the walls like Bebashi Transition to Hope an organization that provides healthcare access and HIV-related care to low-income Black and Brown Philadelphians We at Bebashi have seen firsthand how cuts to both federal funding and corporate sponsorships of LGBTQ-oriented organizations have left a lot of underrepresented minority communities at pitfall explained Ethan Jewett the organization s director of growth We have lost funding for specific of our core programs as a aftermath of the current funding climate We ve had that happen pretty speedily and have had to adjust And yet at the same time we re very resilient very persistent Despite the financial changes there were numerous aspects of the night that felt like Pride as usual Attendees still presented up in their brightest and boldest colors and ordered drinks They danced to pre-show performances wore glitter and walked a rainbow carpet The rainbow carpet at the Kimmel Center Julia Binswanger Billy Penn Keep drinking the water keep dancing declared Lickher one of the drag artists who was dressed as a silver cowboy Things are hard sometimes but look around the room and just feel the love from everybody and just spread kindness because it s free We re not hurting anybody While NEA funding has been cut the enthusiasm for the orchestra s Pride Concert made it clear that there is still interest and advocacy for pride events Dr Dougherty has pledged a matching gift for all donations to the orchestra up to made by June Queer artists take the spotlight Even if the certainty of the concert taking place was never in question the loss of NEA funds lingered in the air throughout the night Music can speak a language that words completely cannot The orchestra s first song a piece from gay composer Leonard Bernstein moved the person in the seat next to me to tears This is a place where everyone is welcome N zet-S guin noted All are welcome The performing arts and queer practices go together like sequins and drag queens and each performance brought a new flavor The orchestra played behind Graham Cracker as she earnestly sang Rainbow Connection a song that despite its Muppet Movie origins perpetually hits with its quietly hopeful and disarmingly sincere message Freddie Ballentine a performer in the orchestra s current production of Tristan und Isolde sang I Am What I Am in richly operatic deep velvety tones that filled the enormous theater I don t want praise I don t want pity he sang I bang my own drum Selected think it s noise I think it s pretty The song swelled growing louder and faster until the final refrain Hey world I am what I am When the choirs came together the night s message of unity was in full effect hundreds of voices and musicians in one cohesive piece They sang I m Coming Out a gay anthem written by a straight man and This Is Me The Greatest Showman s anthem of acceptance Their voices harmonized together with the orchestra for their final song Make Our Garden Grow another Bernstein piece from Candide about moving forward and building a good life through honest work after a painful journey of war and loss We re neither pure nor wise nor good they sang We ll do the best we know We ll build our house and chop our wood And make our garden grow They repeated the final lyric over and over And make our garden grow building their voices as if nurturing the imagined garden with song At the end of the piece Graham Cracker petitioned the audience if there were any questions The crowd answered her by taking to their feet with a long standing ovation The post Philadelphia Orchestra s Pride Concert carries on despite NEA funding cut appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY