Sonia Megias Lopez interview with BMD

Sonia Megias Lopez recently completed a residency at the Basically Modern Arts Sanctuary where she composed ‘White Doll’ for the Basso Moderno Duo. During her stay here she was interviewed by Kristen Williams.

Tell me about the work you completed at the Basically Modern Arts Sanctuary.

I just completed a new work for the Basso Moderno Duo. The work's title, "White Doll" comes from a very beautiful choral habanera, "Black Doll". I've sung this habanera with the "Entredós" choir in Madrid. The work is an intimate wink to my friend Patricia, a woman whose presence has encouraged and helped me a lot. "White Doll" is organized in more of a process than a structure. This process begins with unpitched (non-harmonic) sounds, continues with pitched (harmonic) notes in central section, and returns to unpitched sounds to finish the work. Theatrically, this process is represented by a white cloth doll's actions: she starts sleeping (inside the piano, over highest strings, then stopping their sound), wakes up (noise lightly becomes sound), goes out from her bed and remains out for a while (beautiful melodies and harmonies) to finish returning to her bed (unpitched sounds). This work has been easy to write for Basso Moderno Duo because they are always opened to theatricality and high beautiful melodies in the double bass, both qualities not easy to find in a music group.

What inspires you?

My inspiration in fact comes from a lot of things and feelings. Inspiration depends each time on what I have around me. In some of my works I focus my whole attention on the commission characteristics: what kind of music are the performers used to playing (what are their limits). Where is the piece going to be performed (acoustic, room), how long does the work need to be, what kind of audience ... etc. In some other works I feel really free and I ask myself: "what do I need to hear?" What do I need to feel from a stage?” I leave my mind work from my deepest feelings and my childhood. In some works, I combine both aspects: commission + myself.

How do you get your ideas?

My ideas depend on what mood I have. When I am inspired and full of energy, ideas come in a very fluid manner. My friend Joaquín Martínez Oña, a magnificent music teacher, posed to me the possibility that composers are simply mediums that sends the ideas to us as a superior being. He continues by saying that our mission in life is to give the ideas a development and shape and then to transmitting them to the listener.

What guides your work?

My work is guided by creative impulses. As a good Gemini, one of my two personalities is impulsive, obstinate and very demanding. It is concerned with "pulling the wagon" in my projects. What gives shape to those starting ideas are reflected in the kind of performers and audience that I imagine the work will have in most of its performances and specifically the premiere.

What do you hope for the future?

Who knows! Life brings so many choices. I would like to continue composing and teaching, and I'd also like to live in contact with the nature.

You love to travel, where will you go next?

At the moment, I'm returning to Spain in order to rehears my next premiere and to see my family and friends whom I miss a lot.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Julie Mandel composes ‘Solitude In The City’ for Basso Moderno Duo

Julie Mandel has just composed ‘Solitude In The City’ for the Basso Moderno Duo to be part of our New York Women Composers program. Mandel was a student of Ernst Krenek and is an active composer of musical theater and chamber music.

“My intention was to write music that would make good use of both instruments, piano and bass, giving each a part that best utilized their abilities. The unusual high range of the solo bass was particularly interesting, offering opportunities not usually associated with the bass.

In writing ‘Solitude In The City’ I thought of the piano, with its ability to play chords of several notes and colors and provide almost continual movement, as representing the City; while the bass is set alone against that busy background to experience loneliness in the midst of a crowd, perhaps lost in the anonymity of the city”.

Basso Moderno Duo Wins Montpelier Concert Series Competition

The Basso Moderno Duo was selected as the winner of the Montpelier Concert Series Competition. In addition to an honorarium, they will be giving a recital on October 11, 2009. The concert will featured newly composed works written especially for the Basso Moderno Duo by member composers of the New York Women Composers, Inc.

Lawrence Kramer composes 'At the Crossroads' for Basso Moderno Duo

USA composer Lawrence Kramer has just completed 'At the Crossroads' for the Basso Moderno Duo. Kramer is a professor at Fordham University, co-editor of the journal 19th-Century Music and has authored many books on music including: Why Classical Music Still Matters (2007).

Of the work Kramer writes:
"The crossroads is the traditional site for fateful encounters and fateful decisions, from the Oedipus of Sophocles to the speaker of Robert Frost’s 'The Road Not Taken.' My piece 'At the Crossroads' seeks to evoke the drama of the crossroads in compressed musical form. (What happens at the crossroads happens quickly.) The music begins with the double bass and piano in very different frames of mind, but the two instruments gradually unite, part again, and reconcile—a process made possible here by the expanded expressive range of the double bass in high solo tuning".

The premiere will take place on October 22, 2008 at Fordham University.

Basso Moderno Duo Awarded New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant

The Basso Moderno Duo was granted the 2008 New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant.

The purpose of this grant is to bring attention to composer members of the NYWC and the BMD plans to do so through a series of concerts, a radio broadcast, and recordings. To learn more about the NYWC visit: www.newyorkwomencomposers.org

Maral Yakshieva Residency at Basically Modern Arts Sanctuary

Maral Yakshieva of Turkmenistan and Russia has joined us at the Basically Modern Arts Sanctuary to compose a new work for the Basso Moderno Duo. The Duo will share the stage with the composer and pianist on Sunday July 13 at the WAMC Performing Arts Center 'The Linda' in Albany, NY at 4:00.

Marie Incontrera composes 'Liszten' for Basso Moderno Duo

Marie Incontrera recently composed a new work for the Basso Moderno Duo entitled ‘Liszten’. This work will be included within a larger program the duo are organizing which focuses on members of the New York Women Composers, inc.

Of the new work, the composer says “Liszten was inspired by a fusion of the intricacies of dance, classical techniques and rhythmic rock. My intention in writing this piece was to have the subtleties of each style interact the way dancers or musicians interact with each other and with their audience in each of the aforementioned artistic media”.

To learn more about Marie Incontrera and her music please visit her website www.lamentbassmusic.com