Transcript - S3 Ep5: Working Title
Intro:
This is Mission: Commission [intro]
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. On this show, I've commissioned three composers to write new works of classical music, and to do it in just six weeks.
And now we're almost at the end of that creative sprint. If you've been listening closely, you'll have picked up a trail of breadcrumbs throughout this podcast, little clues along the way that give you a sense of what the piece might sound like. And at this point, the pieces are starting to take shape. I'm always curious about how composers develop a relationship with the piece as it evolves. I want to talk to our three composers about how they communicate that shape, whether it's to the musicians in the form of notation, or to us, the audience, through the title of the piece.
Let's start with Ann Cleare.
Well, welcome to week five.
Ann Cleare:
I feel it. I feel it's week five.
Melissa Smey:
So, how does it feel for you?
Ann Cleare:
I made a good bit of progress. I had some time working with a grand piano, which was really helpful. And after just playing a little bit on the piano, and imagining Laura and Julia playing, almost like being on the stage or in the recording space, I immediately could tell that I needed to edit. Really big edits. I kind of immediately felt the compulsion to just take big chunks off the piece, really. I actually re-sketched the first two sections of the piece, just graphically. And they are similar to what I had in the previous version, it's not like completely new material, but I suppose it's more focused on what I felt really speaks in the piece, and how much time I needed with certain ideas, and how other ideas, or other material, other bars were maybe not serving the idea as well. So it was really, I suppose, about giving the sketches I had, or the drafts I had, more space. So I already feel much better with those parts.
Melissa Smey:
Well, I would love to ask you a bit about one of the audio diaries that you shared, the experiments with a honey spoon.
Ann Cleare:
So I did some experiments with different objects, with kind of threading them through the strings, or just placing them on the strings. And one I think has worked well, and that's where I put a honey spoon... So it's about a three-inch wooden stick with a round head, and it has kind of ridges at the round head, so it makes it slot quite nicely in between the piano strings. And so yeah, I put those on the inside strings, and then if I pluck them--so basically just kind of strike them with my hand--they ricochet, and sound something like this. [SOUND OF HONEY SPOON ON PIANO STRINGS]
So I can tremolo with them, if I use a mallet, and prepare the piano with two of these honey spoons, something like this. [SOUND OF HONEY SPOON ON PIANO STRINGS]
And then I can also just strike them with the mallet and they sound like this. [STRIKING PIANO STRINGS]
Melissa Smey:
My first reaction was oooo, there are so many overtones here! What an amazing sonic landscape. And who would ever have thought that you could put a honey spoon inside a piano? So I have some questions for you about it. I'm curious, so to give people a picture, where were you standing when you were doing that?
Ann Cleare:
Well, over the piano, really. Just kind of standing over the keys with hands into the piano.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. And were you holding down the pedal?
Ann Cleare:
Yes, yes. The pedal, you got a nice ricochet without the pedal, but with this sound, what I'm really trying to create the idea of is, I suppose, the sound of the earth that you hear in the field recordings I made, and how I can make the two pianos almost seem like this huge, reverberant kind of world, but that they both have a slightly different kind of reverberation; like one reverberates up into the air, and the other reverberates into the earth. So the pedal does help with that resonance.
[SOUND OF HONEY SPOON BOUNCING ON PIANO STRINGS]
Yeah, so those are two contrasting gravity points that I'm working with in the piece now.
Melissa Smey:
I'm curious, something that you had mentioned in one of our earlier conversations, you were playing back, I think it was actually the field recording of in the earth, and you played it back and that you were listening to it in headphones, but that you were also looking at it, like you were looking at the sonic pattern. With this new series of experiments that you've captured, were you doing the same thing? Are you listening and looking? Because I'm very curious to know how you might notate something like this for the musician, so that then they can recreate it or have it included in the piece. How does that come together?
Ann Cleare:
Yeah, yeah. It's interesting, especially in this first opening section too, because for me, the notation looks very like the movement that I'm asking the performers for as well. The piece, unless there's some massive change in the next few weeks, but I hope not! [laughs] The opening will be on the inside strings with a kind of felt mallet in the bottom, the lower strings, and a more metallic mallet in the top strings. So again, you get this kind of earthy, damp sound, and then a brighter, metallic sound. But these mallets are just kind of brushed against the strings.
And so I've really just drawn the notation, almost again, inspired by the patterns on the tree, the idea of the roots, the way they kind of curl into the ground. The notation, I'm hoping, kind of looks like that, in a way. Of course, it moves kind of vertically and horizontally, because we're moving in time as well. [laughs]
Also, I think, because I know with playing inside the piano this way from previous performances, every piano is so different, that I think what's important with the notation is that I describe, I suppose, the best motion to the pianist, and that they maybe make that work for every piano that they work with. So, I guess I'm trying to really indicate the timbre and the rhythm in this first section very clearly, but leave the placement or use of the strings a little bit more open to the performers.
Melissa Smey:
Well, it was a delight to listen to it. It really sparks the imagination when you hear it.
Ann Cleare:
Yeah, and it activates the whole instrument. I feel like you hear the wood, you hear the strings, you hear the metal. And I should say it is a honey stick, but there's no honey involved. [laughs] Because that would be a disaster, obviously, for the piano. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Yeah, fun, fun times. Well, so then another audio diary that you shared this week was called Roots and Branches.
[MUSIC – AUDIO DIARY, ANN PLAYING SOUNDS INSIDE THE PIANO]
I would love for you to say a bit about what you were capturing there, and what you're sharing there.
Ann Cleare:
Yeah. Well, I included this, because it's kind of like a güiro material, so a kind of rippling texture that's basically using different objects like plectrums or a metallic... Like what you'd use for a triangle, or I was using my hands and nails at moments on the inside strings, and it was material that earlier in the process I thought, "Okay, I'm not going to use that, because I feel like it's going to take me into another area that will make the piece much longer, in a way."
And then when I got to the piano, I don't know, I just was playing with these ideas and I thought, "Oh, this is really fun." This is just a rich material that has a kind of sense of the infinite to me, or something, in a way that I think of the tree again, that it's kind of infinite in the way it grows, especially... I made some improvisations and recorded them at the piano, but then brought them home and listened back to them, and reordered them, and made them into a little kind of sketch. One kind of güiro sound is dry, and the other is much more reverberant and bright.
And again, so I'm trying to juxtapose under the earth and over the earth, in a way, with these two kind of resonances. So they're similar materials, but they have a different timbre, a different resonance. So yeah, in a way, again, being at the piano, I really was like, "Oh, I want to include this now." So I also, I suppose, in talking about re-sketching the piece, it kind of meant I had to find a place for it. I don't really have time to find a place for this, but I also really want to use this. [laughs] It's demanding space, I think, now. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Yes. Well, so you have the most beautifully evocative titles for your pieces. It's something that I noticed when I very first encountered your music, and then I went and was looking at your works list. And so I'm curious if you're comfortable to talk about your process for naming pieces, and how do you decide what to call these beautiful works that you're bringing into the world?
Ann Cleare:
I'm kind of more careful with words at the moment, especially in the beginning of pieces, in case I kind of pigeonhole the piece into something too early, in a way. I would say the last few years I've really tried to leave the titles to later in the process, or even just gather ideas but not become too attached to any of them too quickly. But it can be hard because then it can get to a point where it's just hard to find a word, or words, as well. And I think when, previously, even when I began writing music, I had so many titles, they were almost pieces waiting to be written, in a way. I had a collection of titles that were waiting for their piece. Someone would ask me to write something for accordion, or for string quartet, and I would think, "Okay, that's that title, that's that piece." But I have to say, over the years, I've kind of ran out of them. So it's difficult, because I don't have too many titles in waiting anymore. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Why do you think that is?
Ann Cleare:
Yeah, it's a really good question. I think about it all the time. I don't know. I've gotten less attached to having words to explain the pieces, but now also, there's very little adjectives in the scores. I give very little indication. And I think it might be that the notation, I probably feel a bit more comfortable in the notation, that that is doing what I need it to do. And I think previously, I was just a bit worried that the notation wasn't really giving all the information that I needed it to give. And I think through working with players, I've realized that they do get it, that I don't need to layer on the information either.
I definitely feel like for this piece, even in the audio diaries this week, I mentioned the word gravity a lot, and that has really been, I think, at the fore of my thinking with this piece. So it's hard for me to imagine there won't be the word gravity in the title. I also wrote a duet last year for cello and double bass, which are, again, quite similar instruments, but not entirely the same either. But the title I gave that piece was Gravity Dreams. Somehow, I don't know whether it's because this piece is a duet as well, that kind of image has been at the fore of my mind as well. Again, the sense of the tree over the earth and under it, and that there's this kind of exchanging gravity, and that's what I'd really like to capture in the piece, is kind of feeling that, and the scale of it, on a very minor sense, and then in a very huge sense as well. So I feel like the word gravity might come into this title as well.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah, exciting. I can't wait. That's great. Thanks again, Ann.
Ann Cleare:
Thank you, Melissa.
Melissa Smey:
Onto our next composer, Wang Lu.
Hello, Lu, tell me how are you finding the piece this week?
Wang Lu:
I think week five, I probably wrote most notes down. I have most of the piano parts--I have about six minutes of piano music.
Melissa Smey:
Wow.
Wang Lu:
With some of the percussions, I'm still deciding. But now I have a direction, yes.
Melissa Smey:
That's exciting.
Wang Lu:
It is very exciting. But once you shape something, then I'm kind of like a composing and revising at the same time kind of person. I'm not like, "Okay, I found the idea, I'm just going to carry through." I'm going to carry halfway and then go back and “hmm”. Yeah, so right now it's this order. I think it works. If I break it up, it'll be a completely different reorganization and transition. But it's good. I think this week is productive. So a lot has been done, yes.
Melissa Smey:
I'm curious, do you think about the audience at all as you're composing music, or when your music is being rehearsed for performance? To what extent does the audience factor into your thinking or your decision making?
Wang Lu:
When I was a student, I used to be thinking, "The music is for oneself. I don't care about the audience." But actually, we do think about audience, because we are also audience. I'm not an alien, I'm a person. I listen to music. I sit in the audience. I get excited, I get bored, I fall asleep. I'm an audience, [laughs] so I cannot be not thinking about audience. But it's not something in the direct sense, like I think, "What kind of audience?" No, I don't think about that.
How the piece communicates with one playing--I do think about that a lot. Most people hear your music if you're lucky, from the beginning to the end once. Then they say their impressions, right?
Melissa Smey:
Yes.
Wang Lu:
That is something I really think about these days. So, this thing has been occupying my life wherever I go; grocery shopping, I take a walk, I'm in my office. All these people sit there and listen to it once, or maybe not even once--the first minute. And they’re starting to flip the program notes. I don't blame them. So you see, I'm not thinking about which audience, like Chinese audience, South American audience.
From a composer's perspective, it's very important to use our means to communicate what we want to say. But in the end, if you really just want to say, "I miss my grandmother", why do you need to write a piece? You just say, "I miss my grandmother", and that's the piece. It's something beyond that. You need music to translate. But you need that emotion, and then you need that craft.
Melissa Smey:
Well, I'd love to change topics, and ask you about titles, and the title of a piece, how you think about titling your work, and giving a title to a new piece.
Wang Lu:
I don't have a title when I start the piece, but I do have ideas what this piece is about. So now I have this mesmerizing walk, I have this nostalgic feeling towards family, and then I have this momentum, fleeting texture. And then how it's going to end, it's not going to fade out. I think it's going to just end. So now I have four things, and then I'm going to have to come up with a title. It's interesting, once I have all these ideas, it's really helpful talking to you actually. [laughs] Right? Yeah.
But from a previous examples, for instance, the second album is called An Atlas of Time. So that piece I wrote for Ensemble Modern, and has multiple movements. Each movement has a different timestamp. So the first one is 1989. 1989, the Tiananmen Massacre. That day, I was in the back of my father's bicycle. We were going to a piano lesson. We're not in Beijing, we're in Shiyan, but the road was flooded with students. I remember I had to walk all the way. I took my piano lesson. Can you believe?
So the first movement I was using that title, Internationale, because the students sung Internationale, we all grew up singing Internationale. [sings melody] So I have different language of French, the German, the Russian, the Chinese rock and roll, because eighties is when China had rock and roll music booming. That's my time. So, that's the first movement.
[MUSIC – “AN ATLAS OF TIME: I. INTERNATIONALE (1989 EDITION)” BY WANG LU]
And the second movement was about 10 years ago when, in Rome, when the new Pope was announced. All the bells rang in Rome. And I was living there. So there was another sonic experience, and thinking about the layers of the churches and history. So that's Rome.
[MUSIC – “AN ATLAS OF TIME: II. MOLTEN CATHEDRAL” BY WANG LU]
And another one was from a radio show I used to hear going to bed. So, it's an opening credit, goes into polyrhythmic and layered, combined with me playing Hanon on the piano and Czerny, and many, many pianos like that from that time.
[MUSIC – “AN ATLAS OF TIME: III. PICCOLO TRUMPETS: A CHILDREN’S BROADCAST” BY WANG LU]
Then, so this piece was written, and I thought, "What is this about?" It's almost like I thought about that and I thought about this. All those striking, lived, sonic experiences. Many years later, I reflected in one piece. So I think it's like a map, right? It's like a map, and it's sound at different times. So I thought, "Maybe An Atlas of Time." It doesn't really often comes as I finish the piece, and I have to come up with a word. No, no. That would not be the case, yeah.
Melissa Smey:
Well, we have a week left. It's bittersweet. I feel happy and sad about it. I'm curious, if you could say in one word how you're feeling about it, what would that one word be?
Wang Lu:
I think week five, I'm getting to a very good... I'm situating myself very well into the project. [laughs] That's week five. Yeah.
Melissa Smey:
Perfect.
Wang Lu:
But now I'm going to exit. That's like life. I really appreciate this opportunity. I don't know other composers--do composers actually turn on their microphone and pretend somebody's listening and talk for 30 minutes about what happened to the piece this week? [laughs] That could be a good practice, because you cannot possibly do it with every composer, but I do find it productive. You're like a mirror and reflecting, teaching me to look at myself and see what happened.
Melissa Smey:
Well, Lu, I think that's a good place for us to stop this week.
Wang Lu:
Great.
Melissa Smey:
It's going to be exciting to see what happens next week. Thank you so much, Lu.
Wang Lu:
Thank you.
Melissa Smey:
Bye.
Wang Lu:
Bye.
Melissa Smey:
Onto our next composer, Miguel Zenón.
Hello, Miguel. How are you?
Miguel Zenón:
Good, how are you?
Melissa Smey:
Good. Welcome to week five of Mission: Commission. [laughs]
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Excited.
Melissa Smey:
So you're about to leave, you're going to be in Paris over the weekend. You're going on a European tour, so you're leaving in just a couple days to go to Europe. Do you think that--will you be working on the piece while you're away, will you be thinking about the piece when you're away? Will you be on tour and then come back to it? What do the next two weeks hold for you?
Miguel Zenón:
No, I'll definitely be working on it while I’m gone. [laughs] Yeah, because I feel like now, it's kind of there. So if I just kind of keep rolling along, it's probably going to be done within a few days, I feel.
Melissa Smey:
Wow.
Miguel Zenón:
By the time we speak again, it'll be finished, pretty much, for sure. That's kind of my feeling, anyway.
Melissa Smey:
That's exciting.
Miguel Zenón:
But I already have my piano set up in Paris. I have my couple hours set up at some music school, a friend, so I got some.
Melissa Smey:
Oh, that's--so you had to think ahead to be able to do that, that's amazing.
Miguel Zenón:
Oh yeah, of course. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
How could I have doubted that, even for a minute? [laughs]
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, yeah, so I've had that set up for a little while.
Melissa Smey:
Well, so tell me about how the piece has evolved this week.
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, it's kind of kept moving forward. I've kept sort of the same forward motion. I'm up to a point now, I feel, I think the audio sample that I sent went up to the point where we got through the section that's going to be for improv, that I think I mentioned before, that's going to kind of be open for Miles and Matt to play and my idea is for them to trade sections. So when Matt will play and then Miles will play, and then they'll kind of get it to build up, and then that'll move on into a transition. There'll be a little recap of one of the melodies, and then a vlittle more open section, and then a recap of the main melody. So now I feel like I'm basically getting up to the open section right before the last recap of the last theme. So it's good, it's in good shape.
[AUDIO DIARY – FINALE PLAYBACK OF MIGUEL’S DRAFT]
So yeah, a lot of the material that's sort of newer, I guess it's starting around here where we're listening now. A lot of it is really like an extension of something that was there before. And then it goes into sort of a more of a triplety time thing. That's really meant to serve as a transition for this open section that's coming up. So this open section is preceded by a little quote from the melody, from the initial melody. [sings melody] Kind of stays there for a second. [sings melody] those two notes. And then, [sings melody] And then that last phrase sort of repeats and becomes the open section.
Melissa Smey:
With the open section, how will you know that they've gotten it right? How will you know, "Okay, this is it, and this is what it needs to be"?
Miguel Zenón:
Most likely, for the recording, we'll probably do a few takes. [laughs] And then pick what we like. That's kind of one of the advantages of doing something like that, of going into a studio. I think getting it right is sort of subjective, when it's something improvised or creative. I think there's a lot of stuff that's written out, and it's meant to be played a certain way, so that's stuff we're going to make sure that's there as good as it can be. And then the stuff that's improvised, it'll just be what it will be. I think these guys will work on it and be as comfortable as they can, and in the studio we'll pick something that works. And in the performance, it will be what it will be. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
It's like those big group shots when you try to take a big family photo, and you have 10 people in the photo, and inevitably one person is blinking, or someone's not happy with their smile.
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing is also, like I said, it could be so many different things. And I think a lot of it is maybe getting them to a point where they just feel comfortable with that section where they have to improvise. And if they feel comfortable enough, then I trust that it's going to be great. That's kind of why I want them there. There's not a lot of right or wrong, it's more about making it your own, and making it feel comfortable.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah, I like that. It's a kind of nice life lesson there.
Miguel Zenón:
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Smey:
So, have you been in touch with the musicians at all this week? Any new developments there?
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, I have. I actually was in touch with Miles, our guitarist, this week, because I was writing three-note chords. Not really triad, but chord with a cluster in the bottom and the one note in the top. And I kind of wanted to ask him about double stops, and what was comfortable, and tempo and all that stuff. So we had a nice back and forth, and I'm kind of glad that I did, [laughs] actually, because what I was writing was probably going to be a little too much. So we ended up finding a happy medium, and so it really helped me out.
Because for this open section I wanted... Because I want them to trade. When Matt is trading, I want them to be able to get off the part. So I want both of them to be able to function as an accompanist. So I wanted to write something for the guitar also that's sort of an extension of the piano, but the piano is playing five or six notes and the guitar is going to be playing two or maybe three notes. So it's kind of a combination of things.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah, that's an interesting component of the kind of duet that they're playing. We could hear in the sample the places where they're trading back and forth, even in what will be the notated section. You can hear that they're passing it back and forth. But idiomatically, a piano is so very different than a guitar, so it's like a fun puzzle.
Miguel Zenón:
It is. [laughs]
Miguel Zenón:
Miles said he is going to get me a guitar at some point, just for me to mess around.
Melissa Smey:
Oh, have you ever played a guitar?
Miguel Zenón:
No. I've strummed it, like most of us have, but I wouldn't know. But it was interesting. We were talking about open strings versus things where you have to go on the fret, and how that kind of changes level of difficulty, and octaves, and those—a lot of things. I've written for guitar before, but when you really get into an instrument, you open a lot of doors.
Melissa Smey:
I love it. So, how would you say that your relationship to the piece has evolved over the course of the five weeks so far? How is it? How's it feeling? Has it changed?
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, it's definitely changed. I think when you start writing something, especially... This piece is very specific in terms of the instrumentation, length, kind of what I wanted to happen in the piece. I had a basic idea, but not a super clear idea at the beginning. I kind of started with those chords. When I started with those chords, I had nothing in my head but those chords. So the piece was those chords, basically. And then the melody, and then you start building, and as you start building, you kind of start feeling more comfortable. You're like, "Okay, so I feel like this is going somewhere," whereas the beginning, it's like, "Yeah, we'll see. Those chords might be okay, or I might just end up throwing them away, because they didn't go anywhere." As it kind of built, I was like, "Okay, so this is something that could lead into this, and then now this is starting to feel like something I could work with."
Another thing that I think about a lot, especially when writing things like this, which are through composed, and more specifically written, are how much am I repeating myself, compared to other pieces that I've written?
Melissa Smey:
Oh.
Miguel Zenón:
Is this something I did on a recent piece? And does that bother me? [laughs] So, I think about that a lot, because sometimes I feel myself going in the direction that I'm obviously comfortable in, then yeah, I'm probably just going in that direction because it feels good, but I don't want to end up doing the same thing that I did on the last piece I wrote. So, I might just change directions just to creatively push things into another song.
Melissa Smey:
For me, it seemed that it's been pretty easygoing. From my perspective, it seemed kind of seamless. But do you ever feel like you're blocked, so the material didn't work and it's not what you want, the chords weren't the right chords? And when that happens, what do you do?
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah, I haven't felt that a lot on this piece, to be honest, but I've definitely felt it in the past. It's kind of hard to plan for that stuff. Like I mentioned, I sort of have a way of doing it. And I'm just going to kind of do it my way, and once in a while I'm going to run into a wall.
And at times, it can be a little frustrating, especially if you're working on something, and you put a lot of time into it, working on a couple measures or a phrase, and then you listen and it's not what you expected it to be, and you have to get rid of it. It's not a good feeling. It's what it is. It just comes with the territory, and you kind of learn from that also. And you learn from the process and you're like, "Okay, so let me see how I got here, and why didn't it work? What is it about it? Maybe it's just a little something that I could change, that could make it better to my ears or sound more comfortable, or sound better, that kind of thing." So, kind of learn to troubleshoot those situations a bit.
Melissa Smey:
Yeah. I'm curious how you might feel about talking about titles, and the way that you title your works, and if you'd be comfortable talking about how do you approach naming a new piece?
Miguel Zenón:
I'm usually pretty practical about that stuff. So, most of the time if there's a source, like a specific source, so I kind of reach out to that source and maybe grab a title from that source. Sometimes, it will just really be about the process, or about what I feel the music is. So in this case, I was thinking a lot about all these layers that I'm kind of setting up. So it's probably going to be something like Layers, or something based on layers, something like that. That's kind of what I have in mind.
Melissa Smey:
Do you name it after it's finished? If it comes to you before? Do you have something in mind...
Miguel Zenón:
Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Smey:
Which comes first?
Miguel Zenón:
Kind of depends. If there's a specific source, I'll most likely have the title pretty early on. But sometimes, for a situation like this, as I'm working on the piece, I'm like, "Okay, so this might be something that could be descriptive of what the piece means to me." And that stuff can be, again, so subjective too, because obviously what it means to me is going to be, maybe, something totally different to the listener, or to someone else, or to the musicians. But someone has to name it. [laughs]
Melissa Smey:
Yes. [laughs]
Miguel Zenón:
And I guess that's part of my job. But one of the things that I think about a lot, I was having a conversation the other day with a musician friend, and it was a piece that we played at a concert, and she was saying, "Oh, how do you think about that piece?" And she started describing the piece to me, because she was like, "Oh, this is kind of what I hear when you guys played it." And it was totally different than the way I think about it. But it's super interesting to me, because for me it's like, "Okay, so her personality is receiving that piece that way." Without looking at the music or anything, just listening. And that kind of thing, that's part of the magic of music to me. You can kind of just grab it and make it your own.
Melissa Smey:
Yes. Good. Well, I think that's a nice place for us to pause. Miguel, thank you so much.
Miguel Zenón:
Thank you.
Melissa Smey:
That's it for the show today. See you next week for our last episode in this season.
Mission: Commission is a production of Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Major support for Mission: Commission is provided by the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trust. 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.
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 Ann Cleare, Wang Lu, and Miguel Zenón. Visit missioncommissionpodcast.com for a full listing of pieces, performers, and recordings included in this, and every episode. Thanks for listening.
