Meet the Cone Institute composers: Alyssa Weinberg

Alyssa Weinberg, one of the four composers of the 2017 NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, chats about her career and Tereza Slumbers, which the NJSO performs on July 15 at 8 pm at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton.

What sparked your interest in composing?

I started out as a horn performance major at Vanderbilt University, but I found my passion for composition just as I was about to start college. I always joke that I stumbled into composition somewhat accidentally, and I definitely consider one teacher responsible for the fact that I am a composer today. While enrolled in a summer festival towards the end of high school, I wasn’t placed in the orchestra I was hoping for, and [when I needed to get faculty approval to fill the timeslot with another course], I found myself sitting in front of David Ludwig. I had a friend involved in the composition class, so I told him that sounded interesting. Amazingly, that was his composition program. He introduced himself, welcomed me to join his seminar without any pressure to write anything, and signed me up.

I can honestly say that his class changed my life. It exposed me to pieces that still to this day are incredibly close to me and have really informed how I think about creating art. I was young and relatively new to classical music, and I probably hadn’t even heard of Brahms or Schubert at the time, but in David’s class I was being introduced to the music of Crumb, Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Varese, and those pieces got me really excited. I loved it. I didn’t try to compare them to a preconceived notion of what “classical” music should sound like. It inspired me to try to write a piece of my own, and after that, I never looked back.

How would you describe your compositional style, and what inspires you?

I think I have a fairly broad range of influences, but in terms of style I tend to think mostly in terms of color, texture and gesture. I frequently find myself responding to other works of art, spending time with how they affect me and then imagining how to turn that affect into sound. In terms of compositional language, the scores that I’ve studied and probably “stolen” the most from have been from Stravinsky, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Schoenberg and Crumb.

Have your collaborations with artists from other disciplines influenced your approach to orchestral writing?

My work with other artists has definitely expanded the way I think about creating art, although I’m not sure I’m aware of any direct orchestrational influences in that regard. Working with the other directors of my experimental dance company, duende, has challenged me to think differently about the various ways an audience might experience a piece of music, and as a result has fueled me to continue to search for different techniques and levels of collaboration in much of my writing: thinking about the physicality of playing each instrument, the personalities of the specific musicians I write for, the different performance settings that might enhance the experience of a particular type of piece, etc.

On Tereza Slumbers: What spoke to you about The Unbearable Lightness of Being? What can audience members expect to hear in your piece?

I have always been interested in exploring the sonic possibilities of portraying various states of the subconscious. In connection to this novel, I focused on the dreams of the character Tereza and the significance of sleep as a central theme throughout the story. Formally, this piece is structured around the alternation and interaction between a philosophical “lightness” and “heaviness,” and the juxtaposition between these two orchestrated sound worlds represents the perpetual internal conflict of desire between these two states of existence.

What drew you to the NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute? What do you hope to gain from the experience?

The ability to work with a professional orchestra for such an extended period of time, and under the guidance of Steve Mackey, is an amazing opportunity to improve my orchestral writing.

» Visit Weinberg’s website

» Read more about the 2017 Cone Institute composers and their works

» See details for the 2017 Institute concert, “Scores: New Orchestral Works”

» Learn more about the Institute