Schedule of Events:

2:00 PM Pre-concert talk with Jim Obergefell, Artistic Director Jon Noworyta, and trombone soloist Russ Zokaites. (no additional charge)

3:00 PM Concert

Immediately following: Reception in the Christ Church Cathedral library

Join us for our Homecoming celebration! Your Queen City Freedom Band is larger and more excited than ever to perform for you. The program includes two works featuring Dr. Russ Zokaites as bass trombone soloist. Russ worked hard to help start the QCFB in 2018 along with co-founder and current artistic director, Dr. Jon Noworyta, when the pair were doctoral students at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. After graduating, Russ's career as a college music professor took him out of Cincinnati and away from the QCFB to great success. He now serves as Assistant Professor of Trombone at Fresno State University in California. We warmly welcome back Russ, his husband Logan, and their son to Cincinnati to musically celebrate the growth of our band.

We will also celebrate the 10 year anniversary of same-sex marriage equality in the United States by performing the Cincinnati premiere of John and Jim by queer composer Viet Cuong. John and Jim was commissioned by the Columbus Pride Bands and the Queen City Freedom Band and first performed at the 2024 Pride Bands Alliance Annual Conference held in Columbus, OH. The piece celebrates the love between Jim Obergefell and John Arthur and their role in the landmark Supreme Court decision Obergefell v Hodges (2015). John and Jim met, fell in love, and shared their lives together in Cincinnati. We are honored to welcome Jim home to Cincinnati for the playing of this piece and we are all honored to hold John in our hearts as we perform this special music.

Works include:

Homecoming by Alex Shapiro
Dum Spiro Spero by Chris Pilsner
Bone Slayer by Gary Gilroy featuring Dr. Russ Zokaites, bass trombone
In the Hall of the Mountain King arranged by Bill Geldard featuring Dr. Russ Zokaites, bass trombone
John and Jim by Viet Cuong

The Queen City Freedom Band (QCFB) is the LGBTQ+ concert band in Cincinnati, OH. Since 2018, the QCFB has been open to woodwinds, brass, and percussion players of all abilities and orientations - including allies. QCFB places a high emphasis on community building through music. We are a member of the Pride Bands Alliance and the Association of Concert Bands. The band has performed concerts at Urban Artifact, Clark Montessori School, Taft’s Brewporium, the Kennedy Heights Arts Center, and the Cincinnati Ballet studios. Past programs have included: House of Horrors, Singles Awareness Day, Good As Gold: A Celebration of 50 years of the LGBTQ rights movement, Songs, Dances, Ballads, and Ballets, and various Pride month concerts. Dr. Jon Noworyta is the artistic director and conductor. Find out more about the band including information on how to join at www.qcfb.org

QCFB's Homecoming Concert is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the annual ArtsWave Campaign, the region’s primary source for arts funding.

Many additional thanks to the following for their generous support:

Christ Church Cathedral for hosting us for this concert, and
Scrap It Up for a grant that significantly covered our cost in the commissioning project for John and Jim

zz/"Homecoming" Concert - Spring 2025