Review: INVENTING/INVITING: TRANS SONGS OF CHANGE at Colony Theatre

Inventing/Inviting: Trans Songs of Change is a concert on September 12th and 13th at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, California.  Celebrating gender expansiveness, with musicians, singers, composers and songwriters who express transness, genderqueerness, fluidity, neurodiversity, and inclusiveness vibrantly and joyously, this is an evening of powerhouse, virtuoso talent and inspiring community.

Otherworldly and breathtakingly beautiful, “Shanti Khojana (Finding Peace)” is the opening choral piece of the evening.  The world premiere of an 8TPS commission by bi-racial, trans, neurodivergent, queer musician and composer Azadi Amaan, it weaves in a Sanskrit prayer they said daily as a child before meals with English lyrics.  With all the  geometric loveliness and life-giving calm of a Gregorian chant, it is hypnotic and richly spiritual.  Wells Leng on piano provides sensitive, delicately nuanced accompaniment.

As a lover of choral music, I have to confess that I frequently find new works and modern compositions for choir quite depressing.  I am often disappointed by talented choirs with repulsively lackluster, overly intellectualized and sad, tuneless new works.  One of the great pleasures of attending Inventing/Inviting: Trans Songs of Change is that brilliant producers Socks Whitmore and Tanner Pfeiffer have managed to do something quite rare: assemble not only a choir and solo artists with jaw-dropping, stunning vocal talent, but also composers, songwriters and storytellers who are creating the kind of deeply human, profoundly original and shockingly gorgeous new works that we need now.

Other particularly striking moments in Inventing/Inviting: Trans Songs of Change include "Birdsong" by Socks Whitmore, with all the soaring, heart-skipping joy of finding your place in the world, reminiscent of classic works by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Socks Whitmore is a neuroqueer, virtuoso producer, composer and lyricist (not to mention singer, with their ravishing operatic voice a gift to the evening), and their songs have ferocious emotive power and astonishing beauty. Another brilliant song by Socks is “Asking for a Friend." It fiercely captures the raw heartbreak of feeling emotionally without a home.

“Trenzando” by solo Peruvian-born composer and vocalist Anaís Azul is a lovely, profoundly thoughtful song about honoring trans-ancestors and reconnecting with Indigenous Andean ancestry and language. 

“Lately” by solo gender fluid, multihyphenate artist NYALLAH is another standout of the evening, with that irresistible, catchy, Sunday-morning, classic soul and R&B sound of artist like Jill Scott, Lauren Hill, and Erykah Badu.  I can imagine myself playing “Lately” over and over again, losing myself in the dulce del leche caramel sweetness of its flow, the creamy kick-back of its smooth, chill out beats.  NYALLAH is definitely a rising star.

Inventing/Inviting: Trans Songs of Change establishes 8TPS as a groundbreaking and truly essential part of the Los Angeles music scene. 

Photos by Rejyna Douglass Whitman