DRAG
KATHRYN BOSTIC
PERFORMANCE HISTORY
THIS IS THE WORLD PREMIERE.

It’s barely an exaggeration to say that Bostic’s life in music began at birth. Her mother, a classically trained musician, was giving a piano lesson when she went into labor with the future composer and vocalist. Thanks to her music-loving parents and brother, she was exposed to a rich array of influences — everyone from Ravel to William Grant Still, from Aretha Franklin to Milton Nascimento. Bostic took up piano at age three and started improvising original songs a few years later. She went on to study music at Tufts and the New England Conservatory. After graduation she sang at jazz clubs and festivals, supplementing these solo gigs with high-profile session work for international artists such as David Byrne, Nas and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

When she wasn’t performing, Bostic was busy establishing herself as a film, television and stage composer, producing eclectic, thought-provoking scores for documentaries devoted to the authors Toni Morrison and Amy Tan, as well as entertainer Rita Moreno. She also collaborated with the late playwright August Wilson on a handful of well-received projects.

Bostic’s recent concert music includes the 2022 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra commission As I Please for full orchestra; Portrait of a Peaceful

Warrior for brass choir, timpani and percussion, commissioned by Chicago Sinfonietta in 2020; and Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am for woodwinds, strings, percussion and piano, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Bostic, who holds an honorary doctorate in music from Tufts, is the first female African-American member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She served as vice president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from 2016–18. Among her many honors are the Sundance Institute Time Warner Fellowship, the BMI Conducting Fellowship and the award for best music in film by the African American Film Critics Association.

THE COMPOSER SPEAKS

“DRAG is a symphonic tone poem collaboration between myself, soprano Karen Slack and librettist Lorene Cary. Slack reached out to me a few years ago to see if I’d be interested in creating the score for a story she wanted to develop about the celebrated and infamous Harlem Renaissance entertainer Gladys Bentley. In her heyday, Gladys was the talk and toast of the town and rose to fame in the gay Black Harlem speakeasy scene, where her raunchy lyrics and virtuosic flashy piano playing had crowds in attendance from near and far. Her signature white top hat and tails and her choice of men’s clothing further affirmed her lesbian lifestyle, and she was unabashedly forthright in living her life on her own terms at a time when this choice was extremely dangerous and life threatening. Once the McCarthy era hit and prohibition was repealed, her fame and work dwindled. She was forced to subdue her lifestyle and rebuke her sexuality, claiming to have found herself anew, and declared ‘I am woman again.’ Her overall story is so compelling not necessarily because of her talent or the controversy her life reflected, but because of her self-embrace and autonomy in being authentic irrespective of the societal, racial and gender struggles she had to deal with. Her talent was too big a force to conform and confine, and for me this provided a very inspiring and thought-provoking canvas to create a musical narrative.

“I wrote the score to convey the complexities of her life onstage as well as her ‘internal stage’ where she sought to be understood and accepted by her mother. The score highlights her bravado and confidence, and as the piece unfolds, we are given a glimpse of the pain and sorrow she faced in judgment from her mother and others. This is the conflicted self-portrayal she carried until her untimely death at 52.

“The dynamic vocal presence of Karen Slack performing as Gladys Bentley provides this narrative with the orchestral largess it requires as well as the intimacy for the more delicate moments with just voice and piano. Overall, the score is to elevate Bentley’s swagger as well as the more fragile moments of her catharsis. This is reflected in the social playfulness, self-awareness and double entendre of Lorene Cary’s wonderful libretto. In this sonic storytelling we are given a revealing portrait of the phenomenal Gladys Bentley.” —Kathryn Bostic