For those of you who might not be aware, OG is an acronym for Original Gangster. Originating in the 1970s, OG was used to describe a gang member specifically from the Los Angeles-based gang The Crips. At that time it was meant to convey that The Crips were the first LA gang, THE OGs.

More recently, usage of the term has evolved to describe anyone who is old-school or exceptional at what they do. Miriam Webster defines an OG as something or someone that is an “original” or an “originator.”

In my life, OG has always had still another meaning. It’s an acronym that in my formative years, the early 80s, was coined to mean “Original Gay.” It was a term of endearment used to describe my sophomore year prom date. Of course I didn’t know it at the time, even though it became clear later he definitely did. During a visit home during his first semester of college, he came out to me in my mom’s living room while she served us tea and cookies. He was the first of many very close, important and formative relationships in my life with gay men. As the cliché goes, some of my very closest friends are gay men. If you know me at all, it’s just the truth.

Another truth? My actual OG wasn’t actually the guy from high school: turns out it was French composer Francis Poulenc. I think most Poulenc fans can agree, OG suits him well.

I have always loved Poulenc’s music. From the first moment I heard the Oboe Sonata, to a very memorable performance of the Sextet I gave at the Gardner Museum in Boston, to the many times I have performed the trio with various colleagues both in school and since… his music has always drawn me in and made me feel all the feels. Poulenc’s music creates a feast for the senses and is accessible to all. In it you’ll find joy, frivolity, sappiness, serenity, melancholy, careless but meticulous abandon, and pure unadulterated fun! Like most young musicians pre-internet, aside from what my teachers told me or a trip to the library, I could only find out so much about this man.

I knew we had just missed being alive at the same time, as he died in 1962 at the young age of 63. I knew he was part of Les Six, a nickname given to a group of young French composers in the 1920s, including Honneger and Milhaud. I knew he was a great pianist rumored to have large hands with which he was able to play his incredibly difficult piano parts at breakneck tempos. I had been introduced to recordings of him playing his own music that were SO FAST! I knew he was a soldier in WW2, and that the Sextet we will be playing at this show, written in the early 1930s, was reworked after the war. Another fun fact I would come to learn is that a critic in the 1950s gave him the nickname “le moine et le voyou.” Translated, this means half bad boy, half monk. Very fitting, according to all that I’ve read.

Poulenc was raised in a Catholic family and remained devout throughout his life. He wrote much liturgical music including a Mass in G Major, Stabat Mater, and the Catholic-themed Dialogues of the Carmelites. He is widely considered one of the great religious composers of his time. Somehow I didn’t learn until much more recently that while doing all of that, Francis Poulenc was also living his truth as an openly gay man, an incredible fact that has been good and buried, or at least kept under the radar, until pretty recently. Interestingly and also not surprisingly, this fact never came up in any music history class I ever took. After returning from the war and despite having relationships with women and fathering a child, Poulenc is said to have continued to live his truth. This is such an incredible story of bravery at a time that seems as if it would have been unimaginable for someone to have lived so honestly. Today we find ourselves in tumultuous times. We seem to be facing an uphill battle to preserve our basic freedoms in an age when that seems like it shouldn’t be at risk. At times like this, I am so grateful to perform music that can help speak for us. Arcturus is so looking forward to bringing you this amazing program of incredible works by the OG himself, Francis Poulenc. Music that represents incredible bravery, freedom, and that helps us feel all the feels. We dedicate this show to anyone living their truth, for we admire their bravery now more than ever.

Karen Wagner
Assistant Principal Oboe, Oregon Symphony
Oboist, 45^th Parallel Universe