Composer's Corner - with Kenneth Frazelle
Composer Kenneth Frazelle’s music has been commissioned and performed by numerous prominent artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffrey Kahane, Dawn Upshaw, Anthony Dean Griffey, Emmanuel Ax, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ransom Wilson, Paula Robison, John Adams, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Jan DeGaetani, and Gilbert Kalish. He has received commissions from Music@Menlo, the Ravinia Festival, and the Spoleto Festival. Frazelle first received international acclaim with his score for Still/Here, a multimedia dance theater work for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co.
How has Covid-19 impacted your work?
In two ways. First, I've had a premiere that had to be rescheduled several times. Fortunately, this gave me a more spacious schedule to complete that work. Secondly, several commissions and residencies have been canceled.
Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
Yes--I've collaborated with performers through Zoom. This has been a great resource in preparing new works. I've also had a couple of online premieres--one was a song cycle "Through the Window'', which explores aspects of my mother's early life as a farm girl in eastern NC. Additionally, our fine regional opera company, Piedmont Opera, premiered a hybrid vocal/dance theatre work based on some of my Appalachian Folksong settings. It was really exciting to collaborate on a work that was custom-made for video broadcast, an innovative way for the opera company to present a Fall season virtually.
What technology have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world? Have you used any music apps? Do you have any suggestions on the best way to record ensembles?
Zoom has been really helpful. It's enabled me to engage with both private music lessons and classroom students. My technology skills are rudimentary, yet people have been really generous with setting things up.
Your compositions have included commissions from such renowned performers as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Paula Robison, and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Do you feel extra pressure when writing for artists of such renown?
Writing for performers of great renown has been quite exciting, but I wouldn't say it's added extra pressure. For every compositional opportunity, I strive to make things personal for whomever is performing, and draw upon their past performances and recordings. I even imagine that I'm in the audience, hearing and seeing specific performers on stage.
In the 2015-16 season, your piano work "Wildflowers" was used in a new dance work by choreographer Brenda Daniels. Did seeing your work performed with dancers change your perspective on the piece?
I wouldn't say that my perspective on the piece changed, but that the piece was revisited with a fresh and perceptive set of ears and eyes. It's as if combining the choreography with the preexistent music gave things a new life. Dance has a way of exploring and describing and interacting with music--incredibly rewarding. I'll add that the set designs for Brenda Daniels' dance work were based on my watercolors. Quite shocking to see 9 X 12 inch watercolors expanded to a large stage!
Can you tell us a little about your composing process?
How a piece of music comes into being is a mysterious phenomenon. Usually, something triggers an initial impulse. A rhythm, line, or shape may come to me; even a visual image. So I begin jotting down short ideas--no more than a few seconds each. Sometimes there might be dozens; even hundreds, of sketches. Then it's as if I hit on one idea that announces itself to me (like a puppy saying "pick me, pick me!" at the animal shelter!). After I've committed to an idea, the real exploration begins. Ideas come easy; developing them is the real work. I usually begin composing at what is the actual beginning of the composition. On rare occasion, I've found that material needs to precede what I thought was the opening music.
The scale of a work--its proposed length and how many musicians are involved--also affects my process. Committing to a large-scale work, you know you're in it for the long haul, and need to pace yourself over possibly many months. It's very much like an athlete preparing for a marathon!
In December 2014, Matthew Michael Brown premiered your work for organ, Aria (with Diversions), at his recital at Westminster Abbey in London. How did it feel knowing your music was being performed at this historic venue?
Being at that premiere in Westminster Abbey was a profound experience. The organist and I had the luxury of being in the Abbey several hours the evening before the premiere, just to ourselves. I paced around the whole space, hearing my music in this hallowed place, literally in tears.
Of the many mediums and instruments you compose for… is there a favorite and why?
I love writing for just about everything--voice, chamber music, choral, solo piano, orchestral. I'll mention that a few of my misfires happened because I was commissioned to write for a genre that I didn't feel comfortable with--I knew in my bones that it wasn't right. You learn!
Of your many popular works, do you have one piece that you are most proud of?
People often respond to "favorite works" questions with "how could I possibly choose between my children?"! I tend to agree. However, my pieces fall loosely into broad categories (Appalachian-influenced, settings of A. R. Ammons, and pure concert music). So if I were pressed, I'd probably choose three "children."
What would you say to other artists/musicians that are craving ensemble work and to continue performing as part of their mental health during this pandemic?
Two things. First, continue to take advantage of technology resources (Zoom, recording apps, singing apps, etc.)--they've been incredibly helpful. Also, be imaginative about creating safe in-person jam sessions or rehearsals or performances. I enjoyed playing the piano (indoors of course) while a singer was on my front porch. The neighbors loved it! Staying connected through our beautiful art form will help us stay sane.
ABOUT KENNETH FRAZELLE
Kenneth Frazelle is a composer whose music, according to The San Francisco Examiner, "came straight from—and went straight to—the heart, an organ too seldom addressed by contemporary composers." Frazelle’s distinctive voice blends structural and tonal sophistication with a lyrical clarity; he has been influenced not only by his study with the great modernist Roger Sessions, but also by the folk songs and landscape of his native North Carolina.
Frazelle’s heartfelt compositions have included commissions from such renowned performers as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Paula Robison and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Recent commissions include works for tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, the Music@Menlo Festival, the Ravinia Festival and the North Carolina Symphony.
Frazelle's song cycle "Songs of Clay and Stone," inspired by his longtime fascination with the American Southwest, will premiere in August 2017 at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. It will be performed by mezzo soprano Kathryn Findlen and pianist Robert Brewer.
In the 2015-16 season, his piano work "Wildflowers" was used in a new dance work by choreographer Brenda Daniels. Another piano work, "Six Drawings," received a surprise premiere when it was performed by five friends of the composer at a birthday celebration.
In December 2014, Matthew Michael Brown premiered Frazelle's work for organ, Aria (with Diversions), at his recital at Westminster Abbey in London. The piece was commissioned for Brown by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
The 2012-2013 season included two major new works. In March, the chamber ensemble Strata premiered A Book of Days, a large-scale work for violin, clarinet and piano, which the group commissioned and is performing on concerts across the U.S. Frazelle's Triple Concerto, commissioned for the seventieth anniversary of the Meadowmount School of Music, was premiered by the Meadowmount String Orchestra in August of 2013. Soloists were Meadowmount alumni James Ehnes, violin, and Robert deMaine, cello, along with Meadowmount director, Eric Larsen, piano.
Additionally that season, mezzo soprano Kathryn Findlen and pianist Richard Masters performed Frazelle's Songs in the Rear View Mirror at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall (its New York premiere) and six other concerts in Texas, North Carolina and Washington, DC. The Weill Hall concert also featured Richard Masters performing the world premiere of Frazelle's Book of Blue Flowers for solo piano.
Songs in the Rear View Mirror, for voice and piano, blends personal history with a look at the American South through the eyes of photographers William Christenberry and Walker Evans. It was written for both the acclaimed tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and popular folksinger Laurelyn Dossett, who have given the work two very different interpretations. Griffey performed the piece at the Kennedy Center in May of 2010 and as part of the San Francisco Performances series in May of 2011.
Frazelle's two-volume Appalachian Songbook, for soprano or tenor, has found remarkable popularity, with frequent performances by professional, student and avocational musicians alike. Also widely performed is the solo piano work Wildflowers, ten characterizations of native plants from the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2010 Jeffrey Kahane performed Wildflowers at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
Frazelle first received international acclaim with his score for Still/Here, a multimedia dance theater work for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co. Still/Here premiered in Lyon, France in September 1994 and toured throughout the world the following two years to rave reviews. The New York Times praised Frazelle’s score: “part Schubert, part Kurt Weill, Mr. Frazelle’s songs have their own lyric beauty.” The Washington Post wrote, “Kenneth Frazelle’s music for ‘Still’…makes one think of late Beethoven string quartets and their otherworldly perfection.” The film version of Still/Here was viewed by millions on U.S. public television in addition to numerous international broadcasts.
Originally written for the folksinger Odetta, Frazelle’s score for Still/Here was reworked in 2004 for jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson to accompany an updated version, renamed The Phantom Project: Still/Here Looking On. In 2004 and 2005 The Phantom Projectreceived numerous performances throughout the country and abroad, including runs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and Sadler’s Wells in London.
Frazelle was the winner of the 2001 Barlow Prize, the international competition administered through Brigham Young University. The award was a commission for a new sacred song cycle and resulted in From the Song of Songs for soprano Erie Mills, which premiered in 2003.
In 2000 Frazelle was awarded a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award given to young composers of exceptional gifts. He was artist-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Santa Rosa Symphony from 1997-2001, and in 1998 was artist-in-residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In 1997 Frazelle was a recipient of the American Academy in Rome's Regional Visiting Artist Fellowship.
Highlights of earlier seasons include the 1998-99 tour of Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax performing New Goldberg Variations, variations on Bach’s theme commissioned from a group of six composers including Frazelle, John Corigliano and Peter Schickele. Frazelle's full-evening work, The Motion of Stone, based on A.R. Ammons’ poem, “Tombstones,” premiered in 1998 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, with Ann Howard Jones conducting the Boston University Chorus and the Gardner Chamber Orchestra. Also that year the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra commissioned and performed Frazelle's Laconic Variations, and the Santa Rosa Symphony gave the West Coast premiere of Shivaree, which it co-commissioned with the Winston-Salem Symphony. In 1997 soprano Dawn Upshaw performed Frazelle's Sunday at McDonald’s at her Carnegie Hall debut, accompanied by pianist Gilbert Kalish. In 1996, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presented the composer’s Quintet for Flute, Guitar and String Trio, featuring Ransom Wilson and Manuel Barrueco. The nationally broadcast radio program Saint Paul Sunday commissioned Sonata for Harpsichord in 1995; it was prompted by the success of his Fiddler’s Galaxy, which has aired on the show many times and is a playlist favorite of classical stations around the country.
Yo-Yo Ma and Jeffrey Kahane have performed Frazelle’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1989) throughout the country, and the piece has also been performed on several national tours by cellist Carter Brey and pianist Christopher O’Riley. Kahane has performed the composer’s Blue Ridge Airs I (1988) for piano at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., the Kennedy Center and the Montreal International Music Festival.
Other works by Kenneth Frazelle have been performed by pianist Gilbert Kalish and mezzo-soprano Jan deGaetani, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Colorado Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Louisville Orchestra.
Kenneth Frazelle was born in Jacksonville, N.C. in 1955. He was a student of Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School, and attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he now teaches. His music is published by Subito Music Corporation.
Composer's Corner - with James Lee III
Meet James Lee III, called a “gifted young composer” (Cincinnati Enquirer) whose “bright, pure music” (Washington Post) is “tonal but highly complex” (South Florida Classical Review) and “vibrant [and] richly layered” (Baltimore Sun). James Lee III composes in every medium ranging from orchestral and band works to chamber ensemble, sacred choral and vocal pieces, and works for solo piano. Dr. Lee’s works have premiered and been performed domestically and internationally in Brazil, Argentina, Russia, and Cuba.
How has Covid-19 impacted your work?
Covid-19 has impacted my work only in the sense that all the concerts for 2020 had been cancelled as a result of the pandemic as is the case with so many other composers and performers.
Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
I have been able to collaborate with other composers during the lockdown mostly by presenting my music at composition seminars via Zoom. I was a guest of composer Dr. Joel Puckett for his orchestration class at the Peabody Seminar in April 2020. In November 2020, I was a guest of Dr. Alexis Bacon for her composition seminar at Michigan State University.
What technology have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world? Have you used any music or singing apps?
My work with technology has been the same as before the pandemic. I use the Sibelius music notation software to input my musical compositions.
You compose in every medium ranging from orchestral and band works, to chamber ensemble, sacred choral and vocal pieces, and works for solo piano. Is there a favorite medium and how do you move from one to the next?
My favorite medium to compose for, by far, is writing for the orchestra. Most of the time, I am composing for an orchestral commission that I received, but when I do switch to a different medium, I try to think about what I'm most interested in communicating through the chosen medium. I also think about what would be idiomatic for the new piece and how can I expand the emotional and dramatic spectrum of the work.
Can you tell us a little about your process of composing?
First, as a Christian, I pray to God for help and inspiration before I start to compose. Then I will think about my objectives for the new composition. I often write a type of graph to outline special events that I'd like to have appear at certain moments in time throughout the piece. I then think about layering and textual counterpoint. I have found that I like to derive melodies from the harmonic language that I am employing.
October 2006 was a defining moment in your career when the National Symphony gave the world premiere of your orchestral work Beyond Rivers of Vision at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Can you tell us about this experience?
October 2006 was a wonderful moment. It all started in either late January or early February 2005 when I attended a National Symphony Orchestra concert and I thought about how wonderful it would be if I could have the orchestra perform my orchestral dissertation from the University of Michigan. I sent a message to my professor William Bolcom, who was a friend of Leonard Slatkin and I asked him to put me in contact with Maestro Slatkin. I ended [up] meeting with Slatkin in February 2006 and he ended up programming the work for a premiere in October 2006. The rehearsal experience was wonderful and I was able to learn more about orchestration from this experience. This experience also led to more opportunities to have my orchestral music programmed.
Of the hundreds of pieces you have created, is there one that you are most proud of? As a composer, you get to see many of your works in performance. Has there been a moment in your career that surprised or inspired you while watching one of your works being performed?
There are various works that I think that I can be proud of. I think in terms of orchestral music, Sukkot Through Orion's Nebula and Amer'ican make me the proudest. I think that from my chamber music output, my Piano Trio No. 2 "Temple Visions" and my Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano make me the proudest. I was really inspired to continue to pursue my desire to be a composer and obtain commissions and performances of my works after I heard the Detroit Symphony Orchestra premiere my A Different Soldier's Tale in 2008 with Leonard Slatkin as the conductor. That was the first orchestral work that I composed after I graduated with my D.M.A. from the University of Michigan in 2005.
Has it been difficult as a black man to excel in an industry with little diversity? How has your heritage impacted your work?
I don't know if I can say that being a black man has made it very difficult to excel and receive opportunities. I have been blessed to have my music heard by a professional orchestra only one year after my graduation. Since then, I have been able to have many great experiences. It is a known fact that many black Americans have American Indian in their family and I have also explored these ideas in various works of mine. Since I was a little boy, I have heard and seen family members from Missouri and Alabama that are descendants of American Indians or Aboriginal Indians.
Your artist statement “I want to compose music to reach to the inner soul of the listener that elevates them regardless of race and religious affiliation,” seems more important today than ever. Can you talk about this?
Since music is an international language, I want my music to be communicated to the listener in such a way that they are deeply moved and enriched because of what they had just heard.
James Lee III, called a “gifted young composer” (Cincinnati Enquirer) whose “bright, pure music” (Washington Post) is “tonal but highly complex” (South Florida Classical Review) and “vibrant [and] richly layered” (Baltimore Sun), James Lee III composes in every medium ranging from orchestral and band works, to chamber ensemble, sacred choral and vocal pieces, and works for solo piano. Born in St. Joseph, Michigan, Lee is a “son” of the Great Lakes State having received an undergraduate degree in piano performance, and both his masters and doctorate degrees in composition all from the University of Michigan. His primary composition teachers included William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, and Michael Daugherty.
In 2006 he premiered Beyond Rivers of Vision in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra. During his inaugural concerts as the new music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Slatkin premiered A Different Soldier’s Tale with the orchestra in Detroit on December 11 – 14, 2008. The National Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Soulful Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra have performed James Lee III’s works. Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performed Beyond Rivers of Vision on January 29 – 30, 2010.
In May 2010, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a movement from Beyond Rivers of Vision. James Lee III was also commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to compose a work about the life of Harriet Tubman. The work is called Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan and it was premiered on September 23-25, 2011. He was also named the winner of the Sphinx Commissioning Consortium for the 2011-2012 season. Mr. Lee composed a new work called Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula that was premiered by Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony Orchestra on October 15-16, 2011 in Miami Beach, FL.
On January 13, 2013 Gye Nyame for chamber orchestra was premiered by Janise White and the Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra in Los Angeles, CA. Also during the 2012-2013 season Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula was performed by the Akron Symphony Orchestra in November 2012. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra also played this same work in March 2013. Later in the month of March, Mr. Lee’s newest work for band, Ancient Words, Current Realities! was premiered by the St. Olaf Band at the College Band Directors National Association Conference in Greensboro, NC.
Since Dr. Lee’s graduation with a D.M.A. in composition from the University of Michigan in 2005, his orchestral works have been commissioned and premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, and the orchestras of Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Omaha, Pasadena, Memphis, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Akron, and have been conducted by such artists as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, Juanjo Mena, David Lockington, Thomas Wilkins, and others. During the 2019-2020 season, Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula is scheduled to be performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has also commissioned James Lee III to compose Amer’ican, which will be premiered in April 2020. James Lee III’s Concert for Piano and Symphonic Band was premiered by Dr. Rochelle Sennet and the Morgan State University Symphonic Band in April 2016 . His Concerto for Clarinet and Symphonic Band was premiered in Córdoba, Argentina by Nicolás Panatteri and the Symphonic Band of the Province of Córdoba in September 2016.
Dr. Lee is also a winner of a Charles Ives Scholarship and the Wladimir Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Chamber organizations such as the Montrose Trio, Ritz Chamber Players, and the Harlem Chamber Players have performed and premiered music by James Lee III. Pianist Dr. Rochelle Sennet recorded his piano music on the Albany Label in 2014. Dr. Sennet and her husband Igor Kalnin premiered his second violin sonata on March 16, 2019 at Luther College in Decorah, IA. Dr. Lee’s works have been premiered and performed internationally in Brazil, Argentina, Russia, and Cuba. Soprano Alison Buchanan also premiered a new song cycle composed especially for her in Jacksonville, FL and London, England in January and February 2019. In May 2019, Dr. Lee will see the premiere of his Sinfonia de Esperanza in Lima, Peru as part of the University of the Peruvian Adventist Union’s centennial celebrations. During the 2019-20 season the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed Dr. Lee’s Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula in September, October, and November. During the 2021-2022 or 2022-2023 season, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will premiere his newly commissioned work Amer’ican that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As concerts are able to resume, other upcoming premieres of Dr. Lee’s work include his Violin Concerto No. 2 “Teshuah” to be premiered by violinist Carla Trynchuk and the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra to be premiered by Daniel Lau and the New England Youth Ensemble, “Wakayoha” Concerto for Bayan, Percussion, and Strings to be premiered by Franko Bozac and the Oregon Music Festival Orchestra. Many other works for orchestra, narrator and orchestra, symphonic band, and chamber music will also be premiered during the upcoming seasons. James Lee III is a Professor of Music at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD.
Composer's Corner - with Judith Lang Zaimont
Judith Lang Zaimont is internationally recognized for her music’s distinctive style, characterized by expressive strength and dynamism. A grantee of both National Endowments, winner of the 2015 The American Prize in Chamber Music Composition, and a 2003 Aaron Copland Award winner, she has enjoyed a distinguished career as the composer of over 100 works with performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Camerata Bern, Berlin and Czech Radio symphonies, and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. She is a renowned teacher (over three decades) and pianist, and the creator and editor-in-chief of the critically acclaimed book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective.
How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
Several performances were rescheduled, and one was canceled. But the London Symphony Orchestra and National Philharmonic pieces did get performed in the second half of 2020, and one performance was circulated online.
Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
Collaborating goes on long-distance. Commissions and requests for pieces. Class visits and rehearsals via Zoom. I'll be ‘Virtual Guest Composer’ for the New Music Consortium at [the] University of South Florida in February -- classes, interview, concert with 3 premieres.
I continue to compose, and wrote three shorter pieces in 2020, for smaller forces. I am now finishing up a piece for 23 wind, brass, and percussion parts titled "In Praise of HEROES": a tribute processional honoring front-line professionals in all fields who held fast during [the] darkest pandemic times.
What technology have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world? Have you used any music or singing apps?
I had to learn Zoom (and Skype), and - this week - Zencaster, for various interviews. But since I compose with pen on paper (and have calligraphers around the country who put the music into Sibelius), I'm not that affected in my own work.
Was it a challenge for you, being a woman, in a trade that was dominated by men?
In every university where I taught, I was the only woman in the Theory & Composition Department. Did it bother me? Not one whit! I came in with solid accomplishments and real credentials, and I valued both what I, and what my colleagues, brought to the institution. If others had any kind of issue, it didn't percolate back to my ears.
What advice would you give young, female composers about entering this industry?
Advice to all composers, regardless of gender: If composing is central to your life, go for it.
You began composing at 11-years-old. It is certain that you are doing what you were born to do. What were your challenges as a child composer?
Just about none. I had the good fortune to be recognized both for my original music and my performance starting from a young age. (Won my first national Composition prize at age 12.) And this has continued over the years.
There was almost no one-on-one study in Composition, so luckily I didn't have a time where I needed to jettison any else's misguided teaching.
As a composer, you get to see many of your works in performance. Has there been a moment in your career that surprised or inspired you while watching one of your works being performed? Do you have a favorite composition?
The only 'surprise' was having a conductor bow out of a performance at the second-to-last rehearsal -- and I foolishly said I'd step in to conduct. Luckily, the players were on my side -- but it was hard! As a result, no more 11/8 bars (!)
Concerning specific pieces, I'd rather pinpoint especially representative pieces -- those revealing an aspect of my personality in full: direct, interruptive, bold, sensitive, quieter, reflective, super craft-conscious.
Example pieces:
- A Strange Magic - String Quartet No. 2 and "Growler" from the wind symphony
- Serenade and Nocturne (Romantic) from the Violin Sonata-Rhapsody
You are the creator and editor-in-chief of the critically acclaimed three-volume book series, The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. Why did you think this was an important project and why are these books still relevant?
Since the early '70s, I've thought many times about embracing an adjective before the word ‘Composer’ -- and there are any number of adjectives from which to choose. Ultimately I decided that for me the only thing that counts is the noun. But there was a period of c. 20 years in which being described as a 'woman composer' didn't concern me.
Why? Because of needing to revise the historical record to include all the women of great musical talent who had been left out!
For many, we "teach as we were taught," and if you learn the history of music without encountering the compositions of Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Hensel,
Rebecca Clarke, Lili Boulanger, or Ruth Crawford Seeger then you don't really know the true history. Each of these creators was applauded and honored in her own time - and the music has almost entirely now fallen out of repertoire. -- I was appalled.
Added to this: Music critics of our own day were not really dealing with the music written by living composers who were women --they seemed to get stalled trying to deal only with adjectives. So the music was not being fully appraised and critiqued.
I wanted to halt these two incomprehensible 'injustices' -- and so I took on the design and editor-ship of a new multi-volume series meant to survey accomplishments of all types by women music professionals around the world. It would give a current snapshot of activities -- Conductors, Composers, Musicologists, Administrators, Coaches, Critics, etc. -- and then delve into particular arenas. I could design the essay topics to scratch all my own bumps of curiosity-- and bring on Music Critics to deal with the music of a particular composer. (And I eventually received grateful letters from a number of prominent composers to say thanks for their first substantive creative critique in print.)
I possess many bumps of curiosity, and scratching the one about a bit of "re-balancing" the situation through these books was quite satisfying. Talent knows no gender.
(One dismal fact from just one of the essays -- on how women had fared in performance, composition, and conducting competitions worldwide over a 30-year period: the resulting graphs for women musicians winning composing and conducting competitions are largely flat.)
You have had a distinguished career as a teacher in higher education for more than three decades. What is it about teaching that kept you in the classroom for 36 years?
Individual lessons: Assisting the development of a younger composer to create music of substance, validity, and originality. Watching the evolution of their skill and imagination over time is wonderfully involving.
In classes, matters of craft and career (ex. Orchestration). At the University of Minnesota, I was able to realize a graduate composer’s project I'd devised earlier: a project in collaboration with a team of producers at Minnesota Public Radio. The grad composers each wrote a group of buttons and bridges (usually played between news items). These were first presented to the class as a whole for specific critiques. Surviving ones were then recorded on piano (or two instruments) and sent to the radio producers, with descriptions of each - where they were then critiqued by the producers.
Word of this smaller group of survivors came back to the class, who then organized and, themselves, produced a one-evening recording session in which these final survivors were recorded for real: everything from solo instrument to moderate-size ensemble. (The studios ran the recording session, and performed.) This recording went back to MPR, where the producers actually picked a smaller group from the finalists for placing into the station music library.
Then, the chief producer came to a class to present the production team's response to the music and the entire process. (They enjoyed it so much, we were able to do the project over and over with differing composers and brand-new music each time, over the years.)
What would you say to other artists/musicians that are craving ensemble work and to continue performing for their mental health?
Go for it, by any or all means. (Soundjack, Jamulus, AudioMovers, etc.)-- As [a] performer and co-founder with the local chamber orchestra, we've had to become pretty creative just to continue making music together. Right now we're planning an online concert for April, and rehearsals are sometimes by phone, by Zoom, by pre-recording of certain parts, and sometimes in person (!).
ABOUT JUDITH LANG ZAIMONT
Judith Zaimont is equally a distinguished teacher, formerly a member of the music faculties of Queens College and Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she was named "Teacher of the Year" in 1985. She held the post of Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department at Adelphi University from 1989-91, and from 1992 to 2005 she served as Professor of Composition at the University of Minnesota School of Music, as well as division chair and Scholar of the College of Liberal Arts. After serving as National Board Member for Composition for the College Music Society (2003-2005), she served a second term on the advisory board of the International Alliance for Women in Music while also serving on the editorial board of American Music Teacher magazine (2004-2007). Since retiring from full-time college teaching in fall 2005, she remains sought-after for master classes and private lessons in composition and orchestration, and is active as clinician, frequent adjudicator and masterclass presenter across the US and abroad.
Equally sought-after as writer and speaker, her articles and essays on various music subjects include an invited address on “Modern America and America’s Musical Women” to UNESCO in Paris (1997), the Keynote Address to the College Music Society in 2006 and to other national conferences in following years, the 2009 Article of the Year award from Music Teachers National Association for “Embracing New Music” (American Music Teacher magazine), and twelve years as creator and editor-in-chief helming the critically acclaimed book series The Musical Woman: An International Perspective. (For Volume III she was awarded a major development grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and First Prize in the 1993 international musicology awards, the Pauline Alderman Prizes.)
Zaimont’s original musical compositions continue to appeal to listeners of all ages, and -- via live performance, in recording and broadcast on Voice of America -- to listeners all around the globe. Major articles on her music have appeared in many professional journals, music dictionaries, and a variety of teaching media (books, recordings, videos), and she is a featured composer in several volumes of the music appreciation text Making Music Your Own (Silver Burdett Ginn), in the Carnegie Hall Centennial celebration volume, as well as in The Popular Guide to Classical Music (Birch Lane Press, 1993). She is also a frequent composition competition adjudicator, and has made an enduring contribution to piano pedagogy in the area of the teaching of 20th-century performance techniques; her “Annotated List of Twentieth-Century Repertoire for the Piano” (in Teaching Piano, Denes Agay, ed: Yorktown Music Press) is a standard pedagogical resource. To learn more about Judith Lang Zaimont, you can read a more comprehensive bio at her website: https://www.judithzaimont.com/.
Composer's Corner - with Paul Moravec
Meet Paul Moravec, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Paul has composed over one hundred orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, film, and electro-acoustic compositions. He has been described in Opera News as “a masterful musical dramatist,” and his music has been hailed as “tuneful, ebullient and wonderfully energetic” (San Francisco Chronicle), “riveting and fascinating” (NPR), and “assured, virtuosic” (Wall Street Journal).
Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
I’ve been making an operatic, staged version of Sanctuary Road with the librettist Mark Campbell. We’re also collaborating on a new oratorio for Oratorio Society of New York about the history of voting rights in America.
In May, Mark and I collaborated with Opera America and a team of very talented professionals and over 100 opera singers to make a virtual performance of our choral work Light Shall Lift Us. It’s up over 23,000 views on YouTube.
What technology have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world? Have you used any music apps? Do you have any suggestions on the best way to record ensemble singing?
Not much has changed — as always, I use the low-tech resources of piano, paper, and pencil (and eraser!) and the higher tech resources of Sibelius Music Notation program for composing.
You received the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music. This is an enormous honor. How did it feel to win such an award and has it changed anything for you?
Being awarded the Pulitzer in 2004 changed my life immediately and materially, opening up lots of commissions and performance opportunities, among other things. It was and remains a thrilling development in my career.
Can you talk a little about your composing process?
Every project is different and needs to be approached on a case-by-case basis; hard to generalize. I always begin at the piano, and as the piece evolves, I usually input what I come up with into Sibelius, which I find a VERY useful compositional tool as well.
The Shining is a piece that most would not consider turning into an opera. Why did you decide to write this and what were some of the challenges?
The idea of making an opera out of The Shining came from stage director Eric Simonson and from then-artistic director of Minnesota Opera, Dale Johnson. Stephen King’s novel is actually extremely naturally operatic, as it involves the three basic aspects of opera on steroids: love, death, and power. And also lots of ghosts (!) — perfect for operatic treatment.
You have several albums available. As a composer, how did it feel to be able to release your first album and is there an album you are most proud of?
I’ve been hugely lucky to work with so many fantastic artists and institutions in making my albums, it’s really hard to pick one in particular. Sanctuary Road — Oratorio Society of New York on Naxos — is certainly the most high-profile, as it’s currently nominated for a 2021 Grammy. (Grammy Awards will be announced on March 14 this year.)
You are a graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University, you taught at Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College and currently hold the special position of University Professor at Adelphi University. Academia has been an important part of your career. Why is teaching important to you?
Being an artist and being a teacher are actually complementary activities. They dovetail nicely. Both activities involve conveying values to people. In its way, making music teaches by example, whereas teaching in schools and universities involves teaching more by precept.
Of your many popular works, do you have one piece that you are most proud of?
The Shining, Sanctuary Road, A Nation Of Others, The Blizzard Voices, Tempest Fantasy, The Time Gallery, Montserrat, equally proud of these pieces.
ABOUT PAUL MORAVEC
Paul Moravec, recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music, is the composer of numerous orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic, and lyric pieces. His music has earned many distinctions, including the Rome Prize Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. A graduate of Harvard College and Columbia University, he has taught at Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College and currently holds the special position of University Professor at Adelphi University. He was the 2013 Paul Fromm Composer-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome, recently served as Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and was also recently elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society.
Frequently commissioned by notable ensembles and major music institutions, Mr. Moravec's oratorio about The Underground Railroad premiered by the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall in May, 2018. His opera, The Shining, based on the Stephen King novel, premiered at the Minnesota Opera in May, 2016. Other recent premieres include The Overlook Hotel Suite, with American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Winter Songs, with the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society; Light Shall Lift Us, with Opera Orlando; The King’s Man, with Kentucky Opera; Amorisms, with Alias and the Nashville Ballet; Danse Russe, an opera for the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts; Brandenburg Gate, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Piano Quintet, with Jeremy Denk and the Lark Quartet; and Wind Symphony, with a consortium of American concert bands. Recent seasons have included the New York premiere of The Blizzard Voices, with the Oratorio Society of NY at Carnegie Hall, as well as the premieres of Violin Concerto, with Maria Bachmann and Symphony in C, and Shakuhachi Concerto, with James Schlefer and the Orchestra of the Swan (U.K.).
Mr. Moravec’s discography includes Northern Lights Electric, an album of his orchestral music with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project released in 2012 on the BMOP Sound label. He has five albums of chamber music on Naxos American Classics: Tempest Fantasy, performed by Trio Solisti with clarinetist David Krakauer; The Time Gallery, performed by eighth blackbird; Cool Fire, with the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival; Useful Knowledge, with soprano Amy Burton, baritone Randall Scarlata, Trio Solisti, and la Fenice Quintet; and Violin Concerto, with Maria Bachmann and Rossen Milanov’s Symphony in C. Among his many other recorded works are: Double Action, Evermore, and Ariel Fantasy, performed by the Bachmann/Klibonoff Duo (Endeavour Classics); Sonata for Violin and Pianoperformed by the Bachmann/Klibonoff Duo (BMG/RCA Red Seal); Atmosfera a Villa Aureliaand Vince & Jan, performed by the Lark Quartet (Endeavour Classics); Morph, performed by the String Orchestra of New York (Albany); Anniversary Dances, with the Ying Quartet (Dorian Records); Cornopean Airs, with American Brass Quintet and organist Colin Fowler; and Andy Warhol Sez, with bassoonist Peter Kolkay and pianist Alexandra Nguyen. Other releases include Blue Fiddle, with Hilary Hahn on Deutsche Grammophon, and Piano Quintet, with Jeremy Denk and the Lark Quartet, on Bridge Records.
His work is published by Subito Music, available at www.subitomusic.com.
Composer's Corner - with Roberto Sierra
For more than three decades, the works of Roberto Sierra have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles, and festivals in the USA and Europe. At the inaugural concert of the 2002 world-renowned Proms in London, his Fandangos was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was broadcast by both the BBC Radio and Television throughout the UK and Europe. Many of the major American and European orchestras and international ensembles have commissioned and performed his works.
1. In 2017 you were awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin. Can you tell us about your experience as a Latino composer and the influence your culture has had on your work?
I have been in the USA since 1989, when I became composer-in-residence with the Milwaukee Symphony, and, looking back, it is amazing to observe the changes that we have gone through. Not only has the cultural landscape changed, but also we now look at society through a different lens, and we have a new generation that is trying to forge a more just and equitable country. There is more acceptance and inclusion, both of women and minority composers, corrective measures that were much needed, and I don’t think that the country will turn the clock back. So, I am optimistic about the future.
My cultural heritage is an integral part of my work, and the sounds I heard growing up in Puerto Rico resonate always in my music. I am interested in looking inwards, but at the same time creating something, something personal and unique is of paramount importance. The musical elements from my heritage are refracted and transformed in my work.
2. Can you tell us a little about your composing process?
I generally start with very simple and concrete ideas, out of which complex structures and sounds evolve. I believe that the origin, the starting point of any artwork needs to be clear. The question of structure and form are also very important; in fact, the larger structure of the work emerges out of the basic material.
3. Of your many popular works, do you have one piece that you are most proud of?
I am always very self-critical, and hope that my next work will be the one I can say, "Ah, this is the one!
4. As a composer you have the opportunity to hear many of your works performed by incredible ensembles. Do you have a favorite moment from one of these experiences?
For me, there is always the magic of hearing the first rehearsal of an orchestral piece. Working recently with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Domingo Hindoyan with solo trumpet Pacho Flores last January was very special. It was a terrific performance!
5. In 2010 you were elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. What did this honor mean to you?
These distinctions are always wonderful to receive, but at the end, the true recognition for any artist will come through her or his work.
6. How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
Composers stay mainly at home composing, thus my routine has not changed that much. But the unfolding pandemic and the ensuing human tragedy is extremely painful to us all.
7. Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
I am always in communication about current projects with my collaborators.
8. What technology, including any singing apps or composing apps, have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world?
Nowadays the computer is the basic tool. Now instead of person-to-person meetings, we are telecommunicating all the time.
9. What would you say to other artists/musicians that are craving ensemble work, and to continue performing as part of their mental health during this pandemic?
My main concern is that we all need to avoid contagion. This will pass, and hopefully soon.
ABOUT ROBERTO SIERRA
For more than three decades, the works of Roberto Sierra have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles, and festivals in the USA and Europe. At the inaugural concert of the 2002 world-renowned Proms in London, his Fandangos was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was broadcast by both the BBC Radio and Television throughout the UK and Europe. Many of the major American and European orchestras and international ensembles have commissioned and performed his works. Among those ensembles are the orchestras of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, San Antonio, and Phoenix, as well as the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, the Spanish orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, Castilla y León, Barcelona, Continuum, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Opus One, and others.
Commissioned works include: Concerto for Orchestra for the centennial celebrations of the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for James Carter; Fandangos and Missa Latina commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington DC; Sinfonía No. 3 "La Salsa", commissioned by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; Danzas Concertantes for guitar and orchestra commissioned by the Orquesta de Castilla y León; Double Concerto for violin and viola co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Orchestras; Bongo+ commissioned by the Juilliard School in celebration of the 100th anniversary; Songs from the Diaspora commissioned by Music Accord for Heidi Grant Murphy, Kevin Murphy and the St. Lawrence String Quartet; and Concierto de Cámara co-commissioned by the the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest and Stanford Lively Arts.
In 2017 he was awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin. In 2003 he was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award states: "Roberto Sierra writes brilliant music, mixing fresh and personal melodic lines with sparkling harmonies and striking rhythms. . ." His Sinfonía No. 1, a work commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, won the 2004 Kenneth Davenport Competition for Orchestral Works. In 2007 the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky International Recording Award (KIRA) was awarded to Albany Records for the recording of his composition Sinfonía No. 3 “La Salsa”. Roberto Sierra has served as Composer-In-Residence with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and New Mexico Symphony. In 2010 he was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Roberto Sierra's Music may be heard on CDs by Naxos, EMI, UMG’s EMARCY, New World Records, Albany Records, Koch, New Albion, Koss Classics, BMG, Fleur de Son, and other labels. In 2011 UMG’s EMARCY label released Caribbean Rhapsody featuring the Concierto for Saxophones and Orchestra commissioned and premiered by the DSO with James Carter. In 2004 EMI Classics released his two guitar concertos Folias and Concierto Barroco with Manuel Barrueco as soloist (released on Koch in the USA in 2005). Sierra has been nominated twice for a Grammy under the best contemporary composition category, first in 2009 Missa Latina (Naxos), and in 2014 for his Sinfonia No. 4 (Naxos). In addition, his Variations on a Souvenir (ALbany) and Trio No. 4 (Centaur) were nominated for Latin Grammys in 2009 and 2015.
Roberto Sierra was born in 1953 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and studied composition both in Puerto Rico and Europe, where one of his teachers was György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg, Germany. The works of Roberto Sierra are published principally by Subito Music Publishing (ASCAP).
Composer's Corner - with Daniel Gawthrop
Meet Daniel Gawthrop, a composer, broadcaster, clinician, adjudicator, organist, conductor, teacher, and writer who has over 100 commissioned pieces. His a cappella motet "Sing Me to Heaven" is among the most frequently performed choral pieces of modern times and has sold more than a half-million copies.
You have been the recipient of more than 100 commissions. What do you think draws other artists and arts leaders to your work?
Much of my work has been for choral ensembles and conductors of those groups tell me that they find a good balance between technical challenges and accessibility in my pieces. Others say that my ability to maximize the content and impact of a text is the primary draw. I work hard to create music which works simultaneously on multiple levels, offering something both to an audience which may only hear it once, as well as continuing insights to the performers who will spend much more time with it.
Can you tell us a little about your process of composing?
When working with a text I always strive to find the music that’s in the words. That gives me the best chance of achieving musical results which reflect the text specifically and intimately. With instrumental music, I usually begin at the keyboard simply playing with ideas. In either case, I am a pencil-and-paper guy—the computer is an engraving tool for me, not a composing platform.
Of the hundreds of pieces you have created, is there one that you are most proud of?
Sing Me to Heaven has attracted more performances than anything else I have ever written, and though it’s not the most technically polished piece in my catalog, it does seem to have touched more hearts than anything else I have done. I value that ability to lift spirits and leave people changed through the gift of music.
You are a man of many talents. You have been a composer, broadcaster, clinician, adjudicator, organist, conductor, teacher, writer, and music critic. If you could only choose one of these to do for the remainder of your career, which one would it be and why?
I would continue composing. I feel that I can be of more use to the world by writing things which can be used to lift spirits and change hearts than in any other role I have filled.
As an organist, you have likely been able to play some of the greatest instruments in the world. Do you have a favorite organ?
It’s hard to imagine a more musically successful instrument than the Æolian-Skinner designed by G. Donald Harrison for the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. It’s sited in a magnificent acoustical space and offers an endless variety of tonal color. From a cleanly discernible pianissimo to a thundering fortissimo it satisfies the composer, the organist, and the listener in me.
How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
I went to a regional convention of the American Choral Directors Association in early March in Salt Lake City, right before the quarantine began. That was the last public gathering I attended. When I complete the remaining three commissions which were already on my calendar, I will have shifted entirely to self-directed projects as new commissions have stopped appearing. But on a day-to-day basis, things don’t look all that different—I have been working from home full-time for twenty years.
Have you been able to collaborate with other composers/artists during the lockdown?
I wrote an arrangement of Be Thou My Vision for euphonium quartet for my friend Mark Jenkins, who is the lead euphonium player in the Marine Corps Band “The President’s Own” in Washington, D.C. He recorded it with his colleagues in the band and it has been published in the Dunstan House catalog at Subito Music.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=253700255837725
I was able to participate in a live recording of a vocal duet, He That Keepeth Thee which I wrote under a grant from the Art for Uncertain Times project. The two singers and I were permitted to use the recital hall on the closed campus of the College of Southern Idaho for this session. With my wife as videographer and page-turner, the four of us maintained proper social distancing long enough to create a demo of the new piece:
https://www.centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org/gawthrop-art-for-uncertain-times
What technology (such as Zoom or singing apps) have you used to continue to do your work in a virtual world?
My pencils and manuscript paper continue to serve me well, thank goodness. Other than that, I did finally download Zoom for a couple of Q&A sessions with choirs that were no longer meeting in person. That worked pretty well.
What would you say to other artists/musicians that are craving ensemble work and to continue performing for their mental health during this pandemic?
While there’s no substitute for being physically present among collaborators in live rehearsal and performance, times of restriction offer some blessings of their own. Personally, I have been incredibly productive as a composer during this period. I have also had time for far more piano and organ practice than usual which has allowed me to get some things under my fingers which I would likely have never learned without these unique circumstances. I’ve done lots of reading, both professional and recreational. Finally, the internet has allowed my wife and me to keep more closely in touch with scattered family members, which is a real blessing. Life has been quite different these past few months, but not meaningfully worse. I find that maintaining an attitude of gratitude is very helpful for my mental health and I recommend it to all.
Daniel E. Gawthrop was born in 1949 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has been the recipient of over one hundred commissions to write original music. His published choral and organ works are in the catalogs of Dunstan House, Alfred Publishing, Alliance Music, Lorenz Publishing Co., and others. His a cappella motet "Sing Me to Heaven" is among the most frequently performed choral pieces of modern times and has sold more than a half-million copies.
Gawthrop's music has premiered in the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Salt Lake City Mormon Tabernacle, and Washington National Cathedral among dozens of other prestigious venues. His choral pieces have been performed and recorded by such eminent ensembles as The United States Air Force Singing Sergeants, the Gregg Smith Singers, the Turtle Creek Chorale, the Paul Hill Chorale, the American Boychoir, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Cathedral Choral Society (of Washington National Cathedral) and literally hundreds of other groups in the U.S. and abroad.
In addition to his work as a composer, Gawthrop has been active as a broadcaster, clinician, adjudicator, organist, conductor, teacher, and writer, including a period as music critic for The Washington Post. Gawthrop is a Life Member of the American Choral Directors Association, a member of the American Guild of Organists, and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the music fraternity.