Gemma is a composer from New Zealand that has a diverse and incredible career - she has even studied industrial design (but she uses these skills to design posters and draw pictures of dogs!)
She is a co-founder (along with Shelley Washington) of Kinds of Kings, a composer collective focused on amplifying under-heard voices and producing immersive new music shows.
Nowadays, she is currently working on a concerto with Kings of Kings for Eighth Blackbird and the Cincinnati Symphony and he is a PhD candidate at Princeton University.
Learn more about her and her works in the Meet the ComposHer of this week!
Well, I've always composed. My parents were given a crappy piano when I was a little kid and I loved mucking around on it. I grew up playing violin, but my teacher only ever gave me music by dead white men to play, so I wasn't really aware that there was such a thing as a living composer. In a high school music class I learnt about the wonderful New Zealand composer Gillian Whitehead, and from that point on, I knew I wanted to at least try to be some kind of composer.
I have had so many extraordinary people in my life. The amazing composer John Psathas, one of my professors at the New Zealand School of Music, has never understood my lack of confidence in my work, and he pushed me back to composing after a long hiatus in my twenties. Julia Wolfe taught me so much about how to make music breathe, and to go with my gut instincts.
I stopped composing twice in my twenties – the first time because I needed a day job to pay rent (and no one was commissioning me to write music), and the second time because I had no community around me (...and no one was commissioning me to write music). It's incredibly difficult to continue writing in a vacuum; one person dancing alone looks like a bit of a weirdo, but two people dancing is suddenly something beautiful, and a whole group of people dancing at the same time is a fantastic party.
A heady mixture of the Voice Memo app, late night scrawls, and hours and hours in Ableton Live.
My song cycle Waves & Lines sets to music poems by Afghan women. It's the piece that is closest to my heart. https://gemmapeacocke.bandcamp.com/album/waves-lines
Don't worry about what anyone else thinks; just follow your heart.
Don't get hung up on theory and score study and perfect ear training. If you have something to say, say it in the most powerful way you can. You get better with every piece you write, so write as much as you can and keep trying new things. Surround yourself with kind, talented people. And most importantly, live your life outside of music. Take days off. Go get some sun, see some friends, and enjoy a good night's sleep.
With Shelley Washington, I founded a composer collective, Kinds of Kings, and we're all very different composers (and we're all women). We are currently artists-in-residence at National Sawdust in New York.
FOLLOW GEMMA:
FOLLOW GEMMA:
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | KINDS OF KINGS
ESTHER ALLAN - POLAND
Born 28 April
More about her here
Find scores by Esther Allan:
APRIL 28
ESTHER ALLAN - POLAND
Born 28 April
More about her here
Find scores by Esther Allan:
Post Comment
Post a Comment