Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings: Composer Q&A - Natalie Williams

Composer Natalie Williams is participating in ACO's Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings on May 2 and 3. Her selected piece Les Chants du Maldoror is, in Natalie words, "a Chamber Symphony, a suite of orchestral contemplations on four etchings by surrealist artist, Salvador Dali." Read her full program note here.

Natalie was kind enough to answer some questions for SoundAdvice.

Composer Natalie Williams

What was your reaction to finding out your piece had been selected for the Berkeley EarShot New Music Readings?
I am truly thrilled to be selected as a participant in the EarShot New Music Readings. The opportunity to work with an orchestra of the calibre of the Berkeley Symphony is a rare and extremely valuable experience for any composer. The support of this program offers invaluable career development, mentorship and networking with the musicians, orchestra management and of course the ACO team. I am very honored to have this opportunity, to work with a fantastic group of musicians and mentors and to enable my music to reach new audiences and performers. The chance to work alongside composer peers is also a wonderful experience and I am very humbled to be a part of the new and emerging voices that will come from workshops such as the EarShot program.

What preparations are you making ahead of the readings with the Berkeley Symphony?
I have spent much time with my score, revisiting the textural decisions that I made during the orchestration process. The piece contains many varied approaches to orchestral colors and I am very keen to workshop these with the orchestra in Berkeley. The opening movement features a Passacaglia and I am keen to hear the live realization of my piece, to judge how I have treated that constantly-moving voice amidst the textural choices that I made for the entire ensemble. Movement three of my piece "The Memory of Music" relies on techniques of echo and melodic replication through many instrumental voices and dynamic levels; the delicacy of these color changes is something that can only be shaped by a live performance and I am excited to hear the reading sessions to explore the intricacies of those sounds.

www.natworksmusic.com

www.americancomposers.org

Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings: Composer Q&A - Michael Laurello

Michael Laurello is one of the composers selected to participate in ACO's Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings on May 2 and 3. Read Michael's program note for his selected piece Promises here.

Michael was kind enough to answer some questions for SoundAdvice.

Composer Michael Laurello

What was your reaction to finding out your piece had been selected for the Berkeley EarShot New Music Readings?
I felt honored and surprised! I'm excited to work with Joana Carneiro and the musicians of the Berkeley Symphony, as well as mentor composers, Ken Ueno and Derek Bermel. Being able to receive aesthetic, technical, and logistical feedback on an orchestral work-in-progress within a supportive environment is the best part about the EarShot readings for me, and I'm thankful to be receiving guidance from an incredibly talented team of individuals who operate on all sides of the creative process.

What preparations are you making ahead of the readings with the Berkeley Symphony?
Much of the preparation for the readings took place while I was adapting the score to fit the Berkeley Symphony's instrumentation. The original version of this piece was for a larger orchestra, and in the process of scaling things down I was forced to clarify my ideas and decide what is essential. This was a great exercise, because the music feels leaner now, and I believe it speaks without as much effort. These preparations also gave me the chance to tweak a few minor things that bothered me about the first version of the piece. In the days leading up to the readings, I'll be studying the score closely, isolating complicated passages and taking them apart so that I understand, and can articulate, exactly how things are supposed to lock in.


Follow Michael on Twitter and Soundcloud

www.michaellaurello.com
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Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings: Composer Q&A - Ryan Carter

Ryan Carter is one of the composers selected to participate in ACO's Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings on May 2 and 3. Ryan's selected piece The Clock Behind Me is inspired by an Arnold Schoenberg story, told in an interview by Ryan's former teacher Richard Hoffman. Read the full story in Ryan's program notes here.

Ryan was kind enough to answer some questions for SoundAdvice.

Composer Ryan Carter

What was your reaction to finding out your piece had been selected for the Berkeley EarShot New Music Readings?

I was thrilled to hear the news. I had previously listened to recordings by the Berkeley Symphony, and I’m tremendously excited to be working with this adventurous orchestra.

What preparations are you making ahead of the readings with the Berkeley Symphony?

In preparation, I’m mostly reviewing what I wrote. I composed this piece last fall and have worked on a few projects since then, so I’m discovering some surprises as I look back at the score. I tend to become deeply absorbed in whatever I’m currently composing and it takes some preparation to shift gears and remember what I had in mind while working on another piece.


Follow Ryan on Soundcloud

www.ryancarter.org
www.americancomposers.org

Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings: Composer Q&A - Emily Cooley

Emily Cooley is one of the composers selected to participate in ACO's Berkeley Symphony EarShot New Music Readings on May 2 and 3. Emily wrote her selected piece Green Go To Me to have "no delineated sections and no transitions, just the goal of reaching the ending and revealing the core of this music’s material." Read her full program note here.

Emily was kind enough to answer some questions for SoundAdvice.

Composer Emily Cooley

What was your reaction to finding out your piece had been selected for the Berkeley EarShot New Music Readings?
I was really thrilled to be selected. I love writing orchestral music and it's become my main focus in the past couple years. I feel very fortunate to work with the Berkeley Symphony, Joana Carneiro and mentor composers Derek Bermel and Ken Ueno. Working with a live orchestra is always the best training. I think it really puts you on the spot as a composer in a way that nothing else does. There is limited rehearsal time and you're in a room with a professional orchestra - you realize right away what works and what doesn't in your piece. It can be scary of course, but also exhilarating in that way. I'm really looking forward to it!

What preparations are you making ahead of the readings with the Berkeley Symphony?
My main preparation was to go back through my piece, Green Go to Me, and make sure that the notation was clear in the score and parts. I also made a few orchestrational changes, with the goal of clarifying the musical ideas and making sure they'll be heard within the various orchestral textures. This piece is fairly different from my other orchestra pieces in that it's very delicate and slow to unfold. Not to say that I don't care about my other work of course (!), but this in particular is a piece I feel close to, and I really care about the musical ideas and the sound world coming across.


Follow Emily on Twitter and Soundcloud

www.emilycooley.com
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ACO: Blues Symphony & Beyond Composer Spotlight – Uri Caine

Pianist and composer Uri Caine spans classical and jazz traditions with an impressive resume of recordings, performances, compositions, and a Grammy nomination in 2009 for Best Classical Crossover Album. Uri's Double Trouble for piano and orchestra was commissioned by ACO and performed in February 2008 at Carnegie Hall. ACO, with Uri as piano soloist, will give the premiere of a revised and expanded version of the piece, April 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Uri was kind enough to talk with SoundAdvice about the upcoming performance.

Pianist and composer Uri Caine. Photo credit: Simon Meele

American Composers Orchestra: You premiered Double Trouble in February 2008 with ACO at Zankel Hall. Now you are premiering a revised and expanded version. Can you talk about how the piece has changed since its original premiere 7 years ago?

Uri Caine: When I premiered the piece in 2008 it was written for piano and a chamber orchestra (single winds and horns and 1 percussionist). For the 2015 version, I got the opportunity to compose for a full orchestra with triple winds and a larger brass and percussion section. This allowed me to enrich certain harmonic areas, to strengthen the balance of certain sections and to simplify certain parts where I could divide the music between a greater variety of instruments. But inevitably as I started tinkering with the orchestration, I also started to rewrite parts of the music, to simplify certain sections and to clarify certain parts. Even though the structure of the piece basically remains the same as the 2008 version, I made  many small changes as I worked on the re-orchestration – in that sense Double Trouble in 2015 is a much different piece than the original 2008 version.

ACO: You say, "Double Trouble sets up a dialogue between composed music (mostly for the orchestra) and improvisation (mostly for the piano soloist)." You are performing as piano soloist on April 9 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, but if another pianist is to play the piece, what direction, if any, do you give for these improvised sections?

UC: I would ask the improviser to listen to what the orchestra is playing and then react and, at the same time, use the short cadenza solo sections as a sort of counterpoint and development of what the orchestra has or will play. There are also certain sections where the piano part is completely notated and other sections where a certain harmony is specified or a rhythm is suggested and the soloist can interpret this as they feel, but in the end I might not want to say too much. I would give the pianist the freedom to do their own thing!

ACO: What should the audience listen for during your piece?

In terms of a form, there are 7 short sections which usually begin or end with a solo piano cadenza. This cadenza either sets up the next entrance of the orchestra or “comments” on what the orchestra has just played. These sections are about 1 to 2 minutes each and are marked Misterioso, Grazioso, Energetic, Animated, Furioso, Espressivo, and Wild. The eighth and last section features an expanding and contracting rhythmic scheme – 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 4/4, 7/8, 6/8, 5/8 – that repeats throughout the movement and establishes a certain groove for the soloist to play with. There is a dialogue between the piano and the orchestra: sometimes the soloist echoes what the orchestra is playing, sometimes it moves against it in rhythmic or melodic counterpoint, and sometimes it plays along as a member of the orchestra. The orchestra part is sometimes hyperactive, sometimes rhythmic, and sometimes lyric but the idea of the piece is to give the soloist the challenge of improvising against an orchestra that is throwing ideas right and left at the soloist in quick succession. The improvising soloist can decide in the moment how to react.

ACO: What are you looking forward to about your performance of Double Trouble with ACO at Jazz at Lincoln Center?

UC: I look forward to playing with George Manahan and the ACO. It is always fun after composing to go out and finally play what has been in your imagination. I am also looking forward to hearing the music of Courtney Bryan and Wynton Marsalis!

Follow Uri on Facebook
www.uricaine.com

www.americancomposers.org