Music I Am #21 – Richard Cameron-Wolfe, composer
- Music I Am
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The moment when you knew you wanted to be a musician:
I began studying piano at age 7, as a hobby, focused on pop music. At the age of 12, however, with aspirations of becoming a scientist, our family moved to a different city, where the pop music teacher had a full class and the Director of the school suggested that I could “temporarily” study with the school’s classical teacher. After just two lessons, introduced to Bach and Chopin, I knew that the musician’s life lay before me.
An important skill for a career in music that does not have anything to do with an instrument or making music:
I never intended to have a “career” in music but knew that I would live my life in it.
Two ways you stay motivated:
As pianist, I sought, discovered and promoted lesser-performed music, by lesser-known composers. As composer, I have vowed never to repeat myself, be it the rhetoric of my successful works as well as my failures, seeking always to find a new creative pathway.
Latest Project:
I’m currently composing a microtonal guitar sextet, “Arcturus”, for the Danish ensemble CRAS, to be presented at the Mozarteum’s “Microtone: Small is Beautiful” Symposium in Salzburg this summer.
What inspired it:
My collaborations with guitarists over the past 7-8 years, particularly with the Ukrainian members of the Kharkiv Guitar Quartet and New York guitarists Marc Wolf and Dan Lippel.
Who’s on it:
CRAS members: Peter Oldrup, Henrik Bay Hansen, Mikkel Egelund Nielsen, Jacob Nørrelund, Søren Eriksen, and Uffe Carl Hansen.
How do you discover new music?
I no longer search for music, but by associating with other composers and with new-music-focused performers, I have made many wonderful discoveries. [Actually, I prefer to think of my own composing process as “discovering” rather than “creating”.]
One living and one dead musician that deserves more attention:
Living musician: Ghanaian pianist William Chapman Nyaho.
Deceased: composer Franz Kamin.
Where can we find you online?
On the American Composers Alliance website
VIDEOS:
Mirage d’esprit – guitar quartet
MeMarie – micro-opera for soprano alone
Kyrie(Mantra)IV – flute and guitar
Upcoming Event you’d like to share? (optional)
Two performances of my 2019 cello quartet “Telesthesia” –
1 – June 10 in Antwerp at the Love2Arts Gallery
2 – June 12 in Brussels at the Wiertz Museum Citizens’ Garden (on a concert series sponsored by the European Parliament).
