Meet the Cone Institute Composers: Will Stackpole
Will Stackpole is one of the four composers of the 2016 NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute. Read a Q&A with Stackpole and learn more about ... Ask Questions Later, which the NJSO presents as part of Scores: New Orchestral Works on July 16 at 8 pm at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton.
How did your musical journey begin?
The very beginning was pretty standard: piano lessons and whatnot. Oddly enough, when I was very young, I was never all that passionate about playing music. I loved listening, but practice was never my strong suit. Things really got moving, though, when I started playing guitar at age 12 or 13. Something clicked, and I couldn’t stop writing and playing. I played and sang in rock bands all through high school and college. As things progressed, I kept seeking out more and more idiosyncratic sounds in what I listened to and wrote, which eventually lead me to what I do now.
What key experiences have shaped your path as a composer?
I originally majored in recording/audio production in college before adding composition to my curriculum, and I was lucky to have this really life-changing professor, Andy Brick. Early in my time at college I took music theory and orchestration with him. Because of his classes, listening to and creating classical music became a more and more significant part of my life. I may have found my way to it anyway, but those years studying with Professor Brick definitely gave me the push I needed to discover that this is what I want to do with my life.
How would you describe your compositional style, and what influences you?
I’m heavily influenced by authors and literature. Though I don’t work much with text, a lot of my music has meta or self-referential elements that exist in this musical landscape that’s constantly changing color. Singular ideas (musical and non-musical alike) often govern entire pieces on many different levels. The musical language itself varies from piece to piece depending on the concept. I don’t really think about things in terms of tonal vs non-tonal or as belonging to any particular style. It sits at a sort of weird nexus of accessibility and novelty.
What has been your proudest experience as a composer?
This spring I had a piece performed on an orchestra concert at school. No one told me at the time but apparently there was a New York Times critic in the audience! I didn’t find out until two days later when I read the paper. I wouldn’t say it was the warmest thing anyone’s ever said about me (still positive, though!) but seeing my name and work printed there was a really cool way for the past two years of work to culminate.
What attracted you to the NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute? What do you hope to gain from the experience?
I’m so excited to get to work with the NJSO. A week of collaboration with such a top-notch ensemble is a rare experience at this stage of my career, and on top of that I get to work with Steve Mackey and David Robertson, who are such influential voices in current concert music. It’s like a sudden jump into the deep end of the pool. I’m hoping that I walk away from this with an invigorated perspective on writing for the orchestra and with a few new compositional and professional tools at my disposal.
… Ask Questions Later: In the Composer’s Words
The first thing that I feel the need to explain about this piece is that the title is cynical. This piece is about gun violence, and about the permanence of consequences. I debated internally for quite a while about whether or not this was my piece to write, or more accurately, whether it was appropriate for me to give voice to my own opinions on the subject in such a public way. It seems apparent that there are a growing number of people whose lives are cut short or torn apart by these disgusting events. This work is the manifestation of my own personal reactions to a seemingly unending stream of headlines in the summer of 2015, relaying the details of death after death after death of innocent people. The persistent (daily, in fact) influx of news of more mass murder had an increasingly intense impact on myself and those around me. The feeling of inability to effect change on the matter is a common one that I have felt and heard expressed by many people. This work explores the effects of violent choices. Once a dire action is taken, there is a short while when its consequences have not yet occurred but when those consequences become inevitable; when those involved become helpless to change the outcome of what is happening. … Ask Questions Later is an exploration of the brief moment of inevitability between an explosion and its impact. I do not presume to offer a solution for the current state of things, but I do hope to call further attention to an urgent problem that absolutely must be solved.
About the Composer
Originally from Goffstown, New Hampshire, Will Stackpole’s works have been played across the country. Stackpole began his musical career as an electric guitarist and recording engineer, primarily performing in rock bands in his home state and later in Hoboken, New Jersey. While attending Stevens Institute of Technology for his undergraduate studies, Stackpole began writing concert music and quickly developed a unique compositional voice. He spent the next two years studying composition with Justin Dello Joio while working in New York as a freelance composer and orchestrator for theater, film and television. Stackpole has since refocused his efforts on creating conceptually innovative concert music. His work is made up of an eclectic blend of styles and influences ranging across a wide spectrum, from opera to rock, from Miles Davis to Igor Stravinsky. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at The Juilliard School in the studio of Robert Beaser.