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Anna Clyne’s composition Glasslands will obtain its Canadian premiere on June 19 in Ottawa with the Nationwide Arts Centre Orchestra and conductor Alexander Shelley. The composition is a co-commission of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, BBC Radio 3, the Nationwide Arts Centre Orchestra, Artis-Naples, Naples Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León.
From the Composer’s Notes: “Glasslands conjures an imaginary world of three realms ruled by the banshee — a feminine spirit who, in Irish folklore, heralds the demise of a member of the family, often by wailing, shrieking, or keening within the silence of the evening.”
We spoke to Anna Clyne about composition, profession, and the work that had its world premiere in Detroit in 2023.
Anna Clyne, Composer
Anna Clyne has been named one of many prime ten most carried out dwelling composers on the planet, and essentially the most carried out dwelling lady British composer in 2022 and 2023. Past the headlines, it means her work has been heard by audiences throughout the globe — together with in a few of its most revered establishments, like Carnegie Corridor, the Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and lots of others.
She is understood for her many collaborations, together with working with pop icon Nico, in addition to multi-disciplinary tasks. Together with Jess Gillam, she has collaborated with famous artists corresponding to Jess Gillam, Jeremy Denk, Martin Fröst, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Anna typically writes works which are choreographed for dance productions, together with the Royal Ballet’s world premiere of choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s dance set to Respiration Statues in London. Her tasks typically contain visible arts, corresponding to Shade Discipline, which was impressed by the work of artist Mark Rothko.
Anna’s work veers from acoustic to electroacoustic, relying on the challenge. The Augmented Orchestra, which Clyne is growing with sound designer Jody Elff, explores the usage of know-how. The AO premiered in efficiency in 2023.
This previous season (2023-2024), Clyne held the place of Composer-in-Residence with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra as a part of their Inventive Workforce; as Composer-in-Residence on the BBC Philharmonic, and as Artist-in-Residence with Symphony Orchestra of Castilla y León.
The Interview
Clyne says she knew she needed to be a composer at a really younger age.
“I began composing once I was seven,” she says. She recounts that mates of the household had gifted them with a piano, albeit with a number of keys lacking on the prime. She started to jot down music not lengthy after.
“It’s simply one thing that I’ve at all times cherished,” she provides. Nonetheless, it didn’t essentially observe that she’d pursue it as a occupation. That revelation got here in a while.
Anna says she was learning as an undergraduate in Edinburgh, and took benefit of third-year change program to review at Queens College in Kingston, Ontario underneath award-winning Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich. She went on to a Grasp’s on the Manhattan College of Music, and makes her house in NYC in the present day.
“Popping out of that diploma program actually put me on that street,” she says.
With a diverse fashion and output, it’s tough to pinpoint a single fashion or style on the subject of her work. “I put it underneath the bracket of up to date music,” she says, additionally noting the various collaborative tasks. “There are many exterior influences.”
Purely acoustic or with dwell electronics, the selection is at all times dictated the challenge itself — with one attainable widespread thread. “Melody is more and more on the coronary heart of my music.” Anna notes that her personal musical influences and background embody publicity to pop, folks, and jazz, Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac together with Beethoven. “That sense of melody is vital to me.”
In the intervening time, she’s devoting loads of time to growing Augmented Orchestra, and a efficiency with dwell digital processing, dance and theatre to take it to the following stage. “I’m positively lager scale challenge.”
Glasslands, Clyne, Anna (2022)
The 25-minute piece is written for orchestra and saxophone soloist, particularly Jess Gillam, who premiered the piece final 12 months with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and conductor Han-Na Chang.
“I’m very drawn to folklore and mythology,” Clyne says, noting that by means of her grandmother, she has a connection to that heritage.
She has written concertos for a number of devices, together with the cello. “I’m a cellist,” she says.
Clyne’s cello concerto DANCE was recorded by soloist Inbal Segev in 2020 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Marin Alsop. The recording has racked up greater than 11 million performs on Spotify.
For different concertos, Anna enjoys the prep work, which includes attending to know the instrument, and speaking to the soloist. “I needed to know, what’s the lowest observe you may attain first,” she says. As she factors out, the very best observe typically is determined by a participant’s ability. She’ll undergo varied points of method, together with, as with the saxophone, alternate fingerings and different particulars.
Did the instrument on this case have a bearing on Glassland’s folkloric theme? “It’s very piercing,” she acknowledges. “It’s the reference to the cry of banshees within the evening.”
Compositions
“I’ve been writing loads of concerti,” she says. Her piano concerto ATLAS was premiered by the Dallas Symphony and soloist Jeremy Denk in March 2024. “The subsequent logical step is a concerto for orchestra.”
She used social media to not too long ago announce Palette, a brand new challenge for augmented orchestra. The actions are titled Plum, Amber, Lava, Ebony, Teal, Tangerine, and Emerald, and he or she can be producing seven work, one to associate with every.
It is going to be a 35-minute work, consisting of seven actions of 5 minutes every. Every will discover the connection between sound and color.
Each the work and the music will discover the ideas of color, texture, and gesture by means of the feelings she attaches to every. The St. Louis Symphony will premiere the piece on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2025, carried out by the orchestra with customized software program that enables for actual time augmentation.
“I’m additionally an artist,” she says. “It’s very a lot a symbiotic course of between the music and the artwork.” Collaborations and tasks prefer it break down the obstacles we’ve arrange between disciplines. “They’re all related.”
Ottawa Live performance Dates
“I believe folks actually join with music that has a robust melodic core in it,” Clyne says of her work and its worldwide reputation. “It’s at all times there, whether or not it’s apparent or not.”
Ottawa audiences will get an opportunity to listen to Glasslands first within the nation. This system additionally contains ᓂᔭ niya (I Am) by Winnipeg composer Andrew Balfour, and Beethoven’s perennially widespread Ninth.
With a mixture of virtuosity and upbeat charisma, British saxophonist and BBC radio broadcaster Jess Gillam has created a novel profile within the music world. She was the youngest soloist to carry out on the prestigious Final Evening on the Proms broadcast, and the primary saxophonist to signal an unique contract with Decca Information.
- Discover extra info on the Ottawa live shows with the Nationwide Arts Centre Orchestra and conductor Alexander Shelley on June 19 & 20 [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
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