Q&A: Composer discusses collaboration, creative process of upcoming three-part concert
Nico Muhly is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose influences range from American minimalism to the Anglican choral tradition. The recipient of commissions from the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and others, he has written more than 80 works for the concert stage and is a frequent collaborator with choreographer Benjamin Millepied. As an arranger, he has paired with Joanna Newsom and Antony and the Johnsons, among others. He has composed for stage and screen, with credits that include music for the 2013 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie and scores for the films Kill Your Darlings; Me, Earl and The Dying Girl; and the Academy Award-winning The Reader. For his CAP UCLA appearance, Muhly presents a performance in three parts: first a collaboration with composer Thomas Bartlett, comprising a set of songs built around two-piano transcriptions of gamelan music; second, an archival project of gems from over 40 years of Philip Glass’s catalog; and finally, a cycle of his own drone-based compositions which he describes as “both severe and lyrical.”
"Nico Muhly’s performance piece may be in three parts, but it is not fractured.
Composer Nico Muhly will deliver a three-part performance at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on Friday. The concert is hosted by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. (Courtesy of Heidi Solander) The composer has created works that include classical pieces and film soundtracks, and will deliver a three-part performance, “Archives, Friends, Patterns,” at The Theatre at Ace Hotel on Friday. The first part of the concert, hosted by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, contains two-piano transcriptions of Indonesian gamelan music created with composer Thomas Bartlett. The second is a rearrangement of works from composer Philip Glass’ catalog, while the third contains Muhly’s drone-based compositions.
The Daily Bruin’s Cameron Vernali spoke with Muhly about his pathway into music, discussing the differences between creating music for friends and for strangers.
Daily Bruin: How did you get interested in music?
Nico Mulhy: When I was a kid, I played piano and … I was also singing in a boys’ choir. This is all in Providence, Rhode Island. Something happened when … I realized that these two different forms of music-making were private and publicly team-based. I just latched onto them both and I started taking both a lot more seriously and thinking, “What would it be like (if) instead of interpreting something, I actually started to play around?” That’s how I got started.
DB: Your catalog ranges from film soundtracks to classical compositions. When you decided you wanted to go into music, were you open to many forms or did you have one in mind?
NM: The fact that I collaborate a lot and the fact that I do many different things, to me, doesn’t feel unnatural. It feels like a natural extension of how I make music. I make music with my friends, the people I’m around. I never treat it as two different universes of music-making."— Cameron Vernali, May 9, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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