Watertown church to host community band's performance of piece cut from school concert over ties to LGBTQ+ history
CBS 58 WATERTOWN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Watertown High School's spring band concert is over, but the controversy over a piece that was not played still echoes across the city.
Local musicians have formed a community band, and on Wednesday, May 20, they will perform the instrumental piece "A Mother of a Revolution" at Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown, with composer Omar Thomas conducting.
Tuesday, representatives from that church talked about why they agreed to host the concert.
"We would have preferred to not be in this position. We would have preferred that the piece be performed with the rest of the concert that the student musicians had prepared for so long," said Sunday school musician David Morstad. "But we don't get to control that."
"We are celebrating God's grace among us and in our community," Pastor Carina Schlitz said. "We're accepting folks. And this is something we see as serving the world in Jesus' name."
Watertown's school board removed "A Mother of a Revolution" from Monday night's band concert, calling it a violation of the district's "controversial issues" policy.
The piece was written to honor transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson and the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising in New York.
