WHAT IS CHAMBERQUEER?

ChamberQUEER highlights LGBTQ+ voices in contemporary & historical music and reimagines the classical concert experience as a radically inclusive gathering space & musical community for the 21st century.  We interrogate and experiment with, or “queer,” European art music’s presumed necessities and existing norms: by crafting new narratives from the canon, democratizing performance etiquette and dress, and shattering the performer-audience binary, we create a fresh and inviting environment for a new generation of music lovers.

Founded in 2018 by Jules Biber (cello), Danielle Buonaiuto (soprano), Brian Mummert (baritone), and Andrew Yee (cello), ChamberQUEER operates as a collective of performers, composers, and creators. Our flagship annual Pride festival, staged in Brooklyn each June, has been commended by The New Yorker and listed by The New York Times as a 2022 “Best of Pride” event. During COVID lockdown in June 2020, we created and hosted ChamberQUEERantine, a free-to-access, sixteen-day online event that provided a platform for original work from over 50 queer musicians.

ChamberQUEER devises and hosts additional events, from reading parties and networking opportunities to performances and DEI workshops, throughout the year. Recent projects have included BaroQUEER, a reimagining of the relationship between dance music and art music in the Baroque, co-presented by Early Music America at their annual conference and at universities and art galleries across New England; and developmental performances of our forthcoming queer-liberatory recreation of Handel’s Messiah. During COVID, we focused on online and outdoor events, holding space for the community throughout the pandemic with Zoom happy hours, Instagram Live interviews with queer composers, educational webinars, and Zoom concerts in partnership with LGBTQ+ service organizations. Under the ChamberQUEER Presents… banner, we co-produce events that amplify the work of queer artists. 

ChamberQUEER functions as a community promoter, helping to contract and support queer musicians nationwide, and as an advocacy group, engaging in residencies at educational institutions and building a free, online resource library for like-minded presenting institutions and performing ensembles. We have worked with Luna Lab, a composition program for young composers of marginalized genders; collaborated with the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s Orchestrating Change programs; and presented at the national conference of Chamber Music America. ChamberQUEER concerts have been presented by National Sawdust; WQXR at the Greene Space; Death of Classical at Green-Wood Cemetery; Brooklyn Pride; Boulanger Initiative; and premiere New York brass quartet The Westerlies. Our founders and members have represented the organization as ambassadors at chamber music festivals, podcasts, public radio broadcasts, and residencies across the country.