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By Ben Nelson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NewMusicShelf has released the first-ever volume of songs written for and\/or by transgender and nonbinary people. Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices presents composers who highlight the multifaceted intersections unique to the lived experiences of transgender and nonbinary people and stands as a declaration that despite the many historical attempts to isolate them, these communities will not be silenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their voices are beautiful, and through printed compositions, the anthology spotlights these important artists so that the world can recognize and revel in their beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a trans nonbinary singer, I often found opera and musical theater compositions to be aggressively gendered and binary,\u201d reflects Aiden Feltkamp, the book\u2019s curator. \u201cI was at a loss for repertoire that spoke to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They approached Dennis Tobenski, a composer and vocalist who runs a boutique music publishing company in New York City, with the idea to build a collection of vocal and piano music that centered on identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While typical NewMusicShelf publications focus on a particular instrument or voice type, what Feltkamp was proposing would be like no other anthology before \u2014 a first of its kind. However, it was a concept that Tobenski, a gay man, could relate with. In the early 2000s, Tobenski recalls very little music featuring a man loving another man. \u201cWhat did exist wasn\u2019t exactly visible for a kid like me growing up gay in the cornfields of Illinois. I was forced to either sing about loving women, coopt soprano repertoire about loving men, or not sing about love at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tobenski and Feltkamp envisioned NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices as an opportunity to present songs music lovers could connect to without the barrier of gender. They decided selections would include all vocal ranges in multiple music styles that told a variety of stories of the transgender and nonbinary experience. Their only criteria: 1) the composer is trans or nonbinary, 2) the lyricist is trans or nonbinary, or 3) the song was written for or premiered by a trans or nonbinary singer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Feltkamp chose Yoshi Weinberg\u2019s \u201cCaptain of My Soul\u201d because the piece represents the traditional art song. It artfully blends contemporary composition with fantastically haunting and dramatic poetry and \u201cis an ideal song for an undergrad or graduate level recital,\u201d Feltkamp, a Turn the Spotlight fellow and graduate of Bard College Conservatory\u2019s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, attests. They selected Pax Ressler\u2019s \u201cLove Song for Me\u201d for inclusion in the anthology because of its up-beat, pride-centric theme. \u201cI hadn\u2019t considered including singer-songwriter songs in the anthology, but Pax\u2019s work fit the inclusion criteria and was simply too good not to include,\u201d Feltkamp continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tobenski and Feltkamp hope the pieces in Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices will be a resource for voice teachers and presenters and reach audiences beyond the book through live performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow no one can say that there aren\u2019t any roles for trans\/nonbinary singers or that there aren\u2019t any trans creators in opera and musical theater,\u201d Feltkamp reflects. \u201cMy hope is that the collection is a jumping off point that encourages readers to seek out more works by these, and other, trans and nonbinary composers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1 is $24.95 at Amazon. Visit https:\/\/newmusicshelf.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ben Nelson NewMusicShelf has released the first-ever volume of songs written for and\/or by transgender and nonbinary people. Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices presents composers who highlight the multifaceted intersections unique to the lived experiences of transgender and nonbinary people and stands as a declaration that despite the many historical attempts to isolate them, these communities will not be silenced. Their voices are beautiful, and through printed compositions, the anthology spotlights these important artists so that the world can recognize and revel in their beauty. \u201cAs a trans nonbinary singer, I often found opera and musical theater compositions to be aggressively gendered and binary,\u201d reflects Aiden Feltkamp, the book\u2019s curator. \u201cI was at a loss for repertoire that spoke to me.\u201d They approached Dennis Tobenski, a composer and vocalist who runs a boutique music publishing company in New York City, with the idea to build a collection of vocal and piano music that centered on identity. While typical NewMusicShelf publications focus on a particular instrument or voice type, what Feltkamp was proposing would be like no other anthology before \u2014 a first of its kind. However, it was a concept that Tobenski, a gay man, could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[2565,2564,2566,2567],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1919\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thestandardps.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}