Robert Beaser in HK

It was a pleasure to welcome composer Robert Beaser to HKBU. Beaser is in Hong Kong as the Distinguished Guest Composer of the Intimacy of Creativity, organized by composer Bright Sheng and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. I was so glad Bob was able to make the time to speak with our students about his approach to composing, as well as stylistic developments in the US. This was an especially interesting perspective for our students.

It’s hard to believe that I first met Bob way back in 2007 at the Bowdoin Festival while I was still a graduate student. I have enjoyed keeping in touch with him over the years and getting to know his music more, which I enjoy for the immediacy and range of its emotional impact. I vividly remember a performance of his guitar arrangement of the folk song, Shenandoah, at the June in Buffalo Festival in 2012. His music  exhibits absolute clarity without ever being simplistic, and I think this is a goal to which we can all aspire. As it happens, I will be seeing him again in just a short time at the American Academy of Arts and Letters Ceremonial where I will receive the Charles Ives Fellowship. I look forward to many future reunions!

They Say at USF

I am writing while en route to Tampa, Florida, where I’m headed to the premiere of my new solo guitar work, They Say, as one of four invited composers for the University of South Florida’s New Music Festival.

More than most instruments, I have always felt the guitar is an instrument for storytelling, especially of very old tales. This concept led me to think about common vernacular expressions and the creation of a three-movement work, in which each brief movement’s title is taken from the opening words of three common expressions:

I. Actions speak

II. Absence makes

III. All good things

(I leave it to you to complete these phrase.)

As is often the case with my work, I was also interested in how musical elements can be recast with new meaning across multiple movements, a concept that seemed to fit well with the always-present-but-with-obscure-origin nature of these wisdom-laced phrases. As such, some of the elements introduced in the work’s opening are more fully-realized later on. Keeping with the storytelling dramatic character of the guitar, I also save a few small surprises—a few special requests—for the performer as things progress.

I am deeply indebted to the brilliant and open-minded guitarist, Dieter Hennings, for his patience and support in the making of this work. Dieter and I worked together at the soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where I taught composition in summer 2016, and where he was part of the ensemble that premiered my Sandburg Songs. He will also take part in the Albany Records recording session of my first solo CD this summer at Oberlin Conservatory. Without him, this piece could not exist.

This will be my second visit to USF. In 2015 I gave a talk on the influence of Korean traditional music on my work as part of the Composition in Asia Symposium and Festival, organized by Professor John Robison. I’m very impressed by the level and breadth of music-making taking place at USF.

Prior to my premiere at USF, I will be making a visit to the New College of Florida in Sarasota to give a guest composer lecture to music students as a guest of Professors Maribeth Clark and Kye Ryung Park. After my recent talk at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I’m excited to again share my music and have a dialogue with the next generation of musical troublemakers!

UIC Lecture

I want to thank Professors Ruth Rosenberg and Marc Mellits for hosting my recent guest composer lecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was a pleasure to meet such inquisitive students at UIC and answer their questions about music, language, politics, and so many other subjects.   Farewell, Chicago, and next stop…Florida!

Charles Ives Fellowship

I am deeply honored to have been selected to receive the 2018 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award was established by the Academy with funds from the royalties of composer Charles Ives’ work by his widow, Harmony Ives, and—according to the letter I received—is “awarded annually to two composers of exceptional gifts.” How humbling it is to have any connection to America’s first great composer—one of twentieth-century music’s most far-sighted thinkers—and to receive this recognition from some of the American composers whose work I most admire. I am excited to meet the Academy members and my fellow awardees at the Ceremonial in New York this May.

Albany CD

I am very pleased to share news of an upcoming recording project. This summer, following my residency at Copland House, I will record my first portrait CD for Albany Records. The album, Sandburg Songs, will be named for my large-scale song cycle, which was commissioned by the soundSCAPE Festival in Italy and premiered by soprano Tony Arnold and conductor Tim Weiss with Eastman BroadBand in summer 2016. I’m so happy Tony and Tim have agreed to continue our collaboration for this recording and will be joined by the stellar musicians of Zohn Collective. In addition to Sandburg Songs, the CD will feature other chamber music from the last nine years, including my 2009 trio, In Search of Planet X, new works for solo piano and solo guitar, and possibly more.

Copland House Residency Award

I’m happy to share news of my selection for a Copland House Residency Award for 2017-18.  This is a great honor, which will allow me to live and work at the former home of composer Aaron Copland, in Cortlandt, New York, in summer 2018.

Every artist colony and fellowship has its own atmosphere, customs, and charm, and I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many of them, most recently MacDowell.  Copland House is unique in that it hosts only composers and hosts only one composer at a time.  It is difficult to express the full range of feelings a composer might feel when writing a new work at Copland’s own piano and desk—the same piano and desk where he wrote both Connotations and Inscape.  Suffice to say, it will be a privilege.

Creative Spaces

I enjoyed reading Kate Guadagnino’s recent article in the New York Times Magazine, “The Rooms Where Writers Work.”  As the title implies, it’s a look at the physical spaces where writers do their writing, what I would consider the literal “creative space.”  While it only provides profiles of writers, the article’s concerns could just as easily be applied to the creative spaces of composers.  We all have our preferences and habits, and changing them can be met with resistance, depending on personality type.  Some composers need a piano for most of their work, while others see the piano as a crutch.  Some composers need total quiet, while others find a certain level of sound distraction to be helpful.  There are those who work in the morning and those at night. Christopher Rouse once described himself as “an afternoon composer.”

I have often found myself composing in coffee shops or other public spaces.  (Case in point: about two-thirds of my dissertation orchestral work was composed on the second floor of a Philadelphia Starbucks.)  Counterintuitive as it might seem, I find myself more focused when working in public, including places where I must “tune out” some background sound.  Perhaps my working intentions are clearer when confronted with a level distraction.  At the same time, I must use the piano during certain stages of the compositional process, and for this I am adamant about needing a grand piano (Baby grands work; what I need is a certain resonance.) and have found great benefits in the quiet isolation and beautiful views often found at artist colonies.  I would specifically cite the whole atmosphere—piano combined with the acoustics of the room combined with open windows looking out on to the Mediterranean, with its birds and waves and sunsets—at Camargo Foundation in France as being directly responsible for some of the warm, lyrical sound world of my Sandburg Songs.  I cannot speak for other composers, but it is clear to me that environment affects my work.  (As I walk the busy streets of Hong Kong, I have nearly planned out the form of an upcoming Hong Kong-inspired string quartet I will write this year!)

One of the ongoing challenges of creative work is to understand how one does it best, and part of that is when and where to work.  Of course, there are no rules, no correct or incorrect; only successful or unsuccessful, or more or less ideal.  Like almost everything about the creative process, it is a combination of observation and action that allows us to complete our task.

With age comes…

I enjoyed reading this almost-year-old but always timely article by Aaron Gervais on newmusicbox about the joys and struggles of the composer’s ageing process.  We’re not talking about the post-retirement ageing process and 4pm dinners at Denny’s that come with it, but rather the dreaded move from a composer’s twenties to a composer’s  thirties and then to….Well, we were never told in school what happens after that!

Without a doubt, the field is obsessed with youth and with young and “emerging” composers.  I have been at once pleased, amused, and bewildered to see ever-increasing national contests for composers in high school and even younger.

In response to Gervais’s article, I would also stress the importance of connections.  I continue to be grateful for the excellent performances I receive by musicians I also count as friends.  And as a composer now on the tenure track, I can vouch for the unceasing need to prove one’s worth with up-to-date accolades.  (We know you got a Pulitzer last year, but what have you done lately?)

Yet despite the challenges, I can say that I feel more certain about my own music making today than at any point in the past.  I have found a certain steely resolve that could only have come from experience: from ample doses of both the positive and the negative, or what George Rochberg’s widow, Gene Rochberg, told me was “taking your lumps.”

Many years ago, I was asked by a teacher: “When did you decide to become a composer?”  In being too honest and specific and showing my own doubts when replying, it was clear from the teacher’s reaction that I had given the “wrong” answer.  But the truth is that composing is not something I’d decided to do, or at least not at a specific age or on a specific date.  It was something I had done for as long as I could remember.  And so if there was a decision or if there is a decision, for me, it is the decision to continue from one day to the next and from one year to the next, and the quiet realization that I am doing the right thing, the only thing I can do. That is a realization that could only have come with the passing of time and with a certain amount of time away from a degree program and away from Those Who Would Grade Us.  Like they say, with age comes…can’t remember…too old!

So here’s to composers in our 30s, in our mid-30s, and beyond!  To the privilege of having fewer contests open to us, fewer application fees, and one less midnight trip to the post office!

To the right to write the right notes.  Our notes.  (Take note!)  No matter what!

 

TPE, CMW, and HKCG

I’m taking a moment from Hong Kong’s summer heat and Typhoon Merbok to report on a few things since the last post.  First, I had a lovely time presenting my music at Taipei National University of the Arts.  This was my first time in Taiwan, and although it was brief, I got a sense of some of the charms of the place about which I’ve long heard.  It was a pleasure to speak to the composition students and tour the beautiful campus.  Thank you to my friend and TNUA faculty composer Ming-Hsiu Yen for organizing my visit.

Second, and closer to home, one of the highlights of the end of the semester at HKBU was the performance by the Contemporary Music Workshop (CMW), which I organized and coached this year.  In the fall, a group of twelve students presented an all-Reich program, including Clapping Music, Piano Phase, and Violin Phase.  For the spring semester, a group of five pianists focused on Bartok.  The concert consisted of selections from and inspired by Bartok’s 7 Pieces from Mikrokosmos, for 2 pianos, 4 hands.  Some of the movements were Bartok’s original; others were improvisations based on musical elements from Bartok; and others still were—shall we say—reinterpretations of Bartok’s music.  For example, one of the movements created a magical echoing texture by slowing down Bartok’s composed folk melody and presenting it in several octaves and varied rhythms by all five players.  It was a pleasure for me to work with my students in bringing this creative program to fruition!

Finally, it was a privilege for me to serve as an adjudicator of the New Generation 2017 competition, sponsored by Hong Kong Composers Guild.  What an inspiration it was to hear the new works of eight talented Hong Kong composers, including two students from HKBU.  I am glad to be living and working in a place so dedicated to music and nurturing the next generation of creative individuals.  Congratulations to all the participating composers!

Taipei 101

Very happy to be spending some time in Taipei.  This is my first time in the city and first time in Taiwan as well.  It is a place that has been calling me for many years by way of friends and stories of bubble tea and night markets.

But, alas, I am here to work!  Tomorrow I will be presenting my music to students at Taipei National University of the Arts.  I’m grateful for this opportunity and look forward to introducing some of my recent (and not-so-recent) work.  As I have done on a few other occasions, part of my talk will be devoted to a discussion of the influence of Korean traditional music on my compositions.

(Still the night market beckons….)

Rise

I have just received a video of the performance portion of my February 3 lecture at HKBU.  I very much enjoyed sharing some of my music and ways of thinking about music with my colleagues and students.  Special thanks again to violinist Gary Ngan and pianist Kawai Chan for their wonderful playing.  Here is their performance of my 2003 work, Rise, inspired by the immersive and space-bending installation art of James Turrell.

 

 

Sandburg at Penn

New music lovers in the Philadelphia area should mark their calendars for an upcoming performance by soprano Jamie Jordan and pianist Steven Beck at the University of Pennsylvania on February 22.  Jamie and Steve are among the best in the business, and I’m so glad they’ll be presenting a selection of my Sandburg Songs at Penn.  This will be the premiere of selections from the voice and piano arrangement of the songs I completed during my recent residency at MacDowell Colony.  (The ensemble version was premiered in Italy last summer.)

The rest of the program includes a veritable buffet of Penn composers: current faculty Jay Reise, James Primosch, and Anna Weesner; and Professors Emeriti George Crumb and Richard Wernick.  I have no doubt this will be a fantastic evening of music making!

HKBU Lecture-Recital

I enjoyed introducing my music to students and colleagues during my lecture recital at Hong Kong Baptist University on Friday.  Part of our weekly colloquium series, the lecture recital featured performances of two older works of mine.  immaus, for solo violin, was performed with passion and sensitivity by violinist Gary Ngan.  It’s been great to hear so many unique interpretations of this work over the years since its premiere in 2004.  The recital portion of the afternoon also featured Rise, for violin and piano, performed by Gary and pianist Kawai Chan.  Once again, the performance was lyrical and dramatic.

Rise is perhaps the oldest of my works that I still allow to be performed, and I am pleased to find it standing up well with age.  I wrote the work for my undergraduate violin recital at Eastman in 2003, and it is interesting for me to hear how some compositional ideas from way back when have developed through the intervening years.  The work was inspired by the installation art of the extraordinary American visual artist, James Turrell.

The official title of my talk—Inspiration and Creativity in Composition—was bold and wide-ranging.  But so is the work that composers undertake!  I used the lecture portion of the colloquium to try and shed some light on the big questions composers face and which I’ve often asked myself: What inspires a composer?  Where do musical ideas come from?  What is the connection between the extra-musical and the musical in composition?  It was great to have such an attentive audience for my mental musical musings!

MacDowell Residency

I’m honored to have been awarded a residency at MacDowell Colony.  MacDowell is the oldest artist colony in the US and carries a storied history of artists (Bernstein and Copland are among its many famous composer fellows.) having created while in residence there.  Like other fellowships I’ve received–including Yaddo and Camargo–MacDowell affords artists a priceless gift: a contemplative, distraction-free place to create.  I’m very excited about making some new notes there this winter.

Bright Lights, Big City

I’m delighted to share the news that I have accepted a tenure-track position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University.  In this role I will teach composition and related courses to a group of talented young composers and musicians.

I visited Hong Kong as a presenter at the Annual Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong in 2013 (where I spoke about this), and was blown away by the visceral energy of the city and its people.  I am excited about the many potential collaborations with Hong Kong’s diverse music culture, including my colleagues at HKBU and musicians throughout the marvelous city, as well as colleagues throughout Asia!

soundSCAPE in Review

The 2016 soundSCAPE Festival has come to a close, and my ears are buzzing with the sounds of two weeks of intense music making and teaching.  Of course the highlight for me was last night’s premiere of my complete Sandburg Songs, a five-movement song cycle for soprano and seven instruments with texts from Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems.  Selections from the cycle were performed last summer at soundSCAPE and earlier this spring at Oberlin, but this was the first time all five movements came together.  Under the direction of the unflappable Tim Weiss, soundSCAPE faculty instrumentalists were joined by five sopranos, a unique experience, which added a certain drama to the performance as each vocalist rose from her chair to take her place behind the music stand and perform.  One by one, sopranos Tara Khozein, Jocelyn Fekel Zelasko, Hillary LaBonte, and Felecia Chen sang movements one through four, each bringing her own ideas and interpretations to the score and leading seamlessly to the fifth-movement finale, Passers-by, which was sung by their teacher, Tony Arnold.  It was a pleasure to work with each of these talented vocalists, Tim, and the soundSCAPE faculty instrumentalists in bringing this grand vision—over a year in the making—to life.

Another highlight of this year’s festival for me was the chance to work one-on-one with eighteen composition students from many of the world’s top music programs.  In our lessons I was impressed with the breadth of interests and the seriousness of purpose that these young composers brought to their work.

There were several dozen works performed in rapid succession over the course of the festival, so it would be difficult to single out one performance…but I can  mention four:  Varese’s Octandre, conducted by my old friend, Daniel Pesca; Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, complete with ocarinas and whistling in the cadenza, with the incredible violinist Mark Fewer; and works of two of my soundSCAPE faculty colleagues, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s scenic cantata, Comala, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez’s Diaries, which also featured pianist Daniel Pesca.

Thanks to everyone who made this year’s festival the best ever and for all the memories—musical and otherwise!

Oberlin Notes

It was wonderful to hear soprano Sage DeAgro-Ruopp and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble perform a selection of four of my Sandburg Songs at Oberlin Conservatory on May 4.  Under the direction of Tim Weiss, these young musicians gave a confident account that emphasized the music’s coloristic and rhythmic shifts.  Sage handled the vocal part with ease.  Her precise pitch and tender, refined timbral palette were a pleasure to hear.  The entire group gave me renewed confidence in the future of contemporary music performance.  

The concert also included new works by Christopher Dietz and Christopher Stark.  There is much to say about both their works, but what stood out to me most in Dietz’s work was its rich harmonic landscape and Chris’s ability to maneuver complex contrapuntal textures across the ensemble.  In this respect, the piece occasionally recalled the music of Roger Sessions.

Stark’s work for trombone and ensemble, with the outstanding Lee Allen as soloist, displayed a clear mastery of orchestral colors and led the listener on an adventurous journey that covered many textures, moods, and landscapes.  What I most liked was the coy humor that seemed to emerge in the work, and with which the work ended.  This music clearly fell within the scope of the late Steven Stucky’s compositional orbit , but all of us who studied with Steve are the better for his influence.

Hearing my work at Oberlin made me even more excited to hear soprano Tony Arnold and Eastman BroadBand perform the complete 5-song cycle this July at the soundSCAPE Festival, where I will teach private composition lessons to festival students.  With Tim Weiss also leading that performance, I know the music is in good hands.

Oberlin Webcast

For those who cannot make it to the performance of my Sandburg Songs tonight at Oberlin Conservatory, I’m happy to report that there will be a live webcast streaming here at 8pm EST.  The concert also includes works by Christopher Dietz, Christopher Stark, and Thea Musgrave.

Celebrations Recording Release

I’m happy to share the news of the release of a CD recording of my work, Celebrations, for 18-string kayagŭm, on Jung Gil Seon’s Gayageum Creative Works Series VII: “Sanjo & Sanjo.”  This work was premiered at the National Gugak Center, Korea’s national center for traditional performing arts in Seoul, by Jung Gil Seon in 2013.  The CD also includes works by Donald Reid Womack, Thomas Osborne, and Sunghwan Yang.

Celebrations explores the many means of the title, from its association with jubilant festivities to its solemn religious connotation.  The music alternates between an energetic, syncopated opening and a series of contrasting passages, which are variously quirky, mysterious, and dance-like.  Gradually the opening material is transformed and recast, and the work ends in a warm, melodic, romantic landscape, quite different from where it began.

Celebrations is part of a series of works for Korean traditional instruments alone or in combination with western instruments or electronics, which I have composed over the last five years.  In writing for kayagŭm, the traditional Korean zither, I wanted to showcase the instrument’s tender, earthy color and its ability to weep, to question, and to speak through nuanced bending of pitch.  In addition, by tuning the top five strings a half step higher, I was able to expand the instrument’s harmonic possibilities, exploring its traditional pentatonic tuning, alongside polytonal and Romantic-era harmony.

Listen to a recording of Celebrations here.

Sandburg at Oberlin

I’ve updated the events page to include the premiere of my complete Sandburg Songs, which will take place Wednesday, May 4 at 8pm at Warner Concert Hall at Oberlin Conservatory.  The performance by Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble and a soprano TBA will be led by Tim Weiss.  (Tim will also lead the Italian premiere of the complete Sandburg Songs this July with Tony Arnold and Eastman BroadBand at the soundSCAPE Festival in Italy, where I will teach.)

Also on the program will be works by Christopher Stark, Christopher Dietz, and Thea Musgrave.

Very excited to hear this program at Oberlin this spring!

Lynn Blakeslee (1940-2015)

Although I was a composition major as an Eastman undergraduate, I have often joked that I was “yelled at” just as much as the other violinists.  The woman doing that yelling—though always with loving intent—was Lynn Blakeslee, an exquisite violinist and master teacher who died suddenly in August at age 75.  I traveled to Rochester this past weekend to attend a memorial concert in her honor and was moved by the loving remarks and performances by her former colleagues and students.

Looking back on my time at Eastman, it is clear that Lynn had the largest overall impact on my time there.  Part of this was the sheer number of hours we spent together—a weekly hour lesson, technique class, and the 3-hour Wednesday evening studio class—but the bigger factor was the intensity of these experiences.  For all the thoughtful discussion and even argument that takes place in composition lessons, it simply doesn’t compare to the physicality of applied music study and all the hours in the practice room or rehearsing with your collaborators that lead up to the weekly lessons and eventual performances.

As a composer my relationship with Lynn was perhaps different from those whose dream was to have a performing career.  Of course Lynn taught me the technical side of violin playing, and she did so with an uncanny ability to isolate the smallest technical details and explain them and improve them (even with her eyes closed).  But more than technique, Lynn taught me that music making is a process that is passed down through study and performance by individuals.  Music making is about shaping technique so that performers and audiences can create and recreate conversations with specific times and places—a long chain of sounds and gestures and phrases being passed down over many generations—and composers are an important part—the starting point—of this chain.  To hear Lynn play was to hear the voices of music’s past sing through her violin.

The summer following my sophomore year at Eastman I lived on the third floor of her lovely home on Berkeley Street, the site of many unforgettable parties and where she taught me to “appreciate a good glass of wine.”  She was in Europe at “her castle” during part of the summer, but the rest of the season we shared the house and many conversations.  Lynn got to know me in a more personal way than any of my other teachers.  She knew that I had no money while at Eastman, so she invented odd jobs for me to do around her house—painting her white picket fence, organizing her garage.  She let me use one of her wonderful bows from then until I graduated.  And after I graduated she was a force in helping me to receive a commission from Eastman’s Hanson Institute for American Music, which supported the composition of my Chamber Concerto for one of her students.

As part of the memorial concert we heard a recording from Lynn’s final recital at Eastman in 2012.  Listening to her play Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin, I was transported back to our times together, and a flood of memories and images flashed through my mind.  Rarely has listening to a single recorded work produced such strong and mixed emotions.  With the dim fade-out of the work’s final cool harmonic, Lynn’s song had come to an end.  But like the generations of violinists who preceded her, Lynn’s voice lives on through all of us who studied with her.  She is part of us.  Listening carefully I can hear her now…“Sing!  Sing like the Italians sing!”

I will, Ms. Blakeslee.  I promise.

soundSCAPE 2016 Composer Fellow

I am thrilled to announce that I have been selected to serve as the soundSCAPE Festival’s Composer Fellow in 2016 and will be returning to Italy next summer to teach private composition lessons to the festival’s approximately two dozen composition students—representing many of the top music programs in the nation—and to assist with the administration of the composition program.  In addition, Tony Arnold and Eastman BroadBand, led by conductor Tim Weiss, will give the Italian premiere my complete Sandburg Songs, with performances of other works to be announced.  (Two songs received a stunning premiere performance last summer.)

I was humbled to learn about this selection but am already counting down the days until my return.  SoundSCAPE is one of the festivals I would most recommend to colleagues because of the excellent performance opportunities, positive atmosphere among students and faculty, and stunningly beautiful setting in the Italian Alps.  And yes…there’s great food!

Willapa Bay Residency

I’m very happy to have been selected for a residency at Willapa Bay AiR in Oysterville, WA next summer.  This is a relatively new residency in a very beautiful part of the country, and I’m looking forward to making a lot of new music and getting to know my fellow artists over what will certainly be some delicious local meals.  (That was certainly the case at Camargo Foundation last spring….)

UMBC Lecture

I’m delighted to be presenting my music to students and colleagues at UMBC tomorrow afternoon and plan to focus on three different works:

Sandburg Songs, my current project, a portion of which was premiered in Italy at the SoundSCAPE Festival last summer;

In Search of Planet X, a work from 2009 that shows a bit of what I think about rhythm; and…

Celebrations, a solo work for gayageum, as a way of talking about my works for Korean traditional instruments and how that experience plays into my work more broadly.

All three works are available on my soundcloud page.