The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

I was four years old. I have four older siblings, all musical, and my mother was a musician. So, I sat under the piano during their lessons and then tried to reach the keyboard to imitate what they were learning.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

Dramatic capacity for focus.

Two ways you stay motivated:

Read new fiction and look at lots of visual art.

Latest album or recording project:

Not focused on recording. The project I’ll highlight is part of a large group commission from Alisa Weilerstein for a series of programs staged theatrically: Fragments

What inspired it:

Alisa Weilerstein asked each composer (of about 20, I think) to create a world for solo cello that would become part of a program paired with one of the Bach suites. But, none of us knew which suite or where in the suite – she would make the choices after receiving all the music. It happened that I was doing a transcription project for Simone Dinnerstein at the same time, working from the Orgelbuchlein. I was saturated in Bach, and, whereas many of my composing colleagues wrote adventuresome, improvisatory things, I wrote a straight-ahead Allemande.

Who’s on it:

Alisa Weilerstein

How do you discover new music?

Music is always new.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

I love Missy Mazzoli’s music; she’s now getting lots of well-deserved attention, though.

Where can we find you online?

Regrettably, I still haven’t made a website.

Upcoming Event you’d like to share? 

Alisa’s project goes worldwide soon.

* Full Disclosure: Alan wrote Lullaby in Three Voices for Aaron’s New Lullaby Project and Aaron recorded it on Nights Transfigured. 
Listen on SPOTIFY

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

Music was always part of my life — but consciously — probably around 6th grade.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

Empathy.

Two ways you stay motivated:

A desire to create beauty and a looming deadline.

Latest album or recording project:

“The Ocean of Eternity CD” on the Acis label.

What inspired it:

I’m in a multi-year project to record all of the music I’ve written so this yet another step. The centerpiece of this particular CD is the song cycle “The Ocean of Eternity” — for soprano, soprano saxophone and piano (commissioned by Michael Couper, Yungee Rhie and ChoEun Lee, who are the performers) — which sets the poetry of the late Sri Lankan poet Anne Ranasinghe.

Who’s on it:

Sopranos Nicole Cabell, Alisa Jordheim, Maureen McKay,  Patrice Michaels and Yungee Rhie; mezzo-soprano Katie Hannigan; baritone Daniel Belcher; violinist Tarn Travers; saxophonist Michael Couper; and pianists Lori Laitman, ChoEun Lee, Tze-Wen (Julia) Lin and Andrew Rosenblum.

How do you discover new music?

Mostly by going to concerts.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

dead: Rebecca Clarke.

living: too many to name.

Where can we find you online?

Website
Facebook
Instagram
Spotify
www.scarletletteropera.com

Upcoming Event you’d like to share?

Solo Opera’s production of “The Three Feathers,” my fairy tale opera with Dana Gioia. The production will take place Sept 8 and 10, 2023 at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA.

The online premiere of my latest Holocaust work, Wertheim Park, was just released:

And a short film made from my Sarong Song — 

Photo by Karjaka Studios

Recently I received a few questions from an Australian guitarist via Twitter regarding how I play a couple of spots in  John Cage’s Dream, so I decided to make a brief video on the part in question. 

Do you have questions on this piece or another of my Cage arrangements?

Let me know and I’ll go about making more.

The Lesson (3′):

Brief History: How Dream came into my life

From 2010-2014 I hosted Greater Boston House Concerts. I sat just behind the wonderful pianist Barbara Lieurance as she performed Dream.

I fell in love. The meandering line was simple yet kept me guessing where it would go.

The transparent chordal harmonies that interrupt the melodic line prepare the listener for extended melodies with the harmonies only being hinted with the magical use of the pedal allowing each note’s resonance to build upon the implied harmonies.

Single notes and their overtones become a lush painting of colors. 

Though the guitar only has one string per note (kind of) to the piano’s 3, and its lack of a sustain pedal, I decided to arrange it. 

The greatest challenge is finding a fingering that will allow for the most amount of resonance.

To do this I use campanella (cross-string fingering) and a healthy mix of natural and harmonic notes

It is recorded on John. Cage. Guitar. (Stone Records UK) and published by Edition Peters in CAGE: Piano Music Arranged for Guitar

Premiere Performance (not the same fingering):

Streaming Studio Recording (7′):

SPOTIFY • AMAZON • APPLE MUSIC • YOUTUBE MUSIC

SCORE: John Cage: Piano Music Arranged for Guitar (7 pieces)

Bandcamp • Edition Peters

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

Attending a Segovia concert in Town Hall, NY., it was magical. As we were leaving the concert hall I told my mother that I was going become a classical guitarist. I was six years old.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

To be secure within yourself so that you can work from a place of authenticity.      

Two ways you stay motivated:

Listening to jazz while cooking dinner and talking to artist friends from different disciplines about the creative process.

Latest album or recording project:

“Across Time”, an album of original compositions spanning forty years, including my most recent works, recordings previously unreleased, and digitally remastered works from the age of vinyl. My wife Lesley joins me to sing three songs.

What inspired it:

A combination of having written new compositions that I wanted put out into the world and older ones that were either never released or were recorded but didn’t make it into the digital age.

Who’s on it:

I play all of the solo guitar works and my wife Lesley joins me in singing three songs.

How do you discover new music?

From friends recommendations, streaming platforms and listening to the radio while driving.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

Branford Marsalis and Ralph Vaughan Williams

Where can we find you online?

frederichand.com 

Instagram

Upcoming Event you’d like to share?

World premier of my new work: Theme, Variations and Finale performed by Benjamin Verdery at the Yale University (free streaming available).

The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:

I was a little kid looking at a record cover of a Brahms disc with a photo of old Brahms on the cover. There was just something about that that I thought “wouldn’t it be cool to be a composer?” Several years passed and I only took up music in my last year of high school but made rapid progress and attended an excellent conservatory at the Australian National University  the following year.

An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:

Analysis. Being able to think through problems and solutions with clarity and not with fantasy. It is a difficult one to balance reality with aspiration, but I think clarity of mind is an essential skill no matter what career path one takes.

Two ways you stay motivated:

Break big challenges or problems into a collection of smaller, more easily achievable ones. Stay curious to keep challenging yourself. BONUS one: don’t delay, start today.

Latest album or recording project:

Latest album is CLOUD OSSUARY, which just won its tenth recording award. Next recording project is my second cello concerto BLACK CITY which reflects on the degraded cityscape of rustbelt America as a metaphor for internal challenges and emotions.

What inspired it:

Cloud Ossuary was inspired by a brilliant poem of my daughter’s, who is a writer, called BONES AND ALL. [https://www.katarinaknehans.com/work]

Who’s on it:

For this disc I was so lucky to work with the brilliant Brno Philharmonic and my longtime friend, conductor Mikel Toms. As soloists on the disc I was so fortunate to have Pavel Wallinger as violin soloist, a truly gifted musician, and the young Dutch soprano Judith Weusten who absolutely nailed the very demanding vocal solo.

How do you discover new music?

Through the Grammy community mainly and through listening to the radio when I am driving.

One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:

For a living musician I would say baritone Matthias Goerne. Absolutely one of the most masterful musicians I have ever heard. For a dead one, I would say French/Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, an absolutely wonderful composer.

Where can we find you online?

Website 
Backwards From Winter (opera) 
Spotify