A special concert event will be held Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at First Lutheran Church in Minot to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard.

The concert is a collaboration between Dakota Pro Musica, a professional choir based in Bismarck, and the Minot Chamber Chorale in Minot.

The concert features “Considering Matthew Shepard,” a three-part fusion oratorio composed by Craig Hella Johnson, the renowned American composer and conductor based in Austin, Texas. The concerts will feature narrators and soloists Brittany Bearsheart and New York City-based tenor Kristopher Jean, along with the choirs and a chamber orchestra.

Johnson sets a wide range of texts by poets, including Hildegard of Bingen, Leslea Newman, Michael Dennis Browne and Rumi. Passages from Shepard’s personal journal, interviews and writings from his parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, newspaper reports and additional texts by Johnson and Browne are included throughout the work.

Shepard was a gay student at the University of Wyoming, and on Oct. 6, 1998, was kidnapped, beaten to near death and left to die. He died on Oct. 12, 1998, of his injuries, and his story gained national and international attention. Twenty years after his murder, his body was moved from Caspar, Wyoming, to be interred at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

His death in 1998 at the age of 21 electrified the movement for the LGBTQ rights. Through the work of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, his parents helped pass the country’s first federal hate crimes legislation, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, in 2009.

Dakota Pro Musica and the Minot Chamber Chorale performances of “Considering Matthew Shepard” are endorsed and sponsored by 18 organizations in Minot, Bismarck and across the region, including the North Dakota Council of the Arts, Dakota OutRight, The Human Rights Coalition of North Dakota and the PFund Foundation based in Minneapolis.

Because of the significant number of endorsing and sponsoring organizations, there will be no tickets required for the performances. A freewill offering will be taken to help cover the remaining cost of the performances.

A “Considering Matthew Shepard” concert also will be held Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck.