Composer Jennifer Higdon is unapologetically accessible : NPR

Composer Jennifer Higdon throughout rehearsal on the OK Mozart Pageant in Oklahoma. Her music receives over 250 performances every year.

OK Mozart Pageant

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OK Mozart Pageant

“Accessible” could be 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 may 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 does 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 giant in vocabulary however straightforward to understand. Throughout her profession, she has pulled off the near-impossible feat of strolling the superb 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. To this point, the 62-year-old Brooklyn native’s monitor document is a hit. Her music routinely receives upwards of 250 performances per yr, and he or she’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 house 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.  Certainly one of them urged that “replace” was the important thing phrase for the classical music subject going ahead. “Updating shouldn’t be placing Beethoven in a leather-based jacket on a billboard,” you wrote. “Updating is enjoying music of our time, written by people who dwell now, for performers who dwell now, for audiences who dwell now.” How has that “updating” been going?

Jennifer Higdon: It seems like there may be 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 numerous colleagues who write unimaginable music who nonetheless don’t get programmed very a lot. So I really feel just like the ball is transferring ahead, however we preserve having to push just a little more durable.

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

It does not trouble 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 unimaginable praise.

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

There undoubtedly 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 it’s a must to really feel, on a intestine stage, 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, your entire time I used to be rising up, stated it’s a must to query every thing, I questioned every thing and I did not take some issues too severely. I am very lucky to not have had restrictions placed on me at a younger age.

Higdon in her studio in 2010, when she lived in Philadelphia. She composes as much as six hours a day, seven days per week.

Sarah R. Bloom

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Sarah R. Bloom

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, by way of how straightforward it’s on the ears and the way straightforward it’s to understand?

That might not have occurred to me as a result of I watched the battle to place these items collectively. After I write items, I say, “It may look easy and you are going to suppose, ‘Oh, this would possibly not be laborious.’ ” However 100% of the time once they begin assembling the music, all people goes, “Oh wow, that is actually troublesome.” Unusually, they’ve coined a time period for this known as “Higdon Exhausting.” It truly has its personal phrase.

I like that!

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

Talking of common, let’s speak about your best-loved piece, blue cathedral. It is among the many most-performed items of up to date classical music right this moment, and it serves to memorialize a member of the family. Any concept why it is grow to be your greatest hit?

It is a laborious 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 really 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 just and your brother performed, respectively — are significantly efficient.

And you are not going to consider this, nevertheless it has handed 1,100 performances; it will get performed nearly each week someplace on the earth. 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 a very good sense about their very own music, and I look again on that and chuckle. I am like, OK, so I simply want to relax.

What’s it about melody that’s so satisfying? Why can we like 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 all over the place we go. It is that thread of sound we observe. Even when we hear a bus arising 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 need a easy melody to allow them to keep in mind it once they stroll out of the live performance corridor. Some individuals need a extra complicated melody as a result of they wish to give it some thought.

Higdon (left) in her early 20s, with flute instructor Judith Bentley, in 1983 at Bowling Inexperienced State College in Ohio.

Bowling Inexperienced State College

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Bowling Inexperienced State College

You had been a latecomer to classical music — grew up with out listening to it. You have talked about that you just did not even actually know Beethoven‘s symphonies if you entered school. What modified?

I used to be all the time 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 unimaginable — the camaraderie, but in addition simply the facility 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, once I went off to varsity I did not know a single Beethoven symphony. There have been in all probability professors who stated, “What the heck is that this child doing pondering she’s going to be in classical music?” And it is not that I had any extraordinary expertise that exposed itself. However I cherished 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 sincere, I nonetheless really feel that manner. I get up within the morning and suppose, “Oh my gosh, I get to jot down music right this moment.”

You ended up doing post-grad research with two composers who might sound 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 lecturers. However I feel for a scholar, that is an awesome factor, as a result of it makes for a much bigger field of instruments to work with to make your personal selections.

Ned was all about melody and voice, and the way a lot you consider the voice as should you had been writing a music if you write any type 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 your entire time: “Ensure that libretto is completely clear in case you may’t have supertitles.”

You then take 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 fully totally different. The considered: How do you make a sound world? In a George Crumb sound world, you are fully past Disney, proper? It’s like one other planet. Ned takes you out and in of a sound world, however he does not keep lengthy. Typically it is Paris and typically it is America, nevertheless it’s a sense. And it is attempting 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 basic “eureka” second whilst you had been learning composition, if you knew that is the way you needed to make a residing?

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

In 2010? That late?

I do know. It does not make any sense. I feel it is as a result of so many individuals had been asking me to jot down music that my mindset was actually transferring from piece to piece. And since I used to be freelance composing, you are inclined to take that month by month. However so many reporters had been asking me after the Pulitzer, “How did you get right here?” that I ended and requested myself, “Whoa, how did I get right here?” It’s very humorous, nevertheless 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.

Higdon taking a bow, with violinist Hilary Hahn, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Heart in 2011. She gained a Pulitzer Prize the earlier yr for her Violin Concerto, written for Hahn.
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I assumed the light-bulb second would have come someday in your school years. Which leads me to surprise about these composition lessons — what number of different girls had been there?

At Curtis [Institute of Music], it was the late ’80s. There was one different girl, nevertheless it was a really small class. After I went to the College of Pennsylvania, half had been girls, however that is very uncommon — it was a really small division, possibly 14 individuals. Now, once 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 had been seen for me actually opened doorways. And it is my hope to open doorways for others.

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

Sure, for your entire time I used to be at school, my male colleagues would simply speak over my head — like, actually, they would not ask my opinion about something. They had been fast to guage issues. I simply ignored it, simply pressed forward. It is not that I might make a very good argument by saying, “Hey, guys, I am simply pretty much as good as you.” I figured the music had to do this. The one solution to actually pull this off could 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 am unable to consider what number of males got here as much as me and stated, “I am unable to consider a girl wrote that.” My response was all the time, “Nicely, a girl did write it, so now .” I attempted to take care of 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 prior to now. I would discover myself speaking in regards to the music of Joan Tower, as an illustration, and describing it as muscular and daring. And whereas that is true, you too can argue that by pointing it out it is as if I am saying, in a backhanded manner, that girls do not write muscular music.

I feel it will have been worse should 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 all the time, “Does the music be just right for you?” I usually take into consideration the variety of concert events I went to once I was a scholar the place I used to be bored out of my thoughts. So early on I stored pondering, “What can I do that can make this a extra participating expertise? Can I maintain individuals’s consideration from the primary word to the final with out them realizing time goes by?”

Higdon rehearses her double percussion concerto Duo Duel with conductor Cristian Măcelaru on the 2023 Cabrillo Pageant in Santa Cruz, Calif.
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In a bit 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 is not all the time willful ignorance; typically it is simply that somebody hadn’t thought of it. And the significance of the dialog is that that one dialog could make all of the distinction.

I’ve truly seen creative directors go, “Oh, you are proper, we’ve no girls on right here on our program. We should always go searching and see what’s out there.” And typically they will contact me and say, “Are you able to give me a listing of girls composers?” And I’ll put one of their arms as quick as I can. It is fairly straightforward now with the Web. Earlier than, attempting to get recordings and scores into individuals’s arms was far more troublesome. And typically it is only a matter of somebody so busy attempting to maintain the orchestra on schedule, attempting to maintain them on funds, ensuring they get the soloists and the visitor conductors. There are such a lot of transferring components to creating a efficiency that they only do not have time to sit down round and give it some thought, whereas I am desirous about it on a regular basis.

I’ve seemed 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 collection 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 total season. Are you OK with these numbers?

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

This is likely one of the issues I cherished about working with Marin Alsop. Marin is recreation. She will get in there, she desires to study. And that makes all of the distinction within the group and for the viewers and growth, since you’re truly approaching music from a unique viewpoint. Typically when orchestras complain that their audiences are shrinking, I am like, “Do not preserve doing the identical factor again and again and count on a change within the consequence.” That is not a sensible solution to preserve your group 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’ve gotten a world premiere arising this month. Girl With Eyes Closed, premiering on the Pittsburgh Opera, is predicated on the true story of one of many greatest artwork heists in historical past, the place seven work had been stolen from a museum in Rotterdam, together with two Monets, a Picasso and one by Lucian Freud known as “Girl with Eyes Closed.” These work have by no means been recovered; the thieves saved them on the house of one in all 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 so much. 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 bit for band. Chilly Mountain remains to be residing inside me; these characters are nonetheless there singing. And so to jot down an efficient second opera — and to problem myself artistically — I needed to jot 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 should you thought it will save your child? Or is there a duty in direction of artwork? I began asking myself these questions and thought, this would possibly make a very good thriller.

What’s uncommon in regards to the opera is that it has three endings — the story of the heist will finish in a different way relying on the evening 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 thought of the way to write a number of endings. Are you able to write an opera that’s emotionally participating and does not give its hand away as to which manner issues are going? I assumed, “Oh, my gosh, if that girl truly 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 higher crime or not?”

I needed to see what the mom would do. I truly went round a desk and requested an entire bunch of individuals, and everybody had totally different solutions to what they might have performed if their youngster had stolen the artwork and introduced it house. I assumed, OK, there’s my reply. Why not strive it? It hasn’t been performed, let’s examine if we will do it.

It is like, “Gather all three endings!” Go to the opera every evening!

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 enjoying prolonged methods, actually uncommon sounds, which simply does not get performed in opera, making it just a little tougher. There’s extra coloration distinction to the textures, and folks within the viewers could not know what instrument is enjoying — like enjoying contained in the piano, or methods I used once I performed flute, like just a little explosion of sound correct above the mouthpiece, sounding percussive like a snare drum with a wire brush.

You have written two operas, however you’ve got 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 will have a factor for concertos.

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

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

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

Higdon backstage in Chicago with Avi Avital in 2022 for the U.S. premiere of her Mandolin Concerto, written for Avital.

© Todd Rosenberg Pictures

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© Todd Rosenberg Pictures

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 ability stage, how a lot they need it. Typically I say, “I haven’t got time on my schedule,” they usually preserve asking yearly for 5 – 6 years. I had this actually stunning incident the place Avi Avital, the superb mandolin participant, was asking yr after yr. Sooner or later I obtained a name: He stated, “I am within the thirtieth Avenue Station in Philadelphia. I am on my solution 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 enjoying Bach. And your entire station stopped — it was so magical. He did not need to say something. I used to be like, “Oh, I’ve obtained to jot 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 — attempting to jot down a concerto for orchestra, understanding the Bartók, as a result of I completely like it. After I obtained the fee, I keep in mind going house and listening to the Bartók yet another time. After which I put it away for like three years, as a result of I used to be afraid I would not be capable to write my very own piece.

How did you method 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 every thing surges to an enormous climax, all inside the first 57 seconds. How do you do this?

An excessive amount of adrenaline, an excessive amount of Weight loss program 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 may really feel the anxiousness 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 jot down for the Philadelphia Orchestra.” I knew that the second motion could be strings, so I assumed I wanted a distinction of numerous emotion, and simply to indicate off your entire 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 straightforward to you? Or are you writing 24/7 with the intention to be that prolific?

It is not that it comes straightforward, however I work at it. I am a full-time composer, seven days per week, 4 to 6 hours each day. It is type of like what I think about it is like for individuals who write novels: In case you work at it each day, you are inclined to develop a circulate. It is laborious if you begin the piece since you’re looking for the sound world and the logic and what you suppose 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. An excellent day for me is writing 15, in all probability as much as 30 seconds of music. However that is actually being right here for six hours and going, “All proper, what do I have to do to make this extra attention-grabbing?” As a result of that is all the time the primary factor I am asking myself once I take a look at the phrases and take a look at the melody. What can I do that can preserve the expertise contemporary for the one that’s enjoying it, but in addition the one that’s listening to it?

Am I proper that you just publish your personal music? Why is that necessary to you?

After I was popping out of faculty, I performed the College of Pennsylvania Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, and was additionally enjoying flute. I used to be requested to carry out some Elliott Carter for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Heart, and we could not get the music — I needed to play off of Xeroxes. Elliott Carter is a well known composer. I additionally seen I could not afford to lease any of the music. And I assumed, “Oh, that is ridiculous.” There should not be such a barrier. I wish to play residing composers, nevertheless it’s so costly. A 3-minute piece was blowing your entire yr’s funds. I assumed, “Nobody’s asking for my music. So once 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 shortly.” And over time, as I wrote extra items, the catalog obtained greater and the orders simply began constructing. It is laborious sufficient getting your music carried out in dwell 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, truly. 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 this particular person, 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 does not hearken to some type of music. And I do not decide individuals in any manner about how a lot they learn about music. Actually, once I’m writing, I feel, “Nicely, let’s faux that nobody within the room has ever heard classical music. Will this communicate to them?”

Whenever 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?

Nicely, I can put the notes on the web page, but when I did not have the help 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 then you definitely’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 the viewers. Not one in all this stuff brings music into the world by itself.

A word Higdon obtained from a younger scholar enamored of her Violin Concerto and its dedicatee, Hilary Hahn.

Courtesy of Jennifer Higdon

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Courtesy of Jennifer Higdon

How do you suppose that village is doing as of late?

I really feel numerous misery within the village — individuals worrying. I feel so much about that once I’m writing, as a result of I would like 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. Individuals 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 numerous music that comes out of this time, but in addition I feel we have to preserve offering the music for this time as a result of the world is frightening 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 likewise 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 could be residing in a spot the place they really feel fully remoted from their household, like they’re actually totally different. However artwork makes all of the distinction.