Clexical

Ep. 15: Interview with Andres Soto

Andrés Soto is a Costa Rican composer based in Los Angeles with an active career in both film and concert music. He has written music for several feature films, documentaries, shorts, trailers and video games, as well as numerous concert works that have been performed by orchestras around the world, (including the Nashville Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Florida Orchestra), and in 2024 the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony will jointly premiere an upcoming work as part of a grant from the Sphinx Foundation.
 Recent albums include “Doce Musas”, recorded by 12 emerging pianists from his native Costa Rica, and three albums for Universal, including  “Champion Beats”, co-written with Grammy-winning producer Alex Hitchens and recorded at Capitol Studios, with tracks that have appeared on ABC, ESPN, Univision, Golf Channel, NBA, Tennis Channel, Fox, and other channels. In 2022 he collaborated with producer/ composer Daniel Rojas by writing  incidental music for the celebrated 90th Pageant of the Masters at the Festival of the Arts in Laguna Beach.
Recent feature films include the sports documentary King Otto (available on Peacock), the sci-fi Órbita Prima; Nowhere (nominated for Best Film Score in Colombia’s national film awards), the comedy He Matado a mi Marido; and a coming-of-age family film, Buscando a Marcos Ramírez. 
He has twice received rare Honorable Mentions in the National Prize in Composition (Costa Rica) for his works Amalgama (2018) and Pas de Deux (2022). He made his Carnegie Hall compositional debut in 2015 and has led workshops and masterclasses on film scoring and composition at USC, University of Costa Rica, Spain, New Jersey and the University of South Dakota.  Andrés’s music is published by Symphonica Productions.

Ep. 14: Interview with Nicolas Bell Benavides

Nicolás Lell Benavides’ (Ben-ah-VEE-des) music has been praised for finding “…a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines…” (Anne Midgette, Washington Post) and cooking up a “jaunty score [with] touches of cabaret, musical theater and Latin dance.” (Tim Smith, OPERA NEWS). He has received commissions from groups like The New York Philharmonic/The Juilliard School, Eighth Blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Hope, SFCM Orchestra with Edwin Outwater, West Edge Opera, Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Music of Remembrance, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Fry Street Quartet, Friction Quartet, and Khemia Ensemble. His music has received support from organizations such as the American Composers Forum, The Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Ep. 13: Interview with Chen Yi

As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Dr. Chen Yi is a recipient of the Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She has been Lorena Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in the University of Missouri-Kansas City since 1998. She was elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005, and the American Academy of Arts & Letters in 2019.
Fellowships and commissioning awards were received from Guggenheim Foundation (1996), American Academy of Arts and Letters (1996), Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (1994), Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress (1997), and National Endowment for the Arts (1994). Honors include the first prizes from the Chinese National Composition Competition (1985, 2012), the Lili Boulanger Award (1993), the NYU Sorel Medal Award (1996), the CalArts/Alpert Award (1997), the UT Eddie Medora King Composition Prize (1999), the ASCAP Concert Music Award (2001), the Elise Stoeger Award (2002) from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Ep. 12: Interview with Thomas Gueglio

Tomás Gueglio is an Argentine composer currently based in Chicago. In his creative work, he devises surreal sound worlds through the blending of a variety of musical lineages and styles. Elements central to his recent work are private languages, the logic of dreams, and, as of late, melodramas and radio soap operas.
“Tomás Gueglio creates musical environments that facilitate subtle examinations of timbre, phrase, and gesture. He eschews bombastic surface activity in favor of substantial multi-layered textures. The results are beguiling and moving, music that lives in a space that is balanced between the visceral and tactile on one side and the curated and meticulous on the other. ”
— Dan Lippel. Liner notes for Duermevela

Ep. 11: Interview with Anna Weesner

The music of Anna Weesner (winner of 2018 American Academy of Arts and Letters Virgil Thomson Award and 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship) has been performed by widely (including: Abramovic; ACO; Arnold; Bandwidth; Beck; Bowers; Cassatt; Chamber Music at Lincoln Center; Counter)induction; Cuckson; Curtis 20/21; Cygnus ; Cypress; Daedalus ; de Guise-Langlois ; Eighth Blackbird; Fader; Goode; Kang; Kraines; Lark; Look and Listen; Morales; Network; NY Virtuoso Singers; Open End; Pearson; Prism; Riverside Symphony; Sequitur; Shao; Stillman; Stinson; Tanglewood; Upshaw; Waggoner; Watras; WCM). Violin at age five and flute as a teenager in youth orchestra were formative experiences. Radio presets in her car are heavy on pop. Her recent output includes My Mother in Love, ten songs for which she wrote text, and The Eight Lost Songs of Orlando Underground for clarinet quintet. She studied at Yale (B.A.) and Cornell (D.M.A.) and is Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Ep. 10: Interview with Shuying Li

Praised as “a real talent” (The Seattle Times) with “vivid, dramatic” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “enjoyable” (Gramophone Magazine) scores, and “an incredible span of compositional tool box” (American Record Guide), Shuying Li is an award-winning composer who began her musical education in her native China. In her sophomore year at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she won a scholarship to continue her undergraduate studies at The Hartt School in Connecticut. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and is a research faculty member at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. A passionate educator, Shuying has taught and directed the Composition/Music Theory Program at Gonzaga University. She joined the faculty at California State University, Sacramento in Fall 2022.

Ep. 9: Interview with Brad Balliett

Brad Balliett enjoys being a musical omnivore, focusing equal parts of his career on composing, playing bassoon, and teaching artistry. Brad is principal bassoon of the Princeton Symphony, a member of Signal and Metropolis Ensemble, a founding member and former Artistic Director for Decoda, a member of the composer-collective band Oracle Hysterical, and on faculty at The Peabody Institute, The Juilliard School, and Musicambia.
 
As a teaching artist, Brad regularly leads composition and song-writing workshops in prisons, schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters. His work with Musicambia has given him the opportunity to guide aspiring composers and performers at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Allendale Correctional Facility, Brooklyn Detention Center, and San Quentin State Prison. With Project: Music Heals Us, Brad has led music history and composition workshops at Radgowski-Corrigan and Bain Correctional Center. With Decoda, Brad has participated in workshops for over six years at Lee Correctional Institute.
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Ep. 8: Interview with Michael Pisaro-Liu

Michael Pisaro-Liu (born, Michael Pisaro, 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer and a long-time member of the Wandelweiser collective. While, like other members of Wandelweiser, Pisaro-Liu is known for pieces of long duration with periods of silence, in the past fifteen years his work has branched out in many directions, including work with field recording, electronics, improvisation and ensembles of very different kinds of instrumental constitution.
Pisaro-Liu has a long-standing collaboration with percussionist Greg Stuart, with over thirty collaborations (pieces and recordings) to date, including their 3-disc set, Continuum Unbound from 2014 and Umbra & Penumbra for amplified percussion and orchestra premiered by the La Jolla Symphony in February, 2020. Pisaro-Liu also has recurring (intermittent) duos with Christian Wolff, Keith Rowe, Taku Sugimoto, Antoine Beuger, Graham Lambkin, Toshiya Tsunoda and Reinier van Houdt.  

Ep. 7: Interview with Texu Kim

Texu Kim (b.1980) is “one of the most active and visible composers of his generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice), writing music that’s fun, sophisticated, and culturally connected. Drawing on his personal affinity for humor, his background in science, and his fascination with everyday experiences, Kim’s work radiates positivity, offering “major-league cuteness” (Broadway World) while demonstrating “surprising scope.” (San Diego Story) As a Korean-American, Kim explores the localization of imported traditions, incorporating cross-cultural elements into his work in “impressive and special” ways so that “many orchestras and conductors around the world are taking an interest in [his] music.” (KPBS) By highlighting the interaction between folk culture and external influences, Kim creates meaningful depth while maintaining a signature playfulness and exuberance that is listener-friendly and engaging. Characterized by “exuberant, colorful washes of sound… punchy bass lines, snappy brass fanfares, and suave... solos” (San Diego Story), Kim’s music is at times “explosively virtuosic” (Wall Street Journal) but always uplifting and rewarding for both listeners and performers.
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Ep. 6: Interview with Edward Barnes

The composer and/or producer of over 50 works for the stage, concert hall, radio and recordings, EDWARD BARNES is the winner of Guggenheim, NEA and NY Foundation for the Arts fellowships, and the Stephen Sondheim Award for the “creation of innovative musical theater.”  He has served as Executive Director of Gotham Chamber Opera, Producing Director of MasterVoices, and Managing Director of American Lyric Theater, and is currently a lecturer at The Juilliard School.