A GOOD TALKER

posted by James Reel

    Sometimes interviewing composers, especially in front of an audience, is about as happy an experience as do-it-yourself dentistry. There are shy composers, who respond to questions with the briefest of unenlightening phrases. There are theory-smitten composers, who respond with the longest, most bombastically unenlightening phrases. There are composers who can put their points across all right, but they've obviously saved most of their personality for their music.
    Interviewing Jennifer Higdon during last night's pre-concert chamber festival talk was, in contrast, a treat. She's in her mid 40s, which means she's come up in a period when composers have been expected to interact with the public. She's fully comfortable in front of an audience, personable, natural, intelligent and articulate. I tried to throw her a few questions she hadn't already answered in a hundred other interviews, and she responded smartly without missing a beat (except for the stall-for-time comment "That's a good question"; she never hesitated or resorted to "umms"). People in the audience later told me how delighted they were by her comments and presentation.
    Her brand-new string quartet, An Exaltation of Larks, also went over very well in its premiere by the Tokyo String Quartet. Like its composer, the work has a distinct musical personality. From the very first bars, I thought, "That sounds just like Jennifer Higdon!" She definitely has an identifiable style, beginning with a Copland-via-Bernstein sonority but relying more strongly on her own distinctive set of thematic gestures, harmonies and textural preferences. No wonder she's fully booked up with commissions for the next five years, including requests from the likes of Lang Lang and Hilary Hahn. Jennifer Higdon is a fine composer, and she knows how to handle herself well.