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!