Jen Lamont explores queer music in “Sapphism in Song”

Sapphic songs soothe with sound in Jen Lamont’s curated musical presentation of queer art songs in “Sapphism in Song.”

Continuing this year’s Queer As Faust Festival, Lamont’s “Sapphism in Song: A Lecture Recital of English Art Songs by LGBTQ+ Women Composers from 1900 to the Present” will be presented on Saturday 13 July at 4pm.

Opening for the opera

Jen Lamont, an opera singer in residency with the St. Pete Opera in Florida and on the board of the International Alliance for Women in Music, apparently “just didn't want to stop singing” as a child. Her home was filled with melodies and laughter that filled her heart and sparked her interest.

She began singing in the church choir and playing drums in her school's percussion ensembles. There she was exposed to many styles of music, from Carl Orff to Yma Sumac to Japanese folk songs. At home, her brother played jazz music while her mother hummed folk ballads and her sister played Britney Spears loudly.

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Then, on one fateful day, Lamont attended the Metropolitan Opera's performance of Kaija Saariaho's “L'Amour de Loin,” and her entire relationship with music and voice changed forever. “It was so different from any other opera I had heard. I was enthralled,” says Lamont. “It really expanded my ideas about classical music…[and] should do. It should challenge our assumptions and encourage us to see the world, others and ourselves in a new light.”

From this obsession developed a deep passion and desire to fully understand the inner workings of opera as both a performer and a musicologist. Lamont studied at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) in St. Petersburg, Florida. As part of the magnet program, she studied music theory, music history, piano and vocal techniques and performed in numerous concerts and musicals.

This basic music education provided a solid foundation that helped her achieve further academic success. Lamont moved to Tallahassee in 2019 to attend Florida State University, where she studied in the College of Music under Dr. Wanda Brister. During this time, she performed in several opera productions, including “Le nozze di Figaro,” “La hija de Rappaccini,” and “The Magic Flute.”

Four years later, Lamont graduated from FSU with a Bachelor of Music. In addition to being a musician and music teacher, Lamont is also involved in promoting the arts through the Florida Music Educators Association.

Polishing the lens of analysis

The field of queer musicology remains a bit of a mystery to those unaware of its purpose. Like other music studies, queer musicology contextualizes, analyzes, and examines music history, composition, and performance, but unlike most historically heteronormative analyses, it examines music from the perspective of historical views on gender and sexuality.

Lamont's ambition was sparked when she began searching for lesbian composers and found no real support from teachers or outside references. “Most of the songs I could find were written by men and used Sapphic desire as a means to get attention or to shock and excite,” Lamont said. “It felt very isolating when I realized I had found this wonderful genre of music where my voice fit but my identity didn't.”

This realization led her to explore, examine, and ultimately expound on queer opera in her Honors in the Major thesis. Lamont's research focused on the representation of Sapphic identity in classical art songs created by an LGBTQ+ person with the intention of conveying queer themes, identity, history, or stories. For Lamont, intention is crucial because it brings queerness to the forefront rather than hiding it in symbolism and metaphor.

Bringing music to life

While listening to music in the comfort of your own home or in the wild is certainly rewarding, nothing compares to experiencing a live performance. “To truly understand a work, I think you have to have it performed,” Lamont said. “It's one thing to look at the score, but it's quite another to see musicians working together to bring the music off the page.”

And that is exactly what Lamont did.

In her recent concert, “Sapphism in Song: A Lecture Recital of English Art Songs by LGBTQ+ Women Composers from 1900 to the Present,” Lamont presents a series of art songs—short pieces of music composed for a solo voice and piano. And the collaborative programming of such art songs breaks with the classical canon.

Lamont limited her selection to music composed by an openly LGBTQ+ composer and with English-language lyrics by an openly LGBTQ+ poet. Finding such pieces was surprisingly difficult.

She scoured past concerts and Pride events to talk to other queer musicians, performers, composers and poets about their work. Her ethnographic methodology gave her insight into their compositional process, text selection and artistic intent.

Lamont was surprised to find unexpected parallels between the pieces, which revolved around the idea of ownership in lesbian relationships and the strain that comes with expressing romantic bonds when queer partnerships are forbidden.

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For example, Yfat Soul Zissos' “Violet to Vita,” featured in Lamont's recital, centers on the letters exchanged between Violet Trefusis and Vita Sackville-West, whose parents forced a separation after they attempted to run away together on several occasions. Other songs focus on queer composers such as Dame Ethel, who was censored for being openly lesbian.

Lamont concluded that looking for similar themes in pieces of music composed over a century apart provides a good case study of how perspectives and participation in queer composition have changed over time. “If we simply ignore the past, we allow the history of LGBTQ+ people to be forgotten,” says Lamont. “We cannot support these icons of Sapphic identity if we do not highlight their history.”

Summer of queer love

Music is best experienced when shared. Lamont has partnered with local queer arts leader The Mickee Faust Club to create a summer of queer love. Since 2008, the Mickee Faust collective has presented a month-long queer arts festival that features queer theater makers, musicians, and speakers with diverse skills, identities, and talents.

After the May tornadoes that swept through Railroad Square and the Mickee Faust Clubhouse, queer love is in high demand to heal the community and share in the power of music.

Continuing this year's Queer As Faust Festival, Lamont's “Sapphism in Song” will be performed at First Presbyterian Church on Saturday, July 13 at 4 p.m. After the performance, audience members will have the opportunity to speak with Lamont and pianist Dr. Ben Gunter in the Wxyz Lounge at the Aloft Hotel. In addition, there will be a free public rehearsal for students and teachers, followed by a talkback session on Friday, July 12 at 7 p.m.

Lamont assures audiences that they will be delighted to discover lesser-known art songs by established and emerging Sapphic composers, each with their own distinctive style.

“It's music that most people, even classical musicians, have probably never heard, so this is a unique opportunity to hear modern LGBTQ+ art songs,” said Lamont. As a lecture concert, each piece will be performed while accompanied by history and analysis to engage the audience and celebrate a piece of LGBTQ+ music history.

When you go

What: Sapphism in Song: A lecture concert of English art songs by LGBTQ+ composers from 1900 to the present

When: Saturday, July 13, 4pm, followed by an artist talk in the Wxyz Lounge of the Aloft Hotel | Open rehearsal for students and teachers on July 12 at 7pm, followed by an academic discussion

Where: First Presbyterian Church, 110 North Adams St. (performance and scholarly discussion) | 200 N Monroe St. (artist talk on July 13)

Cost: $10 per ticket at the door | Tickets at the door or online in July at mickeefaust.com/show-list

Contact: Donna M. Nudd, Managing Director of Mickee Faust | [email protected]

Dr. Christy Rodriguez de Conte is a feature writer for the Council on Culture & Art. COCA is the umbrella organization for arts and culture in the Capital Region (tallahasseearts.org).

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Jen Lamont explores queer music in “Sapphism in Song”

Opening for the opera

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Opening for the opera

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