Interview with Sarah Hersh (Part 4)

If you’ve been tracking our conversation with composer Sarah Hersh, I bet you’re as excited as we are to learn about her other projects. Today’s our lucky day!

Diagenesis: What other projects have you been working on or will you be working on?
Sarah: One project I’m really excited about is a blog I started with another composer friend, Natalie Draper (who I went to college with), called Alphabet Soup. We always have these long phone conversations about being composers, academia, the way society sees music and the arts in general (and arts education), being women in the world of composition, etc. I think it was her idea to start a blog addressing some of our concerns, worries, hopes, problems (and sometimes just rants!) about all these things to see if there were other people out there who wanted to contribute to our conversations. We were hoping to hear other people’s thoughts, whether they agreed with us or not, and sometimes just to get advice or commiseration from people in similar situations.
    It’s been really fun, and while we haven’t quite had the discussions we would have hoped, we’re definitely moving more in that direction. We’re hoping at some point to expand the blog into a more action-oriented... thing, for lack of a better word. :) We started the blog because we wanted to DO something, instead of just talking to each other all the time, but now that we’ve started the blog, we want to take it a step further. It’s pretty slow going though, since we’re both very busy.
    Hopefully some of our “back-burner” projects will become a reality this year, but everything takes a lot of time, so we’ll see.

Diagenesis: Can you give us a preview of any of these action-oriented things or “back-burner” projects?
Sarah: I think I’m going to have to keep you guessing for now, sorry!
Diagenesis: Haha, we’ll just have to read the blog for ourselves!

Diagenesis: How about a fun question to wrap things up!?  What is in your refrigerator right now?
Sarah: Not very much. I really need to go food shopping and I have no idea what we’re having for dinner tonight- any suggestions? :) H: pizza S: good idea

Diagenesis: Well Sarah, this was great!  Thank you so much for sitting down to talk with us!
Sarah: Thank you both! This was fun! Thanks for listening to all my ramblings. :)

Another HUGE thank you to Sarah for sharing more about herself with us. If you'd like to learn more, definitely check out her blog and website.

Interview with Sarah Hersh (Part 3)

For the past few days we’ve been sharing an interview with Sarah Hersh. After much anticipation, here’s your exclusive Diagenesis blog sneak peek into the piece Sarah Hersh wrote for us!

Diagenesis: What’s your inspiration for the piece that you are writing for us?
Sarah: When I first started writing the piece I was thinking a lot about Sondheim. I love his music (Sweeney Todd in particular) and the way he sets text and uses language, so I wanted to try to use some of what I like about his music in this piece. I'm not sure if any of that actually comes through (which is fine), but it helps me to think about him sometimes.
    As far as inspiration... I guess the text is what inspires me, and the ideas behind it. Some of it seems sort of sad to me, so I'm trying to embrace that while not letting it be too depressing. And as with most of my music, I'm trying to have fun with it (and have the piece itself be fun).

Diagenesis: Where did you find the text you’re setting?  Why did you choose it?
Sarah: My sister, Julie Hersh, wrote the text. When you first asked me to write this piece for you I immediately asked her if she had anything that might work. I love her writing and I thought it would be fun to work with her. The piece is in three movements, and it sort of all grows out of the text for the third movement, which was something she had written before based on a dream she had. The texts for the first two movements are new poems she wrote specifically for this project.

Diagenesis: We’re so lucky!! How would you describe the piece?
Sarah: It's a strange, dreamlike series of thoughts and ideas. Parts of it are kind of creepy and mysterious, and other parts (I hope) are more playful and fun.  Because the third movement is based on a dream, I’m trying to make the music feel sort of dreamlike. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it makes sense and it’s not quite clear how ideas fit together or grow out of each other, but at the same time it does make sense. It’s similar to how dreams feel logical even though when you wake up and try to explain them they really aren’t. It’s dream-logic. I don’t know if that actually comes through in the piece, but I’m working on it and trying to make it coherent as well!
    It's also somewhat autobiographical (for both my sister and me, although the text obviously is based on how she sees me), about us and where we are in our lives.

Excited? Is your interest piqued? I know we’re excited!
Next, Sarah shares other exciting projects in her life.

Interview with Sarah Hersh (Part 2)

In a great conversation with composer and Diagenesis collaborator Sarah Hersh, we got the inside scoop on her background, musical interests, the piece she’s writing for us, and more!  

There was so much great information, we thought we would keep you in suspense.  Continued from our last post here’s a look into Sarah’s musical influences and what she likes to listen to!

Diagenesis: Which famous musicians/composers do you admire?
Sarah: Steve Reich, Stravinsky, and Kaija Saariaho
Diagenesis: I love love love your choices. Why them?
Sarah: I love their music and not necessarily in an academic way. There are composers who I recognize as great composers whose music I just don't really love (or sometimes like very much). But these composers, their music is beautiful, powerful, creepy, awesome, scary... I hate to sound stereotypical, but I have an emotional reaction to their music, and I could just sit and listen to it for hours - it's just so freaking good!

Diagenesis: Are these the same composers you study or are there others that inspire you in more of an academic way?
Sarah: The three composers I mentioned are people whose music I almost universally love, and I definitely have learned a lot from them. But, there are so many other composers who I’ve learned so much from too... Osvaldo Golijov, George Rochberg, Elliott Carter, Thomas Ades, Stephen Sondheim, Julia Wolfe... I’m just naming people off the top of my head whose music has influenced me at some point.
I often start listening to a specific composer or piece when I’m working on something, and that will be a source I go back and listen to repeatedly while I work.  Or an idea will strike me from listening to something and I’ll want to incorporate it into whatever I’m working on. The people I listed above are all people who I’ve listened to while working on specific pieces or at certain times in the last few years that have very subtly influenced something I’ve worked on (or maybe I just listened to something they wrote obsessively, whether or not it actually influenced something I was working on).

Diagenesis: Who was your first teacher?
Sarah: Scott Miller was my first piano teacher and he was the one who helped me start composing (well, formally).  He was an amazing teacher for so many reasons, but I give him enormous credit for introducing me to music and making it enjoyable for me as a child. While I definitely didn't get a classical background from him (which was slightly problematic once I got to college), I don't regret it for a second. I played all sorts of things with him - classical, jazz, even some Britney Spears... anything to get me playing the piano and loving music. I never learned proper fingerings, but I learned to love music and to realize that I could do whatever I wanted with it. I wrote my first piece with him and performed it at one of his yearly studio recitals, and that was the beginning of my life as a composer!
    All of my teachers have really helped me and I'd like to give them a shout out (I’m so grateful to all of them): Roger Ames for letting me imagine I could really be a composer and helping me along the way with composing in high school, Joseph Rutkowski who was a great high school band/orchestra teacher and seems to have forgiven me for not practicing clarinet very much (he gave the world premiere of my first band piece, and the high schoolers did a fantastic job!), Phillip Rhodes was my teacher in college and he is a wonderful composer and teacher, I learned so much from him and he gave me and continues to give me so much support in my composing and life, Paul Richards, who was my teacher at UF, was a great teacher for the start of my “professional” life as a composer. Not only did I learn a lot from him, but he also listened to me talk about being homesick for about a year into my master's (and after that, listened me to complain about all sorts of other things with a kind ear).

Diagenesis: Are there any particular recordings you’ve “obsessed” over that you would like to share?
Sarah: This isn’t really one of my obsessive ones anymore, but one in particular that stands out (that I was just listening to a few minutes ago, actually!) is a piece called Sweet Hardwood recorded by the group Ethel. First of all, I just love this piece because it's really fun, exciting, beautiful and just plain cool (sorry, that's really the best way to describe it). But the reason it had such a big influence on me is because this piece was how I “discovered” new music. I was in college and even though I was a music major already, no one had ever played anything for me that could be called new music- yes, I had heard music from the 20th century, but nothing that was being written today. I was probably pretty naive but I had no idea who was composing today and that people were writing all sorts of crazy and awesome music! So I was at a performance by the contemporary dance group at Carleton (where I went to undergrad) and one of the pieces they were dancing to was this piece by Ethel. I was so impressed by it (and so astonished, I had never heard a string quartet do anything like that) that as soon as I got home I looked them up and ordered their cd, and from then on I was hooked.

Diagenesis: What is in your ipod or car stereo?
Sarah: Oh quick answer to this one - my car radio is always on NPR. I also just found a great station in Atlanta- Georgia Tech’s student-run music station plays new music!

Diagenesis: If you had to recommend one recording what would it be?
Sarah: I think everyone should listen to Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. I actually don’t know which recording I first listened to but it was probably his group (and he was playing in it). I don’t know how original that is but the first time I heard this piece it was the same thing, I just fell in love with it and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I had never heard anything like it before.

Can you believe there’s even more great stuff we discussed with Sarah?!  Next we’ll take a sneak peek into the piece she’s writing for Diagenesis, and a look into her great blog!  Look for more in future posts! 

Interview with Sarah Hersh (Part 1)

In 2010 the two members of Diagenesis, Heather Barnes and Jennifer Bewerse, were lucky enough to meet at soundSCAPE - a new music festival in Macaggno, Italy. But if you’re reading this post, you probably knew that already!  What you might not know is we also had the opportunity to meet some other AMAZING musicians and composers.

As part of our 2012 Florida tour, we'll be premiering a new piece by one of those fantastic composers, and today we’d like to introduce you to her - composer Sarah Hersh!  

Diagenesis: Do you come from a musical family?
Sarah: My grandfather was a wonderful pianist, and there was one piece in particular that I loved watching him play so much (yes, watching, because of the way his hands moved over the keys) that it made me want to play the piano - Phantasietanz by Schumann
    My dad had grown up playing saxophone but he always wanted a piano, and when I was in sixth grade we finally got one. We got a beautiful upright Sohmer and to this day I still think it’s one of the best pianos I’ve ever played.  My dad started learning to play the piano at the age of... around 40, I think. My sisters and I all took lessons, my mom would play sometimes, and even my cat would (she very much enjoys jumping up on the keys).


Diagenesis: What instrument did you start on?
Sarah: Well I guess the clarinet is really my first instrument.  I started playing in elementary school, but I didn’t have as much motivation as I did with the piano. Later on I got much more into the clarinet though, and I actually played all throughout school and college. In college I started taking it more seriously and took lessons and was in the wind ensemble and orchestra. Actually I even took cello lessons for one term in college, Jen! But I wasn’t very good.

Diagenesis: So, when you applied for college was it for Clarinet or music or a different subject?
Sarah: I wasn’t actually sure I was going to continue with music when I applied to college. I knew I would do it sort of as a hobby I guess, but I didn’t decide to major in music and really pursue it seriously until my sophomore year. I applied to liberal arts schools so I knew I could do music if I wanted to, but I was interested in a million things and had trouble settling on anything (and still kind of do...).
    I got extremely lucky, since I wasn’t really looking too closely at the music departments or composers at the schools I applied to, and the school I ended up at - Carleton College - had a great music department and a wonderful composer in residence. They’re also one of the few schools that I know of that requires all music majors to take composition classes, no matter if you’re a composer, performer, musicologist, etc.
Diagenesis: That is a really good idea!
Sarah: I agree! I think all schools should do it.

Diagenesis: How did you become a composer?
Sarah: Before we got our family piano, we had a keyboard, and I would make up little tunes on it and ask my mom to write them down (this was before I could read music). Later, I started composing with my piano teacher, and in college I almost always found it more interesting to write my own music than to practice what other people had written... which didn't make me a great pianist but probably made me a better composer.
Diagenesis: What a great natural start! When and how did you decide to pursue it professionally?
Sarah: That’s a really good question! I guess in college once I had started seriously composing I knew that it was something I had to keep doing. When I finished the piece I wrote for my senior thesis I actually cried (I was so sad that it was done). After I graduated from college I really needed a break from formal education, so I got a job. I didn’t stop composing though. I ended up taking a class after work at Juilliard, then started working for a music organization. It became clear to me pretty quickly that I wanted to pursue this professionally, so that’s when I decided to go to grad school.

That’s just some of the great stuff we discussed with Sarah.  We also discussed her musical influences, a sneak peek into the piece she’s writing for Diagenesis, and a look into her great blog!  Look for more in future posts! 

Thank you for such a fun conversation Sarah!

We are going to...Florida!

That's right, on September 5th Jen and I will land in Florida! We are very excited about our Florida Tour. Jen grew up in Florida so I am sure it will be a wonderful homecoming for her, and I have only the fondest memories of my last visit to Florida (I was 5, and I was in Disney World!).

We are really excited about performing some of the new repertoire we worked on while we were in residence at the Banff Centre - Harrison Birtwistle’s 9 Settings of Lorine Niedecker, Harold Meltzer’s Two Songs of Silas Marner, and the world premiere of Sarah Hersh’s In Praise of Continuous New Dreams of New York City. On this tour we will not only perform, but will also work with elementary, high school, and university students.

We will have a very full itinerary.

September 5: We Arrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September 7: We will perform a noon concert as part of the Orlando Public Library's Music in the Library concert series. (Then Jen and I will go shopping for my bridesmaid dress for Jen’s wedding…any positive energy you can send our way would be appreciated!)


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September 8: A 7:30 concert in Jen’s home town, Merritt Island. I am really looking forward to meeting her family and friends!

September 10: This will be a very busy day at the University of Florida in Gainesville hosted by the Society of Composers student chapter at UF! First, we will read and give feedback on composition sketches for soprano and cello by Adam Scott Neal and Michael Smith. Then, we will perform a concert in which we will premiere Sarah Hersh’s In Praise of Continuous New Dreams of New York City! The University of Florida is Sarah’s Alma Mater and we are so proud to present her piece there! (Watch for a blog about Sarah and her piece very soon.)

September 11-12: We will visit The University of South Florida in Tampa! This two day residency will include a masterclass and a concert. This is where Jen did her undergraduate degree, so I look forward to being shown around the campus... even if it is too hot... which it will be.

September 14: We will work with the students at Ocean Breeze Elementary and Satellite High School in Brevard County!

You can find more details about our concert times and locations in the Performances section of our website! I am really looking forward to the tour and another Diagenesis adventure!!!!

-Heather