Composer Profile: Colin Regan in Conversation with Christian Baldini

Colin Regan is still in high school, and this month he will have an orchestra piece of his given its world première by the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, which is well known for its frequent collaborations with living composers. Not many high schoolers receive such opportunities, but this month, Parker Van Ostrand (another high schooler) will be performing as our soloist with the orchestra as well. This fits within our mission of promoting young talent, as well as creating opportunities for exceptionally gifted composers and performers who deserve a space in the concert platform. This season the Camellia Symphony Orchestra performed multiple works by female composers, African American composers and Latin American composers.

Christian Baldini: Colin, I imagine you must be quite excited about having your work "Solace" premiered by the Camellia Symphony Orchestra in Sacramento. It is a rare opportunity for a high school age composer to receive a premiere by an established orchestra. Tell us about your piece, its title, and anything that you'd like to share about it.

Colin Regan: I am extremely excited and honored to hear my music performed by the Camellia Symphony Orchestra. It has been a dream of mine to compose for an established orchestra for many years now, and it is both wonderful and surreal to know that this is happening. The piece I wrote for the Camellia Symphony Orchestra is called "Solace". It begins with a graceful solo on the French horn, which was the first instrument I learned how to play when I was seven years old. The piece gradually builds as more instruments are featured, including the woodwinds and the cello section, until the initial theme is brought back, this time played by the entire orchestra. I chose to call it "Solace", because it is a rather peaceful and introspective piece, while there are still undertones of tension and disquietude, driving it to its emotional culmination.

CB: How did you become interested in music? Who have been your main teachers or mentors?

CR: I have been interested in music for as long as I can remember. As a toddler, I remember being exposed to a lot of beautiful music; it also helped that several members of my family are very musical. I have had many teachers and mentors over the years, but I truly feel that my biggest "teachers" have been the composers that came before me: Tchaikovsky, Joe Hisaishi, and John Williams, to name a few. Listening to their work has taught me so much about music, not only influencing me, but inspiring me.

CB: You spent a year studying abroad in Sweden. Did that change you in any way, and if so, how?

CR: Living in Sweden did change me. Last year, I got to know so many wonderful people and I got to study at the biggest music-focused high school in the country. By the end of my year there, I felt almost like a different person.

CB: What would you like to study in college? And what are your dreams? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

CR: In college, I would like to major in music composition. My dream is to be able to compose for a profession and spread my music to as many people as I can. I feel that music itself holds an extreme amount of power to move people emotionally, particularly when a medium as lush and complex as a symphony orchestra is being used. I don't have a solid vision of where I will be in ten years, but as long as I can keep creating music, I know I will be content.

Colin Regan is a composer in the Sacramento area. He is currently a senior at George Washington Carver School of Arts and Science and will begin studying music at American River College this fall. Writing music is his deepest passion, and he is beyond excited to be working with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra.

Soloist Profile: Parker van Ostrand in Conversation with Christian Baldini

On May 25, Parker Van Ostrand will perform the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra. This talented young man has already achieved lots of things, and I enjoyed myself enormously talking to him and finding out more about his interests. Below is our interview.

Christian Baldini: Parker, at such a young age, you've already accomplished a lot. Please tell us how you started with the piano, and how did you become interested in it? And share with us any anecdotes and/or whether you were ever interested in other instruments as well.

Parker Van Ostrand: I started playing the piano when I was four years old. My mom played the cello and went to music school. I asked to learn play the piano when I was three years old after seeing a children’s book with a small keyboard on the cover. A year later my parents bought me an old upright piano. Seeing how much I loved to play the piano they decided to buy me a grand piano a few months later.

CB: Which other activities do you enjoy outside music?

PVO: Besides playing the piano, I love long distance running. I’ve been running since seventh grade and have been a member of  my high school cross country and track team for two seasons now. On average, we run 7-9 miles everyday. I enjoy being outdoors, doing workouts with my teammates, and running new hiking routes every time we go on vacation. I also enjoy travelling to foreign countries. This past summer I went to Northern Europe and Scandinavia, and I loved seeing the beautiful landscapes of Norway and the architecture of Stockholm and Helsinki. I also enjoy watching horror movies, creating oil paintings, and swimming.

CB: We look forward to featuring you as our soloist for the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. What are some of the features you like the most about this piece?

PVO: To those that do not know Beethoven very well, this concerto is actually the first piano concerto he wrote, even though it’s titled piano concerto No. 2. One feature I really like about this piece is that it is filled with contrasting characters, from playful to lyrical to very mysterious. It’s written in a style very similar to that of Mozart, with some elements of Beethoven’s later works still present. For example, when the piano first enters, the character is so charming and playful, a character that is rarely found in the later works of Beethoven. However, some of the parts in this concerto, such as the end of the cadenza, foreshadow the later styles of Beethoven’s music, often much darker with more drama.

CB: What is a day like in the life of Parker? How many hours do you practice, and how do you balance your music with school activities, and everything else?

PVO: On the weekdays, I practice around two hours every night, after track or cross country practice. As a member of my school’s cross country and track team, we practice every day after school year round for two hours except for December. I also participate in my school’s (McClatchy) Mathletes club, and we meet twice a month to prepare for monthly competitions held at different schools in the Sacramento area. On most weekends, I practice three to four hours a day. During the track and cross country season, we have meets almost every Saturday. During the springtime, I participate in several piano competitions that are both local and further away, such as the Bay Area or San Jose. I also volunteer on Saturdays at the McKinley Rose Garden, where I have painted many oil paintings.

In order to balance my music with school and other extracurricular activities I have learned to manage my time efficiently. I try to complete my homework as much as I can during class time and not procrastinate on projects/term papers.

CB: Why is music important to you?

PVO: Music is one of the most powerful ways in which I can create many different varieties of emotions and  feelings, tell stories, and develop characters. Playing music is very impactful and moving for me, and my goal is always to do the same for the audience. When I play music,  I focus on bringing each note to life. The notes come together to tell a unique story full of emotions and meanings. I love playing music for others, whether it is for a large audience, a family member, my classmates, or the residents of a nursing home. The emotions in the music I play vary from joy and triumph, love and passion, to tragedy and despair.  It is through these shared emotions that I can connect with my audience and allow them to feel the music I am performing.

CB: Where would you like to see yourself in ten years?

PVO: I want to continue playing the piano and pursue a career related to music, whether it is teaching piano, performing, or both. I greatly enjoy sharing the music I learn with others and I want to be able to continue playing for audiences for as long as I can. I also want to continue pursuing my education, specifically in a science-related field. One of my greatest interests is biology and the human body, so I would also love to find a career in the medical field or scientific research.

CB: Thank you very much for your time, and we look forward to introducing our audiences to you soon!

PVO: Thank you! I am looking forward to performing with your orchestra! Thank you for the opportunity!

Parker Van Ostrand is a 10th-grader at McClatchy High School in Sacramento. He began studying piano at age four.  At the age of five he performed at Carnegie Hall after winning gold in the AADGT Competition.  He has returned to Carnegie Hall twice and has performed numerous recitals throughout the United States, Singapore, and Japan.  As a concerto competition winner, Parker performed with the Merced Symphony, Central Valley Youth Symphony, Auburn Symphony, and California Youth Symphony.  This past summer, he toured with the California Youth Symphony to the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.  He was invited to perform with the Parnassus Symphony as a guest soloist in 2017.  Recently he won first place at the 2019 Henry and Carol Zeiter Piano Competition, 2019 Celia Mendez Young Pianist’s Beethoven Competition, the 2018 Mondavi Young Artist Competition, 2017 MTAC State Final Concerto Competition, Pacific Musical Society Competition, and the US New Star Etude Competition.  He currently studies with Dr. Natsuki Fukasawa and Ms. Linda Nakagawa.

Besides piano Parker enjoys swimming, painting, building Legos, and learning Japanese.  He runs cross-country and track at his high school.  One of his goals is to run a marathon, in particular the Boston Marathon.  He is also a member of his school Mathlete Club.

Composer & Soloist Profile: Xavier Beteta in Conversation with Christian Baldini

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On April 27, our program "Exuberant Energy" with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra will feature works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Xavier Beteta and Mozart. Below is an interview with pianist and composer Xavier Beteta.

Christian Baldini: Xavier, it is a pleasure to feature the US premiere of your Piano Concerto "Tomás de Merlo" in Sacramento with you as our soloist. You performed the world premiere of this piece a few months ago in Guatemala, your home country. What can you tell us about the genesis of this piece, and your inspiration in the painter Tomás de Merlo and his stolen paintings?

Xavier Beteta: First, thank you Christian for the invitation to perform with the Camellia Symphony and for featuring the US premiere of my piano concerto. The concerto is inspired by three paintings by XVII century Guatemalan painter Tomás de Merlo. De Merlo was one of the most important colonial painters with a distilled and very original style. In his paintings some characters have “mestizo” and indigenous features, thus, representing the traditional Christian themes in the entourage of the New World. In 2014, six of his paintings were stolen from thechurch “El Calvario” in Antigua Guatemala. When I read the news, I felt frustrated and was confronted with the impossibility of doing something about it, thus, I decided to write a piece of music that somehow could connect with these paintings. I chose three of the stolen paintings, “The Prayer in the Garden, “The Pietá” and “The Crowning with Thorns,” which depict scenes of the passion of Christ. To write this piece I requested high resolution pictures of the paintings and used them to improvise at the piano. Each movement comes from a process of first improvising and recording musical ideas at the piano, and later giving it final form as a three-movement concerto. The plundering of colonial art in Guatemala is a raising problem. While in law school, one of my research topics was precisely the protection of cultural heritage and I wrote a paper about the different international conventions that protect colonial art. I hope writing a piece of music about this topic could help create awareness of this problem, and hopefully inspire authorities to do more to protect the artistic treasures of different countries.

CB: And how was your experience performing it with the National Symphony in your own country? After living in the US for pretty much half of your life, how does it feel to go back to your origins and share everything you've learned as an artist, composer and pianist with your community?

XB: It was a rewarding experience. I think a lot of good and interesting things are happening musically in Guatemala, there is a new generation of young talents willing to perform contemporary music. While in Guatemala this past November, I had the opportunity to teach some master classes and give a talk about my aesthetics as a composer. I was also able to reconnect with friends and students and to talk about possible projects for the future. Regarding the premiere of my piano concerto, I think it was well received. The main figures of the musical and artistic scene in Guatemala were there that night. It was a memorable concert because it also had first performances of works by Manuel Martinez-Sobral and Ricardo Castillo, two Guatemalan composers of the early 20^th century that are rarely heard. Thus, in a way, it was a concert that opened horizons to perform more Guatemalan repertoire. 

CB: Tell us about important figures that have inspired you in your education and training. Who are those people that you will always be grateful to, and why?

XB: I would mention three, my piano teachers Sylvia Kersenbaum and Sergei Polusmiak and my first composition teacher Rodrigo Asturias. Kersenbaum was a teacher that knew basically all the pianistic repertoire by heart, and I was fortunate to meet her at a time in my studies where I needed to develop technique and a sense of originality. Polusmiak studied with Regina Horowitz (sister of Vladimir) and through him I learned the basics of the Russian school of piano: the importance of good sound, impeccable technique, and musical expression. My composition professor Rodrigo Asturias was probably the most influential. I was his only composition student, and he taught me composition because he believed in me. He introduced me to a lot of contemporary music but also, to literature and philosophy. Our meetings were full of discussions of Proust, Musil, Mallarmé, Celine, and many others, and lots of listening of the main masterpieces of the 20^th century. He introduced me not only to the main figures like Boulez or Stockhausen, but also to figures like Bernd Alois Zimmerman, Koechlin, and Jolivet. He set a good example for me.

Now that time has passed and I look back, I can see that, in the three of them, there was, above all, a deep humbleness, and that’s what I admire the most in them. I think the greatest an artist is, the humbler he or she becomes because they are conscious of how long the road is. I think that sense of humility is something we don’t see anymore, especially nowadays where facebook and the social media outlets have created a culture of egocentrism.    

CB: In your opinion, what is the role of art in society nowadays? We keep hearing or reading these dark comments that classical music audiences are aging, do you believe in this, and if so, what should or could be done to reverse this trend and invigorate our audiences?

XB: I believe the role of art in society should always be that of questioning and formulating critique. It is in art where we first sense the ethos of a time and a culture, thus, it is extremely important to create new art, and also propose new trends that can formulate a critique to the current discourses, always informed with a sense of tradition and what has been done before. True art is not entertainment, it is a window into the transcendent and points toward the deepest nature of humanity.

Regarding the dark comments you mention, I believe good music will continue to be done and people who appreciate good music will continue to ask for it. So, I think there will always be people interested in classical music, but it is true that audiences are shrinking. Changing this is not an easy task, but a good start could be to learn “how to feel.”

CB: Thank you for your time and for your very interesting answers, we look forward to featuring you both as a composer and our soloist for our upcoming concert!

XB: Thank you Christian, it is a pleasure to collaborate with you.

Xavier Beteta (composer and pianist)

Born in Guatemala City, Xavier studied piano at the National Conservatory of Guatemala with Consuelo Medinilla. At age 18, he was awarded the first-prize at the Augusto Ardenois National Piano Competition and third-prize at the Rafael Alvarez Ovalle Composition Competition in Guatemala. He continued his piano studies in the United States with Argentinean pianist Sylvia Kersenbaum and with Russian pianist Sergei Polusmiak. He also attended master-classes with pianists Massimiliano Damerini and Daniel Rivera in Italy. Xavier has performed in different venues in the United States, Europe and Latin America and has been a soloist with the Guatemalan National Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Augusto Ardenois.

As a composer, Xavier did most of his studies privately with Rodrigo Asturias. In 2013 he won the Second Place at the fourth International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition in Prague. Xavier studied music theory at the University of Cincinnati where his thesis about the music of Rodrigo Asturias was ranked no. 4 in the National Best-Seller Dissertation List. He recently finished his Ph.D. in composition at the University of California San Diego with Roger Reynolds.  

At UCSD he also studied with Philippe Manoury and Chinary Ung. His compositions have been performed in diverse festivals such as Festival Musica in Strasbourg, France, Darmstadt Composition Summer Courses in Germany, June in Buffalo, SICPP in Boston, Opera Theater Festival of Lucca, Italy and by ensembles such as Accroche Note, Ensemble Signal, and UCSD Palimpsest.

Xavier also holds a law degree from Salmon P. Chase College of Law and his diverse interests include art law, copyright, poetry, and tango.

Composer Profile: Gabriela Lena Frank in Conversation with Christian Baldini

In preparation for our performance of her Elegía andina in Sacramento with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra, I had the pleasure of asking composer Gabriela Lena Frank a few questions about her music. Below are the answers:

Christian Baldini: Thank you very much for agreeing to answer some questions! In your program notes to the Elegía, you note that you "continue to thrive on multiculturalism", and I find this fascinating, especially considering what a rich cultural background you possess as the daughter of a Lithuanian-Jewish father and a Chinese-Peruvian-Spanish mother. Can you tell us more about how this influenced your upbringing, and your music in particular?

Gabriela Lena Frank: Well, my first exposure to music from my mother’s homeland came through Berkeley’s La Peña when it was in its original location at the Julia Morgan Theater on College Avenue.  In the 70s and 80s, there was so much turmoil in Latin America that many refugees were fleeing to the US, bringing their cuisine and music.  At these concerts, I could see Peruvians that looked like my Mom, playing instruments that she had described to me, and I was transported, mentally and emotionally, to a mystical place that beckoned a cultural homecoming.  I loved the music and would come home, trying to make my piano sound like what I had heard in the concerts.  Now, I do this for a living!  

CB: You are an extremely successful artist, nowadays Composer-in-Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra, previously with the Detroit Symphony, and you were included in the Washington Post's list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017). We are performing your Elegía andina, which is your very first orchestral piece, written in 2000 for the Albany Symphony and dedicated to your older brother. Did you imagine that you would have such a phenomenal ride when you started composing? 

GLF: No. Way.  I thought that the lack of representation for women and especially women of color was symptomatic of an industry that would never fully welcome me, but I was determined to explore my nerdy ideas, anyway, with as much joy and fervor as I could muster.  That I’ve been able to overcome quite a few hurdles for many years to slowly make my way to this point is pretty astonishing to me.  I’m delighted to see that my emerging colleagues are generally benefiting from the progress that folks my generation were able to make, and I hope they can go even farther than me.  

CB: You have done so much to help young musicians, especially composers, through your "Creative Academy of Music". Could you tell us how this incredible project started? How did you come up with such an idea? 

GLF: My husband and I took a cross-country trip during the final months of the 2016 presidential election, which was a truly dispiriting affair.  During that trip, we drove through areas that were culturally desolate and economically impoverished, and I could see for my own eyes why certain violent messages of division and hatred were appealing.  All the ideas that had been fomenting in me over many years regarding art and arts citizenship really came to fore, and I felt that I simply had to do something.  So, GLFCAM was born, and we try to give a richly diverse array of voices a potent boost, artistically and professionally.  Their voices need to be heard.  

CB: Who are some important figures that have inspired you in your education and training? Are there any people that you think you will will always be grateful to, and why?

GLF: I’ll always be grateful to certain private teachers — Piano teachers Jeanne Kierman Fischer and Logan Skelton, and composers Sam Jones, William Bolcom, and Leslie Bassett.  They saw what I could be, and are in every word of advice that I now speak to my mentees.  

CB: In your opinion, what is the role of art in society nowadays? 

GLF: To reveal connections in startling new ways; to build character through the art of story-telling; to inspire people to create rather than to make war; to bring people together in the same space to really see one another.  

CB: Sometimes we read or hear depressing comments that classical music audiences are aging. Do you believe in this, and if so, what should or could be done to reverse this trend and invigorate our audiences?

GLF: I’ve heard this since I was a teenager and I think we’ve been mistaking seismic shifts for the very death of our industry.  Change is not death.  Change is how an art form continues to live even if it’s unrecognizable from before.  That said, efforts to retool’s people’s instant reaction to the words “classical” are needed.  That will only happen when it is no longer elitist but available for everyone.  

CB: What do you seek to achieve with every new piece that you write? What is your main motivation for writing music?

GLF: I write to tell stories, and stories exist to enlarge our reality so that we can really be human, not merely a reactive organism.  Sometimes the stories are clumsy or new to me — Elegia Andina, as you note, was my first orchestra work, and I was sweating bullets the entire time I was putting notes to the page.  Yet, even then, my motivation was the same — To touch people and remind them how large this beautiful world is.  I humbly ask to be that messenger.  

CB: Thank you very much for your time and for answering these questions in such a candid manner. We very much look forward to sharing your beautiful music with our audiences here in Sacramento!

GLF: You are very welcome.  I wish I could be there to join you!

Included in the Washington Post's list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017), identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank's music. Born in Berkeley, California (September, 1972), to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her pieces often reflect and refract her studies of Latin American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own.

Moreover, she writes, "There's usually a story line behind my music; a scenario or character." While the enjoyment of her works can be obtained solely from her music, the composer's program notes enhance the listener's experience, for they describe how a piano part mimics a marimba or pan-pipes, or how a movement is based on a particular type of folk song, where the singer is mockingly crying. Even a brief glance at her titles evokes specific imagery: Leyendas (Legends): An Andean Walkabout; Cuentos Errantes (Wandering Songs); and La Llorona (The Crying Woman): Tone Poem for Viola and Orchestra. Frank’s compositions also reflect her virtuosity as a pianist — when not composing, she is a sought-after performer, specializing in contemporary repertoire.

Winner of a Latin Grammy and nominated for Grammys as both composer and pianist, Gabriela also holds a Guggenheim Fellowship and a USA Artist Fellowship given each year to fifty of the country’s finest artists. Her work has been described as “crafted with unself-conscious mastery” (Washington Post), “brilliantly effective” (New York Times), “a knockout” (Chicago Tribune) and “glorious” (Los Angeles Times). Gabriela Lena Frank is regularly commissioned by luminaries such as cellist Yo Yo Ma, soprano Dawn Upshaw, the King’s Singers, and the Kronos Quartet, as well as by the talents of the next generation such as conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin of the New York Metropolitan Opera and Philadelphia Orchestra. She has received orchestral commissions and performances from leading American orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony. In 2017, she completed her four-year tenure as composer-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony under maestro Leonard Slatkin, composing Walkabout: Concerto for Orchestra, as well as a second residency with the Houston Symphony under Andrés Orozco-Estrada for whom she composed the Conquest Requiem, a large-scale choral/orchestral work in Spanish, Latin, and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Frank’s most recent premiere is Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered by the National Youth Orchestra of the United States under the baton of conductor Marin Alsop. In the season of 2019-20, Fort Worth Opera will premiere Frank’s first opera, The Last Dream of Frida (with a subsequent performance by co-commissioner San Diego Opera) utilizing words by her frequent collaborator Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz. 

Gabriela Lena Frank is the subject of several scholarly books including the W.W. Norton Anthology: The Musics of Latin America; Women of Influence in Contemporary Music: Nine American Composers (Scarecrow Press); and In her Own Words(University of Illinois Press). She is also the subject of several PBS documentaries including Compadre Huashayo regarding her work in Ecuador composing for the Orquestra de Instrumentos Andinos comprised of native highland instruments; and Música Mestiza, regarding a workshop she led at the University of Michigan composing for a virtuoso septet of a classical string quartet plus a trio of Andean panpipe players. Música Mestiza, created by filmmaker Aric Hartvig, received an Emmy Nomination for best Documentary Feature in 2015. 

Civic outreach is an essential part of Frank’s work. She has volunteered extensively in hospitals and prisons, with a recent project working with deaf African-American high school students in Detroit who rap in sign language. In 2017, Frank founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, a non-profit training institution that offers emerging composers short-term retreats at Gabriela’s two farms in Mendocino County, CA. Over two visits, participants receive artistic and professional mentorship from Gabriela as well as readings of works in progress by guest faculty master performers in advance of the works' public world premieres at the academy. In support of arts citizenship, the Academy also pairs participant composers and faculty performers with underrepresented rural communities in a variety of projects such as working with students at the Anderson Valley Junior/Senior High enrolled in basic music composition class.  

During the 2018-2019 season, Frank leads four composer residencies across the US, including performances of her recent works as well as large-scale commissions: composer-in-residence with Philadelphia Orchestra through 2021, visiting artist-in-residence with Vanderbilt University, a composer residency with the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and is the featured composer for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Music in Color concert series. In 2017, Frank founded the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in Boonville, CA which provides mentorship, readings-to-premieres residencies, and commissions for emerging composers from diverse backgrounds in addition to fostering public school programs in low-arts rural public schools.

Frank attended Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she earned a B.A. (1994) and M.A. (1996). She studied composition with Sam Jones, and piano with Jeanne Kierman Fischer. At the University of Michigan, where she received a D.M.A. in composition in 2001, Gabriela studied with William Albright, William Bolcom, Leslie Bassett, and Michael Daugherty, and piano with Logan Skelton. She currently resides in Boonville, a small rural town in the Anderson Valley of northern California, with her husband Jeremy on their mountain farm, has a second home in her native Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area, and travels frequently in South America.  

Gabriela Lena Frank's music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer, Inc.