Interviews w/past Music Alive composer recipients: Alvin Singleton (02/2002) Bun-Ching Lam (04/2001) P.Q. Phan (09/2000) The below interviews were conducted by Ken Gallo of Meet The Composer

(photo: Joanna Eldredge Morrissey)

Alvin Singleton (Round IV; interview: 02/2002)

Atlanta-based Composer Alvin Singleton's latest piece, Argoru VIII, is a solo work for snare drum and snare drum only. How does one write for snare drum only? If you guessed a "roll" or "flam" would be included in any snare drum piece, you would be wrong, at least in Mr. Singleton's case, of which he says: "I avoided the use of drum rolls, flams and other typical things one associates with snare drumming. Rhythm was my main concentration in the writing of Argoru VIII."

Commissioned by Meet The Composer's Commissioning Music/USA program for the ensemble Thamyris, the title, Argoru, is from the West African Twi language, which is spoken in Ghana (coincidentally, where the origins of the "talking drum" begin). It premiered at Atlanta's Emory University on February 16, 2002 in a program of percussion works featuring other MTC commissions from Pauline Oliveros, Frank Hannaway, and Janice Giteck; in addition to a work by Steven Mackey (all performed by Peggy Benkeser of Thamyris).

Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Singleton attended NYU and Yale before he went to study abroad, as a Fulbright scholar, in Rome. He spent more than a decade in Europe, mainly Austria, before he was lured back stateside in 1985 to be composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony, a post he held until 1988 (part of MTC's landmark Orchestra Residencies program). In addition, January 2002 saw the release of his CD, Somehow We Can, on John Zorn's Tzadik label.

We talked with Mr. Singleton about Argoru VIII, his roots, improvisation, and Somehow We Can.

MTC: What is your first memory of music?
AS: My parents had quite a collection of 78s; spirituals, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald. I also sang in the church choir and was in my Boy Scout marching band when I was young. I played the glockenspiel, but I also liked drumming and marching. I still do to this day. The music that comes from New Orleans especially has those elements.
MTC: Was jazz a big influence when you were younger?
AS: Jazz was a big influence on me during my teenage years. I remember seeing Ornette Coleman and his first quartet play at the Five Spot. Charlie Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Horace Silver were also favorites of mine during that period. I also heard Miles and John Coltrane at the old Birdland. Those performances stand out in my mind like it was yesterday. Where I grew up, in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, some of my friends' parents were jazz musicians. I didn't think I could ever be a good jazz musician though. Besides, I wanted to write for all sorts of instrumental combinations and performing became less important to me.

My favorite is the instrument I am composing for at that moment

MTC: Do you have a favorite instrument to compose for?
AS: Not really. My favorite is the instrument I am composing for at that moment. For example, I just finished a solo snare drum piece commissioned by Peggy Benkeser of ensemble Thamyris titled Argoru VIII. This is a title I use for all my solo instrumental pieces. It's from the Twi language spoken in Ghana and means "to play." The piece will premiere at Emory University here in Atlanta this month. (February 2002)
MTC: How did you approach the challenge to write for a snare drum? Was it difficult?
AS: Writing music in general is difficult. You begin with an idea, whether it's about rhythm or color. In this case it was rhythmic. Utilizing just this one instrument was challenging and very exciting. It had to be balanced musically yet have some variety. I avoided the use of drum rolls, flams and other typical things one associates with snare drumming. Rhythm was my main concentration in the writing of Argoru VIII. As I started working with this idea, I discovered other things that became a part of the piece.
MTC: You said that your participation in the MTC Orchestra Residencies program, with the Atlanta Symphony (1985-1988), changed your life. How?
AS: The Meet The Composer Orchestra Residencies program brought me back to the States. At that point, I'd been living in Europe for about 14 years. I hadn't decided when or how to come back, although I knew that I wanted to return home. Receiving the invitation, in the middle of this personal quagmire, to be composer-in-residence of a major orchestra with a major conductor, Robert Shaw, was a great opportunity.
MTC: Were you making a name for yourself there?
AS: Yes, people were getting to know me. In Europe's smaller cities and towns people take time to get to know you. They watch and wait. After a while, when they had a sense that I was dedicating my music and life to them, living in their town, they embraced me and what I did. It's like that in the smaller cities in the States too. In Graz, Austria where I lived for 9 years, the local newspaper went from writing about me as "the American composer" to "our Alvin Singleton."
MTC: Why did you move to Europe and what did you do when you were there?
AS: I wanted to broaden my life experiences. I got a Fulbright to study with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. From there I went to Austria and worked as a disk jockey in a discotheque in the evening, while composing during the day. I went to Darmstadt, Germany and won a composition prize there. I was commissioned by the Austrian radio several times and won the Musikprotokoll composition prize twice. I visited many music festivals in Royan, Venice, Milan, Amsterdam, Warsaw, London and others. It's so easy to travel throughout. For example, if there was a Boulez or Philip Glass premiere in Holland, I would get on a train and be there the next day. I think that everyone should experience another culture. Learning to adjust to that culture is a great learning experience. I have that under my belt and I'm richer for it.
MTC: Have composers like yourself, who are influenced by and utilize improvised music in their compositions, changed the traditional idea that compositions exist as just notes on a page?

A musical score is a road map. Some of its directions are very specific, while others leave a choice.

AS: Music compositions do not exist as just notes on a page, the real music is what one hears - the performance. The African presence in the United States, through the invention and development of jazz has influenced the thinking of many music creators. A musical score is a road map. Some of its directions are very specific, while others leave a choice. There will always be composers writing scores and at the same time those who concentrate more on improvisation. I'm interested in the combination of the two. One of the things that inspires me is the very high performance quality of musicians in the United States. To me, improvisation means you're a composer and performer in the same moment. I'm aware that whatever I give a performer on paper, he or she can do much more. I'm interested in their input. I want them to add some spice and/or energy of their own to my piece.

MTC: How do you indicate it?
AS: There are many ways of how one directs a performer to improvise within a fixed structure, or controlled musical environment. Of course that depends primarily upon who you are working with. If you're collaborating with someone who improvises professionally, or has had a lot of experience improvising in all styles, then you give them a lot less instructionally. In Vous Compra, for trumpet and piano on the new Tzadik CD, the performers are seasoned improvisors. Therefore my instructions were limited to notes and chords without rhythms along with suggestions of tempo, mood and energy levels. Now, for the player with little or no experience at making up things along the way, the approach is a lot more hands on. For example you can tell an instrumentalist to repeat a phrase 4 times with slight variations in each repetition; improvise based upon the musical environment; or, listen to what is being played around you and imitate and/or vary it. These are just a few examples.
MTC: Your new CD, Somehow We Can, on John Zorn's label Tzadik was just released. What is Somehow We Can?
AS: Somehow We Can is the title of the string quartet I composed for the Marian Anderson Quartet that premiered at Alice Tully Hall in 1995. It's one of the compositions on the new CD of the same title. Marian Anderson was a contralto, and the first African American soloist to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. The piece was commissioned by the Eastman School of Music in dedication to her memory.
MTC: What else is on the CD?
AS: Vous Compra, that was previously mentioned, for trumpet and piano. Mookestueck, written in 1999 for Martha Mooke and her five string electric viola and premiered at New York City's Renee Weiler Recital Hall at Greenwich House Music School. And finally, Again, a chamber orchestra piece premiered in 1979 at the Styrian Autumn Festival in Graz, Austria.
MTC: How did you become associated with Tzadik?
AS: John Zorn had expressed interest in my music and invited me to send something that he could listen to. The rest is history.

Bun-Ching Lam (photo used with permission)

Bun-Ching Lam (Round I; interview: 04/2001)

"I never dreamt I would write another piece for pipa and orchestra until I got a call from the New Jersey Symphony," says Chinese born composer Bun-Ching Lam of her newest piece, Song of the Pipa, which will premiere during the second half of her two week Music Alive residency at the NJSO in April 2001 (the first week completed in November 2000). Her first piece for pipa and orchestra, Sudden Thunder, was written for the American Composer's Orchestra and premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1995.

What would seem like a strange pairing, the pipa, a four stringed lute from China's Wei Dynasty (386-534) with the traditionally Western orchestra, is becoming commonplace as many American orchestras begin implementing inter-disciplinary elements into their programming. "I have attempted to combine my Chinese sensibility with Western compositional techniques," she says. "Creating a music that is contemporary." Coincidently, she is one of three Asian-American composers featured in Music Alive's inaugural season, along with Chinese born Bright Sheng with the Seattle Symphony; and Vietnamese born PQ Phan with the American Composers Orchestra. Bun-Ching was born in Macau, a Portuguese governed colony, where she was influenced as much by Western ideology, as Eastern politics and art. "My piano teacher was Portuguese and we spoke English most of the time," she says. "My background is very different from other Chinese-American composers."

She received her Ph.D at the University of California/San Diego in 1981, and, in addition to the NJSO and the American Composer's Orchestra, Lam's compositions have been presented worldwide by Bang on a Can, New Music America, ISCM World Music Days (Hong Kong), Pacific Soundings (Japan), and Aspeckte (Austria). She is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and a Meet The Composer Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Commission, to name a few. Two CD's are available of Lam's works: Mountain Clear Water Remote (Composers Recordings, Inc.1996), and …Like Water (Tzadik 1997).

She spoke about her songs, her Eastern and Western influence, the orchestra, and Music Alive.

MTC: What are your methods when composing?
BCL: Whatever works. (laughs)
MTC: Do you write in the morning?
BCL: It is a very romantic notion to have the feeling to wake up and write music. Sometimes I dream about music. Usually I do write in the morning; that's when I work the best. I get my cup of tea and start working. Everyday, especially when working on a project. Everyday and no weekends. (laughs)
MTC: What attracted you to the orchestra?
BCL: The amazing palette of tone color. The whole energy of sounds together. It can make a lot of noise, but it can also be very quiet. It's the most highly evolved organization of musicians.
MTC: Do you have a favorite instrument?
BCL: I love the contra-bassoon. I use that a little bit, but I think all instruments are wonderful. The new piece for the NJSO, The Song of the Pipa, is a piece for pipa and orchestra. I also use the solo cello in it quite a bit. It's almost a dialogue between the pipa and the cello.

The piece is patterned after the narrative and unfolds slowly, like a Chinese scroll painting.

MTC: What is that piece about?
BCL: Song of the Pipa is based on the poem of the same name written by Bai Ju-yi during the Tang Dynasty. It's a very famous poem that all Chinese know and contains the most vivid description of pipa playing that I know of. The piece is patterned after the narrative and unfolds slowly, like a Chinese scroll painting. It's dedicated to my mother, as she used to recite me the poem from memory.
MTC: The pipa player Wu Man will be the featured performer in that piece. Did you write the piece with her in mind?
BCL: I had already written a piece for her at The American Composers Orchestra; a pipa concerto titled Sudden Thunder. I know her very well. I know her playing. I definitely had her in mind. She has a wonderful sense of…in Chinese there is something called "yun wei" meaning a particular kind of finesse, taste or flavor; not how to play fast or loud. It's between the notes and how she articulates them.

Children are very excited to hear a "new" instrument.

MTC: In part of your residency you went to schools in New Jersey to introduce the students to Chinese instruments. What were their reactions to them?
BCL: One player from the NJSO came with me. She plays the piccolo, and also a little bit of the Chinese dizi: the bamboo flute. She demonstrated it to them. Children are very excited to hear a "new" instrument. They all tried to make some noise come out of it. This particular school in New Jersey was very interesting because the school actually has a Chinese language program. Most of the kids were taking Chinese lessons, but none of them were Chinese. They were a mixture of all races. I would say some Chinese to them and they would answer back in Chinese. It was fun.
MTC: How do you incorporate traditional Eastern instruments into the orchestra? Do you approach it differently?
BCL: In Song of the Pipa, for example, the pipa is the solo instrument; it's out front. I don't see any difference. Nowadays you can put everything together and make it work in a way that can be wonderful. There are no barriers between Eastern and Western. Everything works. We live in a wonderful time. People have no expectations; they love to be surprised. It's not a problem. It's just a wonderful possibility to create new sounds.

I am not changing the tradition of the Western orchestra, I am extending it.

MTC: How do you think Eastern composers are changing the landscape of the traditionally Western orchestra? What is the audience reaction to Eastern instruments?
BCL: I can only speak from my own experience. Sudden Thunder was very well received. The people really enjoyed hearing different timbres; different tunings in a sense. In that particular context, it worked very well. Last year, for Song of the Pipa, we did a presentation at one of the NJSO board meetings about it. The board was very excited. They seemed very curious to see how it works. I explained to them how I think about the piece; the structure. They were genuinely interested. I hope that it's not just exotic or foreign. It should make musical sense. I am not changing the tradition of the Western orchestra, I am extending it. Nowadays, with the symphony orchestra, the structure has to change. A lot of orchestras are adding electronic elements and looking into new technologies and cultures. It's a very exciting thing.

A lot of orchestras are adding electronic elements and looking into new technologies and cultures.

MTC: Are there ever conflicts between Eastern heritage and Western influence?
BCL: Half of my life I have lived in the United States and I grew up in Macau (China), which was a Portuguese colony. So, I was well versed in Western culture; but still deeply rooted in my Chinese culture. I have the best of both worlds. Actually, I don't think of it as two worlds. It's one world; one with a very cosmopolitan view. I'm comfortable here; I'm comfortable in China, and, actually, I'm comfortable in Europe. I speak all these different languages. There is no conflict in who I am. Sometimes I feel like eating Japanese food; sometimes I feel like eating French. I am a citizen of the world. It's all the same to me.
MTC: You didn't grow up under Communist rule?
BCL: No, I grew up under Portuguese government. My piano teacher was Portuguese and we spoke English most of the time. My background is very different from other Chinese-American composers like Bright Sheng, Zhou Long and Chen Yi, although we are all Chinese.
MTC: When you lived in China, did you know these other Chinese composers who are now your American colleagues?
BCL: Actually, we only met in 1986 in Hong Kong during a Chinese composers conference. That was the first time; 10 years after the Cultural Revolution.

During the Cultural Revolution, when I was in school, I was playing the accordion and singing songs praising Chairman Mao

MTC: Did you find that you had any common stories to share about the Cultural Revolution?
BCL: Not really. For example, Chen Yi is from Canton which is not far from Macau; like from NYC to Albany. Although, we both speak Cantonese, politically Canton was a very different climate than Macau. I did go to a so-called "Communist school," so I knew all the Revolutionary songs. During the Cultural Revolution, when I was in school, I was playing the accordion and singing songs praising Chairman Mao. We all have that in common. When we met they were very surprised when I knew all those songs.
MTC: Commissioned by Chamber Music America and performed in November at NJSO was Omi Hakkei. How was that piece structured and what is it about?

In China they have been pretty successful in ruining and destroying everything, even the landscape.

BCL: The piece is a very good example of what I was mentioning: thinking as a citizen of the world. It is inspired by Western instruments; the famous Debussy trio format: harp, flute and viola. What I've put together is the Chinese counterpart of it: the zheng, which is like a Chinese koto (a string instrument analogous to the harp); Chinese dizi, flutes of different sizes; and the erhu and zhonghu, which are two-stringed fiddles of different sizes (the erhu is a little higher in pitch, and actually the zhonghu is similar in timbre to the viola). Omi Hakkei means eight views of Lake Biwa, which is a beautiful lake quite close to Kyoto. A few years ago I was on a grant from The Asian Cultural Council and I spent three months in Japan. I was very fascinated by Japanese culture. I have always been. I really like Toru Takemitsu's music. This piece was written as an homage and is dedicated to him. I have visited these places near Lake Biwa; these eight locations or views; these different landscapes. There was a very famous Japanese woodcut artist named Hiroshige. He has a set of woodcuts on these "eight views." One of them I discovered in a bookstore and asked my composer friend where this place is and found out that this a well-documented and famous landscape. Hiroshige has actually done quite a few variations of the same woodcuts. All the titles of the movements from Omi Hakkei come from titles of the Hiroshige woodcuts. I have six of them. All together, the music makes up this imaginary landscape. I have visited those places and have tried to present a sense of the atmosphere. Also, the reason I went to Japan was, in a way, I was trying the find ancient China in Japan. In China they have been pretty successful in ruining and destroying everything, even the landscape. In those times, the reason why artists did things like "eight views," was because they were very influenced by the Song dynasty painters; the Japanese were learning from the Chinese and for a long time they used the same subject matter. Also, Debussy had an interest in Japanese art and Takemitsu was influenced by Debussy. So, it's all related, if not convoluted.
MTC: Has the first half of the residency had an impact on New Jersey's Asian community?

Making a personal connection with as many as possible is most important.

BCL: We had a little bit of difficulty reaching Chinese-Americans. There are no Chinese community centers. New Jersey is so big and spread out and the residency is so short. It has taken a lot of manpower. It's a challenge. The NJSO has worked very hard and we found remedies for the second half. I will be visiting the Chinese Heritage School in South Brunswick, which is in Central New Jersey, to give a presentation to Chinese children and their parents. Making a personal connection with as many as possible is most important. If I can go to a school and talk to fifty people, that's great. But, the impact is not widespread enough. A long term objective would be a CD-ROM about the new piece. It obviously has a lot to do with Chinese literature. From there, we could go on to talk about Chinese art. Something like a CD-ROM can reach more people. If that's the objective of a residency, then something should be done like that in the future.
MTC: You're working on an Opera that was an MTC International Creative Collaboration project that will premiere in NYC next year called Wenji. Who was Wenji?
BCL: Wenji was a poet, musician and scholar. She was living around the year 200; the daughter of a very prominent scholar. She was kidnapped to Inner Mongolia; taken out of her parent's house and forced to marry a chief and produce two children. Then after 12 years the Chinese government wanted her to go back to China. The story is about her decision whether to go back or not to go back. If she leaves, she will leave her children and never see them again. The libretto is written in Chinese, using some of the poems that she herself supposedly wrote. I'm almost finished with it. It will premiere at the Asia Society in January or February of 2002, and then go to the Hong Kong Arts festival, then to Macau. It will be performed bi-lingually and directed by Rinde Eckert.
MTC: Beside Toru Takemitsu, who are some composers that have had an influence on you?
BCL: There are so many. John Cage, Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Ligeti, Pauline Oliveros, Chou Wen-Chung. Messiean. I could go on. They're all wonderful and some of them are close friends.
MTC: Is there something that you've listened to recently that inspired you?
BCL: At the Great Day in New York program last month (Jan 2001), I heard some new music by Joan Tower, and the Bang on a Can All Stars that I liked very much. They are good friends. I don't have a lot of time to listen to music, but I try to go to concerts as much as possible. It's very hard to sit down and listen to music. Isn't that funny?
MTC: Well, there is music going on inside your head all the time to inspire you, isn't there?
BCL: (laughs) I wish that was true. Sometimes when I get up and try to work, it's empty. When you get an idea you better grab on to it.

P.Q. Phan

After several unsuccessful attempts to flee Communist Vietnam, one of which landed him in prison, P.Q. Phan finally found freedom when he came to America in 1982. Trained in Vietnam as an architect, he abandoned his profession once he arrived to study composition at USC and the University of Michigan. Last year, as part of their "20th Century Snapshot Series," American Composers Orchestra commissioned Mr. Phan to write music celebrating the new millennium. What began as a jubilant piece took a decidedly brusque turn due to the events of Independence Day weekend 1999: a shooting spree by a white supremacist that killed two non-whites in Illinois and Indiana. The tragedy literally hit too close to home for Mr. Phan, who was teaching at Indiana University at the time. His finished work reveals a vision of America in which we all share: a skeptical idealism, what he refers to as a "hope for a brighter future."

Mr. Phan will begin his Music Alive Residency at ACO in early October, culminating at Carnegie Hall on October 15th, 2000 with the premiere of When The Worlds Mixed and Times Merged in ACO's Pacifica program (celebrating the Pacific Rim influence in American music). His music can also be heard on Banana Trumpet Games, his recently released CD from Composers Recordings, Inc.

We spoke with Mr. Phan about Vietnam, freedom, his music, and Music Alive

MTC: Was there a composer that inspired you to compose?
PQP: At first, no. When I was back in Vietnam, my first wish to compose was to facilitate myself to have more music to practice. There was no particular composer in mind. However, there are composers that I admire a lot. Great American composers like Charles Ives. I think he is a very fascinating composer. Somehow I find Ives close to me. Ives' music consists of several layers which reflect many ideas which are very close to what I want to do. Many layers of different cultural reflections.
MTC: Do you play an instrument?
PQP: I taught myself how to play piano.
MTC: You were also trained as an architect in Vietnam. When did you decide to become a composer instead of an architect or musician?
PQP: The very first day I arrived in this country. I decided to be a composer for many reasons. I recognized that I loved to create things. On top of that, my playing for the piano was totally hopeless; to be a concert pianist, anyway, was hopeless. I concentrated more on composition. At the same time I decided not to pursue my career as an architect.
MTC: How did your Eastern heritage and Western influence lend itself to developing an original voice as a composer?
PQP: This is how it works: at the very beginning I concentrated towards mainly creating pure Eurocentric music. But, the longer I stayed in this country the further I recognized the value of my original culture. I went through a long course of examining Vietnamese traditional music. The aesthetic of the Vietnamese musical tradition is something that can offer me the most. Not only the musical aesthetic, but the way people think about the music, and art in general, as an aesthetic back in Vietnam.
MTC: How do Vietnamese and American Musical traditions come together in your music?
PQP: The reason I mix American music and Vietnamese traditional music is because of my social situation. It's not because I do this as a way for me to prove something. I do this because I have to reflect my identity. If I'm still in Vietnam then my intention would not be to mix American music and Vietnamese music. But, because I am a Vietnamese-American I need to find my own voice; my own musical language that reflects my identity.
MTC: What are your memories of Vietnam in the '70s and how do they influence you?
PQP: There were many good things and many bad things. It was a difficult situation with the war. I grew up going through many political changes. I am originally from the democratic part of the country: the South. Going through the Vietnam War, which none of us understood, then being a part of the Communist Regime… The memories are difficult to explain. The one thing that I got out of it, is the total value of freedom and free-thinking and not to take life for granted. Going through all the hard times with the Communist Regime I value the freedom I have a lot more. That's all I can say.
MTC: You were a political prisoner after the war?
PQP: Yes.
MTC: What did you think when you lost your freedom?
PQP: Those six months were… I thought that there was no future. To live in Vietnam under the Communist Regime…you don't think about the future. In prison it's even worse than that. It's a real dead end. You have to force yourself to be somewhat positive from one day to another and hope that you get out and find a way to rebuild your life. To be in a Communist country was something totally out of my imagination. Life is completely different since the day I came here.
MTC: The piece written for ACO, When The Worlds Mixed and Times Merged, you initially began as a celebratory piece for ACO's Millenium series at Carnegie Hall. But, during the writing a three day shooting spree by a white supremacist occurred in Illinois and Indiana. What sort of affect did the shooting have on you and how did it change the direction of the piece?
PQP: It happened so close to my home. I was teaching at the University of Illinois and in the Spring of 1999 I had been invited and planned to teach at Indiana University. In July of 1999, both campuses, U of I and Indiana, had shootings. It was terrifying. Old home, new home. The incident made me feel like it doesn't matter how much I try I will never be part of this culture; of this country, just because I look different. Not because I think different, not because I don't want to be part of this country; just because I look different. That event didn't exactly inspire my entire composition. However, it made an impact for me to take a sharp turn in the direction of it. From the beginning I planned to do many sketches of musical celebration, but because of the incident it made me more skeptical about our culture in the future. I couldn't avoid putting my personal reflection in that composition. The composition ends with hope for a brighter future; a happy ending.
MTC: Was it even more troubling when you found out the shooter was an IU student?
PQP: Frightening. It also indicated that the shooting was not a random act. It was an intentioned act; something that people had planned to do on purpose…that makes things even more scary.
MTC: In a residency, how important are the activities beyond the performance?
PQP: I find this (Music Alive) residency interesting for me; not only for me to share my ideas but to learn from younger people as well. Beside the rehearsal, there is a difficult technical part that we need to do, I will go out and meet a lot of young students from some parts of Brooklyn, Queens, and Harlem. For me, to learn from young people from different parts of the country; how they think about their situation and about their generation, it is almost like a social interchange. To renew and refresh my ideas, and to reinforce my thinking about social status, is very important. During the two weeks, I will also participate in a conference call: "Animating Democracy." A group of artists and art enthusiasts, including myself, will get together to support each other and talk about issues and how we can use and utilize art to deal with democracy and civic matters.
MTC: How important is it to show a young person what art can do?
PQP: It is absolutely important. On the teaching part, my main concentration is not about teaching the technical part of composition, but to encourage them to think about the philosophical aspect of their compositions. I try to motivate them. I try to encourage them to think: why music? why write music? Surprisingly, a lot of the younger generation keep writing music and beautiful tunes; very well crafted compositions, but when you ask them what the music is all about they have a very blank idea. I think it's very important to find a way to inspire them to think of music on a more substantial level.
MTC: Did you think like this as a young person?
PQP: No. I grew up self-taught. When I came to school for formal training, my teachers always talked about that. A formal training in ethnomusicology also helped me to think more about philosophical and social aspects as well.
MTC: What music do you listen to now?
PQP: I listen to anything that comes out. I try very hard to find new music from any part of the world. Anything from Asia or Europe or the U.S. On top of that I spend a lot of time listening to traditional music. I love traditional music from the world very much.
MTC: What is the strangest CD you own?
PQP: Trance music from the Middle East and North Africa. I love that stuff. Perhaps that is the strangest thing.
MTC: What is your favorite instrument to compose for?
PQP: I love to compose for orchestra.
MTC: Within the orchestra, is their a particular instrument you are drawn to?
PQP: No. I view the orchestra as an instrument. The orchestra allows me to convey several ideas which can happen simultaneously. I have a hard time with…lets say solo piano. The solo piano can not help me do things that have two or three ideas going on at the same time. The color of the orchestra helps me to do that.
MTC: How do getting grants help you?
PQP: They help me to share my music with a broader audience. If you don't have a commission from a well known organization, your music can only can be played within a small circle. The commission from the ACO is so great because I will have the premiere in New York and be exposed to a very important audience. The focus in New York is very sharp.
MTC: What advice would you give a young composer seeking to get funding/commissions?
PQP: Keep trying. Write a lot of music. Write good music. Introduce your music to a lot of people. In a way it's a form of self-promoting. I still spend a lot of time sending my tapes to people in the mail. Unfortunately, all of this is not free of charge (laughs), I use money from my own pocket to do it.