Composer Jennifer Higdon is unapologetically accessible : NPR

“Accessible” generally is a soiled phrase in up to date classical music. For many years, composers have outfitted their works with gnarly tangles of complexity, and heaven forbid if there is a tune you possibly can hum. That music rightfully has its cheerleaders, however composer Jennifer Higdon is not amongst them. She is a vigorous defender of melody, and when her music is described as “accessible,” she would not wince, she rejoices.

Conventional-sounding melody, concord and rhythm are Higdon’s constructing blocks, however her works are something however old school. They have a tendency to percolate with an natural freshness, and a musical language that is massive in vocabulary however simple to understand. Throughout her profession, she has pulled off the near-impossible feat of strolling the fantastic line between classical music’s fanatics and first-timers, satisfying each camps.

When Higdon writes music — whether or not it is her operatic adaptation of Chilly Mountain, chamber works or any of her 15 concertos — she insists that it communicates, that it is able to being understood and appreciated. Up to now, the 62-year-old Brooklyn native’s monitor file is successful. Her music routinely receives upwards of 250 performances per yr, and she or he’s gained a Pulitzer Prize and three Grammys. She likes to inform tales of discovering followers in muddy-booted farmers and little women who did not know somebody who appears like their mother might write music for a symphony orchestra.

A frank, easygoing conversationalist with remnants of an accent from her childhood in East Tennessee, Higdon joined me on a video name from her residence studio in Chapel Hill, N.C., to speak about how she got here late to the classical music bandwagon, the significance of supporting girls composers and why her new opera, Girl with Eyes Closed, which receives its world premiere this month in Pittsburgh, has three totally different endings.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.

Tom Huizenga: Again in 2011, you contributed just a few weblog posts for NPR.  One in every of them recommended that “replace” was the important thing phrase for the classical music discipline going ahead. “Updating isn’t placing Beethoven in a leather-based jacket on a billboard,” you wrote. “Updating is taking part in music of our time, written by of us who reside now, for performers who reside now, for audiences who reside now.” How has that “updating” been going?

Jennifer Higdon: It looks like there’s updating happening. I do know I’ve much more performances. And far to my shock, since I wrote that, I have been out at universities the place there are college students who know my music, which surprises me. However I additionally know a whole lot of colleagues who write unbelievable music who nonetheless do not get programmed very a lot. So I really feel just like the ball is transferring ahead, however we maintain having to push a little bit more durable.

You might be unapologetic about your music being described as “accessible.” That is a phrase many composers wouldn’t need related to their music. 

It would not hassle me within the least. As a result of I feel the entire level of what I am doing is to talk to individuals. To me, “accessible” is an unbelievable praise.

And guess it exhibits, as a result of your music receives lots of of performances a yr and you’ve got a stack of commissions ready for you.

There positively is a requirement. And for me, it means I am on my true path. George Crumb, in my classes with him, used to speak about how you need to really feel, on a intestine degree, good about what you are writing. It’s a must to really feel that what you are doing is what’s true to you. I am undecided all artists expertise that, as a result of they’ve exterior pressures to do particular issues. However I feel as a result of my dad, the complete time I used to be rising up, stated you need to query all the things, I questioned all the things and I did not take some issues too significantly. I am very lucky to not have had restrictions placed on me at a younger age.

Which isn’t to say your music is simplistic. The Concerto for Orchestra, for instance, or your first opera, Chilly Mountain — these are very subtle works. And a few pop music can be fairly subtle: The Beatles, Radiohead, Beyoncé. Do you consider your music as on the “pop” facet of classical, when it comes to how simple it’s on the ears and the way simple it’s to grasp?

That may not have occurred to me as a result of I watched the wrestle to place these items collectively. After I write items, I say, “It may look easy and you are going to assume, ‘Oh, this would possibly not be arduous.’ ” However 100% of the time after they begin assembling the music, everyone goes, “Oh wow, that is actually tough.” Unusually, they’ve coined a time period for this referred to as “Higdon Arduous.” It really has its personal phrase.

I like that!

And it isn’t that pop music is not tough. I have a look at what Alison Krauss does with bluegrass and a number of the layering. Beyoncé’s Lemonade form of blew me away with all of the layers, the shifting tones, the best way she instructed the story. In essence, we’re all storytellers, and we attempt to discover the factor that feels true to us, but in addition that may get that data out past our personal imaginations.

Talking of well-liked, let’s discuss your best-loved piece, blue cathedral. It is among the many most-performed items of up to date classical music at present, and it serves to memorialize a member of the family. Any thought why it is develop into your largest hit?

It is a arduous query as a result of it is so private. After I first wrote it, I had no intention of telling a narrative. However by coincidence, my next-door neighbor was David Patrick Stearns, who was the critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He knew I had misplaced my brother, and he point-blank requested me, and I did not really feel like I might lie.

I like the spaciousness of blue cathedral. Like a few of Aaron Copland’s music, it is stuffed with open-ended promise and hope. The passages for flute and clarinet — devices that you simply and your brother performed, respectively — are significantly efficient.

And you are not going to imagine this, however it has handed 1,100 performances; it will get executed nearly each week someplace on the planet. We’re approaching the twenty fifth anniversary of the premiere and it has been phenomenal to share that music with individuals. I assumed the piece was going to be a failure. Typically composers do not have sense about their very own music, and I look again on that and chuckle. I am like, OK, so I simply want to sit back.

What’s it about melody that’s so satisfying? Why can we adore it, crave it, even?

I feel a part of it’s that all of us communicate melody as a result of we communicate sentences, and the sentences have form and articulation. They have exclamation factors or query marks.

Pop songs all have melody, nation songs and even rap songs. There is a melody in every single place we go. It is that thread of sound we observe. Even when we hear a bus developing the road, there is a melody there, it is simply not formed like a Beyoncé melody or a Higdon melody. That is a component of familiarity for us as listeners, as human beings on a planet that tends to hum. And it reminds us that we’re right here, that we’re speaking. That sounds very philosophical, however for me it is so necessary. Some individuals desire a easy melody to allow them to keep in mind it after they stroll out of the live performance corridor. Some individuals desire a extra advanced melody as a result of they wish to give it some thought.

You have been a latecomer to classical music — grew up with out listening to it. You’ve got talked about that you simply did not even actually know Beethoven‘s symphonies once you entered faculty. What modified?

I used to be at all times interested in music, however I did not go particularly for an instrument till I discovered a flute within the attic that had been my mother’s. I joined the marching band and live performance band in highschool and the expertise was so unbelievable — the camaraderie, but in addition simply the ability of sound. Having a stadium up on its ft, it is such as you wish to be a rock star. Additionally, my first yr of highschool, the primary Star Wars film got here out and that John Williams soundtrack hit me like a ton of bricks.

And also you’re proper, after I went off to school I did not know a single Beethoven symphony. There have been most likely professors who stated, “What the heck is that this child doing pondering she’s going to be in classical music?” And it isn’t that I had any extraordinary expertise that exposed itself. However I liked it. It was such a pleasure to study as a result of I felt like somebody had given me the keys to a magic kingdom. And to be trustworthy, I nonetheless really feel that manner. I get up within the morning and assume, “Oh my gosh, I get to write down music at present.”

You ended up doing post-grad research with two composers who may appear diametrical — the experimental George Crumb and the supreme melodist Ned Rorem. What did you study from them?

George Crumb and Ned Rorem are about as reverse as you may get for academics. However I feel for a scholar, that is an important factor, as a result of it makes for a much bigger field of instruments to work with to make your individual choices.

Ned was all about melody and voice, and the way a lot you consider the voice as when you have been writing a track once you write any form of piece, together with purely instrumental works. And listening in your head to the poetry of the rhythm, what’s logical. In writing my opera, Ned was in my head the complete time: “Ensure that libretto is completely clear in case you possibly can’t have supertitles.”

Then you definitely have a look at all of the colourful issues that George Crumb did — and his sense of time was completely totally different than Ned’s. The dealing with of textual content was utterly totally different. The considered: How do you make a sound world? In a George Crumb sound world, you are utterly past Disney, proper? It’s like one other planet. Ned takes you out and in of a sound world, however he would not keep lengthy. Typically it is Paris and typically it is America, however it’s a sense. And it is making an attempt to determine how what each of them taught me feeds into my soul, as a result of the soul is the factor that helps me to do the composing.

Was there ever a traditional “eureka” second when you have been learning composition, once you knew that is the way you wished to make a dwelling?

You are going to snicker after I let you know this. However the second was after I gained the Pulitzer.

In 2010? That late?

I do know. It would not make any sense. I feel it is as a result of so many individuals have been asking me to write down music that my mindset was actually transferring from piece to piece. And since I used to be freelance composing, you are likely to take that month by month. However so many reporters have been asking me after the Pulitzer, “How did you get right here?” that I finished and requested myself, “Whoa, how did I get right here?” It’s very humorous, however it additionally means I used to be having fun with what I used to be doing to such a level I simply did not cease and study it.

I assumed the light-bulb second would have come someday in your faculty years. Which leads me to surprise about these composition courses — what number of different girls have been there?

At Curtis [Institute of Music], it was the late ’80s. There was one different girl, however it was a really small class. After I went to the College of Pennsylvania, half have been girls, however that is very uncommon — it was a really small division, possibly 14 individuals. Now, after I journey locations, I see just one or two. It is nonetheless a majority of males.

I’ve so many little women come as much as me after orchestra concert events and say, “I did not know women compose.” Being a responsibly seen composer the identical manner that Joan Tower and Libby Larsen have been seen for me actually opened doorways. And it is my hope to open doorways for others.

Did you run into limitations due to your gender? Practically each girl composer I’ve talked to has a narrative — or two, or three — about having to leap via ridiculous hoops or simply not being seen.

Sure, for the complete time I used to be at school, my male colleagues would simply discuss over my head — like, actually, they would not ask my opinion about something. They have been fast to evaluate issues. I simply ignored it, simply pressed forward. It isn’t that I might make argument by saying, “Hey, guys, I am simply nearly as good as you.” I figured the music had to do this. The one strategy to actually pull this off can be to make the music work in a manner they could not ignore. And I did.

For the primary a number of years when my Concerto for Orchestra was carried out, I used to be completely unknown. And I can not imagine what number of males got here as much as me and stated, “I can not imagine a girl wrote that.” My response was at all times, “Properly, a girl did write it, so now .” I attempted to cope with it in humor, however I used to be conscious of what was being stated to me. Then, after I had been doing this a short while, and different items got here out, individuals stopped saying it.

I really feel like I am delicate to this matter, however I’ve needed to catch myself previously. I would discover myself speaking concerning the music of Joan Tower, for example, and describing it as muscular and daring. And whereas that is true, you may as well argue that by pointing it out it is as if I am saying, in a backhanded manner, that ladies do not write muscular music.

I feel it could have been worse when you stated it is “fairly.” It’s a must to give your self credit score — if somebody stated my music was daring and muscular, I might take that as a praise, as a result of I consider it that manner. My query as a composer is at all times, “Does the music give you the results you want?” I usually take into consideration the variety of concert events I went to after I was a scholar the place I used to be bored out of my thoughts. So early on I saved pondering, “What can I do that may make this a extra partaking expertise? Can I maintain individuals’s consideration from the primary observe to the final with out them realizing time goes by?”

In a chunk Marin Alsop wrote for NPR in 2009 about her friendship with you, she stated: “I do not attempt to dodge questions like, ‘Why are there so few girls conducting main orchestras?’ and ‘Why do not we hear extra music by girls carried out by these orchestras?’ Neither does Jennifer.” I suppose — like we’re doing proper now — you continue to get questions like these. Have you ever grown uninterested in answering them?

I’ll reply them till the day I am within the floor. It is necessary as a result of it isn’t at all times willful ignorance; typically it is simply that somebody hadn’t considered it. And the significance of the dialog is that that one dialog could make all of the distinction.

I’ve really seen inventive directors go, “Oh, you are proper, now we have no girls on right here on our program. We must always go searching and see what’s accessible.” And typically they’re going to contact me and say, “Are you able to give me an inventory of ladies composers?” And I’ll put one of their fingers as quick as I can. It is fairly simple now with the Web. Earlier than, making an attempt to get recordings and scores into individuals’s fingers was way more tough. And typically it is only a matter of somebody so busy making an attempt to maintain the orchestra on schedule, making an attempt to maintain them on funds, ensuring they get the soloists and the visitor conductors. There are such a lot of transferring elements to creating a efficiency that they only do not have time to take a seat round and give it some thought, whereas I am excited about it on a regular basis.

I’ve regarded on the repertoire for seven American orchestras for the upcoming season — let me throw the numbers by you. The Seattle Symphony: 18% of the composers they’re presenting of their classical sequence are girls. On the New York Philharmonic, 16%; Boston Symphony Orchestra, 11.3%; Los Angeles Philharmonic, 8.1%; Cleveland Orchestra, 7.5%; Utah Symphony, 5.5%. Now, this is a shocker: San Francisco Symphony, 2%. There’s a single 14-minute piece by one girl of their whole season. Are you OK with these numbers?

No. It is wonderful how many individuals come as much as me and say, “I do not perceive why they don’t seem to be performing girls.” There are such a lot of wonderful girls composers on the market. And what? Half of your viewers isn’t being represented. Typically conductors say, “I am too overloaded, I do not wish to study new items,” which stuns me.

This is among the issues I liked about working with Marin Alsop. Marin is recreation. She will get in there, she needs to study. And that makes all of the distinction within the group and for the viewers and improvement, since you’re really approaching music from a unique viewpoint. Typically when orchestras complain that their audiences are shrinking, I am like, “Do not maintain doing the identical factor time and again and count on a change within the consequence.” That is not a wise strategy to maintain your group very important and related to your neighborhood. Have a look at who makes up your neighborhood — who would you like in that live performance corridor?

You will have a world premiere developing this month. Girl With Eyes Closed, premiering on the Pittsburgh Opera, is predicated on the true story of one of many largest artwork heists in historical past, the place seven work have been stolen from a museum in Rotterdam, together with two Monets, a Picasso and one by Lucian Freud referred to as “Girl with Eyes Closed.” These work have by no means been recovered; the thieves saved them on the residence of one in every of their moms, who claimed she burned the artworks to save lots of her son from being charged with the theft. What drew you to this real-life crime drama?

It was a distinction to my first opera, Chilly Mountain, and to maintain composition attention-grabbing. I pivot loads. I’ll do an orchestral work, then I am going to do a chamber work, then I am going to do a choir work, then a chunk for band. Chilly Mountain remains to be dwelling inside me; these characters are nonetheless there singing. And so to write down an efficient second opera — and to problem myself artistically — I wished to write down a chamber opera with simply 5 singers, 12 devices. And I assumed, an artwork theft that is nonetheless unfolding — what would somebody do? Would you burn work of a well-known artist when you thought it could save your child? Or is there a duty in the direction of artwork? I began asking myself these questions and thought, this may make thriller.

What’s uncommon concerning the opera is that it has three endings — the story of the heist will finish in a different way relying on the night time you see it. Is that as a result of the real-life story hasn’t reached its conclusion but?

That was a part of it. However I additionally admit I used to be intrigued with the concept of the way to write a number of endings. Are you able to write an opera that’s emotionally partaking and would not give its hand away as to which manner issues are going? I assumed, “Oh, my gosh, if that girl really burned these Picassos, Monets and a Matisse, that is taking one thing out of our shared humanity of how we perceive artwork. Is it necessary that they are well-known artists? Does that make it a better crime or not?”

I wished to see what the mom would do. I really went round a desk and requested an entire bunch of individuals, and everybody had totally different solutions to what they might have executed if their little one had stolen the artwork and introduced it residence. I assumed, OK, there’s my reply. Why not strive it? It hasn’t been executed, let’s examine if we are able to do it.

It is like, “Acquire all three endings!” Go to the opera every night time!

The opposite uncommon factor I did was, as a result of it is about artwork and every of these artists could be very totally different, I made a decision to do my orchestration like portray. I’ve the devices taking part in prolonged methods, actually uncommon sounds, which simply would not get executed in opera, making it a little bit more difficult. There’s extra coloration distinction to the textures, and other people within the viewers could not know what instrument is taking part in — like taking part in contained in the piano, or methods I used after I performed flute, like a little bit explosion of sound correct above the mouthpiece, sounding percussive like a snare drum with a wire brush.

You’ve got written two operas, however you have written greater than a dozen concertos. You gained the Music Pulitzer in 2010 in your Violin Concerto. The identical yr, you gained a Grammy in your Percussion Concerto, then two extra Grammys in your Viola Concerto and your Harp Concerto. I dare say you have got a factor for concertos.

I do. And the rationale I’ve a factor for concertos — some individuals name me the “Concerto Woman” — is as a result of, imagine it or not, the soloists ask for them. It is the musicians coming to me and asking, “Will you write me a chunk?”

It is that simple? Hey, I’ve obtained a violin that I do not know the way to play very effectively. Will you write me a chunk?

[Laughs] I am going to write you one thing, Tom.

Is there one thing you search for in a soloist? I am guessing not each one who asks goes to get a concerto from Jennifer Higdon.

Their enthusiasm, their talent degree, how a lot they need it. Typically I say, “I haven’t got time on my schedule,” and so they maintain asking yearly for 5 – 6 years. I had this actually stunning incident the place Avi Avital, the wonderful mandolin participant, was asking yr after yr. Someday I obtained a name: He stated, “I am within the thirtieth Avenue Station in Philadelphia. I am on my strategy to New York. Are you able to simply come and have a espresso with me?” So I obtained to the station, and Avi took out his mandolin and began taking part in Bach. And the complete station stopped — it was so magical. He did not need to say something. I used to be like, “Oh, I’ve obtained to write down for this man.”

You additionally wrote a Concerto for Orchestra — a fee by the Philadelphia Orchestra, which premiered it in 2002. It is a piece that continues to fascinate me. It is rigorously constructed, in 5 actions; it is awesomely orchestrated and it is thrilling to listen to. Have been you in any respect impressed by that well-known Concerto for Orchestra, additionally in 5 actions, by Béla Bartók?

That was scary — making an attempt to write down a concerto for orchestra, realizing the Bartók, as a result of I completely adore it. After I obtained the fee, I keep in mind going residence and listening to the Bartók yet one more time. After which I put it away for like three years, as a result of I used to be afraid I would not have the ability to write my very own piece.

How did you strategy the orchestration — particularly the very opening of the piece? It explodes with chimes, busy figures within the strings, French horns, trombones, ping-ponging timpani, chattering winds, and all the things surges to an enormous climax, all throughout the first 57 seconds. How do you try this?

An excessive amount of adrenaline, an excessive amount of Weight loss plan Coke. That was actually the final motion of the piece I wrote; I used to be so nervous about messing up the opposite actions by messing up the primary motion that I feel you possibly can really feel the nervousness and the joy. I am pondering, as a younger composer who nobody knew at that time, “This can be the one time I get to write down for the Philadelphia Orchestra.” I knew that the second motion can be strings, so I assumed I wanted a distinction of a whole lot of emotion, and simply to indicate off the complete orchestra by having a twister of sound coming at you. That manner you would not have an opportunity to catch your breath till you bought to the tip of that first motion.

In 2023 alone, I rely 13 items from you, together with a string quartet, a piano trio and music for brass ensemble. Does composing come simple to you? Or are you writing 24/7 with the intention to be that prolific?

It isn’t that it comes simple, however I work at it. I am a full-time composer, seven days per week, 4 to 6 hours daily. It is form of like what I think about it is like for individuals who write novels: When you work at it daily, you are likely to develop a move. It is arduous once you begin the piece since you’re looking for the sound world and the logic and what you assume ought to be the form of it. However when you get into it, you are like, “Oh, what if I can give you a cool sound to do that? And the place ought to I take that?” It simply flows out, however I’ve to essentially work on it. A very good day for me is writing 15, most likely as much as 30 seconds of music. However that is actually being right here for six hours and going, “All proper, what do I must do to make this extra attention-grabbing?” As a result of that is at all times the primary factor I am asking myself after I have a look at the phrases and have a look at the melody. What can I do that may maintain the expertise contemporary for the one that’s taking part in it, but in addition the one that’s listening to it?

Am I proper that you simply publish your individual music? Why is that necessary to you?

After I was popping out of college, I carried out the College of Pennsylvania Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, and was additionally taking part in flute. I used to be requested to carry out some Elliott Carter for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Middle, and we could not get the music — I needed to play off of Xeroxes. Elliott Carter is a widely known composer. I additionally seen I could not afford to hire any of the music. And I assumed, “Oh, that is ridiculous.” There should not be such a barrier. I wish to play dwelling composers, however it’s so costly. A 3-minute piece was blowing the complete yr’s funds. I assumed, “Nobody’s asking for my music. So after they do ask, I am going to simply promote them the music and I am going to make it inexpensive and I am going to reply rapidly.” And over time, as I wrote extra items, the catalog obtained greater and the orders simply began constructing. It is arduous sufficient getting your music carried out in reside conditions; it should not be a barrier that issues are too costly. It is easy enterprise.

A lot of your music, I feel, displays America. Do you agree?

I do, really. It is humorous — I’ve lived in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Tennessee, Philadelphia for 38 years, and I am now in North Carolina. I additionally lived in L.A. and in Ohio. So I’ve skilled the nation in numerous methods. I’ve individuals randomly come as much as me in locations and say, “I heard you on the radio.” And I will be taking a look at this individual, and it is a farmer — nonetheless in his muddy boots. He is coming in off the fields. He is walked right into a restaurant in the midst of Wyoming. I am in there getting one thing and I am like, “Wow, that is miraculous.”

Music communicates. I do not know anybody on this planet who would not hearken to some type of music. And I do not choose individuals in any manner about how a lot they find out about music. In actual fact, after I’m writing, I feel, “Properly, let’s fake that nobody within the room has ever heard classical music. Will this communicate to them?”

If you accepted the Grammy Award in your Viola Concerto in 2018, you stated, “After we write classical music, it actually takes a village.” What did you imply by that?

Properly, I can put the notes on the web page, but when I did not have the assist of all of the individuals who taught me — I take into consideration these band administrators who listened to all these classes the place all of us sounded terrible. And you then’ve obtained performers on the stage, the man who turns the lights on, the one that sells the tickets, the one that advertises it, the radio one who interviews you, the press one who writes about it, and you have got the viewers. Not one in every of this stuff brings music into the world by itself.

How do you assume that village is doing lately?

I really feel a whole lot of misery within the village — individuals worrying. I feel loads about that after I’m writing, as a result of I want to have the ability to write music that may keep calm, that may be a balm. I keep in mind when the pandemic began, I used to be writing my double percussion concerto, Duo Duel. Folks count on [percussion music] to be very loud with drums, however I wrote one thing that used solely melodic percussion devices. I can really feel a necessity to achieve out past the studio, out to different individuals. There’s going to be a whole lot of music that comes out of this time, but in addition I feel we have to maintain offering the music for this time as a result of the world is horrifying proper now.

How would you wish to see the village change within the subsequent 20 years or so?

Help one another. Empathy. Assist make the artwork, and in addition assist others make artwork — even the children. As a result of typically artwork saves lives. I’ve seen it. Typically that is all a child has. They might be dwelling in a spot the place they really feel utterly remoted from their household, like they’re actually totally different. However artwork makes all of the distinction.