As some of you may know, I (Hannah) am still a student (getting my doctorate at NYU). While that comes with its downsides -- namely my insane schedule at the end of the semester -- there are also great perks, like free rehearsal space! Another fun part of being at NYU has been working with Julia Wolfe's composition seminar. This year-long class of graduate composers meets once a week with the end goal of writing a composition to be performed by the JACK quartet at the end of the spring semester.
As a young composer, having JACK premiere your work is a dream come true! In order to help their compositions be the best possible, this class includes a series of workshops with performers to try out sketches and work through ideas. Julia was nice enough to ask me to help out this year by performing and finding the other musicians. This semester they wrote viola solos, then violin/viola duos (perfect opportunity for some andPlay fun!), and tonight we performed string trios with cellist/friend Meaghan Burke. In each class we perform the work, go over questions from either the performer or composer, and talk about different ways things could be improved/notated/explored/etc. It's really a great experience for everyone involved. Not only do we love working with composers, but it's nice for us to be able to share some of the things we have learned in our experience with performances and collaborations.
Tonight was a marathon with us working through all ten of the student works in one evening, but the students were nice enough to bring plenty of snacks (did they know we love to andSnack?) We will be back next semester to read some quartet sketches before they go to JACK -- we can't wait to see what they come up with!
andLiked this week: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is the incredible first novel in a four part series by this Neapolitan writer. Check it out, you will not be sorry!
