Transcript - S2 Ep6: What we make is who we are
Oscar Bettison:
[theme music] There is a sort of tendency to think of composers as, you know, "Oh, that's the music that they do, and they do that thing." And it's kind of weird because, you know, up until a certain point in the 20th century, that wasn't the case. A breadth of expression was a normal thing. It became something that - you know, "Oh no, you know, you have to sort of funnel down, and do one thing, and just keep on doing that thing, and keep on at it." And I just sort of fight against that. I'm just not really that kind of composer.
Melissa Smey:
This is Mission: Commission, a podcast where we demystify the process of how classical music gets made. I'm your host, Melissa Smey, and I'm the Artistic Director of Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York City. And this is our very last episode of Season Two. The composers are in the final stages of their creative journey. They're putting the finishing touches on the pieces and rehearsing with the Parker Quartet before the final pieces get recorded. You can hear those pieces right after this episode.
And it's a moment in the process where we can reflect and take a step back to ask a really big question, which I hope will give us a lot more insight into the music and the composers themselves.
So let's get started with our first composer, Oscar Bettison.
Melissa Smey:
Hello, Oscar.
Oscar Bettison:
Hello, Melissa!
Melissa Smey:
I'm glad to talk to you as always, but I have to say I'm a little bit sad that this will be our last podcast conversation.
Oscar Bettison:
Yeah, the last one. I know it's funny, isn't it? [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
The whole mission of the podcast Mission: Commission is to demystify classical music. And so, you know, we're doing it through these conversations, of course, which allow the listeners to get to know you as a composer and to understand your work better through an understanding of how - you know - how the piece is made and the process of how a piece comes together. And so I'm curious, like - kind of continuing in the spirit of demystifying, I want to ask a question that you may interpret and answer any way you like. The disclaimer, however, is that, it's a big question. [laughs]
Oscar Bettison:
Okay!
Melissa Smey:
I think that hearing first person from the creator is so important. The question is: what kind of composer are you?
Oscar Bettison:
Oh, wow! Um...I don't know - I don't know if I have like a taxonomy of composers like... [laughs] the various species. I would say one thing, that I've always been aware that I have kind of sort of two sides, musical sides that I'm interested in. I mean, one is a much more kind of rhythmically driven, perhaps kind of more aggressive side. And then the other thing is a much more kind of poetic, slower, melancholic for sure - darker, I suppose. I have very few pieces that are completely typical of everything that I do, unless they're really long pieces in which case, they sort of are because there's sort of a lot of things in it.
But even then, like, I can only think of a couple that I have that sort of do that. And I think of myself as a composer that definitely - you know, it's not like I do one thing and I just do that thing. I'm definitely not that kind of composer. And I have actually a lot of love for composers who do that, and I sort of need to have both things - like they're both sort of part of my expression. And I think, you know, actually for a long time, I sort of didn't feel good about one or the other at different times, but I've sort of - it is who I am. And actually having pieces that are really kind of different and almost are in tension with each other was something that I sort of had to make my peace with as well.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. Well so, people obviously want to try to understand a thing by trying to kind of categorize the thing. They try to understand it in relation to other things. So, you know, audiences - certainly - or curators, critics. And so I'm curious, has your work ever been put in a category where you're like, "No, this is not correct. This is not an accurate representation of my work or of me."
Oscar Bettison:
Probably. I'll let you in on my secret, which is I don't read reviews.
Melissa Smey:
Good, never read them.
Oscar Bettison:
No. So, probably the last time I read them was about 10 years ago, I read it by accident. I got it in an email and so I read it, and I just, yeah, I decided I just couldn't do it anymore. Well, that was the last one I read and it definitely, I think, completely miscategorized what I was trying to do. I mean, completely. I was talking to a mentor of mine a long time ago who advised me not to read reviews, and what he said was it's the good ones that are actually worse in a way because they kind of tell you who you are. And you see, the bad ones, you can put behind you and you can kind of go, oh well, you know, then you say a few bad words and, you know, it's sort of done.
But the good ones can burrow their way inside your head and kind of make you think, oh well, I am. Am I that? You know, that's sort of what I am. And in a way, it's sort of better to live in a kind of blissful state of ignorance about, in some ways, about what other people think about your music, especially with reviews because, you know, they can be so kind of exact. You know, the language is so kind of pinpointed as to what something is. And it's kind of nice not to pinpoint yourself. You know, it's kind of nice not to have that, and not think, "well, I am a -", you know, whatever. Or especially when it even comes to like putting your music into a sort of genre - that's a tricky one. Sometimes, I've seen things like that when people have described my music in terms of genre, I've sort of been like, "Agh, I don't really..." Yeah, but that's an easy one to just, you know, you just kind of go, "Well, that's just nonsense, isn't it?"
[MUSIC - “ALL KEENS AND SLOW AIRS” BY OSCAR BETTISON]
Melissa Smey:
Now that the piece is almost done, Oscar was able to take a moment and reflect on his process over these last six weeks.
Oscar Bettison:
I had these sort of two slightly conflicting ideas when I was working on it. One was this kind of very - we talked about this a lot - this kind of distant, kind of shimmering kind of thing. And then this idea of this kind of dirge-like - I'm not sure if it's the right expression, but sort of a much more kind of melancholic kind of, sort of canon. The same line, but not the same rhythm.
[MUSIC CONT. - “ALL KEENS AND SLOW AIRS” BY OSCAR BETTISON]
That's sort of what happens in the piece. You get these moments that things kind of freeze and then they kind of go into this thing and then they kind of - it sort of goes back and forth, in and out of focus, I suppose.
[MUSIC CONT. - “ALL KEENS AND SLOW AIRS” BY OSCAR BETTISON]
Oscar Bettison:
And then, you know, for the longest time I thought, well, I should do one or the other. And then I decided that I wouldn't do that. It’s sort of both of those things. And then I was wondering for a long time about what the ending would be, and I always think about endings. I mean, I think about beginnings as well and hopefully middles. But you know... anyway, so I tried something for the ending, and I tried a few iterations of it, and eventually, I got one that I really I thought was right, and it gave me a whole - that's when the piece took the right direction. I don't think it's massively different, but it does go somewhere different.
[MUSIC CONT. - “ALL KEENS AND SLOW AIRS” BY OSCAR BETTISON]
I mean, my sincere hope for this is that people listening to this will get some kind of insight into like - like you say, demystifying it, that it really is like... It isn't as interesting as we think it is, but in another way it becomes more interesting because it isn't, you know? Yeah, and then maybe then listening to the piece after this, it gives it a sort of a different kind of - just have a different appreciation for it maybe, but yeah. Anyway.
Melissa Smey:
That's my hope, too. Really, it's exciting.
Oscar Bettison:
I'm looking forward to it.
Melissa Smey:
Me too. Well, I can't thank you enough for being so generous with your time and your insights. It's really been a pleasure.
Oscar Bettison:
Well, thank you.
Melissa Smey:
Onto our next composer, Kate Soper.
Kate Soper:
I mean, I know it's still coming up, but since the composition is mostly done, it's kind of like been moved in my mind to some other like shelf, so I'm not as like saturated with it as I was even a week ago.
Melissa Smey:
And now that Kate is almost done with the composition, I asked her for her reflections on the same big question: What kind of composer are you?
Kate Soper:
I don't know if this is true. I'm just going to say some things, but I think I'm the kind of composer without a lot of separation between what I'm thinking about as a human and what I'm doing as a composer. I'm just trying to think of something that will fit a lot of the different kinds of things I do because I feel like, especially in the last several years, I've been doing a lot of different things as a composer that might not even seem like they qualify as composition. But to me, it all seems like coming from the same place and that place seems like the place of wherever it is that I am in my head.
Melissa Smey:
Sure. And so, could you describe what some of those things are?
Kate Soper:
Sure. I mean, I, you know, I wrote a play last year that had some music in it, but it was mostly a straight play, and I made, you know, some YouTube skits and other pieces and wrote a solo cello piece, a little more normal composition. And then, you know, this string quartet, which has kind of a storytelling narrative element, but also some normal-style music. And I'm writing a new opera now and like learning to play ukulele for it. So it's just, - oh, and I wrote a short story that had a kind of like a multimedia component that came out last fall, and I'm writing like a new libretto for some kind of like weird solo show - kind of Orpheus, standup comedy thing. So just, you know, a bunch of different kinds of things that, to me, seem like they might as well be compositions, even if they're not even if the music isn't the main or certainly only element. But yeah, it just seems more and more that they're just some spillover into some fantasy land that is also part of my real life and my real world.
Melissa Smey:
And it can be hard to talk about it or hard to categorize it. Why do you think that is?
Kate Soper:
It's hard because everything seems to be in the context of the pandemic. I don't know if you know - sometimes, there's some impulse to say like, "Well, let's not talk about it on the podcast because in two years, no one will remember!"
Melissa Smey:
[laughs]
Kate Soper:
But it does seem like the separation between - it's hard to say like, this activity is a separate thing from this other activity and the way I am in this relationship or interaction is a separate person from this relationship interaction. It feels to me - and I think maybe this is something other people feel, too - that it's just harder to keep things separated. So it's hard to answer the question of "what kind of 'blank' are you?" because it's hard for that not to just seem like "who are you?" which you know is also a hard question to answer.
Melissa Smey:
So, but would it have been different - if we were making this podcast three years ago - would that have been, like before the pandemic, do you think it would've been different for you?
Kate Soper:
I don't totally know because it's been two years, and everything feels a little different. I think I was starting to feel this way, and I hadn't really thought about it. And even looking further back when I sort of thought when I was writing, I was a person, and then I was writing this abstract music, I wonder if, how much there was a separation really between the rest of my inner life. But I think it just feels more now, especially because since a lot of things in daily life have been suppressed, you know, just sort of experience and travel and interaction that that imaginary part just starts to take up more space, and then it just sort of seems more real. So yeah, I don't really know if my answer would've been different, and I'm also getting older like everybody is and, you know, I think it makes sense to me maybe that the separation between what you do for hours every day would sort of start to fade as, you know, the other, you know, as life kind of takes a shape somehow.
Melissa Smey:
Well, so then I'm curious - this question, this idea of who are you - like if you met someone that you didn't know, how do you describe yourself?
Kate Soper:
Well, I guess it would depend on the context, you know? I mean, like...
Melissa Smey:
When I think about you, in the broadest way, I would typically say, well, that you are a composer and a musician and, you know, an educator and then because you do so many things, then it gets a little bit harder because you're also a writer, you also made this amazing series of videos. So I guess if you're meeting somebody in a nonacademic setting, not like, you know, how you maybe spend some of your professional time, how do you talk about like your creative practice? How do you tell people what you do?
Kate Soper:
Well, I guess I would just say I'm a composer... or maybe, I - yeah, I mean, I started like adding things. It was like, I'm a composer / performer, and now I think, I just say I'm a composer / performer / writer, and I think that pretty much covers it. It’s… “what kind of music do you write?” you know, it's impossible. [Melissa laughs] So I don't really have… and also, it's … sometimes, I don't know that people really want to hear anyone go on about that too much, so if it's just like meeting someone, I probably would just say I'm a composer, and then, depending on what the interaction was, get into it more or less.
Melissa Smey:
So here's an interesting thought. People, audiences, you know, journalists, curators will come along and categorize composers and their work. And so I'm curious if you find that your work has ever been put into a category where you felt it didn't belong.
Kate Soper:
Yeah, I wouldn't say that my work has been ever put into a category where I thought it didn't belong. I feel like it's been characterized in a way that I wouldn't necessarily characterize it, but I totally understand that if you're going to talk about something, you have to say some noun about what it is. And, you know, so like I've written some "operas" that, you know, maybe they're not operas, but what else are you going to call them? And there's no need in trying to get too precious about - you know, we only have so many words in the vocabulary. So yeah, I think that's - I don't think I've ever felt like I was being misrepresented in terms of genre label. I felt misrepresented in terms of someone saying what they think my music is about and whatever, you know, bad reviews and this and that. But I don't think I would take someone to task for incorrectly assigning some kind of category, especially since my work does fall under a lot of weird categories that I don't really know how to describe it myself sometimes.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. Do you read your reviews?
Kate Soper:
I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I kind of read them with one eye open - good or bad - and I don't dwell on them. Yeah, I mean, actually, I'm trying to think - since things have been so slow, I haven't really had a review in a while, but I don't know. I kind of figure if they're really bad or really good, someone will like tell me about it. So yeah, I sort of wish I didn't, but I guess I kind of like glance at them.
Melissa Smey:
It's been great chatting with you for these last weeks. Bring me up to date on where your piece is right now.
Kate Soper:
I made some revisions based on the last rehearsal and sent that to the quartet last weekend, and we made a date for another rehearsal in about a week, and yeah, that's where we're at.
Melissa Smey:
As the performer in the piece, are you still rehearsing yourself?
Kate Soper:
Yeah, I mean, one of the small changes I made was some vocal things just because they were not sitting in my voice that well. So I think I'll practice this week and then I'll rehearse with the group, but I'm not planning to change anything. The work I have left to do is to learn my part and think a little bit about my performance, especially in the spoken stuff actually. I think sometimes I don't realize that's also a thing to practice and interpret. So I'm singing - somehow, it's a little easier because you have the pitches, you know, and I'm just blending with the quartet. So yeah, I'll need to think about, you know, what's the vibe of this character.
[MUSIC – “TELEPHONE” BY KATE SOPER]
The best solution would be to actually be in contact with the future. But for that to happen, we'd need a means of communication so advanced that it could reach our future selves and allow them to give information back through time to us; we'd need to construct some kind of two-way radio able to send and receive messages through multidimensional space time. So... We did!
Kate Soper:
I mean, at some point this process will be over, but these pieces will still exist, and we'll be listening to them or contemplating them from the future, which will have arrived. So that's something about music. It does have this fourth dimension point of view thing where you just - music that we still listen to from hundreds of years ago, God knows what was going on then. I think as we go through this plague, we're sort of thinking about like all this art that came out of other times that were very difficult that we're used to not thinking about. So this might end up being one of those times someday.
Melissa Smey:
Yes. What I find so interesting about that is that it kind of speaks to the powerful role of artists and creators. I mean, artists are inherently good at imagining things to be other than they are and to create entire universes in whatever their creative realm might be. And I feel like in our society, we need more of that. We need more people who are connected to imagination and ideas and imagining things to be different than they are. And then when you think about music that has traveled forward for us from a thousand years ago, it was transmitted by people, by musicians, you know, in the case of music, transmitted person to person to person from a creator to a performer to a listener. And we have this link that connects us, so the idea of the telephone in your piece and the idea of talking to the future and being able to connect backwards, that is so true.
Kate Soper:
Yeah, and the fact that it is - ends up just being music, just meaning you don't actually get like actionable information, but you still have this connection. And then that becomes the thing that you're doing that takes over whatever plan you thought you had. But you know - no, it's true what you say about - I mean, I think it really is speculation when you're an artist. What if this happened? You know, what if this? You know, so it's good to feel that still in this time when we all feel so stuck.
Melissa Smey:
Absolutely. No and to feel that the opportunity for hope and optimism is so important especially in darker, challenging times. Well, thank you, Kate.
Kate Soper:
Thank you, Melissa.
[MUSIC CONT. – “TELEPHONE” BY KATE SOPER] Who won the war?
Melissa Smey:
And now our third composer, Vijay Iyer.
Things have come full circle. During our very first conversation, he talked about a big change: He was about to get Chick Corea's piano, and this week the piano finally arrived.
Vijay Iyer:
It's an amazing instrument. It's in really excellent shape. You know, I'm not generally a Yamaha piano guy, but this one has this warmth and strength and beauty. It's very rich; it's a very rich instrument. Subtlety and power and clarity. It's beautiful.
Melissa Smey:
And during our first conversation, I remember that you talked about growing into a new instrument. So I'm curious, does the sound of the instrument and the physicality of the instrument, will that change the kind of music that you make?
Vijay Iyer:
I think so. I mean, in a very direct sense, you know, there's this like - harmony and overtones are basically the same thing, you know, so when you hear combinations of tones, you're also hearing the way all their overtones are interacting, and this has a very different spectrum than the piano I had been living with for so long.
Melissa Smey:
Hmm. Well, so let's change topics. Let's talk about the piece that you are working on. Can you tell me how it's coming along?
Vijay Iyer:
Ah, it's almost done! [Laughs] Yeah, no, I had this score for something that was like almost 10 minutes long, and I realized that there was something wrong with the ending. You know, the piece is called "Room for Ghosts" that had to do with like allowing space for the unforeseen. And meanwhile, the piece itself like tied itself up in this nice bow and, in fact, had this almost triumphalist ending to it that I - you know, and then I tapped on a sort of extended solo, just unaccompanied solo for the second violin to kind of be a conjuring element or something and also to mirror the introduction, which is solo viola. But that still wasn't - it didn't feel - I couldn't really justify the big finish, you know? And so I actually just deleted it. [laughs] And so now it actually ends, it ends in more of a mysterious zone, which I feel is more interesting to my ear.
[MUSIC – “ROOM FOR GHOSTS” BY VIJAY IYER]
I don't want to over-specify how it ends. So I'm building in now like just some process elements that the quartet can adapt to. I mean, adopt and adapt to that will allow us some like real, a space to move in that's not fixed, you know, and so that's like the space to conjure, like Greg Tate said.
[MUSIC CONT. – “ROOM FOR GHOSTS” BY VIJAY IYER]
Melissa Smey:
That's really beautiful. And I like the idea that it's not tied up with a bow. I feel like there's something that you can connect to there in the times that we're living in. There's like a - I don't know, I always want to control things and plan things and know what's happening, and it can be hard to sit with discomfort. So the idea that you leave space for the unknown, there's something really lovely there.
Vijay Iyer:
Yes. And it also means that if we do multiple takes, then they won't be the same piece. It's going to evolve in a subtle way that I can't - I don't know about yet. You know?
Melissa Smey:
Okay, so as we are wrapping up our six weeks together, I wanted to take us back to the mission of Mission: Commission, which is to demystify the process of how music is made. And so in the spirit of demystifying, I want to ask a question that you may interpret and answer in any way you like. It's a big one. I'll confess, I'm a little nervous to ask, but I'm going to be bold and ask: What kind of composer are you?
Vijay Iyer:
Is that a multiple-choice question? Like what are the options? [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Well, so what's funny is that thinking about like - so people, audiences, critics, curators will come along and categorize a composer's work, right? They'll categorize the composer; they'll categorize the work of that composer; and it certainly seems to me that there have been times when your music is put into a category where you probably would've felt that it didn't belong, and you write for such a wide array of ensembles, and your music spans such a range, and I feel like sometimes it kind of actively defies categorization. And so I just really wanted to unpack that with you and kind of talk through that to kind of help listeners both understand you, but also to understand that kind of frame of like, what is music today? Which is big. It's a big topic.
Vijay Iyer:
I have to say that I don't think too much about that, except in so far as it affects my options, you know, in terms of what I'm able to do and with whom and where and for whom. Otherwise, I mean, you know, I've lived a life in music that's been pretty varied, [laughs] I guess. But it's also always been me in the middle of it, you know? So it's not like - I mean, I do enjoy challenging myself to grow and change and do something else, you know, do something different, like - you know, last year I wrote a sort of torchy ballad for Justin Vivian Bond to sing for Boston Lyric Opera. And that was in the midst of a thing that was called an opera, but my job was not to write more opera was actually to write this like set piece that was more like a cabaret moment.
No one would say, "Oh, Vijay Iyer is the kind of guy who does torchy cabaret songs for transgender performers." No, like no one ever says that about me, and yet, I did it, you know? So I think we step into moments of opportunity that arise, and we try to make the most of it, you know, and that's what happens. So that's basically what's been happening to me or what I've been cultivating - some combination of those things. Things that I elect to do that I say like, "Oh, we're going to do this." And then things that I'm invited to do, like, "Hey, you want to write a piece for Mission: Commission?" So like that - you know - that's sort of like, okay, I guess I'll change my plans so I can do this because it actually feels like an exciting thing to try. I love the Parker Quartet, I've worked with them before and yet, somehow, this is still not what I'm quote-unquote known for doing or categorized as. That's not my problem, [laughs] you know.
It's just about - I guess I could say I'm fortunate to do whatever I want, and also things that I didn't expect myself to be doing, but also that not everybody knows all of it. And so that's just how it is, you know, I also know that I've made music with all kinds of people, like I don't know if I can say one thing about it. I can't say like I'm this kind of anything. I'm just - I like actually to be unfixed in that way and be a human being who makes music with other human beings. [laughs] You know, you run this series that has Composer Portraits and then has a Jazz series and other things, too. And I'm maybe, I don't know how many people have been on both of those, probably a handful, but that is where genre happens, right? It's where people get categorized.
Melissa Smey:
That's right.
Vijay Iyer:
It's your call, not mine. You know what I'm saying?
Melissa Smey:
I do. Yep. Absolutely. I struggle with it, right? Because every band leader on the jazz series is a composer, and like, so the idea that -
Vijay Iyer:
And in fact, every concert on the Jazz series is a Composer Portrait in the sense that like - you know, all the shows that I've done there were like me playing my music for a whole night with a band. Right? Or with an ensemble. The fact that it was not called that was not my call, you know? It was yours, or is the institution's. And then all the other institutions that fall into lockstep around that systemic categorizing that's happening, you know? It's weird. And then like the New York Times, the way it operates - like they did a —Giovanni Russonello wrote about me directing the Ojai Festival in 2017. And then if you look in the print version of the paper, it's filed under pop music.
Melissa Smey:
Was it really?
Vijay Iyer:
It was extraordinary. Yeah. Same with when I put out Mutations - that album, the first album I did for ECM, which was with a string quartet. It was - Nate Chinen wrote about me, and it was, if you looked in the print section, it said "Pop Music," then has a picture of me with a string quartet. And this is like, I'm not complaining because I've been written about in the New York Times. I don't - actually, it's fine, you know, but this is how those borders get policed. It's not the artists, it's the institutions who make those decisions, you know? And so that's why I, you just said like that question - what kind of composer do you think I am? And you don't have to answer because it's kind of... but maybe just sit with those questions, you know? I mean, I felt like I could have that kind of conversation with you because we've already gone so far, you know, together. We've done a lot of work together where we can like face some of that, you know?
Melissa Smey:
Yes. The hard conversations. They're not easy.
Vijay Iyer:
Yeah.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. Are there any opportunities that you haven't had yet that you would like to pursue? Any avenue that you haven't yet explored that would be interesting for you?
Vijay Iyer:
I mean, I've done a lot of things, so I don't know. Like, I mean on the one hand that's there are, I love just kind of communing with someone and building with them. And then on the other hand, I am growing to love writing for other people in a way that I won't always be involved in, that I won't always have control over, or a role, a direct role in sonically, you know.
What I was just saying about this piece is like, since I'm in it, I am going to steer it. You know, I'm going to, and I'm going to play a role in shaping it from within as it's happening. With say this cello concerto I'm working on, you know, I'll be around for rehearsals as much as I can, but it's not me. So like, you know, there's a bit of relinquishing of control, but there's also then like what the composer does in notation. I'm still learning, I'd say, to find that balance of control and openness in these fully notated works that —where then you can let go and like let them do the work. I guess it's kind of like writing a play or something, you know? It's like, well, you can read it, but it's meant to be brought to life, you know? And then it's about how it's brought to life, and some of that is then not your job, you know?
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. No, that's right. So can you imagine a life for the piano quintet "Room for Ghosts" where you’re not the pianist?
Vijay Iyer:
Yeah, I can. And so then it's sort of about what do I put in notation that can serve that, you know? That can be both like accommodating the intention of openness, but also giving some people enough - giving the performers enough to work with that they're not just at sea.
Melissa Smey:
So what happens next for the piece?
Vijay Iyer:
[laughing] What's next for the piece is I have to finish it. I mean, I have to like make some hard choices about what I want to keep and what I want to expunge. Or how do I want to do this exactly? How do I want to sculpt this so that it's specific enough and yet unfixed enough? And I need to do it fast because I need to make these parts for them like, today. [laughs] So I'm hoping I can just do it today. Yeah, it's down to the wire. So it'll get there. It'll get there … somehow.
Melissa Smey:
Well, I'm really looking forward to hearing what comes of it.
Vijay Iyer:
Me too. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Good. I can't thank you enough for being part of this and, and sharing these insights into your process along the way.
Vijay Iyer:
Oh, you guys have been very patient and kind and accommodating, and it's been great talking with you about this.
Melissa Smey:
[theme music] That's it for the show and this second season of Mission: Commission. Up next, you can finally hear the pieces written by the composers in their entirety.
If you loved being on this journey as much as we have, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this, or share the show with someone who would enjoy it too.
Mission: Commission is a production of Miller Theatre at Columbia University.
Major support for Mission: Commission is provided by the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts. Support for Miller Theatre is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Howard Gilman Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Support for contemporary music at Miller Theatre is provided by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music and the Amphion Foundation.
Kate Soper's commissioned work was made possible with lead support from Sean T. Buffington.
This episode was produced by Golda Arthur and me, with Adrienne Stortz, Lauren Cognetti, and Taylor Riccio. Erick Gomez is our sound designer and engineer.
This episode featured audio excerpts of pieces written by Oscar Bettison, Vijay Iyer, and Kate Soper.
Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this and every episode.
Thanks for listening.
