杰出校友怀亚特·坎农

你为什么想参加VIPA?

我觉得它很有趣，因为它在欧洲, 我觉得去那里旅行一定很酷, 尤其是我刚毕业的时候. Also, they had a lot of composition professors who were from different universities in the U.S. 和欧洲. That was important to me because I wanted to get that different perspective. I and my fellow student from Pacific, Noah Granard ’22, were some of the youngest participants there. The others were mostly people getting their masters or doctorates, or already had those degrees. 

为VIPA作曲的过程是怎样的?

We wrote before travelling to 西班牙 because the festival was less than two weeks long so, 没有足够的时间. When we applied, we were assigned instrumentation and we could choose an ensemble. 我为小提琴和颤音琴创作了一首曲子.

We only had two rehearsals with our ensembles before the performance. It would have been nice, I guess, to have more time to work with them. 尽管如此, it was insightful to talk to professional performers because they have a different way of looking at things than students. 

作为一个作曲家，这个音乐节对你有什么好处?

I met a lot of interesting musicians with a variety of different ideas. 这个作曲家做了很多图形乐谱. Although I'd worked with a great deal of graphic notations, their approach was completely different from mine which I found inspiring. I was able to look at their scores and see exactly what was going on. 我觉得这很有帮助. 这确实让我想要探索更多这样的想法. 

然后, just being exposed to such a variety of music and styles that were different than those I’d explored was inspirational and made me think about music in the new ways.

你为什么决定在太平洋音乐学院学习作曲?

What really made me decide to come here is that I was able to meet with Dr. Robert Coburn, the program director for music composition when I started and with Dr. 索尼娅·梁，我在博彩平台网址大全的钢琴老师. That process felt really welcoming and made me feel I was going to have an individual experience at Pacific, focused on what I wanted to do and what I wanted to accomplish.

你如何描述你自己的音乐风格?

我想我还在发展它. One thing that I really enjoyed about Pacific was a big diversity of music styles represented there. 我一直觉得我们有探索的自由. 我刚来这里的时候, 我用的是后极简主义风格, but toward the middle of my college career I started to experiment with algorithmic composition. I guess, now I'm going back to more organic sound in a way.
 

你的作文灵感从何而来? 

It's a combination of both, class assignments and my own exploration. What's great about Pacific is that our professors are always willing to take a look at whatever you're writing. 如果你被指定写这个也没关系. 例如, I wrote the piece that won the SF 搜索 composition competition mostly on my own, 但是快结束的时候, 我从Dr. Coburn和他帮我解决了一些问题. 

What opportunities did you have to meet with music professionals at Pacific?

Conservatory Dean Peter Witte was able to bring some guests to his dean seminars. 丽莎阿曼, the Executive Director for San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (SFCMP) at that time, was among them and that’s how I found out about SF 搜索 competition. 

我们所有的教师都是专业的音乐家. 例如, Professor Eric Dudley is the artistic director of SFCMP as well, 所以后来我和他们有了更多的合作. 

当我告诉医生. 安德鲁·康克林, 现在谁是作文部的主管, 我对算法作曲很感兴趣, he was able to bring someone in to talk to me and have a lesson with me. 他为我这么做真是太好了.

你的作品在太平洋以外的地方演出过吗?

是的，我是2018年顺丰搜索的赢家. I was able to work with SFCMP on the public performance of my piece “Quicksilver” in San Francisco which was a really great experience.

Dr. Conklin has been really great about sending us opportunities. That’s how I found out in my junior year about Fifth House Ensemble’s Fresh Inc Festival, 学生作曲家和表演者的活动. I met some people who were around my age and had similar interests in contemporary music. The pieces we submitted for the festival were also performed there.

然后在2022年, I applied and was admitted to the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival in 西班牙 (VIPA). 我在毕业后的2022年7月参加了这个节日.

How did you feel when your music was performed at the festival?

这有点伤脑筋. Especially that my music was so different in style than everyone else's there. 但是每当我的作文被演奏时, I feel stuck in my seat paying attention to every single detail. 这种感觉很奇怪，但也很值得. It was an honor to have my piece performed at VIPA by such great musicians in front of my talented peers and among other great compositions.

你未来的计划是什么?

I’m looking forward to finishing some of my personal composition projects and studying some more about computer music before I get my master’s in music composition in the next couple of years.