Dr. Andrea Ramsey enjoys an international presence as a composer, conductor, scholar and music educator. Before leaping into full time composing and guest conducting, Andrea held positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively. An award-winning composer with approximately 100 works to date, she believes strongly in the creation of new music. A native of Arkansas, Andrea has experienced in her own life the power of music to provide a sense of community, better understanding of our humanity and rich opportunities for self-discovery.Dr. Andrea Ramsey enjoys an international presence as a composer, conductor, scholar and music educator. Before leaping into full time composing and guest conducting, Andrea held positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Colorado Boulder, respectively. An award-winning composer with a …
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Intro
Intro
0:00
Intro
0:00
Welcome
Welcome
0:20
Welcome
0:20
Composing
Composing
1:32
Composing
1:32
Suffrage Cantata
Suffrage Cantata
2:22
Suffrage Cantata
2:22
Suffrage Consortium
Suffrage Consortium
3:50
Suffrage Consortium
3:50
Suffrage in Canada
Suffrage in Canada
4:27
Suffrage in Canada
4:27
Programming
Programming
4:57
Programming
4:57
Inspiration
Inspiration
8:55
Inspiration
8:55
Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto
171
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About
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Intro
0:01
hi everybody we are here today with Andrea Ramsey I am so excited to
0:07
introduce you to her she is a composer and conductor and she works all over the
0:12
world she’s also just an amazing and lovely person and I’m so excited to chat
0:17
with her today welcome Andrea hello I’m
Welcome
0:23
happy to be here Soni how are you doing first of all um you know it is a roller
0:31
coaster I think if you’d asked me yesterday we get a different answer than today then too the day before some days
0:37
I feel really fine if I stay in the day I feel like it’s good if you think too far down the road sometimes it can be
0:44
tough but on the whole I feel okay I feel sort of weirdly built for this as
0:49
an introvert that that I can sort of stay in and hang with my cat and write
0:57
music and I’d be just fine so yeah I mean I think I don’t know I woke up this
1:04
morning in a different mood because there’s just a lot going on in the country right now but that we’re
1:10
processing that’s not not great but not that we’re here to talk about that but that’s just been on my brain but but on
1:16
the whole I’m doing good and I’m kind of enjoying this little longest stretch I in a while that I’ve been home so to be
1:23
able to cook and and and take long walks and nest a little is is is kind of nice
1:31
so yeah it’s awesome so you are composing I know that’s like the number one question with compose you oh you
Composing
1:38
must be being incredibly creative I know personally it’s just hard to kind of focus that energy but you’re managing I
1:45
yes but no it’s not the same pace like my creative aqueduct is is sputtering a
1:54
little like sometimes I’ll have really good couple of days and then I’ll have you know a couple days or I just have to
2:00
break and I can’t do anything or things that normally don’t take that long are
2:05
taking longer like I I spent a couple days on a transition I mean it was just
2:11
like maybe sixteen measures of transition and it was two days and at the end of the day I
2:17
thought why is this still I don’t know still not done yet yeah everything’s a
Suffrage Cantata
2:22
little bit harder yeah um I’m really excited about the piece you’re working on right now would you tell us a bit
2:30
about it yeah I’m I’m really excited to and also terrified because I haven’t
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done anything quite like this before so suffrage cantata will be about twelve
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well lick will be about thirty minutes of music potentially I although it’s
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running longer right now so we’ll see I’m done with two movements and I have seventeen minutes of music so I think I
2:56
may have some babies but it’ll be for trouble chorus for string quartet percussion and piano and narration I
3:07
don’t know why I can’t say all those things cleanly at once sorry but but yeah it’ll be those those forces and
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there’s a large consortium of several different choirs that went in to be part
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of this and so it’s really exciting and I’ll tell the sort of the journey it’s seventy-two years worth of history
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you’re trying to pack in snapshots right and I can’t obviously get it all so I’m like what are the most human stories
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what are the most interesting stories what are these amazing women that I wish that I had learned about in my history
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classes but that I didn’t who helped the u.s. women gain the right to vote and so
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some pretty incredible stories and and hopefully when it’s done we’ll do it justice so amazing it’s so exciting it’s
Suffrage Consortium
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a massive project and it’s for a group in LA right um so Vaux Femina la Iris
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Levine she was the springboard for it she approached it and said let’s let’s
4:03
Commission this and then we joined up with Matt workman at national concerts and formed a broader consortium of
4:10
people who are involved as well so the Dallas women’s chorus like several other there’s a ton of different universities
4:15
and Florida State Michigan State Saint Olaf capital like a bunch of groups now have joined the consortium so that’s
4:22
exciting and and someday it’ll be all right yeah that’s so exciting because
Suffrage in Canada
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the people have a life across the country and I’m sure beyond and it’s it’s an American specific you know
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historical moment but I think it’s relevant all over the world of course so
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prominent in Canada but I know the story
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yeah I think yeah I don’t know the longer I live I think that’s the I think I just really like telling stories and
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music it’s just one vehicle of doing that so anyway yeah so okay switching to
Programming
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your other side of your work you conduct everywhere you do a lot of honor choirs
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and festivals and we got to adjudicate together over a year ago it’s just so
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much fun and how do you go about like programming from a conductors
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perspective and how do you feel your composer brain informs that and maybe vice versa you know I think there’s so
5:24
many people who are much more artful at programming than myself I I think of I
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have friends like Christine McMullen who’s at North Texas who will just put these things to get and I like how do
5:36
you even have that vision it’s incredible because I can be creative in certain ways but programming for me I I
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tend to for some reason think really I don’t want to say formulaic because I
5:48
think that’s the wrong word and it feels too rigid but I tend to think about components you know like I I want I want
5:55
to think about is there gonna be a piece that will stretch beyond Samba is there gonna be a piece that will give us a
6:00
moment to breathe because we’re pushing ourselves on you know if it’s a pretty intense program and they’re going to be
6:07
works that have texts or histories or stories attached to them we’ll sort of open a portal for deeper discussion and
6:15
meaning-making in that process you know are there am I thinking about who’s
6:22
being represented on the program are there other women composers are there composers of color like those kinds of
6:29
things I’m starting to think more and more about – yeah so I’m looking at
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those components and then as to how as to how the two inform each other
6:41
composing in conducting that sum that’s kind of I don’t know it’s it’s funny
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because when I was when I was first teaching and my conducting skills were
6:54
not so great I I didn’t think so much
6:59
about conducting when I was composing and then as they come better at conducting and was relying on that
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skillset more I started to think about it I started to think about a lot more
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and now I very often will put things into my hands and say oh I’m gonna group the beats differently because this feels
7:17
this way or such yeah yeah like that you’re like why did I and so I’ve some early pieces that’s like why did I write
7:24
it that way but but then I think the flip side of that which is probably less
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good is that when you’re composer who also conducts idendity too fast and
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loose with other people’s directions because you you feel like oh well they wrote that but maybe they’re fine with
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you know I mean like I don’t know several of my pieces have the wrong tempo markings I will put it down
7:49
because you feel I don’t know if you’ve experienced this in your composing but you feel certain in the moment you’re
7:54
really close to it and you’re like yeah this feels totally right and then when you actually get with an ensemble sometimes there sometimes there
8:01
sometimes you just have to find that right tempo where things start to fall
8:07
into place and tune and it moves and breathes and it’s throughout this and
8:12
180 yen and like fully know that until you get in a moment and then you want to
8:18
switch it and it’s already in print and oh well great yeah so as a conductor you
8:26
know that the composer may have had bad experience as well and you can take some liberties yeah but I don’t know that I
8:33
should because every composer is so different and there are some composers who are very very adamant that this is
8:39
the way it is so I’m probably yes not I’m probably gonna be in trouble with
8:44
some people I don’t know I don’t think so we had Charles Murphy on last week who just flat out says he changes notes
8:50
so Oh yeah
Inspiration
8:56
what composers inspire you or what what
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kinds of music inspire you or other art forms even what what kind of gets you
9:07
going I I don’t I I this is the hardest
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question to answer because it’s so broad and there are so many things I think I’m most readily inspired by variety or by
9:23
something that causes me to think or something that is different than anything I’ve heard before but not
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always sometimes you just want a gorgeous melody that tears your heart out sometimes we don’t have to always be
9:35
pushing the envelope we just want something beautiful that speaks and so I mean I think back to
9:43
when I was in undergrad and I don’t know about you but I feel like those those listening years when I was an
9:49
undergraduate student were really formative in a way that what I listen to now I may learn things or grab things
9:57
but it’s not the site does that make sense do you agree with that or thing to say yeah no totally you can’t it depends
10:04
on so many factors and but yeah no I completely agree so you know when I was
10:09
an undergrad I was listening to a lot of Stephen Sondheim a lot of Z Randall’s
10:14
troupe Renee Clawson Lauridsen like these were the voices that were in my ears and in the choirs I were I was a
10:21
part of and and in the musicals and and those kinds of things so so those were
10:27
the voices that were with me in that formative time but now it’s really rare
10:33
that I listen to choral music I don’t know if I should say that but like I I love making choral music and I love
10:39
writing choral music and I do listen to it sometimes but it’s usually when a friend sends me something or there’s a
10:46
project I’m interested in I just when I’m cooking I’m I would rather put on Dolly Parton or I would rather listen to
10:53
some Laura and Voula who’s from the UK and doing some really neat things or like other artists like finding genres
11:00
that are different that maybe have elements that that I might want to try and pull into my music or just
11:06
to give my ears something new I’m actually so relieved to hear you say that because I’ve always been too afraid
CBC choral concert
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to say that but but I completely agree there’s a really fantastic that with the
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exception of there’s a fantastic CBC show on our national radio in Canada
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called choral concert every Sunday morning it’s like going to church but she just has the most creative programming Katherine Duncan on CBC and
11:30
it and a real range of like new work actually last week they did a world premiere on radio because and it was all
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digitally recorded and sort of isolation and stuff so I do try to tune into that when I can
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but if I’m cooking and relaxing it’s all folk music or Appalachian stuff or a new
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flying staff or or who have a Evanescence as a guilty pleasure so ya
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know it’s it’s good luck elite singers from my home state like sing with with friends or is her choir director yeah
12:04
that’s really funny yeah that and then yeah music I would be great I need to
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listen to some of that around the house thank you Sam all message you later for some groups yeah absolutely yeah there’s some great
New work
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great new stuff it’s like traditional but but keeping tradition alive which i think is what we try to do in choral
12:22
music – it has these like deep deep roots for centuries yet we’re recreating
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it every week in our rehearsals and when you’re creating new work and so I find
12:33
that inspiring ya know a Newfoundland in general is inspiring to me I just it’s a singing culture a proud cult I don’t
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know I just had the best time when I was there I hope something I can work but yeah I hope so too I yeah it’s it’s an amazing place well
12:47
we’ll have you over for sure mm-hmm do you have a dream Commission oh I have
12:54
to find a new one because I’m working on it right now like my dreams fell longest was I want to write an extended work for
12:59
treble courses because there’s so many trouble courses in the US I don’t know if it’s the same in Canada but I would
13:05
say there are probably more trouble treble choirs then mixed choirs in the US if you factor in children women
13:11
community university components and how many treble voices are singing in the schools so and you know what do we have
13:18
we have the Britten ceremony of care we have the whole things there’s just not a huge opportunity there in terms of
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lengthier works and so that’s been a long dream after I finish it I I don’t
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know I have to find a new one lucky you that’s wonderful oh yeah so I’m gonna be
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pondering that all week actually probably like what what’s my new and who have been your favorite commissions in
Favorite commissions
13:44
the past or people to work with or conductors or ensembles that have stood out to you as as just wonderful
13:51
collaborators yeah one of the coolest commissions came from the Allegra choirs of Kansas City oddly enough now that I
13:57
live here all the time but Christy was a friend and I was teaching in Arkansas at the time and she said where she was
14:03
struggling to find they wanted unaccompanied you know when you when you go to Europe for a tour and you’re like are we gonna use this thing of the piano
14:09
are you hauling a keyboard into these cathedrals rather and I want to say so she said if you’ll write us you know a
14:14
set of two little Psalms short things you know we’ll take you for free with us to Europe would you be interested in
14:20
that and I’m like yes I mean I was fresh out of college at that point this is brilliant so uh so I wrote these two
14:26
Psalms settings and we went to Austria in the Czech Republic and that was really memorable just to go and hear your music song by these really great
14:32
artists and that collaboration has been lovely they’ve commissioned lots of work over the years and I’ve been able to pop
14:38
in and we kind of reshape things as we hear it and I think those kinds of collaborations are really special and
14:44
and I felt that way with other conductors Jeff Benson at San Jose State has commissioned a couple of things and
14:50
with a piece called stomp on the fire that we did he was super III loved it
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because he would come back to me and say what do you think about this or this build would we add a desk can’t hear
15:03
could we go and and and it was great and it never overstepped and it challenged me and at the end we had a stronger
15:09
piece so that’s kind of fun yeah real collaboration that’s yeah and
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he never asked I mean it was never too big a task it always made sense but it was it was fun to have a conductor who
15:21
would sort of go back and forth with you on that Wow really neat it’s so exciting to hear you
The trouble world
15:30
talk about this because your music has become so iconic I think it’s in the trouble world I mean every
15:35
children’s choir anywhere has sung your music and it’s so lyrical it’s so it’s
15:43
always has that melody that you said earlier it inspires you and I’ve done it
15:48
with my choirs in Vancouver and it’s just so much fun oh it’s so painful yeah
15:57
I think I’ll go ahead you’re gonna say no no go ahead no I feel like you were moving us on but I was just gonna say
16:03
it’s interesting that a lot of trouble quartz Commission and I actually when I switched to full-time composing and left
16:09
academia I had to start to be careful because I wrote you realize the Commission’s control your output and then if all I took were if I were just
16:16
saying yes then I would end up sometimes with you know nine trouble pieces in a row and go oh I I have to say no to some
16:23
of these so that I don’t just put out only trouble and so right yeah yeah I would ask you about that as well like
Making the leap
16:30
that’s a huge leap to to leave from what I understand a full-time academic tenure
16:37
track position but you were getting work as a composer and and as a guest
16:43
conductor all over how did you decide to make that leap and are you and how do
16:50
you keep that balanced like how do you it’s just you’re managing everything in your life you’re your own man people who
16:58
help everything I’m not a I have a great accountant and a bookkeeper who helped me keep up with that piece of thing
17:04
awesome which is wonderful and you know actually was Jake Brenna said and Jake
17:10
weren’t Jacob we talked about I mean I think he knows I which I’ve told him several times but we overlapped at an
17:17
event in Iowa and had a drink and were chatting and he said you know and I just
17:24
said tell me how you’re doing this you know cuz he’s younger than I am and it was full-time composing and he just sort
17:30
of looked confused and said would you want to do this and I said I don’t know maybe and he said what are you scared of
17:36
and I said well what if you know people quit commissioning me or there’s you
17:41
know and I and he said do you have savings and I said yeah he goes if they got low could you get another job and
17:46
said probably and what else are you scared of and you kept shooting down all
17:51
my fears and saying if you wanted to do this you totally cut it I love teaching and I knew that that was a piece I could never give up so I knew that the guess
17:58
work was gonna be really important and I’m sort of learning right now what it’s like not to have that teaching component
18:04
because I’m you know I’m home and it’s very isolating but I you know I went
18:12
home and I crunched the numbers and I thought you know I could do this and it was tough to leave those students particularly the grad students that was
18:19
a really brutal decision but I knew it was the right call in order to have more
18:24
space for a life because between academia the travel and the composing it just sort of a hamster wheel so it was a
18:31
good call and I’m doing all the freelance stuff anyway like that rock of right and so you know so now it’s it’s
18:39
it’s it’s pretty great but I am really glad that I saved before I left where a you know serving the
18:46
great unknown at the moment yeah we’re all gonna have a pandemic account oh my
Looking forward to
18:54
goodness um what are you most looking forward to when this is all done you
19:00
know I gosh I mean I think I think we are all craving that feeling of being in
19:06
the room like singing next to someone having those vibrations in your ear like the overtones the experience of being in
19:13
proximity again and making music I think that’s the thing we’re probably most
19:19
hungry for but you know what I’m also excited about is and this sounds like my
19:24
me naive an optimist talking but she she often speaks yeah in times like like you
19:30
know in down times but I really think like already first of all you and I are having this conversation online that we
19:36
would not be having if this were not true things happening we would both be busy in our own worlds and you’ve done
19:42
that with bruffey and with Carrington and you and like I have friends at universities who are planning
19:49
collaborations where their graduate students can work with their undergraduate conductors online where they can do their building the and so I
19:56
look forward to seeing how this time that’s forcing us to go to all these real places that we probably wouldn’t
20:02
choose to go to how when we come out on the other side and we can be in person again how those new connections inform
20:09
our artistry and I think it’s gonna be I on it’s gonna be more than it was before
20:16
you know I mean I think part the hard part is the interim right and and processing that but yeah
New connections
20:24
figuring out how exactly how we’re gonna get back to seeing together but that is so optimistic I love that I’m gonna keep
20:30
that the taking all of the creativity that’s come out of this because people have been like you say going outside the
20:36
box and thinking okay if we can’t do kind of the core exact thing which
20:41
defines choral music which is singing in the same room then what else can we do
20:47
and and like you say hope those those inform and make us more creative okay
20:52
it was socially socially like I connected over zoom with people who live so far away that I haven’t in you know
20:59
forever I’m like let’s get together because we’re all just home so anyway yeah yeah and what advice do you have
Advice for young musicians
21:06
for conductors and composers and young choral musicians who I don’t know maybe
21:12
are graduating high school right now we’re graduating they’re undergraduates and this is sort of the new world what
21:19
can you what can you tell them about your struggles and successes and what
21:26
would you leave with them you know I wish I have answers I feel I feel like
21:34
anything I say is gonna be naive because I’m not graduating at this moment where
21:41
it’s so crazy right now and I know that there is a lot of that has to be discouraging so I think the challenge
21:48
for all of us right now whether it’s music or just in life in general is to focus on what we can do rather than the
21:54
things that aren’t allowed to us at this moment or that we’re missing and so we
22:01
can broaden our skill sets and that’s something that’s always I mean you know
22:06
maybe you can’t I oh I would just watched a beautiful conversation Joyce DiDonato was having with some students
22:14
she was supposed to have a master class with and you know one of the things she said to them what you know you okay so
22:19
you can’t sing over an orchestra right now but you can work on your language
22:25
you can work on how how do you how well do you disappear into the Aria when
22:30
you’re performing that character like you can work and so I thought this is this is so true so we can sharpen our
22:36
musicianship and we can broaden our skill sets and so if you’re thinking you want to be a composer I mean that would be my advice anyway from the beginning
22:42
is what other things you have because you want as many tools as possible because I don’t think I could have just
22:48
left into full-time composing I needed to be a teacher and a conductor and all of those things inform how I compose but that doesn’t have to
22:55
be your path maybe you sing opera on the side maybe you play piano maybe you have
23:02
a band that you work with in town or a jazz group or something like that but but what are these musical skills that
23:09
you have that you can sharpen that are alongside this so that you have multiple avenues and multiple revenue streams to
23:16
support yourself while you’re honing your compositional craft as well and then personally I would say to take care
23:23
and that balance matters and that’s something that I wonder if we’ve all like even in this situation where I’m
23:31
staying home a lot more I’m still realizing that just because I’m busy
23:36
doesn’t mean that that’s why I struggle with balance but balance is a struggle always and that I’m obsessing about why
23:43
can’t I finish this transition and I’m still working on it when I’ll be a lot better off if I go for an hour-long walk
23:49
and then come back hmm so taking care of our bodies giving ourselves time and not
23:55
just obsessing really about the music I think and then the final thing I’m going
24:00
to quit rambling is I think I say that to a lot of them I’ve done a lot of
24:06
zooms with different groups and they the composers have questions about you know this kind of thing and so I say there’s
24:12
a lot more to middle school and high schoolers but I think it’s apt for college students and really for conductors of any age is to be taught to
24:20
take care to guard your dreams and so what these things are that we that we
24:26
love that we feel passionate up we need those those few close friends in
24:31
our corner who will speak truth to us but we’ll do it in a loving way and we’ll help we’ll do it in a way that
24:36
makes us better not in a way that crushes dreams and I have dear friends that I love then I don’t share my my
24:45
deepest most creative ideas with because they just operate in a different realm of this this this and the way they
24:51
approach feedback with me I know sort of becomes soul-crushing even though they don’t intend it and so I think taking
24:57
care of like here are the things that I want to achieve and that I’m excited about and then finding those people who
25:03
will who will cheer lead you but in an honest way I think is really important Wow and you have those two yeah I mean I
Trusting friends
25:11
do I have a few close friends they know who they are like I joke with him like
25:17
and so I and some of them I trust for different things like I will talk through text choices like right now
25:22
suffrage cantata is crazy because I’m basically it feels like a musical in that I’m assembling narration and I’m
25:28
trying to build story arcs and so I have friends that will talk through that with I’ve added her friends that I will send
25:33
things to and say help you know Kurt connect who lives here in Kansas City mm-hmm we share ideas back and forth and
25:39
he’s so brilliant and I anyway I’ll send him movements and he’ll send me back
25:45
thoughts and and it always makes the piece stronger so oh that’s amazing wow what an amazing advice I know I know
25:53
if it’s amazing advice it just helped me because maybe I’m just over I am overly sensitive like I have to be careful
25:59
about who I let speak what it to me because I am I don’t know what not in
Consider the source
26:06
because if there’s a public review that’s scathing that’s not necessarily the advice you should be listening to
26:12
but if you have people that you trust then you can sort of open the gateway for those yeah my dad would always say
26:18
consider the source my railroad her father her mark and saw but he’s they consider the source Andrea you know and
26:25
I think there’s a lot of truth to that so oh that’s such great advice well Andrea this has been such a pleasure
Audience questions
26:31
we’re gonna go to some audience questions I can’t believe we’ve already talked for this long this is I know oh
26:37
we could go on forever No we have a couple of a Matthias choir
26:42
members here oh and I wanted to add when you say like use this time to build your skills I think that applies we no matter
26:48
where you are in your career absolutely like new graduates I know the Ahmadiyya Squires planning a bunch of skills
26:54
building stuff just for our own adult members and then back together like
27:00
these new skills that we will have acquired closely we can all be like when
Compositions
27:05
in whatever area you know if you’re a level two in sight singing and a level three and vocal technique and like
27:11
everyone can just level up over the course of these however many months it’s
27:16
gonna be okay we have a question from Jane Gorman who is an MD square singer
27:23
how much I’ll get to her question in a
27:29
second Jean says how much has the pandemic influenced your compositions um
27:36
well actually I started to say it hasn’t because I’ve had suffered chicken powder on my plate and that’s still on my plate
27:42
but that’s not true I actually took a commission there have been a couple of commissions that are showed up which is
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surprising and one I took very less minute but I thought I can do this and it’ll be but for Interlaken for their
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Arts Academy their conductors doing cannons with them what she felt was really clever and he commissioned a
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cannon so I wrote this little four part cannon on a Sara Teasdale text and it’s
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on music spoke now but I just so that was kind of neat and I wonder if I and
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I’m kind of brainstorming things like that you know for wind suffrage cantata is done like are there gonna be they’re
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gonna be a greater need for cannons partner songs or for aleatory type things where the tempo is not so
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important interesting yeah Les Paul s’mores a soundscape kind of stuff you
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never know negate latency that way exactly yeah
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exactly cool Wow cannons are hard to write um good on you oh yeah I thought it was
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gonna be easier than it was that’s like a safe and exercise yeah can’t wait we
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have a question from Jean Ashworth Bridal know so excited yeah I’m just
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trying to find and what are the different challenges you have discovered in writing a
Writing a cappella music
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cappella music as opposed to a choral work accompanied by orchestra well I
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think on for me acapella music well this
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is bad to say when I first started writing I did everything by hand and at the piano and it made me a better musician and I really still do that but
29:20
time doesn’t time dictates that I need to be in finale and I need to move these things along quicker and so that’s where
29:25
I am now but the exception is when I’m working on acapella piece I will always get to a piano because I want to hear
29:32
the overtones and I feel like it’s just it’s just different and probably probably that’s wise advice for any
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piece but I think especially for unaccompanied things and I also think
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about the role that the piano the piano can play such a pivotal role if you’re
29:48
sustaining something the piano can give the subdivided energy that you need to make that move
29:54
or it can stagnate as well with the voices you have that sort of ability to
29:59
keep things moving and so with an unaccompanied piece I think more about that I think like do I want to try and
30:06
build in ways to give it this sense of movement you know in some passing tones or some things in the other voice parts
30:13
so that it I don’t run that risk and or maybe they want they need to work for it
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in this moment and it’s okay but but just think I think a little bit more about that that balance
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I guess if that makes sense mmm beautiful are you pianist no I I could
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manage a rehearsal in two parts but and I can play myself really slow with as
30:41
much rubato as I want but no as a joy my life would be so much easier I think oh
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no you have enough outlets I think you’ve enough on the go um Allison our
Popular music and classical music
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managing director is just behind the scenes here sent me message and she says do you think that popular music can
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inform classical music oh well I was gonna say I misunderstood it
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first can popular music inform classical music yeah why not I mean can I mean I
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think for us to assume classical is the be-all end-all is there’s a certain
31:24
arrogance in that and and and I think I was I’ve been taken by a few
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arrangements that I’ve done so I did an arrangement of a Laura Mvula work called she and it’s really a powerful piece and
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and there’s this repeated course if she don’t stop she don’t stop and this idea of just like moving toward this goal and
31:43
sitting down to try and transcribe her rhythms I was like anyone who mocks pop
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music has not tried to transcribe this rhythm and then I would listen to her to perform it live and she would do a
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different melody and a different rhythm that night it would still fit but she could just switch it and so I was having to make decisions between live recorded
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this live version and you know which one do I want to settle on and you know when
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the piece came out I think that there’s definitely there’s a side to it that feels you know somewhat pop but I don’t
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think any choral person would be like you know this is like doing some cheesy
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arrangement you know I don’t know how to explain it like I feel like there’s there there there can be really
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beautiful artful tasteful interplay between the two worlds I think the challenge is when you don’t honor the
32:33
roots of each mm-hmm I don’t know if I’m if I’m making sense because I’m really
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just talking but I think I think when you have a situation where the classical
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world takes on a pop piece without really understanding it or that really going to the source and trying to honor
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the root of it then some that’s when you get weird stuff and then I think it works well I
32:57
don’t know if it works the other yeah maybe it does work the other way like we’ve heard bad pop renditions of classical things too so great yeah
33:04
alright do you think it’s possible or how do you think that choirs can capture
Pop music
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some of that like the thing about pop music like you said it’s not the same every time it’s performed necessarily
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although every time it is probably highly flex if you were to actually write down like rhythms like you’re saying how do
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you get that sense of spontaneity if you’re in a rehearsal say with a youth choir doing this kind of piece where
33:30
they’ve learned the rhythms so specifically how do you how do you try
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to open that up yeah we’re talking about like a clinic situation I don’t know how
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much you can it depends on how open they are right like sometimes if it’s hit a wall and sometimes they’re really as responsive to change in the day to day I
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think I think is it composure we do it by by giving giving conductors permission so you write something the
33:56
score and say even law like I did in that one score I put Laura even Laura varies the rhythm varies the melody so
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if your soloists choose to do that let’s totally fine as long as they stay in tempo you know and there’s a
34:07
representation of some sort and so I think I think we as conductors sort of have to give ourselves permission sometimes to to move with our groups in
34:16
that direction and to know that that’s sort of the spirit of it rather than to be that you know the team must be on the
34:23
end of three in this moment because this is what the note is on the pavement right as long as you doing it together
34:28
it’s yeah we come collaboratively to a decision for me anyway but maybe I might
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be miss speaking I’m not expert on pop music demonstrate a lot like in a clinic
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situation would you sing it and have them sing it back Oh model all the time yeah yeah so I would I yeah absolutely
34:47
shape that phrase where if you if you’re a conductor does it feel comfortable if you’ve got a student who can model the
34:53
style that you’re looking for really well you should use the local models in your classroom – cool yeah
Comment of the week
34:59
Andrea this is so fun thank you so much we’re getting just lovely comments here
35:04
Jeanne says the favorite out of the week oh well I’m so inspired by her I
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remember the Blue Book the titles leaving me but
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you know which I knew was like a lifeline for anyway I just remember one of her books is very helpful to me when
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I was starting my early teaching and so I mean grateful for this although I feel
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a little bit cheated in that you’ve been asking all the questions so maybe you and I will just have to zoom that
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sometime but don’t have a glass and catch up where I can hear whistle event in your world – that would be lovely would be
35:38
really lovely thank you so much Andrea stay in touch and stay well your – good
35:44
luck with your writing that’s amazing you too all right take Erica clean thank you
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