The Episcopal Mission in Sunnyside is thrilled to announce that its inaugural artist-in-residence will be Heather Jones. Jones (they/them) is a singing actor with deep roots in the Episcopal Church, who has gained a reputation for amplifying queer and trans stories in opera.
Jones has recently begun medically transitioning using testosterone. This process will change their voice in ways that can and can’t be anticipated, with real consequences for their career as a professional mezzo soprano. This artist residency also supports the immersive performance art piece that Jones is developing out of their transition.
As their voice changes, Jones will record themselves singing a variety of sacred music: those recorded voices will be mixed into the texture of live singing and vocal processing in live performance. As Jones’ transition progresses, they will begin to harmonize with these voices, recompose, improvise, and invite the audience to sing along as well. With a nod to the Christian ritual of Holy Communion, the piece is entitled “One Body.”
Jones said, “Through the process of transitioning, I have had to learn to ask for help, to release control, and to commit to being a constant work in progress. The holistic support that I'm receiving through this residency helps me reshape my urgency to produce as much as possible; instead, I'm finding myself exploring the scarier but far more intriguing question: what kind of art could I make if I felt safe enough to sit in the unknown?”
The Rev. Dr. Carl Adair, who is gathering the new Episcopal Mission in Sunnyside, is thrilled that Jones will have time and resources to develop their work. “We’re a work in progress, too. The ‘mission’ of this new community in Sunnyside is all about things which have been cast down being raised up, and things which have grown old being made new. I hope that “One Body” will show the wider Church that the process of queer becoming can reveal new dimensions of the healing and liberating vision of the Gospel.”
Jones has performed the role of Hannah in “As One” with Kentucky Opera, Opera Maine, and Holy City Opera, in the world premiere of “The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space” at the Clark Theatre in Lincoln Center, and in a semi-autobiographical chamber opera titled, “Expostulation(s) of Mary”, commissioned by the Grammy-nominated Wild Up Ensemble. Later this month, they will debut a theatrical recital with Dicky Dutton called “Never Land” relating to themes of queer escapism found in Bernstein’s “Peter Pan.”
The Episcopal Mission in Sunnyside is a new community of Christian practice in Western Queens, supported by the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Growing out of the parish of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, which closed in 2020, it seeks to become a community where all can belong as messy human beings, where each person can be supported as they heal and grow into the people they are called to be, and where all can taste the grace and liberation that Jesus called the Kingdom of God.