Meet the Institute Composers: Luke Carlson

The Philadelphia Inquirer has called the music of composer and conductor Luke Carlson “magical” and “otherworldly;” The New York Times has called Carlson’s work “personal and strong.” His compositions have garnered multiple honors, including first prize in the 2014 MACRO competition and multiple prizes from Network for New Music; he was a composition fellow at the 2013 Aspen Music Festival. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and currently lives in Philadelphia. www.lukecarlsonmusic.com

 

 

Well, it started late. My mom is a piano teacher, so I took lessons when I was around 7 or 8 years old, but I quit because I wasn’t really interested. Then, was I was about 15 years old, I really got back into music and suddenly had a burning desire to be a musician. And I kind of taught myself, read books and took piano lessons again, and eventually, when I was old enough to go to community college, I took some theory courses and absolutely fell in love with it. At that point, I figured, if I were to choose a life in music, composition would be the one I would be interested in. So I started writing music for friends, and then I transferred to the University of Oregon, where I majored in composition. The rest is history!

 

 

I like to write music that is full of variety I like to write vibrant, colorful, exciting music. I don’t necessarily follow a particular school or technique, but I would say that my music is more on the post-tonal side. I certainly love using rich tonal cords and harmonies, but I try to avoid sounding derivative or imitating anyone’s particular style. If you tried to describe or peg my sound down, it might be a bright, tonal but a little bit crunchy.

 

 

A lot of my early years in Oregon, even before I was in college, I would attend the Bach Festival in Oregon, which happened over the summer for about two weeks. And for such a small town, Eugene Onegin to have this international, world-class orchestra festival come every year was such an exciting and amazing thing. So each year, as I was really getting into music and getting excited about it, I’d go to as many concerts as I could, and I’d watch big orchestral choral works by Bach and Mozart; I think those experiences were tremendous. Shortly after that, when I was in college, I took advantage of the opportunity to sing as a chorister in a couple of symphonic works with the symphony in town. So I sang Mahler’s second symphony and Brahms’ Requiem. So to be able to be with the orchestra and watch them close up was very fun and important, and it had a huge impact on me.

 

 

The piece was a commission from Aspen Music Festival, where I was a student in the summer of 2013. And they won’t let one student each year receive the Druckman Prize. Wanting to compose a work of continuous energy and vibrancy, I took my inspiration from the idea of a visual artist’s excited urgency in attempting to capture an image during the fleeting period of time known as the “golden hour,” the time of day when the setting sun imparts long shadows and rich colors. The work flows in a single arc, consisting of distinct but connected sections of intensity, introspection, playfulness and aggressiveness. Utilizing a variety of orchestral colors and instrumentations, my intent is to project a sense of relentless energy and unbridled excitement.

 

Get to know the composers of the 2015 NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, and stay tuned for more from these exciting talents in the week leading up to the FOUR: New Orchestral Works concert on Thursday, July 16.