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Kaija Saariaho, Finnish Composer and Artist-in-Residence, Leading Women in the Arts Series
(choral singing)
Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello instructor: It's the most human music. There's something so human about it.
Her work is very modern,and she stands for something that I think
the rest of us all aspire to be—a leader in her field, someone who can communicate
well through words and also through their art.
(flute performance)
Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello instructor: This is the annual Leading Women in the Arts program,
that is sponsored by the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts.
Every year,a different department has the opportunity to bring in a spokeswoman for that department
and for the arts, and this year the chance came to the music department. And we leapt
at the opportunity to bring in Kaija Saariaho.
Tomorrow morning there will be a public chamber music coaching. She'll work with students
who have been learning some of her music, which is getting performed tomorrow afternoon.
This afternoon there was also a public coaching where she was able to work with the student
choirs who are singing her concert tonight.
(choral singing)
It's a little nerve-wracking, to sing for a composer live,
especially when it's music that's different from what you've sung before.
I just think it was a wonderful experience, and a lot of us were very ... I'm not afraid
to say, very turned off by the fact that it was such strange music. The electronics and
the voices were very strange.
Ariel: We're so used to singing tonal music, and music from old European white men, like
singing Brahms, or Beethoven, or Handel. But now we're singing music written by a woman,
and it's contemporary, and it's atonal. And so it's really like retraining your brain
and your ear to think in a different way.
(choral singing)
She was wonderful! We sang the music through, and then she'd come up and offer
tidbits of advice. She wanted more brightness and more loudness and more presence, especially
from the women. We often heard chimes or spoken parts interspersed within the music and it
was really that that she focused on. And bringing out the details really brought the piece together.
Kivie: This morning three student composers, two from Mount Holyoke and one from Hampshire,
had their works read for her, and she was able to comment on them and help them grow
as composers.
(flute and piano music)
Sarah: I'm very interested in writing for film.
Kaija Saariaho: It reminded me of some film music. It would be beautiful in some film.
Sarah: I write with images in my mind. So it's good that what I'm thinking is actually
what someone else thinks when they hear my music. So it's very reassuring to hear her
say that. Maestro Saariaho said today to me, after she heard my piece, if you're going
to be writing in this age, you need to know what others are writing. So if you want to
write tonal music, great, but know that people are writing avant-garde, atonal, pan-diatonic music.
(piano music)
(flute and cello music; applause)
Sarah: So I understand more now the importance of recognizing your place in the context of
the culture of the arts.
Kaija Saariaho: Ask yourself if you like some music, why do you like it - you know? And
if you hate some music, why do you hate it? I often get good ideas at bad concerts. (Laughter)
Because you ask yourself, "Well, why didn't it work? What was there that did not work?"
And, "What would I have done with that idea?"
Sarah: So it was very inspiring for me to work one-on-one with this person, hear her
own criticism and praise. It was a little nerve-wracking! But it's important, especially
in a creative field, to hear criticism. So you can only get better.
Kivie: I was thrilled to watch her interacting with the students that way because I knew
her as a composer. And I had no idea what she would be like in a more intimate setting,
how she would relate to students. And she's been wonderful.