Hes gay but classical music

LONDON — What is gay music?

“It’s Charli XCX, Kylie Minogue and Elton John, but it’s also Tchaikovsky,” says Oliver Zeffman, the British conductor who is taking classical music on a world tour.

He’s on a mission to shed light on the genre and its queer composers — think Leonard Bernstein, Camille Saint-Saëns and Harold Arlen, the composer behind “The Wizard of Oz” from 1939, who wasn’t gay, but his music has resonated with the queer community.

While discussing the depth of his Boondock Saints character Paul Smecker, Dafoe says, "He's gay, but he has a special connection to classical music" (shown below).

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On January 7th, 2022, TikTok user curlyfries237 uploaded the key moment from Dafoe's GQ interview to TikTok, suggesting it had "sound potential," gaining over 113,000 likes in a year and a half (shown below, left).

And with very few exceptions, this just doesn’t happen in classical music. “It seemed obvious to celebrate Pride through classical music,” he adds, “and I assumed such concerts were common.”

However, Zeffman discovered that outside the United States, no major orchestra, concert hall, or opera house had organized a Pride concert. Despite the UK marking the 50th anniversary of Pride in 2022, and even sports starting LGBTQ+ campaigns years earlier, classical music lacked such dedicated celebrations.

We did a concert at the Albert Hall in October - about Mozart and Beethoven - and another last month about Tchaikovsky and Wagner. Sometimes he will put his baton aside and indulge in Azealia Banks, whom he saw perform in Paris with his boyfriend; the hip-hop duo Coco & Clair Clair at the Camden Ballroom in London, and Aphex Twin at All Points East in 2023.

“The first Classical Pride concert at the Barbican in 2023 was long overdue,” he says.

What does “gay” music mean in this context?

When people think of gay music, they often imagine pop icons like Kylie Minogue, Cher, or Elton John. Besides being able to inspire each other artistically, fashion has huge - and very engaged - audiences across the globe and I’d love for classical music to look to tap into this with interesting collaborations and partnerships.

But many classical composers identified as LGBTQ+ created music long before these stars. In the 2020s, the clip was isolated and taken out of context, then used in memes on TikTok to humorously describe other people and pets.

Origin

On February 15th, 2019, the YouTube channel for GQ released a video on Willem Dafoe breaking down some of his most iconic characters.

And once they’re in the hall, they’re transfixed - these shows are some of TRIH’s best-performing episodes - and of course they are; there’s nothing quite like hearing the end of the 1812 Overture blasting out with 30 brass players, an organ, bells, percussion, cannons!; or sixty strings playing the most intimate quiet passages in Tristan and Isolde, drawing you in - it really is magic.

We see the same kind of audience development with Classical Pride too - people coming into a concert hall for the first time and discovering just how thrilling live classical music can be.

Pride has become something of a vector for corporate opportunism… How have you kept it pure?

Frankly, I think that if big corporations are willing to publicly support Pride events and put their name - and their money - to them, that’s a good thing.

There’s this attitude - and I’m perhaps exaggerating but only a little - of “We play great art and so if audiences don’t come, that’s their loss.” And whether that’s true or not, that’s of course not how you get in a new audience. Zeffman himself will conduct two favorites by Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake Suite with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican and Francesca da Rimini with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl.

How is Classical Pride reaching new audiences?

Zeffman acknowledges that classical music can struggle to attract fresh listeners.

While some criticize companies for ‘pinkwashing,’ others have recently reduced their support amid political pushbacks. He was also part of a youth orchestra, which is how he got his start as a conductor by conducting his friends. He put on his first concert at the age of 16 and between 2012 and 2018, he was conducting six concerts a year and commissioning young composers through the money he raised for putting together a symphony.

“Conducting is not like sign language, where a specific gesture means play this note.

So many of the most important and influential musicians in classical music past and present - are LGBTQ+. “There’s sometimes an attitude that if audiences don’t come, it’s their loss,” he says. Young, stylish, and confident, he represents a fresh, modern image in the world of classical music. This approach draws in younger, more diverse crowds who might not otherwise attend concerts.

Zeffman cites a recent collaboration with the popular podcast The Rest Is History.

Zeffman believes that visible corporate backing, LGBTQ+ networks, and out executives are important progress for the community.

Has Zeffman faced barriers as a gay man in classical music?

Surprisingly, Zeffman says no. Lots of the top musicians today - particularly composers and conductors - for whatever reason happen to be gay men.

If you look at other genres - pop, hip hop, rock - or other art forms - film, TV, art - they all intersect with fashion. He’s designed coquettish merchandise for the event, such as caps that say “DeBussy Boy,” “Are you a Callas B—h?” or a cap with three musical notes that translate to the word “fag.”

As a genre, classical music is in somewhat of a limbo — it’s partly attached to highbrow culture and therefore benefits reputationally, but at the same time it needs all the help it can get from appealing to the mass market because of governments slashing funds for arts and culture.

“Classical music isn’t good at audience development and there’s a bit of an attitude of ‘we do important art, if they don’t know about it, it’s their loss.’ But that’s not how you sell to an audience,” says Zeffman, who believes that nobody needs to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Frederick the Great or Igor Stravinsky to enjoy classical music.