She Is Called: Dear Stranger is a letter between friends and strangers, a tone poem, commissioned pieces of music, and an exploration of gender, identity, and longing in this intrepid moment in our collective present by a community of extraordinary young artists. ⁣

Presented via a media-rich website experience, She Is Called: Dear Stranger will feature new recordings of commissioned songs by celebrated composers Nathalie Joachim, David Lang, Alev Lenz, and Shara Nova, as well as poetic, handwritten letters by the chorus members in collaboration with theater artists Janani Balasubramanian, Charlotte Brathwaite, Sunder Ganglani, and Tareke Ortiz.⁣

She Is Called: Dear Stranger offers a meaningful, user-driven experience of a youth chorus’s voices and perspectives on personhood, community, and connection.

Presented by UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Funds provided by the Kevin Jeske Young Artist Fund.

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About the She Is Called Project

She Is Called is an original choral/theater production being developed for the stage by Brooklyn Youth Chorus under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director, Dianne Berkun Menaker. Over a multi-year artistic development process, the young artists of the Chorus are collaborating with established theater artists to present commissions by contemporary composers that address themes of gender and identity.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chorus is presenting the first phase of the project, She Is Called: Dear Stranger, via a media-rich website experience. The website will feature newly commissioned choral works from Nathalie Joachim, David Lang, Alev Lenz, and Shara Nova, as well as photos and poetry from the singers in the Chorus, inspired by the themes of each song and the singers' perspectives/experiences. 

The next phase of She Is Called will be an evening-length production, set to take place in the Spring of 2022. In addition to the four composers represented in She Is Called: Dear Stranger, this full production will include new commissions from composers Tania Leon, Angélica Negrón, Paola Prestini, and Toshi Reagon.