Gay-Straight Student Alliance sponsors concert to recognize gay musicians, bring awareness to WSSU

The sound of music was in the air because of the concert performance of  "Queer Compositions" at Winston-Salem State to celebrate all gay musicians April 21.

The Gay-Straight Student Alliance arranged a concert to recognize gay musicians in the music industry and to bring awareness to WSSU students and the community that gay people have made a mark in the music business and are proud of their achievements worldwide.

WSSU adjunct professors Ronnal Ford and LaTika Douthit of the Fine Arts Department in collaboration with the Gay-Straight Student Alliance conceived the idea for the concert. There are more than 100 G.S.S.A. members attending WSSU.

"We hope to increase awareness of the incredible contributions homosexual and bisexual composers have made to the cultural development of this country," said Howard McQuirter a senior majoring in psychology.

"We also have many talented LGBT [Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender] musicians in the area, and this concert is one way to support them and their craft while acknowledging the contributions LGBT musicians made during the 20th century," and McQuirter, from Fayetteville, is vice president of G.S.S.A.

"We are also pleased to have the participation of performers from the UNC School of the Arts, UNC Greensboro, and NC A&T."

 McQuirter said that members from gay and lesbian organizations attended the concert.

The artists who performed were Thomas Swenson, pianist; Ronnal Ford, clarinetist and oboist; LaTika Douthit, flutist; Dennis Malloy, violist; Darell Hunt, vocalist; Rashod Wells, dancer; and Ray Ebert, pianist. 

  There were no heterosexual performers at the concert.

"Hopefully in the future we will have both hetero and homosexual musicians performing, but for our first we concert we wanted it to just be homosexuals," Ford said.   

"This event is meant to celebrate the music and musicianship of gay and lesbian composers and musicians," McQuirter said.  Therefore, all of the performed works were  composed, arranged, and performed by gay and lesbian musicians."

McQuirter said that donations aren't being accepted for the concert, but donations can be made to the G.S.S.A. to assist with future programming such as this.

Both Ford and McQuirter said they believe there will be more concerts showing honor to gay musicians.

"Concerts such as this will definitely appear in the future from us, even if they are not annual. Hopefully this concert will be very well accepted and supported by the community, thus giving the organization and performers more opportunities to put on future events such as this," McQuirter said.