Composer Highlight: Jesse Diener-Bennett

As you all (hopefully/should) know, andPlay's concert at East Bank Music in Greenpoint is this coming Friday (October 25th) @ 8 PM! We have three premieres by three composers, and we thought that it would be fun for everyone to get to know them a bit! Jesse Diener-Bennett is our first composer highlight of the week, with his piece Moebius . Enjoy his words on the work and other things below...

 Could you tell us about the title or inspiration for your piece?

I started writing Moebius while revisiting my childhood fascination with the Moebius strip. I used to make them with some paper and tape, and then trace their one side with my finger, knowing that I would end up where I started, but each time not believing it until I got there. 

It’s a shape of contradictions. There’s a sense of stasis invested in it, and an equal sense of movement. Its form is very simple, very comprehensible, but at the same time complex in a way that violates our common-sense understanding of the world.

When andPlay approached me about writing a piece for them, I starting thinking about what that could mean in the realm of sound. I ended up writing a piece that is very simple and static at first glance, but full of energy and movement just under the surface.

What can listeners expect or listen for in your piece?

A lot of the action goes on in the noises and colors underneath the notes, and in the visual and auditory interplay between the motions of the violin and viola bows. I think you can listen to this piece in a lot of different ways and come away with something, but it’s probably most rewarding to pay attention to all of that stuff that’s usually at the basement level of music. 

What is your current snack of choice?

Homemade Everything Chips! Potato chips, kale chips, beet chips, collard chips. If you don’t like a vegetable, just make it into a chip. Everything tastes better as a chip.

What have you been listening to?

I was just looking through my old CDs for the first time in probably a couple of years, and found my old Pixies best of compilation, Wave of Mutilation. I still remembered all the words. And on Saturday night the awe-inspiring Tak ensemble just performed a concert of music by David Bird, Marcelo Toledo, and others. It was one of the best concerts I’ve heard in a long time. 

Find more of Jesse's compositions and writing at jessedb.com

Conversations

// Maya // 

Listening to: I just started listening to a new podcast called The Dinner Party Download and it is fantastic! It basically goes through the different parts of a dinner party (cocktails, conversation, etiquette, food, etc.) and gives you things to talk about, cocktails inspired by an event in history that happened the week of the podcast, and sometimes Miss Manners or Tim Gunn make a guest appearance. It is a very entertaining listen when on the train to work or an andPlay rehearsal!

Reading: I have recently discovered that I can borrow books from the library on my iPad. It has changed my life! I no longer have to carry around a bunch of books wherever I go. I recently finished  Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce. They were both lovely and fun reads. I just got Fin and Lady by Cathleen Schine and The Love Affair of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman. 

Snacking on: Apples and peanut butter have definitely been my healthy snack of choice recently. I hadn’t been eating that many apples until I bought a few at the store on a whim a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t looked back! I hope the saying is true and that I am keeping the doctor away! On the other hand, my not so healthy snack has been Swiss chocolate that Hannah brought back for me from Lucerne. I carry a bar in my bag and have a little square here and there during the day. It is the ultimate pick-me-up!

Dreaming about: Hannah and I have been talking about setting up a small Midwestern tour for late Spring 2014, and I just can’t get it out of my head! It is such an exciting prospect to take andPlay on the road, and sometimes I daydream about it. We have great new music to play, and since we are both from the Midwest and went to undergrad there it seems like a natural thing. We have friends, family, and other connections there that we think would all want to help make it a reality. For now I need to focus on the October concert rep, but a girl can dream, right?

// Hannah // 

Listening to: I've been trying to catch up on podcasts that I haven't listened to in a while, especially WTF with Mark Maron, and the Nerdist.  They are both great shows that mainly interview comedians.  It's always so interesting to learn about these people's lives!  For example, I learned that Billy Crystal's family was in the record business and Louis Armstrong came to their Passover Seder once!  And Kristen Schaal had llamas at her wedding!    

Reading: I am constantly trying to keep up with my magazine subscriptions to the New Yorker and New York Magazine.  Recently, I read a really great article about Ahmed Jama, a Somali chef who keeps working in Somali despite the dangers and hardships of being there.  (Sept. 30th issue of The New Yorker)

Snacking on: I never liked raw carrots and made it my goal recently to try to like them -- they are such an easy and healthy snack!  So, for the past month I've been trying to snack on carrots and hummus whenever possible.  I can now eat 5 baby carrots in one sitting (as long as they are dipped in something)!

Dreaming about: Unfortunately I'm already dreaming about summer -- is it too early to start?  Also, I've been thinking about what cake to make for my birthday, which is coming up in a few weeks!

Knickknacks

Truth time. I am a major sucker for knickknacks and tiny items. I was the kid growing up who couldn’t leave the house without her polly pocket or tiny animal figurines.  I really liked when my toys fit into the pockets of my favorite purple Lion King dress or lilac overall shorts (because purple was WAY more sophisticated than pink). I also had a collection of various turtle figurines that people would bring me from all over the world. I displayed them proudly on top of my dresser along with a couple of other odds and ends that brought me great joy!

Not much has changed in the past twenty-four years. My favorite items are tiny and can be seen peeking out of corners all around my apartment. 

Knickknacks also happens to be the name of a piece by George Tsontakis that andPlay performed on our July concert in the Concerts on the Slope series. It is a piece made up of seven short-ish movements. Each has a distinct character and could probably stand alone, but what is a mantlepiece with only one knickknack on it? They tend to get more fun in numbers! Here are some clips...

Knickknacks II. Goodnight Lullaby (Tomorrow Much Sweeter) 

V. Shufflin' (clip) 

Farewell, Lucerne!

With only one full day left in Switzerland, I figured I should probably blog again! Since I have last posted, I've played two more concerts, and have the final one to go tomorrow. Especially notable was last Sunday's world premiere of Horatio Radulescu's 4th string quartet. While the piece had been performed before, this was the first time it was ever done as originally intended, with 9 live string quartets!

Led by the fantastic and fearless JACK quartet (who played the central string quartet part), we spent over a week learning all of the special techniques that make Radulescu's music so unique and other-worldly. If you haven't checked out his music, I highly recommend that you do! It is truly indescribable until you hear it for yourself. I am so grateful that I got to be a part of that project, and it has inspired me to return to looking at one of Radulescu's solo works for viola, Das Andere.

This past week also included hearing Boulez sing along with the soloist as we rehearsed one of his vocal pieces (when will I ever witness that again?), an incredible performance of Mahler 9 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (decidedly my favorite orchestra), and multiple adventures in Swiss dairy products!

All in all, I'm ready to return home. I'm looking forward to not having to avoid giant slugs on my morning runs, cooking meals in my own kitchen, and starting andPlay rehearsals for our next show!

See you soon, New York!

Hannah

Pictures: me on top of Mt. Pilatus, despite the clouds it was a great hike; these giant slugs show up everywhere after it rains; my first soft-ice experience with my stand partner Eric. Soft-ice is like soft-serve, but the flavors are vanilla and the most delicious and pink strawberry you've ever tried!