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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

If you ever win a Pulitzer Prize, where would you like to be when you get the news?  Most likely your first choice would not be at a doctor's office getting a tetanus booster.

Yet, that is exactly where composer Jennifer Higdon was when she got her big news.  Fortunately, that inevitable sense of dread associated with going to the doctor disappeared quickly, while the excitement of being awarded such extraordinary recognition has lingered pleasantly on... so much so, that several months later, Higdon says the full impact hasn't completely hit her.

But, that's just fine with her. She's reconnected with old friends, students, and well-wishers from around the globe and is still enjoying the wonderful experience.

And Higdon has made plenty of friends the world over, including people here in Kansas City.  For example, several members of the Kansas City Symphony are graduates of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where Dr. Higdon is professor of music composition. With a Grammy and a Pulitzer coming one after the other, she may also be called upon to teach a course in proper etiquette of accepting awards.

Her Pulitzer Prize will look nice on the mantle over the fireplace. It can sit right next to the Grammy Award that she won a couple of months before that.

The Singing Rooms, the work which the Kansas City Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony Chorus will perform on May 21-23 was written in a happy time of her life. The violin solo, to be performed by Jennifer Koh, is an enthusiastic and, at times, rapturous musical display.  In anticipation of the upcoming performances, I talked with the composer. 

Next week, I will interview poet Jeanne Minahan whose writings Jennifer Higdon set to music, and a member of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus to get their perspectives on this new work.

David Peironnet: You won a Pulitzer Prize just a few weeks ago. Did you even know you were being considered?

Jennifer Higdon: I knew that I was being considered, because I had 2 major premieres last year, a piano concerto and a violin concerto. With works that large being performed by such prominent performers, there's a lot of visibility involved.

DP: How did you happen to find out that you were the winner?

Higdon: I found out I was the winner when I turned on my cell phone and messages were spooling into my voice mail at the rate of one every couple of seconds (folks calling to ask for interviews).

DP: What were you thinking when you first heard the news?

Higdon: OH MY GOSH! WHAT????

DP: Where were you when the news arrived?

Higdon: I had just come out of my doctor's office, where I had gotten a tetanus booster.

DP: How long did it take to "sink in" that you had been awarded a Pulitzer Prize?

Higdon: Actually, it's still sinking in...this feels very, very huge.

DP: Is there a "reserved for Pulitzer Prize winners" table at the employee cafeteria at the Curtis Institute?

Higdon: I think the question is, is there even a cafeteria?...we're too small for that (it is a funny image, though). However, it is impressive when you look at Curtis and the history of the Pulitzers; quite a few graduates have received Pulitzers: Samuel Barber (2), Giancarlo Mennoti (2), Ned Rorem, and George Walker.  Oh, and myself ... I am going to have to get used to saying that.

DP: You based The Singing Rooms on poems written by someone who has become a personal friend of yours.  When did you first meet Jeanne Minahan?

Higdon: Many, many years ago when she came to Curtis to teach (I was on the search committee).

DP: When you first read her poems, did you immediately think her poems had the potential for one of your compositions or did the idea come to you later?

Higdon: I had to beg for a look at her poems. I was trying to find something for this commission, which was given to me by the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. The requirement was for a large work, with chorus, written as a violin concerto. Jeanne was great ... she eventually relented and gave me some and I realized when I read them that they were exactly what I was looking for.

David: Audiences can be afraid of "contemporary" works because they can come across as stark and inaccessible to all but the most dedicated fans. Yet, your compositions bring the audience in as a part of the music. Do you think that audience perceptions of contemporary music is accurate or do you choose a direction which is more inclusive of the audience? Or, do you think my description is even "fair?"

Higdon I think your description is inaccurate. I've not found as much apprehension as you'd think. I have so many orchestral performances a year, and when I travel to them, I'm often given the season brochure of that orchestra. They all, without exception, have new music, and some of the time they have commissions listed that will be premiered during the season by that particular group. My experience has been that many audience members want something new to listen to; an event to attend. And especially with younger audience members... the new music tends to bring them into the hall. This has been very consistent for many years now. In fact, there are quite a lot of orchestras now that have a composer in some sort of residency. I do residencies every year with orchestras all over the U.S. (this year it was Forth Worth and Nashville).

DP: I listened to excerpts on your web site of The Singing Rooms and got the sense that you utilized specific instruments such as a violin or one of the woodwinds to offer a short solo, and then the chorus underscored the point you were making with the single instrument. Is that my imagination or was that your objective?

Higdon: Well, the piece is actually a violin concerto with a choral and orchestral accompaniment. There are a lot of solos in the orchestra as well, but those are there to underscore the idea of all of these poems being like a series of rooms in the house of life (and each room has different color). The violin takes us on that journey through the house.

DP: Kansas City concert-goers heard your composition Blue Cathedral a couple of years ago. When I talked to you then, you described that piece as your most intensely personal work because you wrote it as you came to accept your brother's death from cancer, but also his release from pain. The entire character of Blue Cathedral seemed to change from a difficult and almost oppressive opening to a triumphal and joyful conclusion. The piece we'll be hearing this time, The Singing Rooms, seems to be a joyful affirmation of life throughout. Is there any connection between Blue Cathedral and The Singing Rooms in your growth and development as a composer?

Higdon: You may be the very first person who has ever thought that the opening of Blue Cathedral is oppressive and difficult ... go back and take a listen to the recording ... it's actually quite different than what you're remembering; it does use the same chords, melodies, tonality, and instrumental color at both the beginning and the end. In terms of connection ... every piece a composer writes is somehow connected to all of the other pieces, by virtue of being written by that composer. Are they alike? Not really ... they're quite different. The Singing Rooms does in fact have some darker moments...one of the poems, "History Lesson," warns about an important lesson in life about how close we are to disaster.

DP: You couldn't visit us a couple of years ago because of your incredibly busy schedule, and again this year because of a recording which is being made of one of your new works. After we get the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Center open, you ARE going to visit us and let us meet you personally. By the way, the only acceptable answer to this question is, "yes."

Higdon: Absolutely!

PREVIEW:
The Kansas City Symphony
with Jennifer Koh, violin
Bolero!
Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 22 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 23 at 2 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.