Instrumentation: fixed media
Duration: 12 minutes
Recording Available: Yes
Performed: Yes
Playbill graphic from world premiere
Prelude to You Brought This On Yourself is the result of the collaborative production of a play by my colleague at Lewis University, George Miller. In his play, Dr. Miller sets in context the true story of a young female high school student who suffered enormous ridicule and even physical assault for the sole reason that she was openly homosexual. The principal of the High School where this occurred justified the assault by explaining to the parents, "she brought this on herself."
This composition is not a commentary on religion, media, politics, or homosexuality. It is not an attempt to glorify, condone, or condemn homosexuality. Instead, this work attempts to comment on a human collective intolerant of an individual's voice, who is not asking to be understood or even heard, but simply allowed to exist.
Written in 2008, this fixed media composition feature singer Jillian Kelm.