Christopher Healey
Olasuyi Ige
LGBTQ composers of classical music have existed for many years. Additionally, several LGBTQ composers have produced music for a variety of artistic mediums, such as ballet, opera, piano, string quartets, and entire orchestral movements. Numerous others have also received awards for their work, including Grammy Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and other national honors.
Gay individuals, especially men, have a long history in classical music, which raises the question, “Is there such a thing as queer pitch?” Does a composer's sexual orientation affect their work?
American composer David Walter Del Tredici, a former Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellow, is regarded as a founder of the Neo-Romantic movement. He is also referred to as "one of our most flamboyant outsider composers" by the Los Angeles Times. He stated:
They say that gay composers tend to be more tonal, and straight composers more atonal. This is not true, but certainly in Menotti, Barber, Copland and Bernstein, there is something very touching, in tune with feelings, and certainly in dramatic distinction to the more atonal music of Babbitt, Carter, and Sessions. This is perhaps too easy an analogy, but it’s provocative. Maybe the sense of alienation, which every gay man of every generation has felt, does yield another kind of music.
This leads us to the introduction of two young LGBTQ composers, Olasuyi Ige and Christopher Healey.
Olasuyi Ige
Olasuyi Ige is a talented violinist and an inspiring educator. He graduated with Manga Cum Laude from the University of Denver Lamont School of Music with a bachelor’s degree in violin performance. He is currently working toward a master's degree in violin performance and composition under the instruction of Professor Igor Pikayzen at the Lamont School of Music.
Olasuyi has performed numerous pieces by Beethoven, Brahms, William Grant Still, Mozart, and Wieniawski on the violin. He has performed in venues like the Hamilton Recital Hall, Gates Concert Hall, and Dazzle Jazz Club.
Olasuyi values his work with the non-profit El Sistema Colorado, which offers underprivileged youth in the Denver area the opportunity to participate in group and private music lessons. One of his passions is teaching, and he enjoys watching the enthusiasm that both his former and current students have for both music and learning.
Additionally, he is a professor at the Colorado Music Institute and Pirisen Music Lessons. Olasuyi also enjoys performing for the elderly in nursing homes and young children in daycare centers as part of community outreach initiatives. With the Con Brio Project in Colorado, he has taken part in outreach activities such as playing Christmas and Hanukkah music for kids at a daycare.
He has attended numerous music festivals throughout the years, including Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA), Interlochen Arts Camp, and Sphinx Summer Academy in Chicago, Illinois. When not performing or teaching, Olasuyi enjoys composing chamber music for chamber groups, as well as larger ensembles. In addition to continuing to give group lessons to schools and private lessons in the community, he plans to open his own private studio in the future.
Christopher Healey
More than 90 compositions have been created by Australian art music composer Christopher Healey during his early career. He has been referred to as a composer for modern hearts and minds.
Under the tutelage of renowned Australian composer, Gerard Brophy, he graduated from Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University with a Bachelor of Music (Composition), Honors (Class I). For his compositions, he won the Alan Lane Award and A.G. Francis Prize. He has also received prizes, including second place in the Arcadia Winds Composition Competition, second place in the ANZVS Composition Competition, and the Australian Postgraduate Award.
Christopher also studied with renowned Australian composer Robert Davidson. He also pursued additional studies in composing from 2018 to 2019 with renowned American composer Daron Hagen. In 2019, he was chosen to take part in Phillip Sametz's “Words About Music Program” with the Australian Youth Orchestra. Another of his accomplishments is his dissertation in composition, which is titled, “Exploring Metaxis: An examination of Metamodern and Wabi Sabi aesthetics and ideologies in a folio of original pieces.”
According to his official website:
Christopher Healey’s music is eclectic in style, atmospheric and evocative, from the transfixingly tender to the disturbing macabre. He strives to create an emotionally and intellectually meaningful journey for his listeners, engaging and challenging them by combining the warmth of lyrical melodies with extended harmonies, contemporary textures, and unusual music forms. His catalogue comprises over 90 diverse works, including instrumental and vocal compositions, choral music, full-bodied orchestral scores, a set of miniatures, and a chamber opera.
In 2020, the Zhejiang Symphony Orchestra's horn section, under the direction of Dr. Armin Terzer, premiered Christopher's horn quintet, Idyll of a Sea Voyager, in China. Zhejiang Guangxi Live broadcast the performance live. The same year, his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano was premiered in Sydney by Phillip O'Neill (trumpet) and Ingrid Sakurovs (piano), while his Fugue of Confinement was premiered in Melbourne by Daniel Tan (violin) and Luke Severn (cello). In 2021, Christopher wrote music for the Black Square String Quartet, the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, and Rockhampton Symphony Orchestra.
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