CQ 2024: Co-Founders Concert

ChamberQUEER is thrilled to present Constellation, our 2024 Pride Month celebration of queer community, diversity, and excellence in chamber music! Featuring multiple live performances and workshops every day, ChamberQUEER 2024: Constellation runs Tuesday, June 11 through Sunday, June 16 at MITU580.

EVENT DETAILS

Three of the co-founders of ChamberQUEER - Jules Biber, cello; Danielle Buonaiuto, soprano; and Brian Mummert, baritone - will perform sets exploring and expanding the range of what is considered “chamber music.” Mummert’s set will explore the porous boundaries between art song, popular music, and jazz, with a particular focus on queer writers from across these genres. As Duo Calisto, Biber & Buonaiuto perform works by queer composers for soprano and cello, and bring their own take to some beloved queer anthems. The event is rounded out by trio and quartet performances from the whole group.

Brian Mummert sings, conducts, arranges, and composes music spanning eras and genres, all in the service of harnessing musical narrative as a mode for deepening mutual understanding. He is the founding artistic director of The New Consort, an American Prize-winning vocal ensemble dedicated to exploring the roles musical ritual and community play in our lives; and a co-founder of ChamberQUEER, a chamber music collective highlighting the voices of LGBTQ+ composers and performers, and The Red Ribbon Revue, a World AIDS Day concert featuring HIV+ performers celebrating the legacy of artists lost to AIDS. Brian has directed world-class ensembles in venues spanning six continents and specializes in music of the Baroque as a singer, having appeared as a soloist with organizations including Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue, Holy Trinity Bach Vespers, the Academy of Sacred Drama, Bach Akademie of Charlotte, and Spire Chamber Ensemble.

Danielle Buonaiuto (she/they) is driven by community, compassion, and access, whether she is singing or running the show. A co-founder of ChamberQUEER, she was the founding manager of TENET Vocal Artists’ Mentorship Program, a Teaching Artist with the Met Guild, and is a PhD candidate at CUNY Graduate Center, where her work leverages queer theory, feminist frameworks, and field and archival research to critique systems of inequity on stages and in boardrooms of opera and vocal music. Danielle maintains an active solo career, and is particularly sought after for world premieres; recent projects include Pomegranate (Canadian Opera Company) and RUR: A Torrent of Light (Tapestry Opera), both in their hometown of Toronto. She also sings in the Extra Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera and the Berwick Chorus of the Oregon Bach Festival. Danielle’s album “Marfa Songs” is out on Starkland.

Jules Biber (she/they) is a cellist, educator and musical curator based in Brooklyn, NY.  An accomplished chamber musician and soloist, Jules’ versatility in early, standard and modern repertoire, as well as non-classical styles, makes her sought-after for a variety of high-profile concerts and recording projects, and her deep commitment to inclusive community has made her one of the city’s progressive curators of classical music spaces. Jules believes strongly in creating environments for classical music that are free from the concert hall’s antiquated aesthetics. In addition to co-founding ChamberQUEER, she recently began a duo collaboration with soprano Danielle Buonaiuto, Duo Calisto, focusing on developing and commissioning new repertoire for cello and voice.