Trinity Church premieres Andrew Yee’s eloquent, moving Trans Requiem

United States ‘Undivided’ – Oliveros, Barber, Yee: Breanna Sinclairé (soprano), Katherine Goforth (tenor), Andrew Yee (singer/cellist), Trinity Choir, Trinity Youth Chorus, NOVUS / Melissa Attebury (conductor). Trinity Church, New York, 18.9.2025. (RP)

Pauline Oliveros – ‘A World Wide Tuning Meditation’
Samuel Barber – Agnus Dei
Andrew Yee – Trans Requiem (world premiere)

In his opening remarks, Reverand Michael A. Bird, vicar of Trinity Church, said he has been asked why the church would both commission and perform a work touching on the trans experience. His response, ‘How could we not?’, prompted an outpouring of applause from the audience that filled the church for the premiere of Andrew Yee’s Trans Requiem.

Rev. Bird explained that Trinity Church is here to tell and own the stories of our time. Its goal is to point towards the light in the hope that a work such as Trans Requiem will change hearts and better lives. In this instance, that includes the approximately 2.3 million Americans (nearly 1% of the population) who identify as transgender and are facing ever greater challenges in obtaining health care, equality in the workplace, housing and other rights.

Entitled ‘Undivided’, the concert was part of the NOVUS Renewal series, an initiative to reimagine the role of contemporary music as a catalyst for spiritual reflection and transformation. NOVUS, Trinity Church’s resident new-music ensemble, has been heralded for its expertise, versatility and innovative programming. It launched the Renewal series in 2023, with an initial focus on prison reform and climate change.

The imaginative programming in this instance was the perfect musical and emotional progression of three works – Pauline Oliveros’s ‘A World Wide Tuning Meditation’, Samuel Barber’s ‘Agnus Dei’ and the Trans Requiem – that combined to create a unified, seamless stream of beauty, reflection and inclusion.

Oliveros was a pioneer in the field of electronic music. Works such as ‘Bye Bye Butterfly’ and ‘I of IV’, both dating from the mid-1960s, are classics of the genre. ‘A World Wide Tuning Meditation’ is one of Oliveros’s sonic meditations that seek to engage people in what she called ‘deep listening’, an experience seeking to enhance people’s listening skills.

Melissa Attebury, director of music at Trinity Church and conductor of the concert, instructed performers and the audience alike to sing a random pitch, then match one produced by another person and, finally, sing a note that nobody else was making. As audience participation musical experiences go, this was a success, undoubtedly due to the participation of so many professional musicians. Without a doubt, it focused the audience’s attention and engaged its ears in active listening.

Agnus Dei is Barber’s own choral arrangement of his Adagio for Strings, performed here by choir and string orchestra. Attebury and her forces met Barber’s demands that the piece begin very softly and then be performed slowly and with the utmost expression. The singers encircled the nave, producing a sound that was as glorious as it was serene. Those sitting near the basses had a singular experience due to the commanding resonance of the men’s voices.

Andrew Yee is a two-time Grammy Award-winning cellist and composer. Her multi-faceted career includes co-composing the score with Caroline Shaw for Wu Tsang’s film adaptation Moby Dick; or, The Whale, which was premiered by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. She created a new version of Bizet’s Carmen for Schauspielhaus Zürich and won Best Composer at the Toronto International Film Festival for her score to the film Tears by Zinzi Gugu Johnson.

Yee rooted Trans Requiem in the traditional Requiem Mass, imposing upon the form the experience of a trans woman living in a world that often denies her community, dignity, safety and the right to be fully seen. The piece is intended not solely to mourn the dead but to serve the living by providing space to reflect, rage and remember.

Yee’s treatment of the Latin texts is conventional and reverential. She did not set the entire Requiem Mass but only the ‘Kyrie’, ‘Lux aeterna’, ‘Libera me’ and ‘In paradisum’. Notably missing is the ‘Dies irae’, invoking God’s wrath and fury on the Day of Judgment. Yee didn’t shy away from subtle messaging, however, such as setting ‘In paradisum’ for the tenor voice of a trans woman rather than the customary light, floating sounds of ethereal soprano voices.

The emotional impact of Trans Requiem doesn’t stem from Yee’s sensitive setting of the requiem Mass but rather the four texts inserted into the piece. The first was ‘Would You Have Mercy?’, which Yee sang as she accompanied herself on the cello. More spoken than sung, Yee posed the unanswerable questions of what it would take for society to accept someone like her.

Yee set the two other solo vocal parts for soprano and tenor voices, specifically for trans singers. Soprano Breanna Sinclairé soared, singing with passion and sumptuous tone in ‘Lux Aeterna’. She also sang ‘I Am Afraid’ which relates the fears of a trans woman about the reaction of a man who has begun talking to her and the conflicting emotions he may feel. The final movement, ‘In paradisum’, provided tenor Katherine Goforth with a short aria which she infused with hope in a firm, gleaming tone.

Throughout, the Trinity Choir and Trinity Youth Chorus performed at the highest level, as did NOVUS. In Trans Requiem, the chorus instilled ‘Death Before Detransition’, which Yee substituted for the ‘Dies Irae’, with defiance. As lovely as they sounded in Barber’s Agnus Dei, this was the moment when their voices rang out with the most fervor and richness.

Rick Perdian

Featured Image: Melissa Attebury conducting Andrew Yee’s Trans Requiem © Larry Cerpas