This year's winner of the flute composition took a moment to share with us a little about his composition and what inspires Robert. Check out the interview below:
BYSO: Tell us a little about your piece and what inspired you?
Robert: I wrote a very simple piece based off of the sounds of cicadas in northern New Zealand. After I came back from my trip I was inspired to incorporate the constant sounds of their chirp into a piece. I had already been experimenting a little with minimalism and this seemed like a perfect chance. The original version of this piece is for piano. Comparatively to my other pieces it took very little time to compose, less than a week. It is very simple harmonically, staying in only one key the whole time, although it does use cluster chords often. The biggest challenge in writing this piece was orchestrating it for flute choir. I am not a flautist myself and had to get lots of advice on flute writing. The original version used the whole range of the piano from the lowest C to the highest E and writing the piece for an ensemble with a much more limited range was challenging. Ultimately though, I think the flutes give the impression of cicadas much better and they also give it a much different sound. The flute choir version is much less harsh and much more relaxed. I took away a lot from writing for this ensemble which I did not know much about. I learned a lot about writing for flutes and it also helped me with my problem of writing things that are difficult to play because I knew I would be writing for a much younger group of performers.
BYSO: How long have you been composing and performing?
Robert: I am fifteen and have been studying composition for 3 years although I've played piano for 9. I study piano and composition with Dr. Peter Mack and also take classes at the Seattle Conservatory at SPU. I go to the Northwest School.
BYSO: What else would you like to share with us? What else do you do for fun?
Robert: Most of my time is devoted to music, but I'm also really into other arts like photography and also playing ultimate frisbee. In my future I would like to be a musician. I would love to compose music for movies, but just as a way to bring in money. I would really like to do something that allows me to try new things often. I love composing, playing modern classical music and doing jazz and classical improv and if I could do all of these things for a living then I would be happy. It might also be cool to incorporate other art forms like visual art, dance or poetry. It might be overly ambitious, but I can't imagine myself doing anything else.
See Robert's composition performed at the May BYSO Showcase concerts! Get all of the details at
http://www.byso.org/
