ListN Up Playlist: Mari Esabel Valverde (June 18, 2026)
Published: Jun 18, 2026
Mari Esabel Valverde is an award-winning transgender Mexican-American composer in steady demand in the United States and abroad. Aspiring to create music that emboldens people to unlearn shame, her works center the voices of historically marginalized authors and address questions of gender, sexuality, social justice, and love of the natural world.
“Death Before Detransition” from Trans Requiem (2025) by Andrew Yee, Text by J. Jennifer Espinoza, Performed by Trinity Choir and Melissa Attebury, conductor
Offering a transfeminine perspective, both on the parts of the poet and the composer, Andrew Yee’s “Death Before Detransition” expresses plainly that a trans woman’s story, once she has told it, will not be unheard. Invigorated by surging strings, Espinoza’s words seem to float, overlapping multiple sonic planes, sung by the choir and played by fixed media. I believe the Trans Requiem will have been a pivotal work from our current musical era.