Bang on a Can

I really wanted to play trumpet in grade school, all the boys wanted to play trumpet. They lined us up and whoever could make a sound got to play. I couldn't, so I played my second choice, the clarinet. In college, I didn't have a "classical sound." My teachers tried to change the way I played, but I didn't like the way classical players sounded. I was always interested in music of other cultures and felt we were being sold a bill of goods, that there was something flawed about the idea that music meant Western music. I became more interested in the music of Eastern Europe and Asia, Balinese music. For a long time I made a separation between interest in those musics and my own work, and then I realized I had to take my interest seriously. Tsmindao Ghmerto literally means "Holy God" or "Sanctus." It's based on a Georgian religious vocal piece for men's chorus. I wrote it because I had figured out all I knew how to do as a solo player, so I decided to set up impossible tasks. I wanted to find pieces outside the Western tradition and then try to imitate them exactly, using every way of creating the sound--multiphonics, tremolos, trills, singing. I knew I wouldn't be able to succeed completely, but then that struggle provides the emotional content of the work. --Evan Ziporyn