As many of you have seen on my social media, I recently announced a new collaborative composition project! The impetus is largely that I personally miss working closely with other artists in this time of isolation, and imagine others do as well. I also miss hearing and thinking about other artists’ perspectives and musical ideas, and am really curious about how different artists might envision writing for/working with solo cello.
As I’ve had many submissions, all very much appreciated but some not really in line with my vision for the project, I thought I would take a moment to explain a bit more about it, as well as the envisioned process (all open to suggestion)!
I am hoping for the project to be a true collaboration. What does this mean? So far, as I’d hoped, it means something different for every pairing! Each composer I’m working with so far has a different idea they’re passionate about, and a different way of envisioning us working together on this. From incorporating field recordings I made in my neighbourhood, to pairing works with specific and personally significant poetry to either of us, to exploring pairing cello + electronic looping to create the sense of chamber music and an instrumentation fuller than solo cello, to pouring feelings of distress/devastation/frustration from our current situations into the music… we’re really creating something that reflects us and our experience of the world around us.
What this really boils down to is that I am not looking for submissions of pieces you’ve already written for cello — I’m looking for us to create together. I’m sure your compositions are wonderful, and hopefully in the future I might be so lucky as to learn them — but the intent of this project is to create something new!
The project is intentionally open-ended. It begins with an initial 1-on-1 Zoom meeting for us to get to chatting and brainstorming — mainly to get to know each other, really. What shared interests or passions might we have, what sorts of things inspire us and/or direct our art, what styles of music do we enjoy, or what sounds on the cello are we particularly intrigued by… how have we been feeling throughout the pandemic, what kind of music might feed us or help us process what’s going on in the world these days… the options are endless, and that’s very intentional. This is meant to be a catalyst in figuring out what direction we want to go musically.
As for the composition itself, it must be 60 seconds or less. This project is intended to be shared on Instagram, and feed videos have a 60 second time limit, so — we’re really creating for the medium. If you want to write more than 60 seconds, you are able to do so by writing multiple movements, with each movement being under 60 seconds. I’m very curious to see how this parameter (enabling constraint!) will guide the project.
The project is inclusive of however many Zoom workshopping sessions we feel we need. As of August 16th, my schedule is pretty flexible, and I’m planning to dedicate the last half of the month mainly to this project!
Ideally, I would love to have compositions in by August 25th (the earlier, the better!). That way, I can learn them in time to start recording in early September. It is also very important to note, however, that while this is ideal, the timeline is truly the least important part of this project. The deadline may help the fire under us, so to speak, but what I’m far more interested in is a meaningful collaboration and joyful exploration of what a composition for solo cello could be. If this project extends long past September, I’m totally cool with that — dates are arbitrary and flexible.
If you are interested and haven’t yet applied, please shoot me an E-MAIL at arlen@arlenhlusko.com with the subject line “September Solo Cello”. If you’ve applied via Facebook Messenger or Instagram DMs, I may have missed it — that’s far more difficult for me to keep track of. If you e-mail me with the correct subject line, then I can easily keep track of all of the submissions as well as scheduling :-)
If you are interested in supporting this project financially so I may be able to offer something to these wonderful composers, please also shoot me an e-mail at arlen@arlenhlusko.com with the subject line “September Solo Cello", and I will direct you to how to make a donation. All funds raised for this project will be equally distributed amongst the composers.
Thank you!! I can’t wait to share these creations with the world! :-)