< PreviousJOURNAL OF THE IAWM17 “We have made great effort in recent years to have a diverse judging panel including non-white and non-male judges,” said Beth Ratay, Artistic Director of BNMI, “and the result was our first non-white, non-male winning composer this year.” Now, almost a year later, I submitted a new commissioned piece for the BNMI to premiere in June: Strange Birds for the Pierrot ensemble plus percussion and soprano. The instrumentation that BNMI proposed was identical to that of my doctoral dissertation piece minus soprano. I made a request to add a soprano, and Ratay graciously agreed. Strange Birds is a scene from my chamber opera for multimedia and electronics, Through the Doors. The opera, which is still a work in progress, marks a signifi- cant place in my portfolio: not only does it continue my interest in text and time awareness in music, but it is also deeply interdisciplinary and collaborative. The piece lies at the intersection of music, text, visuals, and philosophy. Broadly, it invites the audience to engage with philosophical questions on personal freedom and determinism, the extent of personal choice, and the role of time. It is a work that emerged from a long-term collaboration with visual artist and friend Modesta Gorol, who will design the background visuals and animations for the work. We cre- ated an original story based on our collective musical and visual interests, and then I wrote the libretto in English. It was my first time writing my own text in English and my first time writing a libretto. The challenge came not only from the language standpoint, as a non-native speaker, but also from the dramatic standpoint. Nonetheless, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the process of writing and rewriting the libretto. As a current composer fellow at the American Opera Project’s Composers & the Voice program, I have learned so much about writing for the voice as well as dramaturgy, building a story, and developing my characters. Consultations with the instructors and cohort fellows have enabled me to revise and improve my libretto. In short, the story is about a dutiful and sheltered young daughter, Odessa, who obeys a promise to wait for her father, a metronome-maker, until his return from the war. When years go by and he has not returned, she breaks her promise to find him, embarking on a journey of self-discovery within a surreal world that changes her into a wiser, braver, and more auton- omous young woman. Strange Birds is the third scene of the opera after the dramatic moment when Odessa decides to leave the house to search for her father herself. It is the first time she encounters the outside world after being confined for so long. The world she finds herself in is very colorful and full of strange, big, human-like birds, each played by a different instru- mentalist. For example, the violinist is a magpie, the pianist an ostrich, the flutist a lark, the percussionist a parrot, etc. Most of the musicians interact with Odessa at some point. She asks them if anybody has seen a soldier with a metronome, but the silly birds answer her only through their narrow-minded and self-cen- tered perspective, confusing and frustrating her even more. The musi- cians play and speak during the piece, fitting the BNMI’s current annual theme of “The Music of Speech.” After I finish writing my opera, I would like to continue exploring the rela- tionship between text and music and expand to less-common languages, such as Vietnamese. I would also be interested in writing multi-lingual texts, mapping the words onto instrumental writing, and examining the sonic rela- tionship between different languages and culturally complex narratives. Until then, I hope you will join me at the premiere of Strange Birds, which will have two performances by soprano Mary Mackenzie and the musicians of the BNMI in Massachusetts on June 4 and 5, 2022. For more information, visit www.bostonnewmusic.org/S_13. The premiere of the entire opera will take place sometime in the fall of 2022 in the Old City section of Philadelphia. I hope to see you at either of these events! Advertise in the Journal of the IAWM As a benefit of membership, you can place an ad at a reduced rate! And if you are a member of any organizations that would benefit from the exposure the Journal can provide, please encourage them to take advantage of our inexpensive rates. Specifications: Ads should be supplied as high resolution Print PDF, or Photoshop TIF or JPG. 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Credit card or PayPal 2.Send a check, payable to IAWM, to our treasurer: Deborah Saidel 2400 Alycia Ave Henrico, VA 23228 Or request an invoice from debsaidel@gmail.com18VOLUME 28, NO. 2 • 2022 Julia Perry’s Masterpiece: Stabat Mater EVGENIYA KOZHEVNIKOVA Introduction In the year 2024, the 100th anniversary of the birth of the distinguished African-American composer, singer, and conductor Julia Amanda Perry (1924-1979) will be celebrated. Although Perry had a very successful career, her music was neglected after her death; it is now, however, being revived and is the subject of my current research. She was a prolific composer who wrote twelve symphonies, concertos, and operas plus vocal, chamber, and solo works. Her music was widely performed in America and Europe during her lifetime, and she was the first female composer to receive two Guggenheim Fellowships (in 1953 and 1956). There are few resources about Perry’s life. The most detailed is a chapter from Helen Walker-Hill’s From Spirituals to Symphonies. 1 Perry was born in Lexington, Kentucky; her mother, Lois Heath Perry, was a schoolteacher, and her father, Dr. Abe Perry, was a physician and an amateur pianist. After the family moved to Akron, Ohio in 1934, she began studying voice, piano, and violin, and in college, she became interested in composition, especially choral music. She composed several choral works while attending Westminster Choir College, including the cantata Chicago (text by Carl Sundberg) as her mas- ter’s thesis. Carl Fischer published her choral work Carillon Heigh-Ho in 1947. In the summer of 1951, she attended the Berkshire Music Center Festival to study composition with Luigi Dallapiccola, who would become her long-term mentor. While there, she composed a setting of the Stabat Mater for contralto solo and string orchestra. It received its premiere at Tanglewood in a performance by the student orchestra under the direc- tion of a prominent Italian conductor, 1Helen Walker-Hill, From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2007): 93-139. Piero Bellugi. Encouraged by Bellugi, Perry raised enough funds to allow her to travel to Florence, Italy, where Stabat Mater was performed. It was a success and was performed else- where in Italy, receiving high praise. When she returned to the U.S. in 1953, one of the highlights of her early career was the performance of the work at Carnegie Hall. Stabat Mater Stabat Mater 2 is a Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. The Latin text is attributed to Jacopone da Todi (ca. 1230-1306), and it has been set to music by numerous composers. My aim in this short article about Perry’s version of the work (which is dedicated to her mother) 3 is to present the main characteristics of Stabat Mater and explain what makes it unique. What is distinct about Perry’s setting is that she created her own poetic trans- lation of the text, and that may be one reason her version bonds so closely with the text and does not sound like just another abstract setting of a sacred Latin text. The translation was probably for her own use and was not intended for performance, but there are contemporary performances of the work that use Perry’s English trans- lation, instead of the Latin text. 4 Walker-Hill provides a concise introduction to the work: In 1951 Perry became less conservative with the appearance of Stabat Mater, the work which brought her national 2There are several recordings of the work; I particularly like the performance by the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, William Strickland, con- ductor, and Makiko Asakura, mezzo soprano. https://youtu.be/UpcnC--lrsw 3The reason for the dedication to Perry’s mother is unknown. 4For instance, the performance by APEX: https://youtu.be/mUh0nNucd9k and international attention. The source of the composer’s new skill and confi- dence poses a mystery because Stabat Mater was well under way before her lessons with Dallapiccola began….This composition strikes out into new territory in its length, instrumentation, dissonant harmonic language, and contrapuntal complexities. Although she was the first to sing the work, Perry wrote Stabat Mater not for her own voice, as is widely supposed, but with contralto Marian Anderson in mind. (Anderson never sang it.) Critical acclaim began with the first performances abroad. 5 She also summarizes the importance of Stabat Mater: This seminal work served as a laboratory for working out a wealth of ideas. Many of them never appeared again in her later compositions, but others became hall- marks of her later style: dissonant seventh, ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords; sustained homophonic quartal chords in parallel motion; the dichotomy between sections of driving rhythmic regularity and others of free mixed meters and durations; the importance of spacing and octave displacements; fondness for ostinato patterns; and a declamatory vocal style with sparing use of melismata. 6 African-American Influence Perry’s early compositions and arrangements of spirituals such as “Free at Last” 7 and “I’m a Poor Li’l Orphan” 8 were more informed by African-American traditions than her later works, such as Stabat Mater, when her music adopts more Western clas- sical traditions. Some African-American influence, however, is still present. 5Walker-Hill, 111. 6Ibid., 112. 7“Free at Last” arranged by Julia Perry. www.youtu.be/1kUAlyJXefg 8“I’m a Poor Li’l Orphan in This World.” www.youtu.be/2rUUE469hW8 What is distinct about Perry’s setting is that she created her own poetic translation of the text, and that may be one reason her version bonds so closely with the text and does not sound like just another abstract setting of a sacred Latin text. —EVGENIYA KOZHEVNIKOVAJOURNAL OF THE IAWM19 One significant feature of the culture is the use of call-and-response, which had its roots in Africa, where it was used in public gatherings, religious rituals, and vocal and instrumental music. We can see this influence in Movement I between the contralto line in mm. 30-31 and the repeated pat- tern in Violin 1, mm. 32-35 (Example 1). Another example is in Movement II, mm. 44-45, where Violin 1 has two tetra- chords from two different whole-tone subsets (WT0 and WT1). The contralto answers in mm. 46-47 (Example 2). There are many other instances, and Movement V is built entirely on call-and-response technique. Other Characteristics Throughout the work, Perry uses pandiatonicism—a technique common in neoclassical music in which the notes of the diatonic scale are used freely without conventional resolutions. The piece does not have a clear tonal center; rather, it makes use of sev- eral key areas, which are oftentimes different in the soloist’s and the string players’ parts. The last phrase of the piece is based on E-minor penta- tonic, with the addition of the lowered 5th in the cello and double bass parts. The final chord creates the illusion of the resolution in E, although the last note that the singer has is D (the 7th scale degree from E). In addition to pandiatonicism, Perry uses the Dorian mode, which is common in jazz as well as in early music. An example is in the first move- ment’s opening vocal line (Example 3). Perry uses the pitch collection of the Dorian mode on G (G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F). A significant feature of the work is Perry’s prominent use of several motives throughout the Stabat Mater, which creates a sense of unity between the movements. She develops the opening theme by sequencing, imi- tation, and changing the rhythm (Example 4). The opening theme from movement I appears later in move- ments III, VII, and IX (Examples 5-7). In Movement III, the opening motive in m. 70 is followed by the whole-tone pitch collection in m. 71 (Example 5). Movement VII opens with the main theme performed tutti in m. 180, in dot- ted-eighth-note rhythm. It is followed by the rhythmic variation of the theme in mm. 190-191 (Example 6). The main theme is transposed and performed in dotted-eighth-note rhythm again in Movement IX, starting from m. 258 (Example 7). Perry develops that sec- tion into a fugato, adding layers from a solo cello to all the strings. Another interesting aspect of the opening motive is that it has four ten- dency tones that resolve up a half-step to D-F#-A#-D# sonority (the second chord of Example 8). All of the pitches of the main theme, stacked upon each other, would form a chord of 15th (the first chord of Example 8). The har- mony that these pitches would project is a bit different from what Perry used many years later in Homunculus, C.F (C.F. stands for chord of the 15th). See the last chord in Example 8. Example 1. Call-and-response between the contralto and the first violin, Movement I, Stabat Mater Example 2. Whole-tone scale and call-and-response between the contralto and the first violin, Movement II, Stabat Mater Example 3. G Dorian mode in the opening vocal line, Movement I, Stabat Mater Example 4. Motivic development of the main theme in Movement I, Stabat Mater20VOLUME 28, NO. 2 • 2022 Example 9. The opening line of violin 1 in Movement IV, Stabat Mater Example 10. Harmonic reduction of strings in mm. 122-127, Movement IV, Stabat Mater Example 11. Some examples of dramatic leaps in mm. 36-40, Movement I, Stabat Mater One more characteristic that appears in Stabat Mater and in Perry’s later works is her usage of quartal har- mony. Movement IV starts with a quartal passage in the first violin in m. 100 (Example 9). The pattern continues in the second violin in m. 101, and then the viola is added to it in m. 105. The quartal harmonies sound transcendental in the strings in mm. 122-127 (Example 10). Perry is able to attain highly dra- matic passages in the work by various methods. One is the use of extremely large and dissonant leaps in the vocal line. These leaps create tension, espe- cially when they are used repeatedly. Example 3 shows a leap down of a major ninth in Movement I, m. 21, on the word “lacrymosa” (tearful). A leap down a minor tenth appears in the same movement in m. 36 with the phrase “per transivit gladius” (“the sword pierced through”). 9 (See Example 11.) A leap of a major ninth occurs in m. 83 to emphasize the lyrics “Quis est homo qui non fleret Matri Christi matrem si videret in tanto supplicio?” (“Who would not weep if saw the Mother of Christ in such a great punishment?”). In Movement IV, the leaps of a minor ninth, which occur in mm. 104 and 106, emphasize the painful meaning of the text: “Pro peccatis suea gentis vidit Jesum in tor- mentis” (“For the sinning of His people, saw her Jesus in great torment”). Multiple musical elements contrib- uted to building tension and drama in Stabat Mater, but it is Perry’s sensi- tivity in expressing the meaning of the text that especially helps to distinguish her setting from that of many others and to place this piece as one of the outstanding sacred vocal works of the 20th century. 9The translations are by Julia Perry. Example 6. Motivic development of the main theme in Movement VII, Stabat Mater Example 5. Motivic development of the main theme in Movement III, Stabat Mater Example 8. 15th-chord diagram of the main theme in Movement I of Stabat Mater, the notes of its “resolution,” 15th-chord from Homunculus, C.F. Example 7. Motivic development of the main theme in Movement IX, Stabat Mater Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova) is a composer, pianist, and educator. She composes in various styles and genres, from classical to jazz and tango, and tastefully blends them together. In 2020, she released a jazz-tango album titled Tango Avenue, and in 2022, an album of her art songs, Lift Up Your Hearts, was released. She holds two master of music degrees, Music Composition and Music Performance, from Western Michigan University and is working on her doctoral degree in Music Composition at the University of Florida.JOURNAL OF THE IAWM21 ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS Twenty-Five Seasons of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival VICTORIA BOND Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival began in 1998 at Greenwich House with a program that featured opera scenes from Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Tania Leon’s A Scourge of Hyacinths, William Bolcolm’s McTeague, and my own Travels. Over the twenty-five-year period, the fes- tival has celebrated the works of women composers. The list is lengthy and impressive, and it includes Lisa Bielawa, Margaret Brouwer, Chen Yi, Valerie Coleman, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Katherine Hoover, Laura Kaminsky, Libby Larsen, Hannah Lash, Thea Musgrave, Laura Schwendinger, Alex Shapiro, Judith Shatin, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Tower, Melina Wagner, Anna Weesner, and many more. But it all started with a man, Pierre Boulez. I was assistant conductor to Boulez with the Juilliard Contemporary Music Ensemble, when I was a student there. During rehearsals, I absorbed the engaging way he imparted his insights into the inner workings of the music. I was very impressed with his manner of speaking to audiences, which varied from first-time listeners to cognoscenti at his Perspective Encounters and “Rug” Concerts. When Boulez presented music by his col- leagues, he interviewed them on stage, asking about their creative process. He had the unique ability to draw some vital nuggets of musical significance from even the most recal- citrant composers. His relationship with the composers, performers, and audience members sparked the idea for the beginnings of Cutting Edge Concerts (CEC). I wanted to create and present my own series and model it on his. Cuban composers Orlando Garcia, Keyla Orozco, Aurelia de la Vega, and Tania Leon with Victoria Bond on a Cutting Edge Concert called Cuba Today! April 4, 2016. Director Peter Sellars, singer Joan Morris, and composer William Bolcom with Victoria Bond on a Cutting Edge Concert, April 20, 2009, featuring Bolcom’s songs. Victoria Bond’s setting of James Joyce’s Cyclops from his Ulysses, performed on Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival at Symphony Space in Manhattan on April 1, 2013. Performers: The Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Pulse Chamber Ensemble: Scott Flavin, violin; Margaret Donaghue Flavin, clarinet; Marina Radiushina, piano; Actors Sean McNall, Rich Dreher, Sean Gormley, and Cornelius Horgan.22VOLUME 28, NO. 2 • 2022 activities such as taking long country walks with fellow enthusiast and com- poser Laurie Anderson. We share a passion for nature and for animals, and during one of these walks, we worked out ideas for presenting her film Hidden within Mountains on a future CEC concert. Some are people whose music I have long admired and conducted, like Tania Leon, Libby Larsen, Daron Hagen, and John Harbison. Some I knew when they were students such as Andrew Norman, Kenji Bunch, and Cornelius Dufallo. And some are performers who have advocated my own music: The Cassatt String Quartet, Da Capo, Cygnus, and The American Modern Ensemble among them. Opera and music theater have always been important components of CEC. I am fortunate to be good friends with renowned director Rhoda Levine, who has directed productions as varied as Porgy and Bess in Cape Town, South Africa, to The Life and Times of Malcolm X at the New York City Opera. Knowing that she would bring her theatrical flair to CEC, I asked her to direct two unusual works. For Derek Bermel’s witty Language Instruction, she placed the action in a classroom full of eccen- trics, taught by an instructor who could not communicate. The resulting chaos was hilarious. She also directed The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine by Aaron Jay Kernis as a TV cooking show, complete with Dadaist recipes. Victoria Bond interviews composer/flutist Valerie Coleman as part of Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in a Composer Portrait Concert devoted to her music, April 7, 2014. Jessica Fishenfeld and Scott Joiner in Eric Salzman’s Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors Boulez was generous to his colleagues, promoting their music as well as his own, and that spirit of generosity was something else I was bent on emu- lating. I wanted to interview composers and make them feel at ease discussing their music with the audience. Above all, I wanted to avoid the off-putting formality of a prepared statement. My ability as an interviewer has been tested on a number of occasions. I have had the challenge of speaking with composers whose responses were monosyllabic; I had to work hard to draw them out of their shell. I have also had the opposite problem; for instance, when a well-known architect monopolized the pre-performance discussion and stretched what should have been a five-minute introduc- tion into a half-hour lecture on his architectural accomplishments. Through my work as a conductor, I have gotten to know many composers and performers. Some are personal friends with whom I share my leisure I wanted to interview composers and make them feel at ease discussing their music with the audience. Above all, I wanted to avoid the off-putting formality of a prepared statement. — VICTORIA BOND Victoria Bond with composer Joan TowerJOURNAL OF THE IAWM23 The festival has produced fully-staged chamber operas including My Last Duchess by Theodore Wiprud and The Clever Mistress by Robert Sirota. Valeria Vasilevski directed Eric Salzman’s opera The True Last Words of Dutch Schultz as a film noir. The cos- tumes were entirely black and white, and in one scene, the action moved in reverse, with the singers executing their original gestures backwards and in fast-motion, like a film rewinding. The eclectic vocalist Theo Bleckman was the soloist, and his portrayal of the legendary gangster was malev- olently spine-tingling. CEC produced a production of Salzman’s Big Jim and the Small-time Investors, directed by J. Griffith Brown. ConcertoNet (April 2018) said of the performance: “Salzman’s concept, and his libretto with Ned Jackson, placed their opera today, taking on all those venal curiosities of American life in his last work….Greed Rochelle Small-Clifford singing The Dawes Roll by Valerie Coleman. Jonathan Spitz, cellist; Jessica Fishenfeld, soprano; and Oren Fader, guitar, in Sirens by Victoria Bond. and avarice, hucksterism and holo- grams, manic televangelists and moral turpitude, all became transformed into a sardonic, wicked, yet strangely appealing ‘musical theater’ piece last night.” This season the festival will present scenes from my puppet operetta, How Gulliver Returned Home in a Manner that was Very Not Direct, with puppets and direction by Doug Fitch. I will be conducting the Mostly Modern Ensemble. From time to time, I have paired com- posers with creative artists of other disciplines, such as architects (The Shape of Sound) and weavers (Woven Sound). In 2010, I created a season with the theme Can Music Heal? and part- nered with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital as well as other cancer care facilities. CEC donated half of the box office proceeds to these organiza- tions. We invited doctors and music therapists to participate in pre-concert panel discussions. I was curious to know more about how music ther- apists work with patients and spent the day observing one at MSK. Over the years, we have presented a number of programs that incor- porate visual art and artists. For example, I have long been fascinated with the way weavers’ art relates to music because it uses form, color, and texture—elements that apply to composition. I wrote a work that I called Woven, inspired by the intricate and colorful weaving and textiles of Jack Lenor Larsen. He invited me to perform it on an outdoor concert at his magnificent sculpture garden in East Hampton. In turn, I invited Larsen to speak about his work on a Cutting Edge Concert. Dressed in his signature white suit and hat, he made a stunning presence at the concert and astounded Victoria Bond with composer Laura Kaminsky24VOLUME 28, NO. 2 • 2022 the audience with images of his incred- ibly detailed artwork. At CEC, we have worked with the prominent painter Eric Fischl, whose watercolors were projected during the Eroica Trio’s performance of Bruce Wolosoff’s com- position The Loom. Fischl was at the concert to discuss the collaboration with Wolosoff and the synergy between visual and musical creativity. In 2006, CEC featured the music of Harry Partch, a composer with whom I had a fruitful history. When I lived in Los Angeles, he cast me as the soprano soloist in the premiere of his opera Delusion of the Fury, which made an indelible impression on me. After Partch’s death, Dean Drummond, a percussionist who had also partic- ipated in that premiere, continued the Partch tradition by preserving the iconic instruments at Montclair State University and commissioning new compositions for them. CEC per- formed an entire concert using the Partch instruments and fea- tured his music as well as works by Drummond and other composers. At that time, the series was held in a very small theater at Greenwich House, and one of the instruments, the Marimba Eroica, could barely fit on the stage. The player stood on a tall ladder in order to play and wore huge orange gloves with which he tapped the keys. At the concert, I asked the player where he got those gloves and if they were specifically made for that purpose. The audience laughed when he replied “Home Depot.” Although CEC had to suspend performances in 2020 due to Covid, the festival did present two live per- formances in 2021 at Symphony Space that were live-streamed and offered to the public for free. Stellar musicians from the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra performed on one, and on the other, composer Philip Glass appeared live on stage to discuss his music with me and pianist Paul Barnes. More than 1,000 people watched the live stream of these two concerts, and probably many more enjoyed the videos of them on our website. Tenor Scott Joiner and cast in goggles in Eric Salzman’s Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors Victoria Bond with composer Philip GlassVictoria Bond with composer Paul Chiharra Victoria Bond with composer Bruce AdolpheJOURNAL OF THE IAWM25 I launched Cutting Edge Concerts with the purpose of presenting the music of living composers, including, but not limited to, my own work. I was eager to know what my composition colleagues were writing and to have a way of bringing their music to the public. I also knew many per- formers who were interested in new music, and the thought of putting these together was intoxicating. I resolved that the series would not endorse one style but rather revel in the multiplicity of diverse styles being composed today, from the most con- servative to the most experimental. From then to now, the series celebrates the coexistence of this diversity and presents works without making sty- listic judgments. Over the years, I have made a point of engaging ensembles that rehearse and perform together on a regular basis. I have found that this results in committed and polished performances. The challenges of producing, orga- nizing, maintaining, and funding Cutting Edge Concerts are great. Because so much of the music is literally hot off the press, getting composers to finish works on time is critical. More than once, the series has had to change programs because a scheduled work was not completed. However, the rewards of the series are equally great: bringing new music to new audiences; providing a platform for composers to hear their music performed by outstanding musicians; and providing musicians interested in new music the opportunity to work with composers. Cutting Edge Concerts has given me a tangible way to express my appre- ciation for those who create, those who perform, and those who enjoy both. Celebrating our twenty-fifth season, CEC is going strong, and, as we did in the beginning, we continue to celebrate the music of our time. Ariadne Greif, Charles Tay and Yoojin Lee in Victoria Bond and Stephen Greco’s The Adventures of Gulliver Michael Kelly, Ariadne Greif, Jonathan Hare, Sean Christensen, Yoojin Lee in Victoria Bond and Stephen Greco’s The Adventures of Gulliver I launched Cutting Edge Concerts with the purpose of presenting the music of living composers, including, but not limited to, my own work. I was eager to know what my composition colleagues were writing and to have a way of bringing their music to the public. — VICTORIA BOND26VOLUME 28, NO. 2 • 2022 LORELT at 30: An Interview with Odaline de la Martínez CHRISTOPHER WILEY Independent record label LORELT (Lontano Records) was formed in 1992 with the aim of releasing neglected classical music by women composers, Latin American composers, and 20th- and 21st-century composers. A total of 45 CDs have been issued on the label to date. I spoke to its founder, Odaline de la Martínez (known as Chachi) [Figure 1], about its fascinating 30-year history. Christopher Wiley: Chachi, congratulations on 30 successful years of LORELT! Odaline de la Martínez: Yes, it’ll be 30 in May, and I’m really glad that the anni- versary is being recognized because we’ve been covering the repertoire that people are only just beginning to turn to now. I had a feeling that some- thing wasn’t really fair, that something needed correcting. I know that it’s only a small gesture, but in my own small way, I knew that I could make a difference. And that’s how we started. And we’ve been doing it for 30 years! It’s about cel- ebrating diversity: women composers, Latin American music, contemporary composers, African-American music— we’ve released music by several Black British composers; some have appeared on more than one disc. And we have plans for others. CW: You’re being incredibly modest! What you’ve done with LORELT, and what you’re continuing to do, has made a huge difference in the world of music. But how did it start—what was involved in setting it up? OM: Back in the beginning, music was released on LPs. To produce anything on an LP or to press 30,000 LPs [was costly, and] we didn’t have that kind of money. All of a sudden, CDs appeared on the horizon. In those days, you could make 1,000, but you couldn’t do less than that—now you can make 30 or even just 15 if you need to. I thought, here’s an opportunity: it doesn’t cost as much to make a CD as an LP. Even during my years of studying at the Royal Academy [of Music, London], I kept an eye on the releases of music by contemporary and living composers. Time and time again, those companies would get a grant and release a record, and one or two years later it would be deleted from their catalogue. We always made a point that we will never delete anything we record because if we don’t feel strongly enough to keep it in the label’s catalogue, then we shouldn’t do it in the first place. So, nothing is deleted; everything is kept in perpetuity. CW: Did you literally just start recording and releasing? Is it as simple as that? OM: Yes, we figured we could do it. And do you know who we had a lot of support from? Dame Elizabeth Maconchy. She came to our very first recording, British Women Composers Volume 1 [LNT 101]….Since then, of course, we’ve recorded not only her chamber music [LNT101], but also her choral music [LNT127] and her orchestral music, too [LNT133]. We’re now looking at the possibility of buying from the BBC, if we can, recordings of her choral music with instruments because I think she wrote a lot of choral music. But the disc that we released [LNT127] was basi- cally unaccompanied or with piano. CW: You mentioned that LORELT has a focus on women composers, 20th- and 21st-century composers, and Latin American composers. Why did you choose those areas? OM: Because they were neglected. That’s why we founded Lontano itself, 1 because there were so many really good composers that were neglected. We actually recorded a lot of American composers who were very well-known in America but were completely unknown elsewhere. People only knew Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, and a couple of other composers, and that was it. There was such a wealth of composers who needed to be heard, including British and Latin American composers. There were people who had never heard of [Heitor] Villa-Lobos—it’s unbelievable. I remember being asked to do a concert of “repertoire music,” and I did a concert of Villa-Lobos, and they said, he’s not “repertoire.” I said, yes, he is! In France, in Germany, in the [United] States, he’s repertoire, but obviously not here [in England]. So, let’s make him repertoire here. Since then, I’ve done a lot of Villa-Lobos, including a whole Prom concert in 1992. 2 CW: Why do you think the major labels have neglected that repertoire? OM: Because you have to survive— and that’s the problem. When you’re pressing large quantities of LPs, you’ve got to guarantee some kind of a sale. And if you’ve got an unknown composer, you’re not going to do it. But now you can start with 30 copies, and then add more as you sell. With the Florence Price CD [Fantasie Nègre: The Piano Music of Florence Price (2021), Samantha Ege (piano). LNT144], we had no idea that it was going to be such a hit, so we started with about 500 copies. And then all of a sudden in the States they wanted more. It’s beginning to pay the bills because it costs a lot of money to release—not as much as an LP, but it costs. 1LORELT is co-owned by Lontano, the con- temporary music ensemble that Odaline de la Martínez and Christopher Wiley founded in 1976. 2For full details of this concert, see https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/eqpq9r. Odaline de la MartínezNext >