Beth Custer

Ms. Custer is a recent recipient of a Meet The Composer Round IX New Residencies grant.


"FOLLOW YOUR HEART, BUT TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE"

Interview by Wendy Loomis

Wendy: What are your earliest musical memories? Tell me a bit about your background.
Beth: My dad was a pianist - he played Rachmaninoff every day after work. I began piano at 3 - I remember reaching up to the keys. He gave me some of my first lessons. Then I started formal lessons, gave those little recitals, and took piano all the way through high school. Also another memory is singing in church. I was raised Roman Catholic. I grew up out in the country where there was all this farm land - it's a beautiful area (Fredonia, New York). Fortunately, the priest kept the sermons short so the farmers could get back to their fields, especially during harvest season.

I always knew I was going to be a musician. I just didn't know in what capacity.

I think my musical style is very affected by nature. I get my inspiration from there. I started playing clarinet from taking a test in school. They assigned me clarinet. I always knew I was going to be a musician. I just didn't know in what capacity. When I auditioned for college I had to decide between the clarinet and the piano and I chose the clarinet in order to play in group settings, although part of me regrets that I didn't choose piano. After college I started to study with the world renown teacher Rosario Mazzeo in Carmel. I studied with him for four years and it was the most amazing experience of my life. He had taught for 65 years and his message to me was: "Follow your heart, but take the scenic route." He was so supportive and came to several of my concerts. Where other teachers had told me I couldn't play jazz and classical at the same time, he said follow your own path. Here I was playing all these clarinet pieces that incorporated improvisation and doing little improvisational concerts throughout the Bay Area.
Wendy: Do you feel that the study of classical music is inhibiting in any way for an improviser?
Beth: I actually feel the structure of classical training is a good thing, as long as follow your heart. Some of my other teachers were less encouraging,. It is very confining, but it is also very disciplined. And that discipline is invaluable. I've read how many jazz artists also studied classical - like Miles Davis at Juilliard, and Chopin was a great improviser, for example. Many professors are frustrated performers who are teaching at a college to get by.
Wendy: What was the Vinculum Symphony project (2000)?
Beth: Vinculum Symphony was made to be really flexible. The idea was to have it work with any chamber group combined with any instrument builders and from any city. I started this by writing chamber pieces during a residency at the Marin Headlands Artist Center (which I recommend to all artists, by the way). I did a concert a month for three months and wrote new music for each concert, in baby steps towards the final symphony. A year later I got a Meet the Composer grant and a residency at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and they agreed to produce the symphony. Now I want to take it to other cities: Prague, Seattle, Lisbon. I recently received a McKnight grant and I will be going to Minneapolis to do it next.
Wendy: So the music stays the same and the instrumentation changes?
Beth: Yes. The music will be developed further and I'll write more parts. It will be flexible. I'd like to record "Vinculum 2 - Live in Minneapolis"...the sequel! I am a performer and love to perform so I like to take this music and perform it in a band situation. On my last CD release (doņa luz 30 besos, 2000), there are 4 pieces from the Vinculum Symphony in band form. I will always write new stuff.

It was great to conduct the improvisation - kind of like "action dance"

It never stays the same. I had a group of 32 people and I had someone conducting the written parts while I conducted the improvised parts. It was great to conduct the improvisation - kind of like action dance.
Wendy: If somebody had never heard anything you'd written, how would you describe to them the type of music you write?
Beth: That's a difficult question. I like to always incorporate the individuals. I try to pick people for their sound and their energy and what they bring. I like to incorporate improvisation into my writing. That's not a new idea. Duke Ellington did it - lots of people have done it. That brings each person into it. I bring in sounds of nature. You will hear lots of water and bird songs in my music. For a while I was playing my clarinet in a tub of water and got all these great bubble sounds. I am really influenced by African, African American, and Cuban music. Right now I am listening to lots of Cuban music. I am influenced by jazz and blues and you will hear lots of those elements in my music. Record stores don't know what to do with me. eighty mile beach (1999), for example, is flat-out pop and they still will put it in the experimental music section! I think in record stores they should just put everything alphabetically instead of in these categories. So if you wanted Beethoven or Bikini Kill - they would both be in B. Why categorize stuff? It's really very narrow-minded. It drives me to distraction.
Wendy: I really liked Dona Luz. Did you spend time in Cuba?
Beth: Yes. I want to go back before Castro dies. These people live on nothing and yet they will give you the shirt off their back.

Why categorize stuff? It's really very narrow-minded.

I was living in a tenement where there was rarely even water. They wouldn't let us pay rent, so we bought tons of food and filled their cabinets. I could walk around in short shorts and a tank top at any time of day or night and feel perfectly comfortable. I brought my clarinet and played with so many amazing musicians. Music would be playing on every corner from 11:00 am to 2:00 in the morning. There was this place called Casa de Yoya where I met an amazing singer Yoya, who opened her tiny apartment to musicians on weekends for open jams.
Wendy: The CD is dedicated to Yoya, yet I read that the date of her death was listed as 2000. Did she live to hear this release?
Beth: No. I sent a pile of music down to her, but the package was handed off to someone and she never received it. I figure she's hearing it in heaven.
Wendy: Your bio on the Bay Area Women Composers' site talked about your experience with European audiences. How do you feel they differ from American audiences?
Beth: I've been there several times in different circumstances. The first time I went to Europe was to a Stockhausen festival in Lisbon that my teacher pushed me to go to. The second time - I got this call from a group of San Francisco artists of looking for a solo woman musician to go on tour with them to the former Czechoslovakia. It was a train tour Czechoslovakia, one of these incredible experiences that you never forget. My first gig was playing at a gallery in Pilsen (which is where Pilsner beer comes from).

There is a wider appreciation for "out there" stuff in Europe.

There is a wider appreciation for "out there" stuff in Europe.
Wendy: On another subject, do you feel that you have had any restriction or bias against you as a woman composer?
Beth: It's hard to know if I missed certain opportunities because I am a woman since it wasn't stated like that. I was with Club Foot Orchestra for many years as the only woman with 9 men. Sometimes I had to stand up for myself and demand a solo or something, even if I wasn't the best jazz soloist. I remember one band early in my career where I was the only woman and they said they didn't want me there because it wasn't like "being with the guys" anymore. I can laugh now, but at the time that was hard. I see a lot of it in the film industry which I've been trying to break into for years. The independent films I've done have been mostly for women directors and I appreciate the solidarity of women hiring women.

I don't want to trash any group - like white males - but I always look down through the movie credits hunting for women composers.

I don't want to trash any group - like white males - but I always look down through the movie credits hunting for women composers. It seems it's just starting to change.
Wendy: Would you like to write for more mainstream films?
Beth: Independent films are not so independent anymore. I want to approach certain directors and I'm thinking of strategies to approach people I like - Spike Lee, Jane Campion, Sally Potter. The worst that can happen is my stuff ends up in a bin somewhere, so it's worth trying. I've sent maybe 100 packages to Hollywood agencies and not had a word. It's the people you know, always. You just keep plugging away. It's sort of like an odds thing. If you only have one CD out, it's hard to make it unless you have a big hit. But if you keep releasing CDs, eventually things may get through.
Wendy: Do you make your living entirely by music?
Beth: I teach, but all my income is from music. I don't have a day job right now and I'm thankful for that.
Wendy: How about the Internet? Do you feel it is helpful to independent musicians?
Beth: I have a web page and all, but I'm not a computer whiz and I haven't explored it fully. It's hard for me to have the patience to do a lot of surfing. I think eventually it will be beneficial to musicians if we can keep it free and not charge for emails, etc. I find also from having my own business for 10 years that I can't get into everything. You can work 24/7 and it still won't be enough. As I get older, I'm trying to maintain my Sundays off and getting out into nature more and not be working every minute. I'd like to learn more about the Internet as the potential is certainly there.

Learn more about Beth Custer, and buy CD's, at her web site

Wendy Loomis is a composer/pianist living, writing, and performing in San Francisco. She is currently the composer, music director, and co-producer of the spoken word/millennium music ensemble Copus. For more information, please visit Copus