GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

May 21, 2004

eve

A voice from on high

Singing in a range usually limited to women, David Daniels is the first countertenor to gain a wide audience

by Richard Berrong

Cleveland-Northeast Ohio's gay community is in for a special treat this week. David Daniels, the internationally renowned countertenor whose CDs are high on the Billboard charts, is appearing Tuesday, May 25, at the Cleveland Institute of Music in University Circle.

In addition to his regular program of songs, with which he just finished touring Europe, he will perform settings of James Joyce's Chamber Music that he commissioned from University of Michigan choral conductor Theodore Morrison and popular American folk songs arranged by Steven Mark Kohn.

A native of South Carolina who can drawl with the best of them, Daniels, though still young, has already experienced a meteoric rise to the very top in the last few years. He is the first countertenor to draw general audiences here in the United States and the first to give a solo performance at Carnegie Hall. His remarkable artistry has won over legions who had always shunned countertenors in the past.

In winning over these general audiences, Daniels has played an important role both as a countertenor and as a gay man.

Countertenors sing in the soprano or mezzo range but with a full voice, not a falsetto. This takes special training.

Because our Western culture traditionally associates high voices in men with effeminacy, homosexuality, and abnormality, general audiences used to avoid countertenors, even though the countertenor sound is different from a woman's.

Since he is an out gay man,

Daniels does not worry about audiences

imagining that he is gay. (He and his partner have been together for 18 years.)

He does, however, want to win them over to the sound of something challengingly different, to get them to free themselves from the stereotypes and associations in which Western culture still imprisons ideas about gender and sexuality for too many so that they

can sit back and enjoy the music.

To this end, he concentrates on singing with the greatest possible artistry, but also as naturally as possible. The result is that after initial discomfort at the challenge to traditional gender stereotypes that the countertenor voice evokes, Daniels' music-making dissipates that culturally conditioned discomfort by the very beauty and sincerity of his singing. Of course, his traditionally masculine good looks don't hurt any, either. In this respect, he said, he realizes that educating audiences will always be part of his career as a countertenor. Since this education focuses on teaching a general public to abandon their assumptions about personality and behavior based on outward effects, it is very much in line with what gay advocacy has been doing ever since the Oscar Wilde trials over a century ago. ·

David Daniels is appearing as part of the Cleveland Institute of Music's Art Song Festival, which runs from May 24 to 29. To experience his artistry and enjoy a different way of undermining conventional links between effect and gender, reserve tickets weekdays between 10a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at 216-791-5000 ext. 411. Daniels will delight you with much more than just his Southern charm and good looks.

David Daniels

Dykes Towatch Out For by Alison Bechdel

too much information

IT'S MORNING IN AMERICA.

HOLY MACKEREL.

MMM. I WONDER HOW MANY CARBS THAT WAS.

BUT ONLY LITERALLY.

THIS IS AIR AMERICA RADIO NEWS. DEFENSE SECRETARY RUMSFELD HAS APOLOGIZED FOR THE ABU GHRAIB PRISON SCANDAL, SAYING HE IS SORRY THAT THE PHOTOS OF U.S. SOLDIERS "ABUSING" IRAQI

DETAINEES

EVER GOT OUT.

...THE PRESIDENT CONTINUED HIS SWING STATE BUS TOUR TODAY, SAYING "PEACE AND FREEDOM DEPEND ON THIS ELECTION."

...THE USE OF ISOLATION...

..BUSH ADVISER KAREN HUGHES HAS UKENED THE PRO-CHOICE PARTICIPANTS IN THE BIGGEST MARCH ON WASHINGTON EVER TO TERRORISTS...

©2004 By

ALISON BECHDEL

440

A NEW BILL PROPOSES TO EXPAND THE POWERS OF THE PATRIOTACT. AND RECENT HIRING GAINS IN THE SHITWORK SECTOR HAVE SHRUNK THE NET JOB LOSS UNDER BUSH TO 1.5 MILLION!

STUART, WE'RE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!

Y'KNOW, JUST BECAUSE WE CAN LISTEN TO LIBERAL TALK RADIO 24/7 DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO.

THE OBSESSIVE KEEPING TRACK... PREVENTING THE OTHER PERSON FROM GETTING A JOB...

www.DykesToWatchOutFor.com

CLIK!..AND BARRING A HORRIFIC ACT

OF TERRORISM, THE MARKET WILL KEEP DOING WELL. THIS IS NPR.

OH MY GOD. I'M A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL. I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T SEE IT SOONER! THE MIND GAMES...

...AS THE COALITION CRUMBLES IN IRAQ AND BUSH'S SUPPORT FOR ARIEL SHARON IGNITES WIDESPREAD CRITICISM, THE U.S. FINDS ITSELF AUENATED FROM NEARLY THE ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

GOOD MORNING, FAIR HOUSEMATES! SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN HOME MUCH LATELY, I'VE BEEN, UH, SEEING A WOMAN ABOUT A DOG.

THE ACCUSATIONS ABOUT BEING UNFAITHFUL...

I HOPE WE HAVEPLENTY OF JUICE. ALL THAT FLUID BONDING REALLY TAKES IT OUT OF A PERSON.)