Daniel Godsil in Conversation with Christian Baldini

On September 28, I will have the pleasure of conducting Daniel Godsil's "Cathedral Grove" with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento. Also on the program are Brahms' Violin Concerto with Catherine Lin as our soloist and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1. Below is an interview with composer Daniel Godsil. (click here for info about this program)

Christian Baldini: Daniel, welcome, and let's start by talking about your music. What was the genesis for Cathedral Grove? Is it different from your other music? What should people listen for in this piece?

Daniel Godsil: One of the things that really inspired this piece was a comment by composer Sam Nichols, my former teacher at UC Davis: he said that orchestral music—with its relatively bigger scale, ​large performing forces, and sheer number of people working behind the scenes—is really a public art. That really resonated with me, and got me thinking about other public spaces like our country's national and state parks. I often visited California's beautiful parks while I was studying at UC Davis, and decided to do an orchestral "sound-painting" of one of my favorites, Muir Woods (of which Cathedral Grove is a part). Around the time I was writing this piece, I was writing a lot of electronic music that used what I called "sound-shapes"...honestly kind of silly, but trying to render in sound very simple shapes like triangles, X-shapes or chiasms, circles, etc., as jumping-off points to start a composition. People can perhaps listen in this piece for big triangles and X-shapes—roughly the giant shapes created​ by trees in the Muir Woods—rendered in sound. This piece was also a little different from my other work at the time in that I consciously tried to use more consonant combinations of notes. I often write using a spectrum of dissonant and consonant sound combinations, but for this work I experimented with trending more towards the consonant side of things. 

CB: Let's talk about your beginnings with music. How did it all start for you? Was there a particular "eureka" moment when you decided to become a professional musician?

DG: I started playing guitar at age 11. Throughout junior and high school I played mostly rock music, and (after learning just three or four chords) started forming bands with friends. I was writing tons of new songs and riffs all the time, which really the culture of rock music...everyone was writing their own stuff! I didn't think about it much at the time, but that environment was really teaching me the art of composition. My eureka moment was around the age of 17 when I really fell in love with film music. I realized that the orchestral timbres I was drawn to were difficult to achieve with the more limited pallet of tone-colors in rock, and found a piano teacher, learned how to read music, and more importantly, how to write it down and communicate with lots of other more classically-trained players. 

CB: Who are some of your favorite composers? Why? What do you look for in "new music"?

DG: This is a tricky question! It's often said that the music you learned to love in your adolescence is the music you love for your whole life, and that's definitely true for me. So that's a lot of heavy metal like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura...and also film scoring in the classic Golden Age style like Erich Korngold, Max Steiner, John Williams, and James Horner. Because of my metal background I love "classical" music with lots of raw energy...Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Beethoven, and more recent composers like Georg Haas, Thomas Ades. And because of my love of film music I love composers who built a lot of drama into their forms...I love Sibelius! I also found myself very drawn to the American Symphonists of the 1930s and 40s who helped form the language that film composers use. Composers like David Diamond, Walter Piston, Roy Harris, and of course Copland. What I look for in new music, I think, really tends toward those two silly adolescent drives...energy and drama! 

CB: What's a day like for you? When is the best time to compose? Do you have hobbies? Do you exercise? How do you balance your life as a Professor with your time to compose and perform?

DG: I'm in my fourth year teaching music at Columbia College, in the foothills of the Sierra close to Yosemite. This job keeps me very busy—it's a small school and I'm a department of one! I teach music theory, ear training, music history, private lessons, and I conduct the college orchestra. So I haven't found a lot of time to write much in the last few years while I figured out the job! I'm happy to report that I've (more or less) figured it out and am finding more time now to compose...mostly, for me, in the very early morning before my kids wake up. I'm a diehard hockey fan, and have recently gotten very much into astronomy/telescopes. I am an avid cyclist and exercise often...it's essential for me! It's the best medicine one can get. My job mostly (right now) calls on my performing abilities...I play a lot of piano and guitar (and have been studying jazz very in-depth recently) and have been conducting a lot. I find it very musically satisfying. ​

CB: What is your advice for your musicians who are starting out? How does one deal with frustrations? How does one stay positive?

DG: I always recommend that musicians should develop a very diverse and marketable skill-set...learn to compose! Play several instruments. Get good at video editing. Know how to record with a DAW and know what microphones work for what things. Maybe this doesn't work for everyone, but it does for me: if you get frustrated learning a Beethoven sonata or get composer's block, go learn a jazz standard for fun or go for a walk. 99% of the time that will help you forget your frustration and come back to whatever it was with a positive attitude. 

CB: Lastly, what is the meaning of music to you? I know this is a very big and general question. Feel free to answer it in any way that represents you!

DG: This changes for me a lot, but right now I'm just so grateful to be in a big community of great music makers, be it my students, the talented amateur players in my orchestra, or just friends who play bluegrass for fun. Especially now in this election cycle, there's a big push to look at life through a political lens...how much more fun and positive it is to apply a musical lens instead, and let that focus and inform everything else! 

CB: Thank you for your time Daniel, I look forward to making music with you!

DG: Thanks Christian! Can't wait to work with the wonderful Camellia Symphony! 

Daniel Godsil (Courtesy Photo)

Daniel Godsil's music, which has been described by the San Francisco Classical Voice as having an “intense dramatic narrative,” draws from such eclectic influences as science fiction, thrash metal, and Brutalist architecture. His more recent work draws inspiration from the natural beauty of Northern California, his current home.

Winner of the 2019 League of Composers/ISCM Steven R. Gerber prize (for Cosmographia) and the 2017 Earplay Donald Aird Composition Competition (for his quartet Aeropittura), Godsil's music has been played by Spektral Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talujon Percussion, Daedalus Quartet, Lydian String Quartet, Empyrean Ensemble, Metropolitan Orchestra of Saint Louis, UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, University Symphony Orchestra at California State University Fullerton, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Secret String Quartet, and the Nova Singers, among many others. Recent film scores include the PBS documentary Boxcar People, Man Ray’s 1926 silent film Emak-Bakia and the feature film H.G. Wells’ The First Men In The Moon. Godsil was a finalist in the 2018 Lake George Music Festival chamber composition competition, as well as the 2014 and 2019 Red Note New Music Festival Composition Competitions. His choral works are published by Alliance Music Publishing and NoteNova Publishing, and his chamber and orchestral music is published by BabelScores in Paris.

Born and raised in central Illinois, Godsil (b.1982) holds his PhD. in Composition and Theory from the University of California, Davis, where he studied with Pablo Ortiz, Mika Pelo, Laurie San Martin, and Sam Nichols. He holds an MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he studied with John Fitz Rogers, John Mallia, and Jonathan Bailey Holland. He also holds a BM in Music Composition from Webster University.

Godsil was selected to participate in the 2017 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP) in Boston, where he had master classes with composers Nicholas Vines and Georg Friedrich Haas.

Godsil has also been active as an educator, conductor, and performer in the central Illinois area, Knox College, Monmouth College, and Carl Sandburg College. At Knox College, he directed the New Music Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Ensemble, and Men’s Chorus. He has also held posts as choral accompanist and collaborative pianist, and served as Music Director and Organist at Grace Episcopal Church in Galesburg, IL.  

Godsil is a professor of music at Columbia College in Sonora, California. He has also served as artistic committee president for Ninth Planet New Music, a trailblazing new music ensemble based in California's SF Bay Area. 

Flipped Interview: Chase Spruill Interviews Christian Baldini

Christian Baldini: Chase Spruill is the concertmaster of the Camellia Symphony since 2019. He's also a widely sought-after soloist, educator, and a wonderful person that I have had the pleasure to work with and to call a friend for many years now. Instead of the usual interview in which I interview our guest artists, I accepted Chase's proposal to flip the interview, and to have him interview me this time. Chase will perform as our soloist twice in the coming two weeks. On June 3, he will perform Philip Glass' Violin Concerto No. 1 with the UC Davis Symphony, at the Mondavi Center. On June 10, he will perform Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending, with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento. Below is the record of what happened:

Chase Spruill: The Maestro and I met for coffee back in the Summer of 2018, and I believe that was our first chance to meet face-to-face.  I'd seen him on the podium as an audience member, or occasionally came across videos of some of his performances with various orchestras, and we had similar connections through cross sections of artists we both knew and loved.  This particular conversation was going to be about working with him in the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, but I don't think I knew he was interested in me for the position of Concertmaster at the time.  A lot of the conversation was about life, interests, bonding over being a Dad, and then we came around to music.  I think we were a few weeks into our first rehearsals, and somewhere online appeared a video of him surfing, and I immediately felt underqualified at any attempt to try and be cool in this life.

Working near Christian on the podium is a unique experience to watch him quickly jot down notes in his score, or sing a phrase under his breath, or ask himself or someone nearby a question in multiple languages.  If you're not sitting there, or standing there talking with him at break time, there are some things you might be fascinated to know.  We couldn't nearly cover all of them today, but for the longest time, I've been curious to hijack his interviews and flip the script to ask him some questions I've been curious to know in general.

Chase Spruill: Maestro, thank you for taking part in this flipped interview...

Christian Baldini: Well dear Chase, thank you, the pleasure is mine, and what a treat it is to have a good conversation with you, always, whether it is about music or anything else!

CS: This is a big year for CSO celebrating its 60th Season.  In my own estimation, the programming was particularly huge and diverse.  How do you begin to think ahead of your seasons in order to program, and what are some of the factors you take into account while you're brainstorming?

CB: Most people may imagine that programming is one of the most fascinating and most active parts of being a music director.  I really try to think of many aspects in a natural, holistic way. I take into account factors that are important for the orchestra, and also for the audience members. An orchestra's history, its relationship with the community, whatever may be happening at the moment in public life, in politics, a particularly important event, an anniversary, a discovery. The inspiration by a poet or a painter, or a collaboration with a ballet company or a choral organization. All of this falls into place when planning a season with integrity, beyond thinking "I'll choose a nice overture, a fun concerto with a great soloist, and some random symphony that I feel like doing". It is very easy to fall in that trap. It is lazy to think that way, it is simplistic and it undermines the value of what we do. Music is not mere entertainment. It is part of our shared culture. It adds something to people's lives. It enriches us, it inspires us, it makes us curious. So when we promote the work of a composer that was at some point (or even now) forgotten or denied access to the concert hall, we are creating a space for healing, for uniting us, for inspiring our future generations to think more inclusively, more generously, more globally. And yes, finding music that I strongly believe in is very important. My word is my bond with our audience members. So yes, I enjoy finding concepts, connecting threads, and ideas that will make a program more powerful, and an entire season more coherent. 

CS: Have you ever had an experience mid-season where you're working on a particular piece with the orchestra, and somehow the accomplishment of the group strikes a new idea inside of you for a future program?  What are some instances you can remember where that might have happened?

CB: Definitely! I remember many instances, for example when we performed the Sacramento premiére of Amériques, by Edgard Varèse. This was a massive work, written for a humongous orchestra including 14 percussionists, quintuple woodwinds, etc. Our orchestra played exceptionally well, and the audience (who had come to the performance to listen to the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto with a wonderful Russian soloist) gave Amériques a very long standing ovation. I was blown away by the extremely positive response this music got, both from the musicians and from the orchestra. This experience very much motivated me and inspired me to keep looking for challenges and very ambitious projects for our orchestra. It was very clear from this that our musicians are eager to learn new things, they are always open to absorb new languages, new paths, and to navigate them together, with trust and love for what we do. And the same was clear for our audience members. Many people talked to me after the performance, telling me they had never heard of Varèse, and had only come because of Tchaikovsky, but they were now going to go and look for more works by this French master. A truly beautiful thing!

CS: The season finale of the 60th season is called LIGHT OF THE WORLD.  In addition to the expansive and emotional Faure Requiem and a deeply touching Elegy for Strings from Elliott Carter, you chose to program The Lark Ascending, a romance for violin and orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  Vaughan Williams was one of many composers drawn to nature and landscape as inspiration.  It was much later in our working relationship when I started seeing photos of you during treks through forests, or out on choppy ocean waves.  I'm curious, what role does being out in the world's natural landscape play for you in your life?  What does it do for you personally?  Does it inspire you musically?

CB: What an excellent question! Many of the composers that I love have been inspired by nature, from Sibelius to Brahms and Schumann, going through John Luther Adams and Kaija Saariaho. I must say I never realized how important nature was to me until I moved to Buenos Aires. I grew up in a smaller coastal city called Mar del Plata about 250 miles south of Buenos Aires. This is right by the Atlantic coast. My parents' house was only 6 blocks away from the beach. I took the beach for granted. It was gorgeous, incredibly beautiful, and always there for me. When I moved to Buenos Aires I really missed the ocean, going to the beach to do body boarding and being able to walk or run along the coast. I remember going back home to visit my parents and taking a stroll to the beach with my manuscript paper, a pencil and an eraser. I would stay hours in front of the ocean, just by myself, drinking mate (my favorite infusion, pretty much like an espresso green tea), and composing. Only then I realized the level of influence that nature, and the ocean in particular had had on me since I was a child.

With regards to our upcoming program, "Light of the World", I think it is going to be a very beautiful and invigorating program. The music in it is varied, and simultaneously also quite related. The atmosphere of this program is about healing, about acceptance, about sharing the beauty of life with other humans. Post-pandemic, this is one of the most comforting programs I could possibly think of. I sense it almost like a representation of generosity of spirit, all done through the gestures and means of expressions of these three master composers: Carter, Vaughan Williams and Fauré. I keep reminding myself about how fortunate we artists are to be able to share and express these emotions with other human beings.

CS: What are some of your first memories of natural habitats you loved visiting at a young age or otherwise?  Do you remember the impression it left on you, and if it did, why so?

CB: I remember vividly our family holidays when I was a child, going to Patagonia with my parents and my sister. Spending the day by the various lakes, surrounded by beautiful mountains with snowy tops. Seeing wild animals, kayaking in the lake, bathing in the icy cold water. All of this is incredibly invigorating to me. I love camping, making a fire, cooking with fire. Still to this day, this is one of my favorite things to do. It is almost like a primal instinct. I will also bring my guitar and enjoy a bit of music around the campfire. What a treat!

CS: In addition to conducting and composing, you're also a devoted educator.  So much of your time is spent pouring into people as they strive to know themselves and challenge themselves musically and academically.  Have you ever had to challenge a collaborator-learner in your classroom or rehearsal hall to think outside of the notes on the page or in the score?  Where do you point them in order to encourage them to think about intention and drama beyond the manuscript and the textbook?

CB: As a student I really thrived when my mentors challenged me and pushed me. I grew leaps and bounds whenever someone encouraged me to think outside the box, and to experiment and go well beyond my comfort zone. This is not always the case. But to me, I was very grateful to those mentors that were not afraid to speak and share with me their brutal honesty. I am not saying it is good to be mean, or that I am a masochist. Not at all. But I think that sugarcoating critique and feedback hinders growth. We absolutely need honest feedback. We also need to point them in any kind of direction that will help them open their curiosity and awaken interests in different things that they may not be considering. A book, a movie, a song, an experience, whatever helped us grow or have that "eureka" moment, we must share with our students. We need to respect our students as we would like to be respected. We need to treat them with compassion, but also with honesty, admiration and respect. Our students are really our younger colleagues. It is a wonderful thing when you see one of those former students grow and develop into masters, and to one day share the stage with them, and/or to première one of their compositions. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see someone I helped from the beginning thrive and achieve greatness. It essentially has nothing to do with me. I am there just to support them and help them discover how wonderful they already are.

CS: We're coming up on the Summer.  How do you typically spend your time before the seasons begin in the Fall?

CB: Summer is usually a time when I love finding moments to connect with nature again. To recharge. To go on hikes, to explore lakes and mountains, and to spend as much time as possible enjoying the ocean with my board. Summer is -paradoxically- also a time when I get to experience winter in the Southern hemisphere. So indeed this summer I will spend some time with my sons enjoying nature, and I will also spend some time conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in Buenos Aires, in the middle of their winter. This is an orchestra which I have been conducting for many years, and I admire and respect them very much because it is one of the orchestras that nourished me as a young aspiring musician. I would go to see their concerts every week. I studied with some of the maestros in the orchestra. And as a young professional when I first conducted this orchestra they were very welcoming to me, and since then we have done many concerts together, even national tours and recordings. It is always good re-connecting with our origins. This for me is literally going back home, to my family, to my home country, and to one of the orchestras that taught me so much as a young musician.

CS: I've really enjoyed this opportunity to get to know more about you, and I know there are a few people reading this who know things about you now that they didn't know before, so I really appreciate you taking the time and for letting me take over your interviews and ask you some questions.  I'm looking forward to being near you on the podium again in these next few weeks!

CB: What a pleasure dear Chase, thank you for your insightful conversation, and for being such a dedicated, inspiring and wonderful leader. I very much look forward to making music with you this week, next, and for many years to come!

Biography
Charles “Chase” Spruill, IV is forging a unique path connecting the fields of contemporary chamber music, music education and public service. He was an artist-in-residence and founding violinist of Sacramento State University’s resident contemporary ensemble before accepting a permanent residency as a core faculty member at the Nationally celebrated Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island which The New Yorker hails as “…a revolutionary organization in which the distinction between performing and teaching disappears.” He’s collaborated with and performed alongside notable artists in the field such as composer/electric guitarist Steven Mackey, composer Alexandra Gardner, violinist Johnny Gandelsman of Brooklyn Rider and the Silk Road Project with Yo-Yo Ma, British composer and pianist Michael Nyman, and most recently, Kronos Quartet. In 2014, Chase began touring as a duo with pianist and longtime director of the Philip Glass Ensemble Michael Riesman. Together, they are premiering new concert works for violin and piano arranged from film scores by Philip Glass housing iconic monsters of cinema. The pair made their debut at the 2014 Festival of New American Music and are continuing throughout North America and Europe. The performance of “Glass & Blood” at (le) Poisson Rouge with Michael Riesman marks his New York City recital debut. Future plans include premieres and performances of a newly commissioned concert work for violin and piano by Michael Nyman and the premiere of collaborative string quartet arrangements with composer Nico Muhly.

Soloist Profile: Joy Yanai in Conversation with Christian Baldini

In preparation for our upcoming concert in Sacramento with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joy Yanai, who will be our soloist for Dvorak's Silent Woods and Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1. 

 
Christian Baldini: Joy, it is a real pleasure to have you with us as our featured "Rising Star" soloist for this concert. I am very grateful to Eunghee Cho (Artistic Director of the Mellon Music Festival) for making me aware of your talent! How did you meet Eunghee?

Joy Yanai: It is such a pleasure for me to join the orchestra as well! Eunghee and I were both in the studio of professor Paul Katz at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. Eunghee is not only an excellent cellist, but also a fantastic producer who is always willing to share his ideas and passion with other musicians and audiences. I really appreciate the many wonderful musical experiences Eunghee has given me including the opportunity to perform on his Mellon Music Festival which led to this Rising Star Concert.

CB: For our concert you will be performing three very different pieces. The Suite for Cello Solo by Gaspar Cassadó, and then with the orchestra, Dvorak's Silent Woods and Saint-Saëns' Cello Concerto No. 1. Can you tell me how you feel about the program and specifically about each of these pieces? What is special to you about them?

JY: Saint-Saëns' first Cello Concerto is oftentimes stuck with a bad rep as a "student concerto" because it is one of those pieces that pre-college students will learn to show off their technique. I am ashamed to admit that I was also one of those young cellists who reveled in the virtuosic scales and tricky arppegiations of the concerto. Returning to this concerto after many years, I found that the music is full of so many different colors and so much more emotional richness than I remembered. There is actually no specific reason for programming these pieces, but I tried to pick pieces that it would be interesting and fun to listen if I were in the audience. To be completely honest, many of Dvorak's works do not attract me in particular, I am convinced that his Silent Woods is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for the cello. Every time I perform this piece, I feel as if I am telling a fairytale that simultaneously caresses and arouses the heart. Cassadó's Suite for Cello Solo is one of the my favorite pieces because it immediately sends me to Spain- a place where I still have not visited. It also always amazes me how versatile the cello itself can be with Cassadó's imaginative extended techniques. I would be very happy if I can share my feelings with the audience at the concert! 

CB: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? When did you start learning music and the cello? Was there someone who was particularly important in your upbringing, who was an inspiration to you and helped you become a musician?

JY: I was born in Montreal, Canada and raised in Sendai, Japan. I learned the piano first, but I never liked it because there were too many notes to deal with. I started leaning the cello when I was five years old because my mother really loves cello. I still clearly remember when my parents gave me my first cello as a Christmas Present. Though there are many people who supported and helped me become a musician, meeting professor Laurence Lesser was the turning point of my life; without him, I probably never would have considered studying outside of Japan. We met at the Orford Music Academy, my first ever international summer festival, when I was 12. I did not speak any English at that time, but Mr. Lesser was very patient with me in each lesson. When I came to the states for the first time for high school, he became my private teacher for the following 8 years.  

CB: What are some of the most memorable experiences of your childhood? 

JY: Some of the most memorable experiences of my childhood are playing in snow with my yellow lab in the winter and catching butterflies and dragonflies in the summer on a hill just behind my house in Japan. There were not many children around my age in my neighborhood at that time, but I never felt lonely because I was completely enamored by nature. My name is spelled Joinatsuru in Japan, but it is spelled "Naturu Joy" in Canada where I was born. My father named me "Naturu" after the great nature that is so special in Canada. It seems that in my case, my name truly does reflect my nature (excuse the pun!).

CB: You have obviously accomplished a lot already, playing chamber music, as a soloist, and developing your own voice. And where would you like to be in 5 or 10 years? What would you like to be doing, or where?

JY: My dream job is playing year-round in a professional opera orchestra. 

CB: Which other activities do you enjoy, outside music?

JY: When I am in the states, I would have to say that cooking is my favorite and most dedicated hobby. However, when I am in Japan, my absolute favorite activity is visiting Japan's many hot springs. 

CB: What would you recommend to a young musician starting out? What is some good advice for someone who would like to become a professional musician?

JY: Whenever you feel like you have explored all the great music in the world, keep searching for more. There is so much to experience as a musician outside of the confines of the practice room. All of this experience contributes to who we are a as a musician and expanding your horizons into other genres and performance mediums will only serve to nurture your connection to music. Also, practicing should never feel like a chore. Even though it is undeniable how much we enjoy playing our instruments so much, sometimes we need a break from practicing. Go ahead and take that break!

CB: It's been really wonderful to have the chance to know more about you and your upbringing. Thank you for sharing your wonderful talent and dedication with your audience, and I very much look forward to our performance together!

JY: Thank you for giving me such a wonderful opportunity to play with you and your orchestra and also to talk about myself. I am very excited to meet everyone in the orchestra and in the community! 

BIOGRAPHY
Canadian-Japanese cellist Joy Yanai began taking cello lessons at the age of five in Japan before attending Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA under the tutelage of distinguished pedagogue Laurence Lesser. She continued her studies in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music completed B.M. and M.M. degrees, as well as a Graduate Diploma studying with Paul Katz and Lluís Claret.

In 2011 she actively joined the Earthquake and Tsunami relief efforts for Japan both with solo recitals in the affected regions and with fundraising performances in collaboration with Kim Kashkashian, Paul Biss, Laurence Lesser, and Masuko Ushioda. She participated in such international music festivals as Pacific Music Festival, Seiji Ozawa Music Academy Opera Project and Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy.

She actively performs with A Far Cry, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Orchestra, and Eureka Ensemble. She will be performing as a Festival Artist at the Mellon Music Festival in Davis, CA in May 2019.