FEMALE CONDUCTORS AT 31st MBZ

Ivo Malec: Sigma

Sanda Majurec: Springs

Matko Brekalo: Gaul*

***

Michelle Agnes Magalhaes: After Spring

Raphaël Cendo: Denkklänge

 

 

 

Yalda Zamani, one of the leading interpreters of contemporary music in her generation, was born in Algeria, raised in Tehran, and currently lives and works in Berlin. Passionate about promoting new music, she collaborates with composers from around the world on a regular basis. Infinitely curious and fascinated by science and technology, Yalda Zamani – in addition to conducting and occasionally composing – is also interested in the production of electronic music, algorithmic compositions, and the use of artificial intelligence in music. On the eve of the Music Biennale Zagreb, she answered our questions about her focus on contemporary music, musical influences, and the position of women in the world of conducting.

 

 

You won a scholarship to study composition in the USA, but instead you have chosen a different career, as a conductor. How did that happen? Do you ever compose?

 

True. I can answer this with two parallel stories: I was indeed admitted to the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati (USA) to start my bachelor’s degree in composition with Joel Hoffman in 2011, and prior to that, writing music was an inseparable part of my engagement with music since early childhood. My first composition was a short piece for piano I wrote when I was 10, which later I dedicated to my father who showed great excitement for my pursuit of music since those early days. Later, I wrote several pieces for choir and piano or small ensembles for my music projects at school where I was regularly singing, playing piano and recorder flute, and composing for various school events. In my spare time, I enjoyed improvising on piano while watching silent films by Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin or even

Alfred Hitchcock which we used to watch quite often at home, and I vividly remember a phase in which I became obsessed with musicals, and after watching The West Side Story and discovering Leonard Bernstein’s music, It became clear for me that I need to start taking my passion for composition more seriously. In 2009 I took private music theory, harmony, counterpoint, form, and composition lessons with two of the most prominent composers, pedagogues and music scholars in Iran, Mehran Rouhani and Houshang Ostovar.

 

It was however, in 2010 that I met Vijay Upadhyaya, an Austrian/Indian conductor who was leading the orchestra, the choir and the opera coaching sessions at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Tehran, where I was singing in his choir. He quickly discovered my curiosity for orchestral timbres and the way the orchestra functions, and one day asked me to assist him, and made me stand in front of an orchestra for the very first time to conduct! It was Schubert's 5th Symphony. After a year of assisting him, I realized that there is no better way for me to learn about composition than to learn it from the masters by diving into the centuries of musical creation.

 

The complicated nature of the relationship between the conductor and the orchestra, the possibility of collaboratively reaching an artistic result, and also the personal challenges which I had to overcome to become qualified for this job, made me convinced to choose this career path. After successfully passing the entrance exam for the conducting class of Georg Mark in Vienna in 2011, I had little doubt about giving up my place at the CCM university in the USA.

 

Composition is still a passion that I privately pursue, I have however gradually developed an interest in electronic music production, algorithmic compositions and the use of artificial intelligence in music, and apart from my activities as a freelance conductor, I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at the music university in Hamburg (HfMT Hamburg), where I am developing projects with an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary music performance. So, I hope to be able to contribute not only as conductor, but also as composer and researcher in the near future.

 

In your work, you are strongly committed to contemporary music. When and how did you develop that interest? Can you mention anybody who inspired or influenced that passion of yours?

During my conducting studies, the primary focus of my education was on standard orchestral, choral and opera repertoire, but I also had the opportunity to closely work with the department of composition at the university, and to conduct rehearsals and concerts during the final presentations of composition students. After finishing my studies in Vienna, this interest led me to search for opportunities to develop my skills and expand my horizons, and in 2016 I was selected as scholarship holder of the Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt, where I could work on a large body of modern/contemporary repertoire, and perform with the IEMA ensemble in various venues and festivals in Europe.

 

Later, with the support of the Ulysses Network/ IRCAM I received several invaluable experiences and opportunities to meet and to work with several contemporary composers, conductors, ensembles and musicians who are actively contributing to the classical contemporary music scene in Europe. Honestly, I quite enjoyed the process of working with living composers, where not only the conductor is not

necessarily required to present (or enforce) an already mature vision of the composition on the first rehearsal-day, but is actually encouraged to keep an open mind, open eyes, and open ears, to allow this vision to take shape during the course of a collaboration that also involves the musicians and the composer. I found the nature of such collaborations quite fulfilling in a way that helped me develop further not only as a conductor, but also both as a person, and as an artist. The dynamics of this process made me become a more sensitive listener, and cultivate a better understanding for what composers try to communicate. Knowing how the quality of the sounds, the energy of the performance and the curiosity of the musicians can contribute to the life of a composition, made me find big responsibility, but also great joy to contribute, and to devote myself to contemporary music performance.

 

During this journey, I encountered many inspiring artists, but my biggest admiration goes to three conductor/composers, with whom I had the opportunity to work, and from whom I have been greatly inspired

and influenced: Bas Wiegers, Enno Poppe and Susanna Mälkki.

 

What can you say about the women in musical leadership today? Have things changed a lot since the times of previous generations? Is there anything that is specific for female conductors?

I see nothing specific about female conductors, but rather about the way we perceive or evaluate their work. Due to existing double standards, there is very little faith in women that they can successfully carry out their job, especifically if this job has been traditionally defined within a male-dominated domain such as conducting, and therefore there’s very little support for those specifically at the beginning of their career. We do not tolerate “mediocre” female conductors while there are “mediocre” male conductors getting hired left and right, making progress by gaining more and more experiences, and rising to the top. So, I believe we need to ask ourselves how we feel about giving women the same chance to fail and develop further? As long as our answer to this question differs from the one that involves male conductors, we are not doing well.

 

At the moment, there are very few women or people from minority groups holding a leadership position, with the influence to take important decisions that can contribute to change, and also there is very little collective will or awareness even among our open-minded community to see this as a problem. I believe however, that those who are actively contributing to this change, are (unjustly) those who are invisible, trying to improve their skills, to gain experiences and do their jobs the best they can, by bypassing and even sometimes sadly ignoring the limitations and injustices they face along the way to stay concentrated and focused, and not with a hope to change the game, but with a wish to be taken seriously for what they are capable of doing, to finally have the same chances and opportunities to contribute, decide and to influence, which at the end could also lead to change.

 

This is a very long and slow process with no shortcuts, and we will see the results once those invisibles out there raise one by one to fill the leading and decision-making positions, where they would also have the power to influence and bring the change.

 

Can you tell us anything about the compositions you will perform in Zagreb? The program is very comprehensive. Except for premieres, are these the compositions you've performed before?

There is little I can say about this question at this moment, but I could share more once I was able to have a glimpse on the scores later on. What I can say for now: This is an exciting and diverse orchestral program, and I am very much looking forward to getting to know the musicians of the Croatian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, and the composers Michelle Agnes Malgalhaes, Raphael Cendo, Matko Brekalo and Sanda Majurec. And last but not least, it is my greatest pleasure to be part of the Music Biennale Zagreb. Thank you for this invitation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaija Saariaho: L'Aile du songe, concert for flute and orchestra

Milko Kelemen: Grand jeu classique, concert for violin and orchestra

Alfred Schnittke: concert for piano and orchestra

 

Karl-Heinz Schütz, flute

Katarina Kutnar, violin

Maria Radutu, piano