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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Composer Jonathan Leshnoff wants his music to take people on a musical journey.

His newest composition, Starburst, is first piece the Kansas City Symphony will perform in its upcoming 2010–11 season.

David Peironnet: When you begin composing, what type of questions do you ask yourself?

Jonathan Leshnoff: Composers are sculptors of time. I think about how I am going to sculpt the time which is given to the composition.

I am what people call a deductive thinker. I ask, if an orchestra such as the Kansas City Symphony wants to commission a new work, I find out what they want. Is it just a short piece or something longer? Should it feature a particular instrument such as a solo violin? Is it for a full orchestra or a smaller ensemble?

Then I try to envision what the piece will be like. Where is there a climax? Where do I go next? I make graphic maps to put on the wall then build a theme and the appropriate orchestration around the map. In that way, I work from a big picture view of the composition down to the smallest detail.

DP: The Baltimore Sun described Starburst as “a curtain-raiser in the best sense of the word, full of energy and anticipation.” A Washington, D.C. arts blog described it as “intensely driven.” As you composed the piece, had you planned on Starburst as being that energetic or did that just happen to be the outcome?

JL: I am glad that idea came through. Energy-filled music was exactly the idea I wanted to convey.

Contemporary composers oftentimes get the first slot in a program. Thus, we have to take advantage of it. Energy was exactly the idea I had in mind when I wrote it.

DP: Some people feel that contemporary music is hard for concert audiences to understand. Do you believe that criticism is fair? To what extent do you try to make your compositions more accessible—or do you make an effort to make your compositions accessible to traditional concertgoers?

JL: That criticism was true of new music, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. This was a time when cerebral elements were part of society. The atom was split. There was specificity to existence. Music was intricate. A lot of composers seemed to take the point of view, “who cares if you listen?”

I try to bring some centricity to music. I write what I want to hear. A lot of people enjoy my orchestration and harmony. I want to connect with the audience so they enjoy my music, too.

DP: What would you like for Kansas City concertgoers to think about as they listen to Starburst?

JL: I would rather let audiences reach their own conclusions rather than to have me tell them what to think. My music is for them.

I particularly like it when I hear from people who have heard my music. I am interested in what they think. If my music hasn’t taken them on a journey, then I haven’t done my job.

DP: What question did I not ask that I should have?

JL: I just want to say that I really enjoy working with Michael Stern. He really understands my music. There is a visceral connection there. He understands what I want to bring across to the audience without my actually having to be there interpreting what I wrote. He really gets my music and I enjoy that experience.

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.

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