0:00

I'm John Banther and this is Classical

0:02

Breakdown. From WTA Classical in Washington,

0:04

we are your guide to classical

0:07

music. In this episode, I'm joined

0:09

by violinist Laura Colgate. She is

0:11

the concert leader of the National

0:13

Philharmonic Orchestra and is a co-founder

0:16

of Boulangay Initiative, an organization that

0:18

advocates for women and all gender

0:20

marginalized composers and seeks to redefine

0:23

the canon. She joins me to

0:25

talk all about Boulangay Initiative, what

0:27

they do and their upcoming festival.

0:29

But first, we talk about a living

0:32

composer we think you should know, Clarissa

0:34

Sad, and share with you three works

0:36

to listen to and what we love

0:38

about her music. Thank

0:42

you so much for joining me Laura.

0:44

I think it's been quite a while

0:46

since you and I have shared the

0:48

same stage Maybe even like more than

0:50

a decade. Oh definitely more than a

0:52

decade. Thanks for having me. What's great

0:54

to have you and we're going to

0:56

talk about the Boulanger initiative But first

0:58

we're going to talk about a living

1:00

composer and one I guess that you

1:02

also know quite well. Yeah, absolutely

1:04

Clarissa side So let's talk a little

1:07

bit about Before we get into a

1:09

couple of her works. Let's talk about

1:11

well where she's from, what she's doing.

1:13

So Clarice Asad, she's a Grammy-nominated

1:15

composer and pianist, and she has

1:17

a number of styles that her

1:19

music encompasses. She was born in

1:22

Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, in

1:24

1978, to a pretty musical family.

1:26

And it sounds like Laura, this

1:28

would have been really a big

1:30

part of her own musical education.

1:32

Her father is a guitarist, Sergei

1:34

Assad, the singer-songwriter. So I assume

1:36

naturally, she got a lot of

1:39

learning from these people when she

1:41

was... young. Definitely she was surrounded

1:43

by music her whole life and

1:45

and you can really hear it

1:47

in her works what she was

1:49

surrounded by. So she also studied

1:51

further at Roosevelt University in Chicago

1:53

and also University of Michigan where

1:55

she studied with Mike. Doherty, one

1:58

thing that struck me, Laura, just,

2:00

you know, looking at her, you

2:02

know, in general, just looking at

2:04

her website, she's written an incredible

2:06

amount of music, like, almost like,

2:08

is this too much? I mean,

2:10

the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Synfonietta, Albany,

2:12

Symphony, so many people have commissioned

2:14

her for works, but it sounds

2:17

like for her, when you commissioned

2:19

her, it's not just, oh, she

2:21

writes, oh, here's your piece. Thank

2:23

you, you know, here's your check

2:25

and so forth. Yeah, for sure.

2:27

It's more of she wants to

2:29

know a lot about you, everything

2:31

about you it seems. Yeah, she

2:33

definitely gets to know her audience

2:35

who she's writing for and writes

2:38

for people and you can you

2:40

can tell. And I guess if

2:42

you want to call it a

2:44

big break, she had a break

2:46

in 2004 when her violent concerto

2:48

was programmed in a concert by

2:50

Mayor in Alsop and then Nadia

2:52

Selarno Sahnenberg, she also later recorded

2:54

recorded. in this and doing this

2:56

for decades. Yeah, and that's a

2:59

really incredible concerto. The way that

3:01

she writes for the violin is

3:03

pretty spectacular. Have you played it?

3:05

I have not played it. I've

3:07

listened to it a lot. It's,

3:09

it is really a challenging concerto.

3:11

Well, we're also going to put

3:13

playlists and stuff like that up

3:15

on the show notes page of

3:18

her music. But let's go into

3:20

our first piece. This is Sin

3:22

Front Harris, which she wrote in

3:24

2017, in English, without borders. And

3:26

this one is so much fun,

3:28

Laura, because, well, one, I love

3:30

how it opens, so warm and

3:32

inviting, like, a huge vista, but

3:34

then there's like this chromaticism, like...

3:36

on your peripheral. It just sounds

3:39

like very very cinematic in a

3:41

way. Oh definitely. I think a

3:43

lot of her music is cinematic

3:45

but definitely this piece in the

3:47

beginning you really feel these these

3:49

big chords the the surges the

3:51

ebbs and the flows and it

3:53

it makes you almost enveloped in

3:55

the sound. Enveloped I like that

3:57

and then also you hear this

4:00

little tune come in and you

4:02

want to keep this in your

4:04

back pocket, especially how there's like

4:06

a little quick turn of notes.

4:08

That comes back quite often. Let's

4:10

read some of the program notes

4:12

that she wrote for this because,

4:14

like I always say, sometimes or

4:16

oftentimes, composers are just as intentional

4:19

about the words they use to

4:21

describe their music as they are

4:23

the notes themselves. Here's what she

4:25

wrote. Sin from Terrace emerged from

4:27

a utopian state of mind in

4:29

which I found myself one day,

4:31

daring to erase imaginary lines that

4:33

disconnect us geographically, culturally, and morally,

4:35

boundaries that the human race has

4:37

willingly subscribed to for thousands of

4:40

years. But what would happen if

4:42

the walls that separate us from

4:44

getting to know one another were

4:46

not there? Well, this idea would

4:48

generate a fair amount of confusion

4:50

in the real world and the

4:52

realm of music of the 21st

4:54

century, this does not need to

4:56

be so. As a South American

4:59

woman living in the United States

5:01

for two decades, I chose sounds

5:03

of places that felt closest to

5:05

home. the Americas. In San Fronteras,

5:07

we journey from the bottom of

5:09

South America traveling up both coasts

5:11

and navigating to the northern hemisphere

5:13

via Central America. The piece follows

5:15

no storyline, but its central concept

5:17

begins with a shocking reaction between

5:20

two or more distinct cultures coming

5:22

into contact for the first time.

5:24

After the initial resistance, everyone collectively

5:26

begins aggregating each other's ethnic fragments

5:28

into their cultural spheres to create

5:30

something new while still preserving their

5:32

original roots. And those are some

5:34

important sentences right there. She's so

5:36

descriptive, Laura, yet she also says

5:38

there's no narrative necessarily to this

5:41

as well, but it also has

5:43

that cinematic quality to it. There's

5:45

not a lot of, I don't

5:47

know, another composer exactly with this

5:49

kind of sound and idea. Yeah,

5:51

for sure, and you can visualize

5:53

so real, the cinematic qualities in

5:55

this, and it really is bringing

5:57

in all of these different cultures.

6:04

She has one more bit on

6:06

it, she writes, the piece accomplishes

6:08

this amalgamation effect by taking advantage

6:10

of an old-time favorite musical form,

6:12

theme, and variation, though it may

6:14

not fit precisely into the cookie

6:16

cutter format of this old tradition.

6:19

There are several moments in the

6:21

piece where familiar sounds, melodies, and

6:23

motifs come and go, grounding the

6:25

listener for a moment before morphing

6:27

into something new. And that's what

6:29

I meant by, you know, keep

6:31

that little melody in your back

6:33

pocket because it's so characteristic compared

6:35

to the other things and you

6:37

hear it coming in and out

6:39

in little fragments as you described.

6:41

Yeah, I, you know, the cinematic

6:43

nest of it all, I picture

6:46

traveling through the Americas on horseback

6:48

and, you know, the different groves

6:50

it really brings you into the

6:52

fun aspect and you can't not

6:54

dance and move with it. The

7:00

groove part is is so important.

7:03

There is such a she has

7:05

such a great grasp and understanding

7:07

of rhythm not just you know

7:10

measure to measure but big picture

7:12

as well And also she has

7:14

a great sense of harmony and

7:17

voicing like voice leading there's this

7:19

clarinet solo once the music has

7:21

kind of taken off and there's

7:24

this chromaticism in it that makes

7:26

it feel like it's just kind

7:28

of flipping and sliding around or

7:31

something it basically to me sounds

7:33

more improvisatory and I get a

7:35

lot of that in her music

7:38

improvisation aspects for sure now you

7:40

said groove and that's important because

7:42

we hear it throughout and there's

7:45

this low brass groove that transitions

7:47

into this moment Laura that I

7:49

think is so special we hear

7:52

these musicians whispering and murmuring all

7:54

of a sudden and this works.

7:56

How many times have we... you

7:59

know, sat in an orchestra and

8:01

done something that is written into

8:03

the music, that's not music related,

8:06

and it just doesn't land. It

8:08

doesn't work, but here it really,

8:10

really works, and it's a really

8:13

cool moment. And it's also interesting

8:15

to hear it through headphones, because

8:17

it also catches you off guard.

8:19

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you definitely don't

8:22

expect it when it comes. I imagine

8:24

this is, in a way, the culture

8:26

is coming together, like we, like we

8:29

just, in two groups, Shortly after

8:31

this moment, Laura, there is

8:33

something in the music that

8:35

I've really been thinking about

8:37

after reading what she wrote

8:40

because we have these hand

8:42

claps in the music. I

8:44

hear your hand claps, you know,

8:46

clapping way less than something like a

8:48

shout like mambo or something in music

8:50

and it feels like here. She's using

8:52

it in an attentionally kind of humanistic

8:55

way all of these people are together

8:57

and it's this clap that gets your

8:59

attention and it's like calling you to

9:01

a dance I mean you said you

9:03

got a dance the whole time you

9:05

have to you can't you can't help

9:07

it and so I really started thinking about

9:10

that you know what does that mean in

9:12

the context of this story or not story

9:14

that she's that she's bringing out and maybe

9:16

it returns later and it changes yeah I

9:19

think it really brings the musicians in

9:21

a different way and lets you, you

9:23

know, become more human with the music,

9:25

interact with it in a different way.

9:27

It also sounds like with all of

9:30

the fragments, when she's mentioning this theme

9:32

and variations as things come and go

9:34

grounding you, and then developing it as

9:36

something new. I love how we have

9:39

these moments where it sounds like cultures

9:41

really are coming together in a way

9:43

that's like, you know, we're holding up,

9:45

taking shirts and clothes off rack, holding

9:48

it up to each other, exchanging candy

9:50

or music and food, little conversations, that's

9:52

what I'm really getting. I think of

9:54

puzzle pieces kind of fitting together or

9:57

maybe not so much fitting together sometimes

9:59

and clashing. with each other and

10:01

sometimes they fit perfectly and sometimes

10:03

they don't fit at all. Oh

10:05

my gosh I love that. I'm

10:07

wondering after listening to her music

10:09

and since you know her does

10:11

she like Stravinsky? I don't know

10:13

if she likes Stravinsky and I

10:15

mean personally I've never asked her

10:17

that question but it's not a

10:20

normal question listening to her music.

10:22

I think it's safe to assume

10:24

that she loves Travinsky. I think

10:26

so too. There's the voicing and

10:28

the rhythm sometimes. It's just like,

10:30

you just kind of turned her

10:32

head a little bit. Wow, this

10:34

is a totally different way of

10:36

doing that. Well, and she uses

10:38

very explicit Travinsky rhythms and even

10:40

motifs sometimes. It's very obvious. And

10:42

that hand clapping moment when it

10:44

comes back again, it's not clapping

10:46

anymore. It's a cast and that

10:49

it's moved into something else. I

10:51

also wonder, you know, what is,

10:53

what is, you know, why was

10:55

that decision made? Is it another

10:57

humanistic aspect or is it just

10:59

a musical difference or something? I

11:01

don't know. I really think of,

11:03

you know, in the beginning, the

11:05

whispers and the murmurs and that

11:07

becomes more real with the clapping

11:09

and then the clapping transforms and

11:11

morphs into castanets and it's sort

11:13

of this journey throughout the journey,

11:15

you know, in America's and you

11:18

can sense the journey with all

11:20

of these different elements too. And

11:23

I think it also helps when it's

11:25

getting more raucous, because she uses great

11:28

snare riding and a lot of little

11:30

details in the snare riding, but in

11:32

the end it's not a snare, it's

11:35

on the high hat. There's some really

11:37

fun percussion parts in this piece. So

11:48

Sinfrontaris is definitely a piece that

11:51

we enjoy and think you will

11:53

as well. Also so interesting to

11:55

hear this music from someone from

11:57

South America from Brazil so many

12:00

comp- so much of music that

12:02

we have that's from a different

12:04

place. It's someone going there for

12:06

a little bit. Debu C. Sansons,

12:08

and they just tried to bring

12:11

it back in some way, but

12:13

this feels very different. Yeah, it's

12:15

home for her. The next piece,

12:17

we want to talk about, the

12:19

one we just heard was composed

12:22

in 2017. This one is from

12:24

2014, Godai, the Five Elements. I

12:26

love this one. This features pianist

12:28

Enafowix, and if you don't know

12:30

who she is, you should also

12:33

be listening to her as well.

12:35

She does several things like this,

12:37

combining text and poetry within music.

12:39

But what does it mean, Laura,

12:41

for a work for speaking pianist?

12:44

That's a very distinct instrument. Well,

12:46

it's not something that we hear

12:48

too often, and even for a

12:50

pianist to use their voice in

12:53

any way, but, you know, speaking

12:55

and making different sounds, but then

12:57

also having to sing, it's not

12:59

easy, especially for pianist who haven't

13:01

been trained in it. No, this

13:04

is totally out of your comfort

13:06

zone. And even if you're a

13:08

musician, you know, you've done it

13:10

your whole life, you're going to

13:12

get nervous when you're doing something

13:15

or anxious out of your comfort

13:17

zone until it becomes comfortable. Yeah,

13:19

and I think Inif Alex does

13:21

an incredible job with it. Yes.

13:23

I think with speaking pianist, this

13:26

is different than things we've talked

13:28

about in the past. We recently,

13:30

a few months ago, talked about

13:32

Copeland, Lincoln portraits, where you have

13:35

a person... speaking at a microphone,

13:37

they're naturally taking the focus. But

13:39

here the pianist is doing both,

13:41

the parts are intertwined in a

13:43

way that can't be separated. So

13:46

the first movement is dry bones

13:48

wind and here's what she wrote

13:50

Godai stands for the five elements

13:52

in the system of Japanese Buddhism

13:54

wind fire water earth and sky

13:57

The programmatic piece is a series

13:59

of five interconnected sketches with spoken

14:01

sound effects and two poems the

14:03

first movement dry bones wind serves

14:05

as an introduction with wind-like sound

14:08

effects and a poem of a

14:10

dry landscape where the wind carries

14:12

leaves. Assad says it represents expansion,

14:14

freedom, movement, hence the

14:16

breath sounds. Some places

14:19

are meant to feel

14:21

like something is about

14:23

to take flight. stunning,

14:25

especially the opening with these

14:27

striking chords and this shh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh- sound

14:29

that she does. And it's just

14:31

almost in a way like the

14:34

snare riding. There's so many details

14:36

to it. I've not seen the

14:38

music, but I imagine there's a

14:40

lot of information too. Yeah, we talk

14:42

about, you know, how her music is

14:44

so cinematic and you can really visualize

14:46

wind and flight and, you know, leaves

14:48

moving around and that kind of thing

14:50

in this movement. In

14:54

time, all light

14:56

settles uncontained on the

14:58

whole spectrum of an

15:00

October maple. I also

15:03

like how the piano

15:05

reacts to the text.

15:07

Like when she says, you

15:10

know, the word the

15:12

word maple would really

15:14

takes off and when

15:16

she's describing different colors

15:18

and how the piano...

15:21

interacts with that. It's

15:23

just almost a cue. As soon

15:25

as she says a different color, it changes

15:27

the mode that you're in. Maybe

15:29

almost improvisatory too because it's like

15:32

that next moment can't exist until

15:34

this moment happens. I love that

15:36

reaction and there's so much happening

15:39

and the movements like two minutes

15:41

and 30 seconds long. Yeah, and

15:43

you get so much within those two

15:45

minutes. It's really incredible how much she

15:47

can fit in. Yes. Now, the second movement,

15:49

absence, fire, and water. Do you want to

15:51

read for us what she wrote? Sure. In

15:53

the poem of the second movement, absence,

15:56

fire, and water, and author laments

15:58

about a manuscript. in a fire.

16:01

Two forces are at work here,

16:03

ominous, fiery rhythms, and transparent, light,

16:05

water-like runs. This is beautiful, turbulent,

16:08

and contrasting. I love the opening

16:10

of this. I like poetry. I

16:12

mean, that's, everyone likes poetry, right?

16:15

But when she says, absent smells

16:17

like an ocean of grass on

16:20

fire, and then, you know, the

16:22

accident of its origin, the way

16:24

that comes out and the way

16:27

that... The piano part is written,

16:29

it seems like some kind of

16:32

massive, very lonely feeling moment in

16:34

the music. If you see like

16:36

a thousand acres in front of

16:39

you on fire. Absence smells like

16:41

an ocean of grass on fire.

16:44

The accident of its origin. A

16:46

crossroad. Souls sold. Maps lie flat.

16:48

Yeah, and the first movement I

16:51

feel like a lot of times

16:53

the whatever happens in the voice,

16:55

the vocal part is what affects

16:58

the piano part, whereas I think

17:00

this movement I feel almost the

17:03

opposite way that the piano is

17:05

affecting the vocal part of it

17:07

and creates the poem almost. Yes,

17:10

because I think that's what it

17:12

is about with the piano being

17:15

inseparable from the text. There's a

17:17

part of this where I mean

17:19

it's just really rolling out with

17:22

these chords in ways that you

17:24

could rehearse this with a speaker

17:26

but you can't I mean I

17:29

guess you could but it would

17:31

not sound like this. Nothing to

17:34

slate endless thirst and I can

17:36

think of nothing but water. That

17:38

would be very difficult to pull

17:41

off, I think. Having the same

17:43

person doing the rolling chords and

17:46

being able to speak, you know,

17:48

you can't separate them that way.

17:50

And it feels like this is

17:53

like a... Piction of absence rather

17:55

than us feeling intensely absent or

17:58

lonely ourselves The next movement is

18:00

earth and she writes the third

18:02

gravity earth is reminiscent of sound

18:05

effects from no theater Rattling trills

18:07

humming taps silences and lots of

18:09

textual contrast while the left-hand octaves

18:12

march and slow heavy steps. The

18:14

quick conversational lines in the right

18:17

hand and the intermittent trills seemed

18:19

to be fighting gravity to lead

18:21

into the fourth movement. Now how

18:24

familiar are you Laura with 14th

18:26

century Japanese theater? No. Are you

18:29

an expert on this? No. No.

18:31

In fact, when I saw this,

18:33

I thought... this is interesting and

18:36

I go to look it up

18:38

thinking you know 14th century maybe

18:41

there's some people doing like you

18:43

know traditional or period performances of

18:45

this stuff but nothing there's not

18:48

gonna be a lot no it's

18:50

still happening it's the longest form

18:52

of continuous theater like I think

18:55

on earth like for all of

18:57

these centuries and the music I

19:00

mean you can hear it right

19:02

now with this this is lion

19:04

dance from shocko and you can

19:07

just really hear how it lines

19:09

up or you can hear how

19:12

there's um A corollary there. No

19:14

text in this one, though. Nothing.

19:16

I like how this feels less

19:19

like Western notated music than the

19:21

others. It feels like each beat,

19:23

those big heavy steps that she

19:26

talks about, they're not quite even,

19:28

like, there's a big beat, and

19:31

then there's a certain amount of

19:33

action that has to happen before

19:35

we go to the next beat.

19:38

Yeah, it feels like choreography or

19:40

some sort of experimental choreography almost.

19:43

Yeah. I almost think like is

19:45

this the earth forming like coming

19:47

together billions of years ago and

19:50

that's kind of it's being depicted,

19:52

I don't know, but it's just,

19:55

it's very striking and I love

19:57

how it feels rhythmically very different.

19:59

The next movement is Ascension, or

20:02

Skye, and she did not write

20:04

a lot for this. What did

20:06

she write, Laura? Ascension ends the

20:09

set with its whirl of hypnotic

20:11

repeating 16th note groups and codintrasting

20:14

dynamics. that's pretty succinct that but

20:16

that's pretty much what happens with

20:18

this now the last one had

20:21

some singing but this one has

20:23

no text or any vocal sounds

20:26

at all yeah yeah and it

20:28

just it it's you know thinking

20:30

of looking up the sky in

20:33

the endless sky it has that

20:35

sense of never ending yeah this

20:38

also gives a question or an

20:40

idea of you know what is

20:42

our listening experience with something like

20:45

this because she's right in our

20:47

ears talking as opposed to a

20:49

recording of her on stage and

20:52

then we're hearing from a distance

20:54

her speaking. It provides a very

20:57

intimate, I think, experience that you

20:59

cannot get in a concert experience.

21:01

And we talked about this with

21:04

the cello suites by J.S. Bach,

21:06

which are more intimate and more

21:09

enjoyable by yourself. Yeah, there's something

21:11

so, and she even says hypnotic

21:13

about it, but you, you know,

21:16

thinking about listening to this movement

21:18

specifically with earphones on and just

21:20

getting lost in the sounds. Get

21:23

lost, that's what I, not, well

21:25

don't get lost, but I love

21:28

getting lost in this. The third

21:30

piece we want to highlight is

21:32

called Sonic Landscape. This is the

21:35

most recent one, and this was

21:37

composed in 2022. What did she

21:40

write for this one, Laura? Sonic

21:42

Landscape is a sparkling original musical

21:44

work for piano and string quartets.

21:47

It draws on classical music and

21:49

Brazilian jazz, enhanced with passages of

21:52

improvisation to create a unique listening

21:54

experience each time. Sonic Landscape celebrates

21:56

diversity and the embracing of multiple

21:59

styles of music. and vibrant harmony.

22:01

Also a nice succinct description for

22:03

this work that's in three movements.

22:06

And so far we've talked about,

22:08

you know, this sounds improvisatory, this

22:10

section here or this section here,

22:12

but this one, as you read,

22:15

it's enhanced with passages of improvisation,

22:17

which for some string players, I

22:19

imagine, might give them some anxiety

22:22

because that's not something we've been

22:24

doing. Yeah, there's butterflies that

22:26

come with improvisation. You know,

22:28

some musicians are more familiar

22:30

with it than others, but

22:32

certainly it's not built into

22:34

classical musician training at all.

22:37

No, no. So the first movement

22:39

is called continuum. This has a

22:41

very fun, playful opening and then

22:43

a very familiar sound. in the piano,

22:46

and we'll keep that in our back

22:48

pocket for later. But when I'm getting

22:50

from this, and I'm thinking about the

22:52

title continuum, I'm thinking about this is

22:54

not just mixing of the genres of

22:56

like, you know, classical music in Brazilian

22:58

jazz, which she's very, she has a

23:01

lot of great Brazilian jazz recordings

23:03

too, which we'll put up. But

23:05

it's more rather that. you can

23:07

mix these two colors together to

23:09

get a thousand different other shades

23:11

and colors and that's what we

23:13

hear through this where there's moments

23:15

where it's more one or the

23:17

other or a mixture mixture of

23:19

the two. Yeah and I think

23:21

specifically to the beginning of this

23:24

movement it so reminds me of

23:26

her her personality she has this

23:28

really playfulness about her and you can

23:30

really hear it here. The improvisatory

23:33

sections come only after a couple of minutes.

23:35

And what's nice about how she approaches this

23:37

as well is that it's not very segmented

23:40

in terms of like there's so many works

23:42

where you get to a hit and then

23:44

now we have the solo section. And then

23:46

we go back to something else, but rather

23:49

this just flows right in and flows right

23:51

out. And with the ensemble plan, the chord

23:53

changes, this adds a whole new dimension to

23:55

the work. And there's again, how many people

23:58

do we have here, this is a piano.

24:00

Quintet, string quartet and piano, yet

24:02

we have such a rich and

24:04

different sound than we're used to

24:06

with this kind of ensemble. It

24:09

really seems like there's more than

24:11

five musicians. It really does, it

24:13

really really does. Now the second

24:15

movement, circular motion, this opens with

24:17

a repeating chola line that had

24:19

me thinking Laura like, is this

24:22

like a passacagalia? or a chacon

24:24

or something, it made me think

24:26

of that. And then I thought,

24:28

no, that's not, that's silly, that's

24:30

not what it is. But I

24:32

was looking before at what she

24:35

said, you know, it's the theme

24:37

in variations, but not really, it's

24:39

not the actual cookie cutter definition

24:41

of that. And so maybe there's

24:43

an idea of that here because

24:45

we have this repeating line that

24:48

continues mostly throughout. And even when

24:50

it disappears, those little fragments or

24:52

elements of it. ground you as

24:54

she says. Yeah, the cello repeating

24:56

line, it almost reminds you of

24:58

pocketball cannon and you know just

25:01

loops over and over again. Now

25:03

this is a great movement for

25:05

for cello because there's improvisation for

25:07

the cello in the middle. I

25:09

don't know if she said if

25:11

it's in the music like okay,

25:14

cell improvises here or in violin

25:16

and viola here or whatever, but

25:18

we know especially in ballads. a

25:20

lower instrument, you know, like bowed,

25:22

string, base, and a jazz ballad.

25:25

Oh, so beautiful. It has this

25:27

very particular sound that I think,

25:29

if she's doing it intentionally, she's

25:31

exploiting here. Well, she personally, she

25:33

improvises so much so frequently, and

25:35

she's so adept at it. And

25:38

you can tell that this is

25:40

not written out for the instruments

25:42

that they have to improvise on

25:44

it. And I'm wondering why... when

25:46

you hear this piece played, the

25:48

piano part, it's improvisatory sounding, but

25:51

you don't really tell that it's

25:53

so much of a sudden improvisation

25:55

because it's just very seamlessly brought

25:57

in and out there. And

26:00

then the cello turns into like

26:02

a string base. And it's like

26:04

got these Pizzicato lines that's like,

26:06

basically it sounds like it's turning

26:09

into a jazz combo. Yeah, with

26:11

this. This movement, it's called circular

26:13

motion, but it feels like we

26:15

never quite take off. I'm thinking

26:17

of when she says about another

26:20

piece, like, you know, it never

26:22

really, it feels like it's going

26:24

somewhere or it's taking off, but

26:26

it never really does. Yeah, never

26:28

really does. It feels like we're

26:31

trying to, and then it slows

26:33

down, and we're trying to. And

26:35

then this one ends in a

26:37

very cliffhanger way. It's a springboard

26:39

for the last moment, which is

26:42

called Rotapao. wrote about, it's like

26:44

a Brazilian children's song about like

26:46

those big spinning tops that they

26:48

can, you know, the string you

26:50

can rip in, you know, spin

26:53

and play games and stuff. Yeah,

26:55

and it sounds like a top

26:57

too, doesn't it? Yeah. And so,

26:59

but she has it in one

27:01

word, the kid song is in

27:03

two words. That's just to say,

27:06

I think that's, you know, definitely,

27:08

yeah. Now Laura specifically, you have

27:10

to answer for us. There's some

27:12

kind of percussive sound, Yeah, so

27:14

this is called Colenio. And it

27:17

almost sounds like castanets, but this

27:19

is a technique where when you're

27:21

using the bow, instead of playing

27:23

with the hair, you turn it

27:25

and you use the wood side

27:28

of the bow. So it becomes

27:30

a percussion instrument. Okay, is that

27:32

Conlenu Batuto, or is that a?

27:34

Colenio Batuto. Okay, because the way

27:36

it, it's like a little... It's

27:39

like a little percussion instrument. Yeah,

27:41

she builds the groove into the

27:43

into the violin. Okay, I wasn't

27:45

I didn't know that it was

27:47

the back of the butt. I

27:50

was I was kind of thinking

27:52

it was something about like maybe

27:54

the, like right at the end,

27:56

like the frog, like, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch- you

27:58

know. Oh no, I mean it's

28:01

very simple like just literally flipping

28:03

the bow around so you're holding

28:05

it upside down. Okay well don't

28:07

tell people, don't tell everyone it's

28:09

simple, it's difficult. Well sometimes you

28:11

you want to not use your

28:14

real bow for that because it

28:16

can get damaged, so you'll bring

28:18

a backup bow when you have

28:20

to play collino. Yeah people don't

28:22

necessarily know that bows cost as

28:25

much as nice cars. Very nice

28:27

cars. Now I've mentioned and I've

28:29

kind of... preloaded this, you know,

28:31

talking about Stavinsky and some of

28:33

these familiar sounds. There's a moment

28:36

she quotes directly, Petrushka. The way

28:38

she gets out of it is

28:40

like borrowing from the Petrushka rhythm,

28:42

but in this Brazilian jazz way,

28:44

that is just so much fun.

28:47

And I think that's what I

28:49

say a lot. I find myself

28:51

just saying this is just fun.

28:53

It's just, you know, fun, exciting

28:55

music. It's just fun. Now, there's

28:58

another... violent technique or something that

29:00

happens. And again, to mention Stravinsky,

29:02

I think it's that familiar sound

29:04

that most audiences know from Firebird.

29:10

What is happening here? It sounds

29:12

like when I was a kid

29:14

and I used to pull the

29:16

straw in and out of my

29:18

McDonald's cup and make everyone mad.

29:20

Or even when you put water

29:22

on the rim of the cup

29:25

and your finger goes in a

29:27

circle around it and creates that

29:29

sound. These are called harmonics on

29:31

the violin. Essentially, when you normally

29:33

create a sound, your left hand

29:35

fingers. will push the string all

29:37

the way down so that it

29:39

touches the fingerboard and creates a

29:41

shorter string, essentially. But with harmonics,

29:43

you have to just barely touch

29:45

the string. So you're not really

29:47

pushing it down. And it'll cause

29:50

the string to divide into whatever

29:52

fraction, depending on which harmonic you

29:54

want. So if you touch, you

29:56

know, directly halfway in the middle

29:58

of the string. it gives you

30:00

an octave above what that string

30:02

would be. And it creates a

30:04

very ethereal tone. And you can

30:06

slide your finger around while you do

30:08

it and just kind of, it just

30:11

kind of picks out the ones that

30:13

naturally speak. So with real harmonics, you

30:15

have to touch it in exactly the

30:17

right place to get the harmonic. But

30:20

with false harmonics, you can use one

30:22

finger to sort of anchor the string

30:24

and push it all the way down.

30:27

a higher finger to create that false

30:29

harmonic by barely touching it. And then

30:31

you can sort of move it around.

30:33

And she has both false and real

30:36

harmonics here. Oh, okay. So that's what's

30:38

going on. That's usually the part, I'm

30:40

sort of falling asleep and firebird. Before

30:43

you get woken up very rudely. Yes.

30:45

Which that's, I'll be honest, that's happened

30:47

to me back there on the back

30:50

row. Well, we just showcased a couple

30:52

of her works there, really just kind

30:54

of showing you the aspects that we

30:56

love about her music. So we highly

30:59

recommend you go to the show notes

31:01

page. We're going to have some more

31:03

resources, a link to her website, a

31:05

playlist and more. But she is a

31:08

living composer that should definitely be on

31:10

everyone's radar. And we will

31:12

talk next about the Boulanger Initiative

31:15

right after this. Classical

31:19

Breakdown, Your Guide to Classical

31:21

Music, is brought to you

31:23

by WETA Classical. Join us

31:25

for the music anytime day

31:28

or night at WETA Classical.org,

31:30

where you'll also find educational

31:32

resources like Take Note, the

31:34

WETA Classical playlist, and our

31:36

blog, Classical Score. Find all

31:39

that and more at WETA

31:41

Classical.org. So

31:43

Laura maybe just the the best

31:46

first question to ask is for

31:48

everyone that doesn't know what just

31:51

what is Boulanger initiative? Yeah sure

31:53

Boulanger initiative is an advocacy

31:55

nonprofit organization based in the

31:57

DMV in Tacoma Park Mayor

31:59

and we exist to uncover the

32:02

music of women and gender marginalized

32:04

composers from history all the way

32:06

through living composers. When did this

32:09

start? About six and a half

32:11

years ago, so this coming summer

32:13

we will turn seven. Seven, okay.

32:15

And part of it, what I

32:18

see a lot is also the

32:20

phrase redefining the canon. What does

32:22

that mean? So the canon is

32:24

the pieces that really have. built

32:27

the culture of classical music when

32:29

you see the same sort of

32:31

composers and pieces time and time

32:34

again and they're very recognizable. The

32:36

Tchaikovsky and the Beethoven and the

32:38

Mozart and the Bach. This is

32:40

what we think of as the

32:43

canon and you know when we

32:45

look at the pieces that make

32:47

up that canon it's... exclusively written

32:49

by white men, mostly European men,

32:52

and trying to build gender equity

32:54

in classical music, women have always

32:56

been writing music, and there are

32:59

so many fantastic pieces that should

33:01

be included in the canon that

33:03

aren't. So we exist to bring

33:05

those pieces to light to make

33:08

sure that they're getting... played on

33:10

stages and taught in schools and

33:12

there, you know, people are actually

33:14

learning about these composers who have

33:17

really fallen out of history. That's

33:19

always a great point to mention

33:21

every time women have always been

33:24

composing and that's not going to

33:26

change. Like the first novel was

33:28

written by a woman and I

33:30

think when we look at, you

33:33

know, how this is working out

33:35

or why we would even want

33:37

or need to do this for

33:39

things, you know, way in the

33:42

past. For example, Florence Price is

33:44

a great composer that we've now

33:46

come to know, and her symphonies

33:49

are being recorded and performed. Oh,

33:51

by the way, did you ever

33:53

hear of Florence Price when you

33:55

were at school with me at

33:58

England Conservator? Neither did I. Never.

34:00

And she went to that school.

34:02

Yep. Yeah. So we have her

34:04

and we have, you know, we

34:07

have records of her, she was

34:09

alive in the last century, we

34:11

have things. But if you go

34:14

back centuries, there was still great

34:16

music written by women in the

34:18

in the Baroque period, which. We

34:20

don't have all those details. As

34:23

you said, it's harder to research.

34:25

It's very time consuming. It takes

34:27

a lot of time and effort

34:29

to find the resources and pull

34:32

them together. And this is where

34:34

our database really comes in to

34:36

build a resource to have something

34:39

that musicians and teachers can go

34:41

to to pull resources out of

34:43

really quickly. And right now the

34:45

database is the largest database in

34:48

the world of... repertoire by non-living

34:50

women composers. And, you know, we

34:52

talk about women have always been

34:54

writing music. There are several women

34:57

from BC era even in there.

34:59

And, you know, obviously, going back

35:01

that far, it's very difficult to

35:04

find resources and information about those

35:06

people. But, you know, even as

35:08

far back as the broke. period.

35:10

We have a curriculum that was

35:13

released last year on Baroque era

35:15

women composers and there's almost 70

35:17

composers featured in there. And most

35:19

musicians can't even name one composer

35:22

from the Baroque era. Wow. Now

35:24

we're going to talk about the

35:26

database in a moment. Everyone can

35:29

take advantage of it. But you

35:31

said, like, you know, 70 composers

35:33

from the Baroque era specifically? from

35:35

the Baroque era alone. And that's,

35:38

you know, just the composers that

35:40

we've included in the curriculum that

35:42

we released. And if you tell

35:44

someone named 10 or named 70

35:47

Baroque composers, period, you know, they're

35:49

not going to be able to.

35:51

So the point is, there is

35:54

fantastic music that was used in

35:56

its own way, written and composed

35:58

in these time periods, which there's

36:00

zero reason why. It should not

36:03

also be in our lexicon. Telemann

36:05

wrote hundreds of concertos. A lot

36:07

of them sound the same, and

36:09

that wasn't like a necessarily a

36:12

criticism. That's just how music was

36:14

back then. And there's no reason

36:16

why we can't enjoy, for example,

36:18

a composer by who can we

36:21

name, a borough composer now. Barbara

36:23

Strozzi. huge output and really really

36:25

gorgeous works a lot of vocal

36:28

works but the most disheartening thing

36:30

about it is that a lot

36:32

of these women composers when they

36:34

were living they were well known

36:37

their works were getting played they

36:39

you know they they had household

36:41

names they were part of the

36:43

canon during their day and they

36:46

have just literally fallen out of

36:48

history So

37:02

let's talk about the database here,

37:04

because this was an extraordinary undertaking.

37:06

It seems like, oh yeah, if

37:08

you're just trying to find these

37:10

composers, whatever, you just go to

37:12

Google, you type it in, that's

37:14

not really what's happening. But to

37:17

explain the database, you already did

37:19

a little bit. It's basically, it's

37:21

a database, a repository of music

37:23

written by women or gender nonconforming

37:25

composers that are already dead. And

37:27

it stretches back. you know, thousands

37:29

of years into BC, and you

37:31

can literally, I'm just kind of

37:34

explaining how I use it. If

37:36

I'm looking for, like, I'll go

37:38

to, I want something from the

37:40

Baroque period, and I want it

37:42

to be like a trio sonata.

37:44

I literally, I just go in

37:46

to the database, I can just,

37:48

you know, do a search like

37:50

that, and pull everything up. But

37:53

why don't you tell us more

37:55

about that? Yeah, sure. It's really

37:57

for everyone, and there's really for

37:59

everyone, and there's. included in there.

38:01

And we are almost to 15,000

38:03

works. We're just coming up on

38:05

to 15,000 works in there. And

38:07

really, you know, you can explore

38:10

a composer's entire output and look

38:12

at all of their pieces. Or

38:14

if, you know, if you're a

38:16

conductor and you're looking for pieces

38:18

for your orchestra and you have

38:20

a French program and you really

38:22

want to put a piece by

38:24

a French woman composer from history,

38:26

maybe from the impressionist era. You

38:29

can go in and, you know,

38:31

click on French. and make your

38:33

dates choices and find the range

38:35

that you want the composer to

38:37

be from and even put in

38:39

how long the pieces and the

38:41

instrumentation. And it will, the database

38:43

will give you all of the

38:46

pieces within our database that fit

38:48

any of those categories. And also

38:50

there's links to like performances if

38:52

they're available or recording. So you

38:54

can literally look for it and

38:56

then listen to it. Or even

38:58

look at the score I think

39:00

there's some links. Yeah. If there's

39:02

a score available for purchase or

39:05

for digital download even, there are

39:07

links for that. One of the

39:09

most important. and exciting things to

39:11

me about the database is that

39:13

you know a lot of these

39:15

pieces from history we have maybe

39:17

the the original holograph or a

39:19

manuscript of it, but it hasn't

39:22

actually been published. And we'll have

39:24

manuscript locations in there. So anybody

39:26

who's interested in engraving a piece

39:28

and in publishing a piece can

39:30

go in and click on that

39:32

button and find a huge amount

39:34

of works that haven't been published

39:36

yet, because this is work that

39:38

should be, you know, being done

39:41

right now. And the same thing

39:43

goes for recordings. You can, you

39:45

know, go in and find the

39:47

pieces that haven't been recorded. if

39:49

you're a musician and you're interested

39:51

in recording an entire album of

39:53

previously unrecorded works by, you know,

39:55

ex-composer, you can go in and

39:58

find which ones haven't been recorded

40:00

yet. There's a couple of ways.

40:02

to use a database for, I

40:04

think, the average listener, what I

40:06

say is, when you're listening to

40:08

something and you like it, for

40:10

instance, there's the Vivaldi project, and

40:12

they have a lot of Baro

40:14

Composers, I'm blanking on the name

40:17

of this American, Baro Composer, for

40:19

example, but it's this great triosonata.

40:21

And if you're enjoying something, you

40:23

know, it just takes a second,

40:25

just go to the database and

40:27

think, what, okay, it's this time

40:29

period, your next thing to um

40:31

to enjoy it's like i love

40:33

records i like collecting or you

40:36

know listening to records and i

40:38

buy stuff that i don't even

40:40

know what it is because it

40:42

looks so interesting awesome i love

40:44

that i think the database is

40:46

more than that right it's more

40:48

than just you know we're trying

40:50

to find another piece to to

40:53

listen to it's redefining you said

40:55

people you know going on to

40:57

search for a piece of music

40:59

uh... maybe to you know to

41:01

create a program or to be

41:03

included Is this also like orchestras?

41:05

I mean, that's like the most

41:07

visible thing. You know, we've played

41:09

in orchestras. Those are the institutions

41:12

with usually the venues, the halls,

41:14

and the income to do these

41:16

things. How are they using this

41:18

or how has that been affecting?

41:20

Yeah, you know, we really think

41:22

of the Boulanger Initiative database as

41:24

the heart of our organization and

41:26

more as a starting point than

41:29

an ending point. It's such a

41:31

rabbit hole that you can just

41:33

spend hours and hours in there,

41:35

but... once you've found a composer

41:37

or a piece that you love,

41:39

you know, continuing on that path

41:41

and finding out more about their

41:43

lives and their music and their

41:45

works and the time period and

41:48

all of that, that it really

41:50

is, you know, we build all

41:52

of these education programs and other

41:54

programs around it, and one of

41:56

those programs is redefining the canon,

41:58

and this exists for orchestras. orchestras

42:00

are, you know, you look at

42:02

different industries throughout the world. If

42:05

you're talking about science or visual

42:07

art and classical music is further...

42:09

in gender equity than almost any

42:11

other industry. And if you look

42:13

at what American orchestras are playing

42:15

these days, you know, now that

42:17

there's more works by living composers

42:19

being played, gender equity has gotten

42:21

better, but. This is almost a

42:24

cop-out to say, you know, I'm

42:26

going to add pieces by living

42:28

women composers. It's so much easier

42:30

to reach gender equity doing that

42:32

and to actually have to go

42:34

back in history and find pieces

42:36

by non-living women composers. It takes

42:38

more time. It takes more energy

42:41

and really a lot of focused

42:43

effort to do that. When we

42:45

look at the output of these

42:47

American orchestras today, it's still less

42:49

than 2% of what they're performing

42:51

each season is by non-living or

42:53

dead women composers. And it's, you

42:55

know, you look at even the

42:57

amount of music that's being played

43:00

by any women living or dead.

43:02

And it's still less than, you

43:04

know, when you put Mozart and

43:06

Beethoven and Bach together, that we're

43:08

still seeing less. even living women

43:10

composers being performed by orchestras. So

43:12

we have we have a long

43:14

way to go in the industry

43:17

and the database is really a

43:19

starting point for conductors for musicians

43:21

of orchestras to to start on

43:23

the journey of finding more pieces

43:25

to include on their programs. This

43:27

also reminds me of you know

43:29

the the idea and the practice

43:31

of if you don't want certain

43:33

people to feel like they belong

43:36

or that they are part of

43:38

a community or even welcome or

43:40

even people at all you don't

43:42

depict them in media sure you

43:44

don't depict them you don't show

43:46

them and if you do you

43:48

do in a very particular way

43:50

and that's the unfortunate part when

43:52

it comes to okay we're programming

43:55

more music by a woman but

43:57

it's it's just these living women

43:59

composers who may even beginning the

44:01

actual same pay for a commission

44:03

that they may not otherwise get

44:05

as opposed to someone going to

44:07

a concert a young person and

44:09

saying oh wow we have this

44:12

Italian symphony by this composer and

44:14

then this Italian symphony by this

44:16

other composer different gender you know

44:18

this is you know I can

44:20

see myself in this as well

44:22

yeah yeah growing up I I

44:24

literally never played a piece by

44:26

a woman composer in an orchestra

44:28

and a chamber ensemble it was

44:31

completely left out of education and

44:33

I went to quite a lot

44:35

of music schools and none of

44:37

them included any teaching and education

44:39

or performing of women composers. No,

44:41

no. So part of also redefining

44:43

the canon I think also goes

44:45

to you've talked about also audition

44:48

excerpts and this is something people

44:50

might not or they wouldn't know

44:52

at all. Sure. When you audition

44:54

for an orchestra... there is a

44:56

list of excerpts that they'll they'll

44:58

give you in the United States

45:00

that you that you need to

45:02

play and they're pretty much for

45:04

the most part like you know

45:07

quote-unquote standard you know all the

45:09

standard stuff you have to play

45:11

it's stuff you have to be

45:13

able to play at two in

45:15

the morning you know sick that

45:17

kind of stuff but there are

45:19

so many pieces like that I've

45:21

you do an auditions that you'll

45:24

play once maybe never You know,

45:26

it's just like, you know, what's

45:28

the point of this? So why

45:30

is it important to include music

45:32

by women and gender nonconforming composers

45:34

into audition excerpts? Yeah, I think

45:36

it goes right back to what

45:38

you were talking about with representation

45:40

and people being able to see

45:43

themselves on the stage, being performed

45:45

and being welcome into any community.

45:47

And if you think about the

45:49

entry point of... any musician into

45:51

an orchestra it starts with education

45:53

first of all and you know

45:55

going through even in undergrad music

45:57

school you know the standard excerpts

46:00

by the time you get out

46:02

of undergrad backwards and forts you

46:04

can play them without the music

46:06

in your sleep and if we

46:08

can introduce pieces by women composers

46:10

to that age group to undergrad

46:12

music students and people who are

46:14

just entering the professional industry we

46:16

won't be having this conversation in

46:19

the next generation but also thinking

46:21

about really how we're inviting audiences

46:23

into not just the orchestras themselves

46:25

but into the audience to come

46:27

to the performances that you know

46:29

as a woman if I see

46:31

an audition list, a list of

46:33

excerpts, and it includes someone who

46:36

looks like me. I want to

46:38

take that audition. Right. And it

46:40

never occurred to me when I

46:42

was actually at the point at

46:44

this stage in my career as

46:46

a violinist that I had never

46:48

seen an excerpt by a woman

46:50

composer and had never been asked

46:52

to learn anything by a woman

46:55

composer. by a woman composer ever.

46:57

And there's plenty of tube excerpts

46:59

that you play and it's like,

47:01

what is the point of this?

47:03

Yeah, sure. I don't know. No

47:05

one needs to hear this in

47:07

an audition. This is pointless. Well,

47:09

we work with orchestral partners for

47:11

redefining the canon. You know, we

47:14

have several partners now, Richmond Symphony

47:16

and National Philharmonic, where I'm concert

47:18

leader, Cincinnati and a few others,

47:20

and you know, they'll tell us,

47:22

they have a violent audition coming

47:24

up and ask for suggestions and

47:26

show us and show us. the

47:28

list that they've been using and

47:31

really tell us kind of what

47:33

they're looking for to add or

47:35

maybe to substitute another one of

47:37

their excerpts. And it's really a

47:39

service that we provide for these

47:41

orchestras. So you're already seeing some

47:43

change. Absolutely. You know, and not

47:45

just in what people are performing,

47:47

but what they're using for, you

47:50

know, internal stuff like audition excerpts.

47:52

Yeah, for sure. And the groups,

47:54

and you've only been around Boulanger

47:56

Initiative for, I think you said,

47:58

like seven years, and COVID was,

48:00

you know, half that. Yep. So

48:02

that's pretty encouraging to hear that

48:04

there's been movement and change, but

48:07

clearly, you know, not enough. There's

48:09

a shift and it's very slow

48:11

and, you know, some of it

48:13

continues to move forward and I

48:15

think some of it has stagnated.

48:17

But I think about the first

48:19

year at Boulanger Initiative and trying

48:21

to come up with my... top

48:23

10 my favorite albums of the

48:26

year and it was hard to

48:28

find 10 albums that were exclusively

48:30

music by women composers and now

48:32

it's there's so much more of

48:34

an abundance and there are more

48:36

orchestras and musicians and ensembles doing

48:38

this this work and and really

48:40

thinking about gender equity and and

48:43

being conscious conscientious about doing this

48:45

work. I've seen, especially in chamber

48:47

music in the Washington area, just

48:49

an unimaginable shift in the last

48:51

10 years, where I do get

48:53

to hear music by Barbara Stotsy,

48:55

you know, and have it on

48:57

Front Row, Washington. Yeah, and our

48:59

motto, especially for the database, the

49:02

heart of Boulogne initiative, is be

49:04

curious and, you know, thinking about...

49:06

the fact that orchestras really have

49:08

to think about selling tickets and

49:10

they know that Beethoven 9 is

49:12

going to sell and they know

49:14

that Malta is going to sell

49:16

and they know that if they

49:19

program certain things they will sell

49:21

tickets and that that revenue is

49:23

is critical for these organizations to

49:25

survive and there's a lot of

49:27

hesitation around whether or not they

49:29

can sell tickets if they program

49:31

something that an audience hasn't heard

49:33

of before and I think that

49:35

for the majority of people who

49:38

love music, they are curious. They

49:40

want to hear new music and

49:42

there is room to explore and

49:44

expand what we program on stages.

49:46

So we have the database. We

49:48

have the work you're doing with

49:50

the orchestra partners as you call

49:52

them. You've got the curriculum, the

49:55

Baroque edition. You also brought one

49:57

with you, that's something else, like

49:59

another book. And this can all

50:01

be on the website, you that

50:03

people can find more information. Sure.

50:05

But also locally there is something

50:07

called Woko Fest, and that will

50:09

be happening very soon. Tell us

50:11

about this. That's coming up May

50:14

30th and 31st at Strathmore, at

50:16

the mansion at Strathmore this year.

50:18

And it's a full weekend of

50:20

tons of musical performances, panel discussions,

50:22

sound installations, workshops, yoga with dogs.

50:24

I think I saw yoga once.

50:26

We did yoga. It wasn't with

50:28

dogs. We should do that probably

50:30

next year. Or maybe goats. just

50:33

getting female goat, but Wokow Fest,

50:35

Wokow standing for women composers. We

50:37

have each spring in the DMV

50:39

and this year it's a really

50:41

fun lineup and really diverse everything

50:43

from Baroque music to living composers

50:45

and every single thing that you'll

50:47

hear during the weekend at the

50:50

festival is written by women and

50:52

gender marginalized composers. And as you

50:54

said, it's like diverse. I mean,

50:56

when I look at the, you

50:58

know, past festivals and everything that

51:00

you guys have done, it's like

51:02

anything you could imagine. It's not

51:04

just going and sitting into a

51:06

concert clapping and walking away. There's

51:09

all kinds of things going on.

51:11

Yeah, and you know, Blanche Initiative

51:13

really is classical music focused, but

51:15

we go. into many other genres

51:17

and realms. And our opening concert

51:19

is always a really big lineup

51:21

of we call BI Friends and

51:23

Family, and it's mostly local musicians,

51:26

performers, artists who are doing all

51:28

of the good work of performing

51:30

these works by generalized composers. So

51:32

we'll have. you know, something like

51:34

two dozen performers in one concert.

51:36

So you'll get to hear a

51:38

guitar player before you hear a

51:40

classical guitar. before you hear a

51:42

street quartet play and you know

51:45

all kinds of different kinds of

51:47

performers and artists just within the

51:49

first opening show. I love it.

51:51

So are there any specific people?

51:53

that you can mention that are

51:55

going to be performing? Absolutely. Some

51:57

of my favorites, Public Quartet, will

51:59

be coming. They play a lot

52:02

of really fun new music and

52:04

you know talking about a lot

52:06

about improvisation. They do a lot

52:08

of this kind of like funky

52:10

genres improvisation. They do a lot

52:12

of really fun repertoire. So Public

52:14

Quartet will be starting us off

52:16

on May 31st, Saturday at Strathmore,

52:18

and then working into a group

52:21

called Tapestry, which is mostly Baroque-focused,

52:23

but we are going to do

52:25

a program Baroque all the way

52:27

up through the current day, and

52:29

it's three vocalists and a piano,

52:31

so something totally different from the

52:33

string quartet in the first concert.

52:35

And then... We have a brass

52:38

quintet the first time ever. We

52:40

have a brass quintet this year

52:42

at Wokofest and it's serif brass.

52:44

Seraf brass is in all women,

52:46

all jinn marginalized brass quintet. And

52:48

again, really diverse range of pieces

52:50

that they'll be playing. Pieces that

52:52

go back hundreds of years all

52:54

the way up through Living Composers

52:57

again. And then Saturday night, May

52:59

31st, we will have Pamela Zee,

53:01

who is a composer, performer, does

53:03

a lot of work with electronics

53:05

and really pushing boundaries. Okay, so

53:07

this is exciting. Wilco Fest, that's

53:09

May 30th and 31st at the

53:11

mansion at Strathmore, and they can

53:13

find more information at... Boulange initiative.org.

53:16

Boulange initiative.org, and you're probably also

53:18

on some other social media channels

53:20

as well. Absolutely, you can see

53:22

us on Facebook and Instagram, and

53:24

all over the place, and our

53:26

YouTube channel has a ton of

53:28

videos from previous festivals and different

53:30

things. you can

53:33

go and explore

53:35

and find music

53:37

that you've never

53:39

heard that you've Spotify And

53:41

has a lot

53:43

of a lot great

53:45

playlists to explore

53:47

as well. as well.

53:49

we'll put some

53:52

links to those

53:54

on the the

53:56

page page too. Well, Well

53:58

thank you so

54:00

much Laura for

54:02

joining me to

54:04

talk all about

54:06

this. It's been

54:09

great to learn

54:11

more about Boulangay

54:13

and of course

54:15

you know talking

54:17

about talking about Clarissa music.

54:19

Yeah, for having

54:21

me having me, John. Thanks

54:25

for listening to to Breakdown,

54:27

your guide to Your music

54:29

for more information on

54:31

this episode visit the show

54:33

notes page at visit .org. page

54:35

at can send me comments

54:38

and episode ideas to send

54:40

me comments and .org to if you

54:42

enjoyed this episode leave

54:44

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54:46

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54:48

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54:50

Breakdown app. I'm John Banther. Thanks for listening

54:52

to Classical Breakdown from WETA Classical. you