Hi Reddit! I'm a Grammy winning classical composer, composer-in-residence for the Philadelphia Orchestra and I also founded a music academy. In two weeks, the San Diego Opera will premiere my first ever opera, El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego. AMA

Thank you for this AMA! 1. Which piano make/model do you prefer? 2. Which piano piece was or is the most difficult for you to play? 3. When it comes to learning piano, is there a point in the process or timeframe (number of hours of practice) where the left amd the right hand (the brain, really) finally breaks that barrier of being able to play at the same time? 4. What is a good piece or exercize of music for a beginner to practice to overcome #3?

Good morning, roastandstir! (What a great handle, ja ja ja!)

I grew up on a Yamaha upright so I have a real fondness for them (SD Opera took a sneaky video of me playing the Yamaha grand from our rehearsals that they put out on social media... I just couldn't resist.). That said, I have a Steinway grand now from the early 1900s, a golden era for their pianos, if you ask me. Wonderful bass.

Piano piece(s) difficult for me to play: Anything from the early classical era. I can down Bartok and much contemporary, but Haydn slays me with just a glance.

Coordinating piano hands at the keyboard: Hmmm... I think an actual piano teacher would give you a more informed answer, but one thing I do when trying to stretch my piano skills is to break up my practice into multiple short sessions through a day. Studies show that this is much more productive to learning than one long session. Perhaps this kind of practice would help you?

Great advice. I think this method of practice would go for any instrument, no?

Oh yes, and probably for non-musical endeavors, too.

Your thoughts on the Game of Thrones theme. If you were asked to compose it what would it sound like?

Also how did you start doing this? I've always admired composers and wonder how they even got started like what made them so good at it that they'd consider it a career?

English isn't my first language so I apologize if the questions don't make much sense.

Thanks for the AMA!

Hi, Wise!

When I first heard the Game of Thrones theme, years ago, I rolled my eyes... ja ja ja... And now, omigod, it's stuck in my brain and I have to admit that it's bluntly effective. I wish they had called me, though. I'd do a lot more with staggered strings, blends of unusual colors, themes reacting to one another, etc. You know, the good stuff. :)

As to how I started to do this... I always enjoyed music and would improvise at the piano, but I didn't know that you could be professional. So, I was scholastically a high achiever and in high school, was studying Russian literature, language, politics... This was the time of Gorbachev, glasnost, the Wall was tumbling in Europe, regimes changing in Latin America. I thought I was going to be a political science major and I was likely headed to law school. But in the summer of my last year of high school, I took a music composition program, and was changed instantly. I fell -- hard -- for composing.

I knew, then, that I had a lot of catching up to do. I didn't know much repertoire and even my music-reading skills weren't the best. But, somewhere inside me, I also thought the world needed me... lol... innocent hubris of my youth and all that... I never looked back, though. I'm very grateful.

Man I'd never thought you'd really reply haha this feels really special. It's really cool to see that you were walking down your decided path and all of a sudden you went off to pursue something totally different. I bet that takes courage and I've been thinking if I too would find my calling like that one day.

Also I try to learn a lot of instruments and listen to different types of music. I'll be checking out some of your music as well. Again thanks for replying and have a fantastic day!

Thanks for writing in, and sending you good vibes for that calling!

I'm a theatre geek so I'm excited to hear that you are working with Nilo Cruz. What's it like to collaborate with Nilo Cruz? Does music come first then text? Or do you compose music based on his words? (I also want to say censorship sucks and I was very angry to read about his plays not being performed in Florida based on the fact he is gay.)

Nilo is the BEST. THE BEST... Can I just say... THE BEST.

In all seriousness, he's one of my dearest friends and I love and respect him. When we work together (we've done about a dozen projects now over the years, small and large), the words always come first, but before the words, there's a lot of mutual discussion about the subject matter, often over meals, and spending time talking about our lives, too. We're both storytellers so we have to spend time exchanging stories of all kinds before we focus all of that energy onto a specific tale.

Then, Nilo goes away for a while and comes up with texts. He passes that along to me and I start the musical side of things. I will often move some texts around, or repeat words for musical effect, sometimes ask for more text, or ask him to edit things down, while he has ultimate say on how he wants the texts to go.

Now that I've begun to use a software program called NotePerformer (I've been thus far too impatient to learn Ableton, Logic Pro, etc, which allows the computer to simulate your music), I can actually share with him a pretty good realization of the music before actual rehearsals. I did that with this opera last year, for instance, and it was really helpful.

All this to say -- Discussion-words-music-ping pong back and forth is the order of our work. And even in rehearsals for the opera, just yesterday, we added a line for Diego to sing with Frida right at the very end. This was Nilo's suggestion when he heard the music. The ping-pong, exchanging of ideas is very important for our creative success.

And yeah... censorship seriously sucks. I was shocked and angry how that all went down.

El Ultimo Sueño de Frida y Diego

Thanks for that reply. As a composer, I can relate to the problems with the software that we use - whether using a DAW or Finale, there are still some compromising features that we wish could all be solved using one program. I use Finale because I relate best to the written score visually.

Yeah, everyone needs to know how they work even as they constantly expand their creative toolkit.

Questions from our Instagram:
- "Will this production ever come back to Forth Worth?"
- "What are you composing next?"

Fort Worth: Oh gosh, I really really really really really really hope so! But you know, the composer is the last to know. Perhaps write them?

Next piece: My final work for the Philadelphia Orchestra called "Picaflor" or "Hummingbird' based on Andean creation myths with a strong dash of my own narrative fancies thrown in. Due in a couple of months, so I'm putting a bit of time into it each day even with these concurrent opera rehearsals.

You are planning a dinner party. What 5 people (real or fictional) are you inviting? What's on the menu? What's on the playlist?

Fun question!

Guests:

Mark Twain

Arya Stark

Frida Kahlo

Bela Bartok

Michelle Obama

Dinner: My California-Peruvian fusion of coconut soup with seafood and veggies from our garden. A good local white wine. Huckleberry-lemonade, also from the garden.

Playlist: Afro-peruano music. Seriously wonderful stuff, likely Jolgorio.

Scratch that. 6. I'm crashing. Sounds lovely.

Can you bring a salad?

Yes. I make a good salad. Normalize fruit in savory salads.

Ja ja ja... Excellent.

Hi-thank you for doing this.

As someone who primarily plays music but tries to dabble with composition I’ve got some questions on how you manage your work.

When you’re starting a new piece of music, what’s your workflow?

For example-

Do you start by writing short (perhaps monophonic) phrases?

Do you then take these short phrases and expand on them, creating variations and perhaps adding additional parts(which themselves might have started as short monophonic phrases), then massaging them/chaining them into a completed piece of music?

Do you sketch the general architecture or choose some form (A part is in F maj that modulates to key XY and Z, then B part modulates from Z back to F maj )?

What tools do you use to help you stay in this workflow? Is it manual, with paper, or is there some software tooling that helps you manage it all?

It sounds like you've already started developing a process -- This is all very detailed!

I admit that my brain works differently when it comes to composing, a kind of "guided/assessed mental improv"... For instance, if you and I were to have a conversation, while we're hopefully connecting and speaking on the same subject, we're also improvising our words. We're not reading from a script, in other words, but coming up with spontaneous responses to one another. Yet, our words are also guided by the subject matter as well as the specifics of language, grammar, etc.

So, in contrast to what you're describing above, I compose more in this vein. It's a pretty perfect marriage of intuition and intellect that seems to work well for me.

You may have heard of an artist named Yanni. I’ve always wondered this but don’t know where to ask: in his concerts, almost every song (except the ones where he solo piano), he’d give a chance for some artists to have some solo moments, does he write every single note of these solos? Also, why some shows have a conductor and some don’t? What is really the point of having him there if band members can get by just fine in other shows?

These are all good questions! Often times, when solos are given in these kinds of creative contexts, the soloists can make up music on the spot. There's an understanding between the lead musician (here, Yanni) and the invited soloist that whatever they make up would still be stylistically appropriate while they are exercising a certain amount of creative freedom. So, while it's possible that Yanni is writing down every single note of the solo and the player is just playing that, I would guess that it's more likely they are improvising.

As for choosing to use the conductor -- That will depend on not just the piece of music (is it complex?), but also whether the players have enough rehearsal time to do it without the help of the conductor. Sometimes, the conductor is the lead personality, so it's going to start with that person and even if the music is not super complex or needs the conductor to keep everything together, the vision is the conductor's, so the ensemble will feature that person. It just all kind of depends.

Good questions.

Can someone start composing at the age of 30 if he's found he has raw talent in music (distinguishing sounds, etc) and really enjoys "composing sounds in his head, but never had any formal training?

Yes, TOTALLY. Just accept that floundering around will likely be a part of the process, especially at first, but you absolutely can start composing at age 30. Without a doubt.

As humiliating as it may sound, I don't know how to ask for it at a conservatorium (or is there like a different school for it???) or how should I start...

NOT humiliating! You're a novice but that's exciting and not anything to be embarrassed about. So first, let me congratulate you for being able to verbalize that you are artistic. That's a big first step.

Second, I think you could begin thinking about what your goals are. Do you want to learn an instrument? Do you want to learn to read or write music? (For me, it's very necessary but I know a lot of incredible musicians who don't use notation.) Do you want to write music using technology, i.e., via computer(s)? It's okay if you only have vague answers at this point, but starting to define your desires even in general terms can help you.

Then, there are some things you can do somewhat alone, just to get started, such as take online courses, and there are lots of places to do that. Just start with a very general search tailored to your goals, and DON'T spend a lot of money at this early point. Maybe even some method books can help. (It just depends on what your goals are so my counsel is admittedly a big vague here as I don't know you.)

At some point, you will likely want a community. These can include teachers found through Craig's List or in local music schools with "amateur music" courses (I personally don't like the word "amateur" in this context), or other peers with similar goals. Once you start actually interacting with other people in your preferred musical styles, it will be much, much easier to find information about how to keep developing your craft.

All this to say -- It's a journey, and you know what they say about journeys beginning with a step. Just... step. :)

At what point in your life did you know that you would be a successful classical composer rather than someone who could only dream of achieving that goal?

I have tickets to your San Diego show in two weeks and am a big fan of Frida and Diego. I can't wait to see how you've imagined their story in an opera.

Honestly -- and this will sound ridiculous -- I still have to pinch myself even after all of these years that I really do have this career. And in my thirties, when things began to kick into gear professionally, I didn't trust that the momentum would last, in part because there were so few people of color around me in the profession. I felt exceptionally alone at times. I actually started to feel more secure with holding onto this job when others around me with similar backgrounds began to show up and become successful, too. It demonstrated that the values of classical music were beginning to shift and I wasn't just "flavor of the day" if that makes any sense. I would say that was in my early forties (and I just turned 50 recently). It's been a long journey, and I feel very grateful.

PS -- I hope you enjoy the opera!

What do you think is the biggest contribution music has made to your life personally? Beside professionally.

What a great question.

I'm actually tearing up a bit as I think about this... Music opened up the world to me, literally and metaphorically. It's given me the vehicle to inquire, to witness, to process what I see and rewire/retell in my music, developing my character. And in the actual creative habit itself, as I push myself to take risks, to create stamina to not put paper and pencil aside when I'm frustrated or afraid to commit to the process, I learn how courageous I am, how disciplined I am, how imaginative I am. It's helped me to get closer to myself, to become this Gabriela that I would like to be.

Wiping away a tear, ja ja ja. That's gratitude for what music has given me.

Hi Gabriela, I heard your piece Hilos several years ago and was very blown away by your use of dissonance and tension throughout. When it comes to composing, how do you come up with your ideas? Do you improvise and keep the best stuff? Do you have it all in your head and write it down? What's your process like for actually notating?

Thanks for the kind words!

You know, over the years, there has been a lot of material that has wound up on the cutting room floor, stuff that doesn't make it into the deadlined piece on hand but still have some creative fire in them. So, I save all of that stuff into a huge library of binders I keep in my home studio. Now, when I start a new piece, I don't worry about staring at a blank page. If nothing's coming to me, then I can go consult my binders (and over the years, different categories have emerged, such as "good for vocal music" or "When you need the gnarly" or "symphonic ideas"). Sometimes this stuff will just help me to light the match to entirely new ideas, or they are completely transformed to something unrecognizable, but they can still be an essential part of the puzzle.

I also keep in shape... I don't just work on the music that's contracted, but I do the composerly equivalent of shooting a hundred baskets on the court each morning, or scales on an instrument. I might warm up in the morning with one of my favorite exercises, for instance, which is a "transitions" exercise... say, connecting eight bars of music from a Bartok string quartet to eight bars of another composer's music. I'll give myself a few minutes to play around with that. By doing stuff like this, your brain is busting with ideas, "warmed up" for your own work.

By investing creative time like this, you won't be bereft for ideas, from a narrative or musical standpoint. I do improvise, but don't need that skill so much anymore; and I usually can hear everything in my head but sometimes, I'll use NotePerformer (a new tool for me) for some playback from the computer, too.

What's your favorite part of Philly?

I love the Please Touch Museum! I used to take my nephew there when my brother was still teaching at Penn.

Hello! I performed in Pachemama Meets and Ode earlier this year, and I just want to say that it was such a wonderful experience! It's such a visceral and emotional piece of music, and I really appreciate that I got to learn more about history through it. Thank you, and I can't wait to experience more of your work!

My question for you is: if aliens were to visit Earth, and you only had time to share one of your pieces with them, which one would you choose, and why?

Oh, this means so much to me, Moose. Thank you for these kinds words. While I write my pieces for "the ages," who am I kidding, what's eminently real to me is what the performers think... :)

I've always thought that if aliens land on our planet, they would both marvel at our arts and feel great disappointment at our political tensions and enmities... I might very well play them your performance of Pachamama Meets an Ode, what with its message about centuries-long cross-cultural tensions and their correlating harm to the earth. The piece ends on a telling question tinged with hope; I'd hope for any outer galactic intelligent species to glom onto that and give humanity a chance.

How is the process of composing music with words different than composing instrumental music for you?

That's a great question. I likely have to mull on this for a bit to parse out all the ways it's different and similar. But, off the top of my head, the specificity of the words is paradoxically both defining (sometimes even confining) and liberating. On the one hand, the very shape of the lyricism has to wrap around the syllabic shape of the words, unless you're thwarting that for a meaningful expressive reason. On the other, my librettist Nilo Cruz has an unbelievable imagination that takes me into worlds I could never originate myself. So, I come up with music I never would have come up with otherwise, and that's liberating for me. It leaves me a better composer... So, that's one important thing that vocal music can do for me as opposed to instrumental music without another writer's words.

Great question.

Thanks! I enjoyed reading your response and it made me think of two things

One is that sometimes working with limitations can lead to really creative solutions.

The other is working with other creative people. I remember hearing someone play my music for the first time, and thinking no, that wasn't what I wanted, but then thinking what they did was better and incorporating it.

Yeah, the shock of hearing something coming to life can feel very similar to the shock of your music being played incorrectly. When I mentor aspiring composers, I tell them it's important for them to take a breath when hearing something for the first time in real life, not just on the computer or in their head. After a little while, your memory of its first life might fade for what is actually real.

Then, if you get multiple performances of your music, you'll begin to see how rich different interpretations are. This is the greatest compliment a performer can give a composer, to teach us everything that our ideas promise. We may originate the ideas but we don't fully know everything they are capable of. Kind of like having kids who grow up and form their own opinions. :)

What's your favorite note?

This is a loaded question. Do I have to answer? ;-)

Db is a great key - but very serious.

Muy, muy serio...

Hi, I’m writing a preface to a play and was putting together a list of the five most influential women of the 20th century. My friend suggested Frida Kahlo. I knew her art but nothing about the endless pain she suffered starting with polio as a child and then multiple back operations after her accident. It was hard even reading about it. So I am looking forward to your Opera on this courageous woman who knew how to turn pain into the light. That said, what would your list of five most influential women of the 20th century be? PS, this is the article where I learned of her injuries, hospital stays, and diaries: https://jillianhess.substack.com/p/frida-kahlos-diary

I've been dancing around this question for the past hour... Having an incredibly difficult time coming up with just five names... I'll keep working at it...

What language are you more proficient in English or Spanish? I'm guessing you only work in Philly as raising chickens in the city would get you fined. Another question is what type of chickens make up your flock?

Definitely English! Although I'm one of those where my accent is good so people think I'm a native speaker for the first couple of minutes of conversation, just not from their country, ja ja. They didn't know I needed hearing aids when I was born so learning to hear and speak English properly when I was fitted (around age 5) was a laborious endeavor for several years with speech therapists, etc. We just didn't put that kind of effort towards Spanish later, so English remains my most comfortable language.

As Philadelphia Orch's composer-in-residence, you are right in that I don't actually live there. I just go there to work with the symphony.

As for chickens that I raise in Mendocino County, my husband likes to call them Mendo-mestizas (with mestiza meaning "mixed race"). We started off with Cream Legbars and silkies, and have been breeding blends of these ever since -- Lovely, friendly birds that go broody so we have built-in nannies/moms when it's time to hatch another flock of chicks. Good layers, too, not really meat birds.

Congratulations on your first opera! I was reading about you and learned you are partially deaf. While you are not the first deaf composer (Beethoven comes to mind), most of the ones I know about are , well, decomposing.

How has this affected your musical palette and approach to composition? I know Beethoven used lower frequencies as he experienced hearing loss and I'm wondering how you approach composing with your unique way of hearing.

P.S. I have friends in San Diego and I told them about your opera and they told me they already have tickets .

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated!

I had this unexpected opportunity to contribute an opinion piece for the NY Times a couple of years ago talking about the very thing that you ask. May I point you to that article? (Let's see if I can add links here):

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/arts/music/beethoven-hearing-loss-deafness.html

Thanks for sharing! Off to read it. And it seems there was a NY Times piece on your opera as well. Very cool. Congratulations!

Thank you, Turandot!

Since you watched Game of Thrones, are you also watching House of the Dragon? What are your thoughts?

Good morning, Courtney!

I almost didn’t start watching House of Dragons because I’m among those that were bitterly disappointed in how the whole GoT series ended... like a symphony that starts with good themes, colors, form and then has a terrible “ta-dah!” finale. (sigh) So, my investment was cautious initially in HoD, and I nearly didn’t get through the first episode with the rather exploitive (IMHO) death of the first queen. I’ve stayed with each episode and I thought that once the first time jump was made, not only was the violence more carefully focused (while still graphic), but the slow burn started to pay off. I do think the casting is generally excellent, and my husband and I discuss each episode for a couple of days afterwards. So that must mean something, eh?

How many instruments do you play ?

That you would pay money to hear me play? Only one, piano. I can bleat/beat/bow notes on nearly most instruments of the orchestra and a few indigenous Andean instruments but I'd have to pay you to listen.

What's your favorite instrument and why?

Do you play any instruments?

What kind of music do you like to listen to for fun?

What do you think of the emergence of AI-generated music?

Hi ooru -- See above (tiranog22) for some of your answers!

For the rest: My husband is into reggae so I've been educated in this whole sphere. Lately, it's been Burning Spear. I retain a very warm fondness for 80s music, and a bit of 90s, soundtrack of my youth.

AI-generated music: Oh my GODDDDDDD... Is that happening already? My mother, a retired stained glass artist, is having a lot of fun on her ipad with AI-generated art, and I'm frightened at how good some of its creations are...

It freaks me out, to be honest. Am I going to be out of a job? Can it write operas?

Have any up-and-coming or underrated composers caught your ear lately? Or put another way, who inspires you creatively that I have probably not heard of?

Thanks for all your detailed answers so far, I’ve loved reading through this thread.

Hiya Adam XVII:

Oh, I HAVE to plug the up-and-comers (and a few are now firmly established) that attend/attended my Academy... Check out these beautiful souls here:

https://www.glfcam.com/composer-fellows

Honestly, I have become a better artist for opening up my life to the next generation of talents. I started my Academy a few years ago from a place of genuine alarm to see how culturally and politically divisive the US had become. A few years later, even with everything going on in the world, these emerging voices have filled me with resolve and optimism.

Thank you for the kind words, Adam. :)

Favorite film score/composer?

Ennio Morricone all the way... I grew up on those spaghetti westerns...

Is there a YouTube video that can show me the motions that a conductor makes, and what it means?
Bonus question. How can I get my 6 year old in a classical music concert? He seriously loves it, but I'm just his dad and I'm not sure how well he'd behave.

I just did a quick search on "conductor motions" on YouTube, and a bunch of promising videos came up. Try that?

And for your six-year-old -- That's awesome he's into music! Have you tried looking up kiddie concerts in your area, either through your local orchestra or other ensembles? These tend to be shorter, encourage clapping at frequent points for that physical release for kids, etc. I'm also wondering about getting your kid some music lessons on his chosen instrument, or into a local little kiddie choir? Sounds like there's talent there for a proud daddy to cultivate! :)

I’m ethnically Hispanic/Latina, and as an actor, I tend to associate the indulgence of food with indulgence of emotion or feeling. Do you associate your cultural or ethnic food with your music?

Ohhhhh yes. My mentee composers laugh that I'm constantly using food and cooking metaphors.

I grew up in Berkeley eating "chifa" or Peruvian-Chinese food. When my mom was growing up in Piura and Chimbote, Perú in the 40s-60s, this was the food that her Cantonese-Chinese father wanted to see cooked in their household. So, the model of delicious cultural-fusion certainly normalized cultural fusion in my own music today.

This is so wonderful! This must be like a dream come true! How are you feeling?

It's pretty unbelievable. As a composer, I'm about the internal story and what the ear receives. Adding in the theatrical element with costumes, set design, staging and the correlated technical challenges of writing for an orchestra in a pit (as opposed to out on top of the stage) is FASCINATING. I've fallen in love with this world (the singers cast, including the understudies, and the chorus are awesome) and hope that this is not the only opera project I'm offered.

Thanks for asking!

Is there any genre or movement you are excited to see developing? Or put another way, what is the new music that you are looking forward to seeing grow?

I generally like what I see getting developed these days -- A lot of exciting stuff. In other words, there's a lot of good music being produced for the most skilled players, incorporating all kinds of influences and drawing on cultures around the world.

This is wonderful, and yet, I'd love to see more attention for music for youth and/or young musicians, not just the elite high-level players. In classical music, young musicians tend to mostly play rather standard rep when they should be exposed to ALL of the riches out there. At my Academy (www.glfcam.com), we've started some initiatives where my talented mentees, who come from a lot of different demographics and draw on a myriad of different aesthetics, are composing music for pre-college kids to address this. I think valuing our kids would go a long way to bringing classical music firmly into the 21st century.