I would like to write music that is a signal
of my love for humanity and for my audiences.
So I try to write music that uplifts and educates,
but also soothes people and makes them feel loved
and makes them feel that the world is in fact
going to be a better place than it sometimes
seems. The way I try to describe my music, my
shorthand for it is it's an act of love, an act
of honor and respect and love for my audiences.
I would just like to think that my music points
a way forward for people, that I can bridge the
gap between a more distant past and a future
that speaks to, you know, generations to come.
Hello, friends, and welcome back to season six
of The Piano Pod, our season of creativity and
connection. I'm so excited about today's episode
because my guest brings both of those ideas to
life in such a powerful way. Composer Stefania
De Canessi has written music for just about every
stage you can imagine, from Carnegie Hall and
Lincoln Center to international festivals. And
she's also been a champion for women in music
throughout her career. But at the heart of our
conversation is her latest and in many ways her
most personal project, microvids. What started
as 19 tiny piano pieces during the pandemic has
since grown into something so much bigger. A
whole world of music, poetry, improvisation,
orchestral color, even visuals. It's a project
full of love, resilience, and collaboration,
and it shows how something small can open up
into something truly expansive. In our talk,
Stefania shares the story of microvids, what
it taught her about writing in miniature, how
collaboration shaped the project, and why supporting
women composers has always been at the core of
her work. Before we jump in, I just want to thank
you for listening. Every time you like, rate,
subscribe, or share an episode, you help the
show keep going, and I am so grateful. So here
it is, Season 6, Episode 3 of The Pianopod, The
World of Microvits, from miniature piano pieces
to a boundless work of music, poetry, collaboration,
and love. Please enjoy the show. You are listening
to The Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest
minds in the industry about how they are bringing
the piano into the future and thriving in a complex,
ever -evolving world. Stefania, welcome to The
Piano Pod, and thank you so much for being here.
Well, thank you for having me. I'm really and
truly honored. And as I was saying, I'm doubly
honored because although I play piano, I'm not
really a pianist. I'm a composer. So it's really
a thrill for me to be here and to talk to you.
And you composed wonderful piano pieces that
I can't wait to talk about. That's why, that's
the reason you're here. But we first met last
spring through our mutual friend, the amazing,
incredible Donna Wang Friedman, who is, you know,
not only a powerhouse in the music world, but
also, you know, you guys collaborated together
with this. you know the album that we're about
to talk about but also she was the guest past
guest uh on season two and then donna and i were
getting ready to perform this full hands piece
at this event called history of movie music event
uh presented by arts rock in nyack new york which
is like like an hour, an hour and a half away
from New York City. And then somehow you were,
you turned the page for us. And then to get there,
the organizer sent us a driver. And then he mentioned
that he also needed to pick up the main guest
of the evening and none other than the legendary
conductor, Leonard Slatkin. And so we were together
squeezed into this van. Oh, like five, six of
us. Right, right. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
Yeah. One of the great things about Donna Wang
Friedman is that she's not only a great pianist,
but she has great friends and she does all sorts
of really fun activities. So if any time Donna
says, hey, I'm thinking of doing X, want to come
along? My response is invariably, if I'm in town,
I'm coming along. Sure. Because I get to meet
fun people like you, for instance, you know.
And none of it is according to a grand plan,
but these things happen and they're always really
happy events in my life. So I'm always grateful
to her for making these random connections that
turn out to be absolutely joyous. Yes, and absolutely
memorable, you know. Right. Yes, yes. So anyway,
and I remember sitting with you in the back and
talking about your work and then your upcoming
project and feeling immediately inspired. by
your vision and project. So I knew right away
that I had to invite you to the PianoPod. And
so I'm really especially grateful that we're
having this conversation today. So to begin,
let me start with my signature opener. If you
had to describe your mission or passion in just
a few sentences, how would you put it? I would
like to write music that is... a signal of my
love for humanity and for my audiences. So I
try to write music that uplifts and educates,
but also soothes people and makes them feel loved
and makes them feel that the world is in fact
going to be a better place than it sometimes
seems. Literally, the way I try to describe my
music, my shorthand for it is it's an act of
love. So I try to write beautiful melodies, beautiful
rhythms, things that people can remember. So
my music tends to be a lot more tonal, a lot
more audience friendly than most contemporary
music as a result. Or I think it is, or I try
to be. But for me, it really is an act of honor
and respect and love for my audiences. That's
the best way I can write it. And I mean, the
best way I can describe it. And of course, I
have music playing in my head all the time. It's
a disease, an obsession, a gift. It's whatever
you want to call it. But to get that out there
and to make it as loving an act as possible would
be the way I would describe it. Beautifully said.
And it's really what you just said coming through
your music. So let's talk about this. micro bits
uh you composed so i've actually have had the
pleasure of visiting your beautiful home already
twice and then in fact you know a couple weeks
ago you opened up your beautiful home and for
your album release party and uh and i was uh
invited and i was struck by how much this new
project reflects your artistic vision and that
brings me to what i've Love for us to focus on
and dive into today. We're going to really talk
about focus on microvids. And it's such a fascinating
concept because it feels both intimate and expansive
at the same time. So for our listeners who may
be new to it, what is this new album, microvids?
So microvids, the album is three versions of
microvids. And the genesis of microvids actually
goes back quite a ways to the pandemic. when
I was locked up in the apartment that you kindly
visited for many months and feeling kind of depressed
about my future because I thought I'm a classical
musician. I write almost exclusively concert
music. Concerts are not going to be happening.
It's the end of my life. So I was really... quite
depressed for a while. And then I started to
come out of it and I thought of all the people,
especially younger players who are sitting at
home locked up also. And I thought, wouldn't
it be lovely to write them something that they
could practice, that they could enjoy practicing
and just have fun with? And I thought back on
my own childhood and I grew up on Bartok's Microcosmos.
And I always loved those, but they're fairly
naughty pieces. You know, they are not that easy
to digest. And, you know, I went to music school
and I come from a Hungarian background. So for
me, it was relatively easygoing. But I'm not
sure they're that easy for young American audiences
or pianists. So I thought, well, what if I did
something like that with a more contemporary,
more American, more loving flair, if that's the
right way to put it? And so I wrote 19 miniatures,
19 short pieces that connect to one another,
but can also be played separately, that do form
an arc from beginning to end, but also are a
book from which you can extract exercises that
go from relatively simple to relatively complex.
So it mirrors the Bartok microcosmos in that
sense. Except they're more tuneful, frankly,
and more American -ish, if that's the right adjective
for it. And I just had a beautiful time writing
them. And I felt my spirit soar. And I felt like
I was giving something to the world again. And
that felt very, very satisfying. So that was
the initial impetus behind micro bits. The other
thing that made it very satisfying for me, which
is purely selfish and purely personal, is that
with each piece I now write, now that I'm in
my dotage, I promised myself that I would do
at least one thing that I've never done before.
just one thing even if it's relatively small
and even if only i know that i've never done
it before but something that expands my horizon
and my repertoire and i've never written miniatures
before ever I tend to write large scale forms.
And for me, a short piece is, say, four to six
minutes. A regular movement can be eight to ten
to twelve. And then there are several movements,
that whole methodology. And so this was the first
time I wrote miniatures. And that was kind of
a challenge, but enormous fun also. So that's
the personal part of it. When I finished these
19 miniatures in honor of COVID -19, I gave them
to Donna Wang Friedman. I didn't know what to
do with them. I'm a typical composer. You get
the music, you write it, you copy it over, you
give it to a performer, and then you let go and
you move on. But Donna said that these were the
most fantastic things she had ever heard. And
she said she would love to play them. And would
I give her rights to play them? And when I went
over to her apartment to hear the first rehearsal,
you know, after our masks were off and it was
safe to do so, she said, can you just sit down
and don't interrupt me? I'm taking all sorts
of liberties with what's actually on the written
page. I don't know if you're going to like it
or hate it, but can I just play them for you?
And so I sat down and she started to play. And
there were such. an incredible performance of
these 19 miniatures that I started to cry. It
was that good. It was that brilliant, insightful,
sensitive performance. So from that moment on,
Don and I bonded musically over these 19 miniatures.
And she just kind of took the ball and ran with
it. And she's been kind of spearheading what
I would call the microvids movement, the expansion
of microvids, the second and third and fourth
life of microvids, and eventually this recording
of microvids. So to finish that story, she said,
these are brilliant. I'm going to give them to
students and we'll get them out there. But I
think they need titles. You know, because I just
gave them numbers because, you know, I'm just
a composer. So I thought, OK, what are some titles
that would work? And then she said, you know,
and they need short poems that enable people
to focus in on the individual crystalline sentiment
or emotion of each short miniature. and I thought,
okay, I can ask some of my poet friends to do
something, but why don't I try my hand at it
since I have some sense of what emotion each
miniature kind of dives deeply but briefly into.
So I wrote 19 couplets and gave them to Donna,
and she said, these are brilliant. That's it.
We're done. So now microvits exist as 19 short
poems that precede 19 short piano miniatures.
Right. And these poems are spoken, not sung,
right? Yes, absolutely. No, they're spoken. And
on the recording, we were blessed to get the
recitation or narration by Crystal Joy Brown,
who was a Broadway star in her own right. And
she contributed her talents to it and she reads
them absolutely brilliantly. So, you know, it's
a very different kind of approach to music, but
it works, I think, I think brilliantly. Pure.
joy, rippling reflections, sunlight dappled white,
pure joy, sweetly pleasured, heaven's blue delight.
And then that evolved to... Well, so that was
the beginning. And then Donna called me up and
said, I have another idea. Microvids could be
expanded to have another instrument. And so we
did. I first added a flute part. Later, I added
a violin part. There are actually several duo
versions of microvids. And again, the thing that
made this very unusual. was both it exploited
the potential richness of the musical material
right so because they're miniatures and so much
is so densely packed emotionally into each little
piece you can pull out some of that emotion and
you know uh do it fruitfully in a way that you
might not if the piece started out as a big piece
for orchestra for instance right then you wouldn't
want to double the orchestra or add a bassoon
solo or whatever right so it works with these
miniatures um The other part that made it, again,
for me personally interesting is Donna said,
and I agreed, that the piano part should remain
as it is. So when I add new instruments to my
Kravitz, as I have done, I'm not orchestrating
them. You know, orchestrating typically means
you take the existing musical material and you
divide it among new instruments. So, for instance,
you could give the melody to the oboe and the
flute and you could give the bass line to the
cellos and the double, et cetera, et cetera.
You can sort of finish that sentence. But that's
not what I do in the versions of micro bits that
are piano plus an instrument. I actually create,
imagine and weave a new sonority, a new part
around the existing piano music. And that's completely
different an approach from normal orchestration
or normal transformations of piano music. So
that was enormous fun because, again, it made
me think, what is the essential emotional undertone
of, say, this microvid? And in the case of the
fourth microvid, which is very, very airy, it
was to have, in this case, the violin, but some
instrument in the absolute stratosphere just
floating above it. you know, like a breath or
a breath of fresh air. Because the title is Reach
for the Sky. Yes, exactly. Right, right. It just
made sense and it makes sense and it works like
magic. So that was the second iteration of it
for piano with a solo instrument. This is not
going in chronological order, but the next sort
of logical part of it was we heard the incredible
violinist Curtis Stewart perform. And he both
performs existing repertoire and does improvisational
material and connects with audiences. And we
looked at one another and we said, we've got
to work with Curtis. And Donna's idea was both
to have Curtis record my violin part as part
of, you know, a dual version of Mike Kravitz,
but also to ask him to improvise on top of those
violin parts or from those violin parts or on
top of the piano, whichever way you wish to think
of it. So he created, together with Donna, a
version of Mike Kravitz, which is for piano,
with Donna playing, and violin improvisation.
which Curtis Stewart is doing. And that again
is very different for my compositional practice.
So I'm going to keep going back to how these
are things I've never done before, because I've
always been a control freak. And I've always
been brought up in sort of the Germanic tradition
of music where you control all the parameters
of your composition. You tell all the instrumentalists
what to do, when and how to do it, et cetera,
et cetera. And here Curtis was just improvising
away and his improvisations are rooted in loosely
in. American blues, jazz, some country, you know,
all sorts of influences, but very, very American
leaning, if I can put it that way, and very improvisational.
And totally brilliant because his technique is
as good as anybody's technique in sort of Western
European violinistic Paganini -like terms. So
again, it's a really, really interesting combination
of things. And that is actually the opening album
on our, or opening disc on our current album.
These improvisations that Curtis does on top
of the piano part that Donna is playing. The
third version. Because this never ends. The third
version of Mike Kravitz, which is represented
on the album that is being published or was just
released, came at the behest of the New Jersey
Youth Symphony and its music director, Helen
Cha Pio. And again, it was through the intervention
or through a connection created by Donna Wang
Friedman. She thought that it would be really,
really interesting since I... originally wrote
these pieces for you know young players to have
an orchestra of young players accompanying the
piano part which again made perfect sense so
i created i again a an orchestral part which
is woven around the piano music so the piano
part remains in all these iterations virtually
identical in one or two of the movements there's
a you know a bar at the beginning where she's
not playing and you know there's a trumpet solo
that comes in or you know at the very end there
may be an extension of one bar but otherwise
the piano part is 99 .99 % the same in all these
versions oh good to know yeah yeah no it's always
the same but there's an entire orchestral part
around it and it sounds like a completely different
piece of music It really does, because the emotions
and the orchestration and the whole vibe of the
piece is radically different. It's not that it's
not recognizably the same, but it's different
enough so it's not immediately apparent that
you're dealing with the exact same basic material.
There's so much new that's woven around it. And
so, you know, that's the third important version
of it. That's the third disc on our current album.
And in part because I'm not born in this country
and in part because I think it's important always
to have an international outlook. I thought it
would be important not just to have the poetry
recited in English as it is on the second track
of the album, although Crystal Joy Brown does
an absolutely brilliant job of it. So we asked
for we figured out a way to get. translation
into Spanish from a young poet whom I haven't
actually met, but was highly recommended to me,
Eloisa Amescua, who is American, but of Spanish
descent and bilingual. And she created these
beautiful translations of the couplets, which
are then recited by an actress who also does
an amazing job. And we found through Crystal
Joy Brown, her recommendation. Her name is Lola
Lopez Wardone, and she recites the poetry in
Spanish. So that opens up a whole new world of
listeners to whom we are reaching out. Soñador,
grácil, alto, diáfano, agarro una nube, alcanzo
el cielo. And I think it's important to, you
know, we always say that music is a worldwide
language and it is meant to be universal. And
I think we kind of mean it, but we don't, you
know, as with all good intentions, it's not always
100 % realized in reality. So I think it's very,
very important that we have on this album, both
English and Spanish, which are major languages
in the world still represented. The ideal is
for at some point, if Microbits keeps going,
I have no idea whether it will or where it can
go. But my wish would be that it would be translated
into multiple languages. And if there are performances
elsewhere, that those performances, the recitation
or the narration of the poems take place in the
languages that are pertinent to that country.
Some of that seems to be happening. there's going
to be a performance of my Krivitz with Donna
at the piano by the Virago Symphony Orchestra,
which is an all -female orchestra based in Antwerp,
Belgium. And the poetry recitation will be done
by Esohe Weyden. I think I'm pronouncing her
last name correctly, but I'm not 100 % sure,
who is the poet laureate of the city of Antwerp.
And she's going to be reciting them probably
in Dutch. This is still being discussed, but
I would love for that to happen. And the other
sort of international aspect of this, which is,
again, not 100 % realized yet, but is one of
my goals. I attended the United Nations International
School when I came to this country. And I went
back to them. And I asked students there if they
would be interested in taking a couplet or two
and translating them into their own native language.
and then reciting them and being video and audio
recorded in those languages. And they did. I
saw the video. Yes, yes, it's wonderful. And
the ages range from, I'm going to say, 8 to 18,
although I could be, maybe it's 9 to 17, but
something along those lines. And the languages
range from your standard European languages,
which are French and Spanish, to Tamil and Hindu
and other Asian languages. So I'm very, very
happy with that as an indication of the kind
of direction. in which I would love for this
piece to eventually go, because it should be
universal. You know, grief and joy are universal
emotions. And to the extent that language expresses
those, those languages should be used that speak
to listeners in their own context. Wow, it's
a lot to uncover here. But you know, the title
is start with micro. And then as I was listening,
every piece is like some of them are 30 seconds.
Some of them max maybe a minute and 10 seconds,
somewhere around that realm. Correct. So they
are really tiny little pieces. But what's the
challenge? What was the challenge of composing
them? You know, you mentioned you are so used
to. composing massive pieces, whether that is
dance, you've written operas too, and so many
others. Then here comes this microvitz. So what's
the challenge? Well, the challenge is to find
something that is pertinent to say that is really
meaningful, but doesn't require more than a sentence
to say, right? So it's the equivalent. You have
to have some idea. You can't just keep talking.
and cover your tracks and wait till you get a
good idea. So the same thing with these miniatures.
You can't have, say, a beautiful intro that then
leads to, you know, eventually your beautiful
melody or your beautiful idea. You've really
got to think about what is it that you want to
say? What is that emotion? And what is its musical
equivalent? And make it as compact as possible.
And to some extent, to not be afraid of... just
focusing on that. You know, part of our Western
musical tradition, or certainly my training,
is to always be as complex and sophisticated
as possible. And that's a very laudable goal
in many ways. But it also means that you're already
and almost always piling things upon. things
so you know you're doing harmony and counterpoint
and orchestration and you're thinking of all
these things all the time and that's that's certainly
not in fact it's very very wonderful but you
also have to be content in 30 seconds to just
do one thing you know um so it's a little bit
like being asked to to create 19 appetizers i'm
not doing 19 main courses So I'm not doing, you
know, the pasta and the sauce and the salad,
right? I just have to make the sauce or I just
have to make the, you know, the tomato salad.
I don't know. These are terrible metaphors, but
concision, really focusing in on a particular
flavor and a particular thought and a particular
emotion and not being afraid to just do that.
And it has a kind of intensity to it that is
also a little bit scary because there's no deflection.
You know, you really have to delve into that
emotion. But it's also wonderful if you can sort
of manage to pull it off. Yeah, they're more
like I was thinking of haikus. Yes, that's a
good metaphor. Yes, haikus. Yeah, that's that's
much better than my cooking metaphor. Thank you.
No, no, no, no. But really, like comes in bite
size and, you know, just to the point. To the
point, but with a kind of depth that allows and
asks for revisiting. Right. Because you don't
want it to be so shallow that people don't want
to come. Right. So the same with haikus. You
want you don't you get them the first time, but.
Not 100%. So you reread them, right? You read
them again and again. And each time you find
something slightly different, slightly deeper
in its meaning, in spite of its brevity. And
that's not that easy to do, but it's a lot of
fun. So you have the gift of poetry, like writing.
Well, I mean, yeah. Yeah, they were great. I
mean, in this case, I had the gift of poetry.
And I think it was really, I don't think I'm
much of a poet, frankly, but I think in this
case, I was so inspired by the idea of these
19 miniatures and the occasion and the purpose
that it just all kind of fell into place simultaneously.
I'm not sure if you asked me to sit down now
and come up with a great poem in the next 24
hours that I could really do it. So I would like
to excuse myself from being considered a poet.
But I think in this case, they actually do work.
And I'm very happy with the little couplets that
I wrote for each miniature. I think they balance
the music well and they illuminate the emotional
character of the music. And each version is so
different, as you mentioned, sounds so different.
Although you can, underneath, you can hear the
same melody. But yeah, that's amazing. Quite
amazing. You thought of, you know, while you
were writing the actual piano piece, you were
thinking, oh, short pieces. But then did you
imagine that short pieces become such a big,
expansive thing? Well, I knew that I was going
to, or I imagined from the first that I would
write a book of them. So 19. So in some sense,
I did know that I was aiming for, like I said,
like a collection of them. What I didn't realize
is that they would serve. grow one after the
other. I didn't write them 100 % in sequence,
but more or less in sequence. So what I didn't
count on was that they would develop a kind of
narrative arc of their own. So even though they're
technically independent, and like I said, they
can be extracted and played separately and all
of those things, there is a kind of growth to
them from start to finish. And that makes them
miniatures in one sense, but not miniatures or
not just miniatures. Right. So there's a macro
element to it, too, in spite of the micro title.
Right. Right. Yeah. Makes sense. So now I want
to talk about this violin and piano version particularly.
It's very fascinating that violinist Curtis Stewart,
he is improvising. But for example, if I want
to work with a violinist and I want to play the
piano part, purchasing a score, how would that
work? Is there instruction on how the violinist
would improvise? So that's a brilliant question
and a question to which I don't have an answer.
In part because I've never done this. So it's
an absolute first for me. And like I said, the
album was just released. So all of this is very
fresh stuff to me. But the second answer to that
is I do have a version with my written violin
part. So that can be used as a guidance. So my
as I'm thinking through it and I'm just thinking
out loud is that I would I would send that part
and then say, use this as a template or as a
springboard for the kinds of things that you
might want to do as a violin improviser. And
I don't know if that would work in all honesty,
but that's that's kind of the way we did it.
And it worked brilliantly. Now, Curtis is a brilliant.
musician and a brilliant improviser. So I don't
know if this method would work for everyone.
You know, I really don't. That's why I said I'm
not sure I have an answer for your question.
It's a brilliant question and I'll try and think
about it. And maybe I should write some verbal
instructions, but I don't know. Like I said,
I try to expand my compositional practice with
each piece. And part of the fun part of that
and part of the scary part of that is I don't
always know 100 % what I'm doing. Right. So I've
never done improv involving pieces of my own
before. So I'm going to have to figure it out,
you know, and I haven't 100 percent yet figured
it out, in part because Curtis made it so easy.
He just did such a brilliant job that I could
just sigh relief and it's done. You know, he
did nothing wrong. He kind of elevated the piece
and took it into realms that made perfect sense
emotionally and musically. So he kind of saved
me the trouble of having to think about how do
I get other people to improvise on top of it?
So that's why I don't quite have an answer for
you yet. Okay. Well, I can't wait to see where
does this, the piano violin version. would evolve
and being accessible. Yeah. Who knows? Now I
love that all the titles out of place, skipping
stones, like a rock or just joking, dream away.
It's so modern and, you know, relatable, almost
like flipping through a photograph. Like, you
know, every photograph has a specific place of
memory. You know, that sort of idea, you know,
it's, it's different from taking phones, you
know, pictures on your smartphone and flipping
through. It's a little different. It's like a
photograph, like a good old photograph. I'm old
enough to remember photographs. Yeah, same. So,
you know, every single one has this, everybody
is posing certain way. It's not this one of those
random photos, but there's like a specific meaning
to it. It just gave me that vibe. I don't know
if I am right or wrong with my impression, but.
It's a brilliant simile or a brilliant description.
Really is. No, that's very insightful. You really
got them. I mean, that's, I hadn't thought of
that, but you're absolutely on target. Yeah,
that's it. Yeah, you know, the moment you. hold
a photo and then just brings you a lot of feeling.
Oh, I remember her or I remember the place, that
sort of thing. Yeah, no, that's true. That's
true. So I hadn't thought of the photograph as
a, you know, as a simile or a metaphor for it.
But Donna Wang, who was kind of multi -talented
and keeps astounding me with her range of talents,
has taken a few of these miniatures and added
videos to them, added visuals to them. The most
recent one is, Shiachi is just released on YouTube.
It's called A Silent Cry. And it takes one of
the miniatures from microvids and creates a little
music video out of it. No text, no speaking,
just the music and visuals. And the visuals or
the video is about habitat loss. and ecological
sort of disaster as it relates to the Himalayan
snow leopard. And it's a beautiful short little
piece, very, very moving. And she's entered it
in, I think, 15 or so festivals, film festivals
that honor short music videos and got 15 awards
already. So it's so that that idea of there being
a visual component to these microvids is also
something that we are exploring or that donna
has started to explore and you know as usual
has started to explore it brilliantly so um that's
the sense in which micro bits keeps having more
and more life to it and uh and actually my kids
both a couple of days ago said why don't you
have videos of each of the 19 miniatures you
know that that could be because it you know it's
a visual culture and these pieces are so colorful
as it is you know they're so dense with emotion
and dense with musical color i don't even know
what words to use uh uh that it could actually
work itself you know uh into a visual medium
um and so you know i was uh talking to donna
and she kind of agrees so we're thinking about
maybe if i can find funding or something to to
create 19 videos of these 19 micro bits so it
may have it may have a life over and beyond music
so it's going to be music and poetry and visuals
and videos and i i don't know what else but i'm
having you know the time of my life with them
because i thought i was just creating these tiny
little nothings you know 19 you know 30 second
pieces of music and one minute i mean that's
that's nothing in my you know in my vocabulary
and it turns out to be the richest things i've
ever created and that's an incredibly lovely
surprise really really amazingly satisfying and
wonderful and fulfilling and i feel like um more
and more audiences are being reached by it and
like i said you know for me these are acts of
love so the idea that i can i can you know move
more and more people with the music i've written
it just makes me happy even when they cry You
know, even if it's a sad piece that I've moved
them and that these pieces have meant something
to them in their lives, I think is especially
in this day and age when everything is upside
down and everything is turbulent and everything
feels uncertain and everything feels like it's
shifting from under your feet to have something
that. that speaks to people and gives them joy
and satisfaction and love is just very meaningful
to me. It really is. Yeah. Wow. In that sense,
really from the bottom of my heart, congratulations.
Thank you. Very sweet. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's
but it's been in part because I think I wrote
these good pieces of music, but in part because
I've worked with these magnificent collaborators,
the first and foremost being Donna Weng Friedman.
But the others as well, you know, Curtis Stewart
lent his hand and Crystal Joy Brown. So Helen
Chapiot. I mean, it's been a real team effort
at every level of the way. And that's the other
thing that I was not brought up to appreciate.
I think sufficiently, the power and need for
collaboration. So I was brought up, again, with
good reason to be a composer in my own right.
That means taking charge, taking charge of your
musical materials, taking charge of the conceptual
space. And that's all fine, but it downplayed.
the importance of having collaborators people
with whom you work who give you new ideas who
support you who ask you oh well i like it going
in this direction but what if it went slightly
in that direction what would that feel like and
suddenly you know they give you an idea that
you didn't actually have on your own and that
opens up new vistas So I'm very big now on the
importance of telling younger people, don't forget
how important collaboration is. Maintain your
own vision and be your own person. And goodness
knows, as a female composer, you really have
to stand your ground and be your own person and
have your own vision. But that does not mean
that you underplay the importance of having collaborators
and being open to collaborative ideas and collaborative
practices. And so for, I mean, I'm going to talk
more about this album, but for our listeners,
if they, I would like for my listeners to listen
to all 19 pieces. So can they listen to them
on like streaming services? Yes. No, the album
has been released. It was officially launched
on July 25th and it's available on all the usual,
you know, Spotify, Amazon. Apple, all the normal
streaming services. And if you go to Navona Records
is the imprint. Parma is the record company that
has Navona as its imprint. And if you go to either
of those websites and type in, you know, microvids
or my name, it will pop up and then it takes
you directly to the streaming links. So it should
be readily available. Sure. Yes. Of course, I'm
the last one to listen to them because I've had
so much microvids. in my brain that I haven't
actually listened to the piece since July 25th,
since it was released because anyway, but yes,
it is available there. Yeah. And then I also
listened to purely piano version too. Uh -huh.
Right. Yes. So yeah. Yeah. That's cool. And then
it's the score. Yes, I self -publish. But if
anybody wants the score, I'm happy to, you know,
I do respond and I can be reached easily at my
email address. So it's DeKennessey at Gmail.
Very simple. No space. Just DeKennessey at Gmail.
Gmail .com and then? And then, yes. And then
I will respond to you and I self -publish. But
I send out very nice looking scores. It's got
a nice cover and everything. It looks very professional.
And I think I've caught all the wrong notes.
So it's pretty clean. Wonderful. Wow. And so
I know you may have already mentioned, but what
do you hope listeners would feel after hearing
microvids? So I mean, I hope that they would
feel a sense of joy, a sense of how it's possible
to have a full range of emotions that go from
despair to utter joy and still be a functioning
human being, right? So one of the things for
me in this piece is that it does have moments
that are really, really bitter and empty and
forlorn, but the piece doesn't reside there.
It doesn't just live there. It also has moments
that are joyous. One of them is called pure joy.
So for me, the real trick is just to be able
to negotiate that terrain. So to enable people
to both feel that, yes, life is incredibly hard
and it's incredibly sad. And frankly, we all
die at the end, right? So it really is. It really
is sad. On the other hand, as we go through life,
we also experience enormous satisfaction and
joy from music and friends and whatever it is,
right? So to both acknowledge both, so not to
be Pollyanna -ish about the joy, about the beauty.
It's not just beautiful, satisfying music, but
also to offer something more than just despair
and emptiness, right? So to bridge that gap between
the two. I hope gives people a sense of it being
authentic and yet satisfying, you know, so in
that sense, feel loved, you know, but in a genuine
way, not just in a saccharine's over sweet way.
Does that make sense? Yes, it does make sense.
In terms of the album is just, you know, to try
and get it as many places as possible and to
try and get as many people to really enjoy it
as possible. especially orchestra version it
would be nice to have music teachers educators
to purchase the score and being able to perform
that piece it would be a lot of fun and and again
um i believe i'm not an expert on this and donna
could probably speak more eloquently to this
but i believe that both piano teachers and youth
orchestras do not have that many materials of
this sort materials that are so Classical in
one sense, but completely contemporary in another
sense. Right. Because the sonorities are not
just, you know, Mozartian or anything like that.
And with poems that are really about emotions
and emotional vulnerabilities and joys rather
than, say, animals. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So it
doesn't. So these are skewed towards younger
audiences, but not it doesn't it's not. It's
not childish stuff. The themes are not childish.
The music is not childish. I mean, I hope it
has the freshness of youth, but that's very,
very different. And if you think about the repertoire
that's available, say, for youth orchestras,
you know, there's the Britain, there's Peter
and the Wolf. There are a couple of pieces, but
not that many. It's not an infinitely large repertoire.
So to get it into that repertoire would be a
lot of fun. Donna keeps saying that this is the
next carnival of the animals, only it's not about
animals. It's about emotions, you know, emotions
that came out during COVID. I mean, how can you
be more relevant than that? Right. And that again,
you know, some younger listeners or players can
relate to that, but goodness only knows teenagers
can really relate to that. And in general, I
get the feeling, and again, I'm not the expert,
but I get the feeling. That when we talk about
music for children, we tend to skew to the younger
ages. So there's music for people, you know,
college age and in their 20s and 30s, young adults.
And there's music for repertoire for young children,
but not that much that really addresses tweens,
as they're called, I believe, or, you know, teenagers.
And this, I think these pieces are firmly in
that camp. So I would be delighted if either
piano teachers or, you know, youth orchestras.
had access to this. And I think their students
would really, really enjoy them precisely because
they hit that sweet spot between purely professional
requirements, which teenagers don't quite have
yet, and truly beginning students who are at
the age of five or six can only manage so much
technically and emotionally. So I think that
would be one of my... wishes to get these versions
out into those kinds of places. If you are enjoying
this conversation so far and you are inspired
by Stefania's journey in creating microvids,
I encourage you to check out the album. It brings
together all three versions, the violin and piano
collaboration with Curtis Stewart, the English
narration by Broadway star Crystal Joy Brown
with pianist Donna Wang Freeman, and the Spanish
narration with piano in the New Jersey Youth
Symphony under Helen Chapiao. You can also experience
the award -winning films born from this project,
including Silent Cry, now available on YouTube.
Let's talk about your maybe artistic approach,
and I've listened to your... chorale music, some
excerpts of opera that was available on YouTube,
and then dance and film scores. So your music
strikes me as melodic, feminine. Feminine as
in, I'm not saying girly, but feminine, strong
female, you know, quality. And also folky, folk
music. You know, I hear at times and daring and
experimental too, because I've listened to this
one, several dance music. I don't remember the
title, but because you collaborate with this
dance company, it was electronic music. Yeah.
So, but yet I feel like always find a way to
your essence of your style, which is tonal, contemporary,
but. you know, approachable because it's tonal
and melodic. So maybe what makes your approach
or what makes your style, in your opinion, unique,
stand out from others? Oh, you know, that's a
difficult question. Talking about your own self
is horrendously difficult. It's like describing
what you look like, you know, I'm only five foot
three. I never think of myself as small. Right.
And I know that's not truthful. So so getting
back to my music, you know, I had an education
in Eastern Europe at a music school founded by
Zoltan Kodai. So I was brought up on a lot of
bar talk and by American standards on relatively
dissonant contemporary stuff. A lot of Kabalevsky,
a lot of bar talk. I don't even remember the
other ones. So for me. sort of crunchy dissonant
music never had the same appeal of novelty that
it did for a lot of my peers who, you know, at
age 18 would discover Stravinsky and they were
like, oh my God, those dissonances are so much
fun, right? So I tend to write music that's frankly
a lot more consonant than most of my peers. In
part also because of my upbringing, I also have
always skewed towards music that has folk elements.
Those were heavily emphasized in this school,
founded by Zoltán Kodály. We had a lot of Bartók
folk songs. And my heritage is half Hungarian,
half Bulgarian, which is neither here nor there
for the purposes of microbits, except that Hungarian
music and Bulgarian music are both... rhythmically
and tonally a little different from Western European
musics. So specifically, Hungarian music tends
to be modal. It has, you know, flat sevens and
it tends to be what, you know, what we can call
Dorian or Mixolydian, et cetera, et cetera. And
Bulgarian rhythms also tend to have a lot of,
you know, 3 -3 -2 or 2 -2 -3 or, you know, regular
patterns, but of irregular underlying beats,
which I also sometimes use. So my heritage in
some sense. was filled with both very classical
music, because that's what I grew up on, but
also infused with folk music. So you're very
right to pick up on that. And that has always
been part of what I've tried to do. And frankly,
one of the things that I realized as a composer
is, if you think about the development of music,
even in Western Europe, it goes from modal scales.
to tonality, which is just a reduction of those
scales to only two, major and minor. And then
it becomes more and more chromatic and dissolves
into 12 -tone music. But one of the things that
I thought would be interesting is to have it
move back to a kind of modality that we haven't
had since the Middle Ages or since the Renaissance.
And that is the modality that is familiar to
me from my childhood. from my Hungarian and Bulgarian
roots. It also is the modality that is at the
root of American contemporary music and pop musics.
You know, all blues and blues derived rock and
roll idioms, for instance, are modal the exact
same way that medieval music and Hungarian and
Bulgarian music tend to be. So there are a lot
of sort of influences that kind of converge.
in the contemporary moment or that I try to use
as a converging point in my own music. And I
hope that that's enough to make it fresh and
different so that my music doesn't actually sound
like Brahms or Mozart and it doesn't emulate
them, except insofar as they have very clear
structures and clear melodies and music that
is fun and understandable on a first listening,
but then invites return. and return and return
you want to hear it again both because it's fun
and because there's something about it that's
new each time so and that's they're tough competitors
sometimes i hate those guys i have total professional
jealousy when it comes to those men right oh
we can talk more about that later you know but
wow but also i feel like what sets you apart
is um there's always like clear intention or
maybe i don't know you intend it that way or
not but message behind your music whether that
is a about feminist or you know uh climate or
political message is it I mean, I would say in
the last 10 years, that's certainly been the
case. It was probably not so very early on in
my career when I was just writing like a string
quartet or a clarinet quintet or whatever. But
yes, it's become more and more important to me
to have some, not explicit meaning behind the
music, but some larger purpose for it. And goodness
knows we have so many issues besetting us that
to... try and address those in ways that are
not ideological and not simple -minded. You know,
you don't want to be jingoistic or do something
that is so obvious that, you know, there's no
mystery to it or no illumination at the end of
the day. So, but I have written, you know, numbers
of pieces that are feminist in nature, meaning
that, you know, they call for the possible equality
of women. They call for the treatment of women
in better ways. And those are goals that we have
to keep setting for ourselves because they are
far from having been met. I've seen some progress
in my lifetime, in fact, quite a lot. And I'm
very grateful for that. But it's important to
keep going. Back in the 90s, I founded the International
Alliance for Women in Music, whose goal was to
unite the then three composer groups that existed
for female composers and both to unite them to
give a stronger voice, you know, because we're
always stronger together than apart, and to also
invite other performers and even men, if they
like, to come and support. So it's the International
Alliance for Women in Music. not just of women
in music, right? So whoever, so that has always
been important to me, like I said, because I've
labored in a field that has been 99 .9 % male,
you know, all my life. And in part because of
the world around me, because it still has, it's
far, far from doing justice to women and women's
work and women's genius. And perhaps not coincidentally,
I'm the composer or I have been the composer
in residence for three groups, one a dance company,
one a chamber ensemble, and one a choral chorus,
all of which are all female. And that's been
great. It's really pleased me that they asked
me to be. So I'm composer in residence for the
Dalsonia Ensemble, which is a sextet of six chamber
musicians. I'm composer in residence for Ariel
Rivka Dance, which is an all -female dance company
led by a female choreographer, Ariel Grossman.
And I'm composer in residence for the Accord
Treble Choir, which is an all -female treble
choir led by Liz Geise -White, who's their director.
So it's been very, very sort of pleasing for
me to... to do that work and to do that work
and to work with companies that are excellent,
not because they're all female, but because they're
really excellent. Right. So it's been a lot of
fun. It's been very, very pleasing at very sort
of an emotional level. Very, very gratifying
for me. I know you said 99 % in the class was,
or in your field, was male. And you are one of
the very few in the group female as a composer,
right? Has any of that changed? Yes, I think
it's slowly changed, but far more slowly than
one might wish. Right. So, yes, there are more
women represented in conservatories and in music
programs than before. And there are more women
being programmed, say, in orchestral settings
than before. But there is nothing like the 50
percent parity that one imagines should be the
norm. Nothing even close to that. So I'm not,
I don't have my finger on the pulse of contemporary
society well enough to be able to tell you why
not. But certainly, you know, if things were
egalitarian, you know, there's nothing about
composing music that takes physical brawn. And,
you know, you don't have to be six foot two and
250 pounds of muscle to write music. So there
should be just as many women doing it as men,
right? There should be no limitation. And yet
it's not nothing like 50 -50. So I just think
we have a ways to go. In general, I would say
society and classical music circles still tend
to not allow or encourage women to be in positions
of power, in positions of authority. So it is
much, much more difficult for a woman to become
a conductor, for instance, than to play in the
orchestra, because the conductor tells the orchestra.
how to play. They're the boss. They tell you
what to do. I'm being very, very graphic and,
you know, very dirty about this. And the same
thing is true for a composer. The composer tells
the conductor what to do and the conductor then
tells the orchestra, right? So the closer you
are, I think, to what I would call position of
authority or being the boss, the less likely
it is to be accepted if you are a woman doing
that. Because still people don't want. female
to tell others what to do. Yeah, I think it's
just that simple. I mean, again, you know, I'm
not speaking as a sociologist. I'm not an anthropologist.
So this is just kind of conjectural stuff on
my part as a composer. But I do think there is
still quite a bit of resistance, sort of psychologically,
if nothing else, to having women be to, you know,
having them be the CEO, as it were, of a company.
of an orchestra, of a compositional setting,
right? There is still resistance to that. And
it's crumbling slowly but surely, but there's
also reactions against it now. You can see the
political sphere. So yes, it's always, you know,
a couple of steps ahead and then maybe a couple
of steps back. And you hope that there are more
steps ahead than steps back. But, you know, there's
a lot of work to be done. There really is a lot
of work to be done. Yeah. What can we do? I know
you've created this international alliance with
women, like, as you mentioned, New York women
composers, you know, you're the board. I mean,
I don't have an answer to that because there's
so much work to be done that I, you know, I don't
have like a grand or master plan. And honestly,
I like to spend my time writing music rather
than, you know, thinking about these things.
But my philosophy also is everybody does just
a little thing. If we can all move forward just
one inch, if you move for one inch and I do an
inch and my friend does an inch, eventually there
is real progress. So I content myself with thinking
that so long as we all keep doing something,
however little, it will add up in the end. And
I think there's some truth to that. It's slow,
but I think progress is slow, if you think about
it. The Enlightenment is the 18th century, and
it's not until the 20th century that women are
allowed to vote. Right? You would think that
that progression might have taken like two years,
not 200. Right? So I think we have to acknowledge
that progress in all sorts of spheres of life
is... just a whole lot slower than we'd like
to imagine we're not quite as brilliant creatures
as we think we are but we have to keep going
we have to keep going you know we have to keep
going and if it even even if like i said you
only progress one inch you've done an inch and
you you will take another inch or another two
and then donald will take another you know what
i mean it's just uh um i think it's a collaborative
again a collaborative and cumulative effort to
move forward and and so I'm not I'm not I don't
despair I'm not I wouldn't I don't know if I'm
an optimist but I'm realistic I actually think
that things do get better over time they just
happen much much more slowly and much more effortfully
than we'd like to imagine yeah right so Sorry,
I didn't mean to make you sigh like that. No,
no, no, no, no, no. But at the same time, I am
encouraged to, like, as a female, you know, artist,
and I'm not the only one who struggles or, you
know, as a female artist, I think we, us, have
to stick together. Support each other. And help
each other and be realistic about the limitations
and figure out a way to overcome them. And work
at overcoming them. And work at overcoming them
together. You're such a wonderful teacher. I'm
learning a lot. And so in July, while I was at
your beautiful home and it was, I met one, one
of your former students while you were teaching
at the new school, you were a composition teacher.
And I don't know if she learned composition or
not, but. I think I was, I don't remember what
classes she took. She was one of my first students.
And I don't remember what class I taught, but
I actually always try to combine courses or to
create courses that combine different kinds of
sub -disciplines in music. Because if composition
class just means... having your students bring
me bring you sketches and then critiquing them
I just don't find that that's very helpful or
very interesting once or twice of course you
one does that but I also believe that in order
to become a composer you have to teach them ideas
and techniques and the techniques come from emulating
other composers you know because that's that's
the way you learn your craft so to speak and
uh honestly I can't teach anybody how to be a
composer composer in some real sense, because
I cannot teach you how to be you, right? That's
your own soul, your own abilities, your own vision,
your own whatever. And I can't, you know, I'm
me and you're you, and I don't see how I teach
you to be you. What I can do is I can teach you
how to write a Bach fugue or a medieval motet
or a Chopin nocturne, right? Because that brings
to the foreground set of skills. that can be
adjudicated. And it either does sound like Chopin
or it doesn't sound like Chopin. And if it doesn't,
figure out why not. What is it that you're doing
wrong, right? So I've always tried to give courses
where I teach a lot of repertoire in analytic
terms. And analytic terms not in ways that make
theoretical mincemeat out of the pieces. I don't
care for theory. for its own sake, but that illuminate
what makes that Chopin Nocturne so beautiful,
what makes that particular turn to that particular
tonality so amazing, right? So that you can sort
of steal and copy, right? Sure. And the other
part of teaching composition is kind of an aesthetic
sensibility, you know, so you have some intellectual
sense of what is it in Macho's world that...
that is beauty in music in the 14th century?
How would you define the beautiful in the 14th
century versus how would you define the beautiful
for Bach or the beautiful for Dvorak, right?
And the answers are quite different. And if you
start to think about those, then you again think,
I believe, in compositionally really interesting
terms. So most of the courses that I've taught,
I try to bridge the gap between what I would
call music history, music theory, composition
and aesthetics or intellectual history. So, you
know, and one of the great virtues of having
been at the New School, and I'm very grateful
to the institution for this, they allowed me
my entire career to design my own courses. So
I was never given a textbook and told what to
teach and how to teach it. which it was a great,
great freedom. Now, there's also a burden because
you have to think of these things, you know.
But I've taught courses on opera. I've taught
courses on Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. I've
taught courses, you know, that are, you know,
the human voice through the ages, for instance.
That was one of my favorite ones where you look
at what is it that the human voice does, both
in terms of vocal technique, but also in terms
of approach to text and subject matter from Gregorian
chant. to Milton Babbitt, my own teacher at Princeton,
right? So the courses have always been a hybrid.
Technically, they're composition classes, but
not just or not really or not the way that they
are typically taught in either conservatories
or typical music majors. And that was a lot of
fun and kept it interesting. And it also meant
that I never had to repeat the same course twice.
So even if the course had the same title. I could
inside the class, you know, choose different
pieces to demonstrate different ideas or different
developments historically or aesthetically or
compositionally. So that was a lot of fun. It
kept me on my toes and it enabled me to keep
learning myself. It kept it alive. Oh, wow. That
sounds so fascinating. I wish I were. I don't
know. A composition student and learn from you.
Yeah, that sounds so, so fun. So you mentioned
about your teacher, Mr. Babbitt, Milton Babbitt,
right? Yes. And he's a very famous composer.
And I've interviewed a few composers throughout
five, six years of this podcast. And then there
were several who studied with him. So he seems
like a really a... influential and big, huge
figure in the composition. He was. I mean, he
was a short man, but he was really a giant in
his field. He really was. And he was one of the
most brilliant intellectuals and speakers that
I've ever met. I mean, I've met a lot of smart
cookies in my life, and Milton was really, really,
really smart. So it was just a privilege to be
in a room with him and to have conversations
with him. Although aesthetically, our approaches
couldn't have been more different from the get
-go. And one of the great things about Milton
was that he never, among all my teachers, he
never ever, not even once, asked me to set aside
what I was doing, which even back then was writing
tonal pieces, and write something along the lines
of what he writes or was writing, which was 12
-tone music. And he never never asked me that.
He always took my pieces when I went in for my
composition lessons on their own terms. We'd
sit down with, say, a piano trio and he'd look
at the development section. He'd say, hmm. So
the transition from the first section, the main
theme to the second theme. Do you think that
transition is too long or too, you know, is it
too short or does it go through too many keys
or too few keys? In other words, he worked on
the material on its own terms. And that was really,
really wonderful. And very few, in my experience
at least, relatively few composition teachers
would do that because most of them do by example.
They teach by example. This is what I do. This
is how I do it. Why don't you, young person,
try and do it? And then I can tell you if you
do it well or not well. And Milton didn't do
that to me because I was not interested ever
in writing 12 -tone music. And he knew that from
the time I went for my interview, you know, for
the PhD program. I know we talked about your
teacher and you being an educator. So what qualities
do you think this modern musicians and composers
should or must have besides musical skills? Oh,
my goodness. What qualities? Well. Oh, skills.
I mean, life skills. I think I mean, I think
for me, there are two aspects to it. One, you
need to have a really good sense of craft. And
I think young I'm going to generalize. So forgive
me for doing that. But I think the younger generation
is getting a lot of craft. in techniques that
are contemporary, that have to do with electronic
music, with sampling, etc. But I think they're
getting very little grounding in what I would
call time -honored or older Western European
techniques. And I think that's a loss. And I
don't think they're getting enough of that. I
think they need more harmony and counterpoint
and all that seemingly dry -sounding, old -fashioned
stuff. But I think... If you can have that under
your belt, it will really do you in good stead
in the long term. So I think they need craft.
The other thing that I think, and I think this
has been always true of composers, contemporary
and the older generation like me, is they need
to have a sense of context. So to be a composer,
of course, you need the tools with which to say
something. You need the craft, the techniques.
But you also have to have something to say. And
if you haven't read novels or if you haven't
traveled or if you haven't studied math or Chinese,
I don't even care what. But if there's no bigger
context there, then I don't see how you have
anything to say. And if the only thing you have
to say is this chord moving to that chord or
this sample being torn apart into those samples,
then I'm just not sure what the point is. So
for me, what I would argue is to have a general
education, a real education and a real sense
of intellectual curiosity about the world and
not just the contemporary world, but the ancient
world, because the ancient world has a lot to
teach us also. And it has full of surprises and
full of innovations that get sidelined or get
forgotten about. So I would say both, you know.
both more technique, but also more general education.
And I wouldn't want to prescribe to anyone what
that means, but everybody should take their own
path. But if you're interested in China, learn
Chinese and go there and do Chinese history and
go on some excavations. So I can imagine all
sorts of ways in which you have what I would
call a fertile imaginative context, which then
gets expressed in music. And then you, of course,
need the skill set with which to make that happen.
But the skill set, I think, is easier to conquer
than this sense of general curiosity and a general
ability to understand the world, which is increasingly
complicated and increasingly difficult to scope
out. But if you want to have something to say
to people, you need to... You need to have an
understanding of the world. I don't claim to
have any, you know, synoptic, overarching understanding,
but something that you can give that other people
don't quite see yet, that you can translate into
music. And life experience too. And life experience
also, yes, absolutely. All of those things, yeah.
So now, what's next for you? Well, the very next
thing is August 30th. Donna Wang Friedman and
the D 'Alsonio Ensemble is going to create, to
perform another version of microbit. Yes. It
just keeps evolving. That's great. And this is
for Piano Sextet. And it's going to be the opening
concert at Barge Music of their Here and Now
Labor Day weekend festival. And I'm very much
looking forward to that, in part because they're
brilliant musicians. And this is yet another
iteration of Microvitz. So I just want to see
how, you know, how it works. And in part because
barge music is no longer on a barge itself. So
I will no longer get seasick when I go. Oh, really?
Yes. Yeah, they've moved on to land. So it's
very close to the original barge. But it's on
land. And the last couple of times I went, I...
You know, I get seasick really, really easily.
So this sounds very, very silly, but I'm very
happy that it's going to be in a regular house
or it's in the boathouse very close to the original
venue. Barge music used to be like literally
was it was a boat on the boat or in the boat.
So I remember going there to my colleagues concerts
or whatever. And all of a sudden the background
is moving. And the first time I went there a
couple of years ago, I heard Donna perform something.
I don't even remember what, but I went up to
her to try and congratulate her afterwards. And
she said, you look green. And that's how I felt
very green. Yeah. It was a beautiful, yeah, it
was a beautiful concept and beautiful venue,
but it is, it is. But when the waves come in
crashing on the boat, it can be anyway. So that's,
that's the next thing actually, August 30th.
So people are interested. If you Google barge
music, it's there, two o 'clock. Yeah, I'll be
there. And so what do you hope your artistic
legacy to be? I mean, I would just like to think
that my music points a way forward for people
because what I've tried to do is reach back to
the past, which I think was abandoned during
the course of the 20th century. with a tonality
and 12 tone music a lot of what i find the most
beautiful and compelling about the western musical
tradition was just kind of thrown out the window
uh deliberately and you know purposefully not
not because it was forgotten but because people
were against it and i reached back to that but
i've tried to reach back to some of it without
just duplicating the past you know my metaphor
for that is i don't want to be put back in a
corset that's the last thing i want Right. So
I don't want to return to the past. But there
are things about the past that I find compelling.
Its sense of beauty, its sense of melody and
rhythmic clarity, you know, all of those things
that I think can and should be preserved. But
I've tried to bring those forward into the present
day using means that are more contemporary. So
I'm kind of hoping that I can bridge the gap
between a more distant past and a future that
speaks to, you know. generations to come. I mean,
that's a big, that's a big goal. And I have no
idea, honestly, you know, no one can see their
position in sort of music history in a compelling
or safe way. But that's kind of what I've tried
to do, certainly. provided us today is a master
class and so i really appreciate you for being
here and sharing your expertise and once again
congratulations on so many successes but especially
for micro bits beautiful beautiful work yeah
thank you and thank you for having me this has
been so much fun the time has passed like Took
three minutes, it feels like. Oh, yeah. Same.
I feel the same way. So for our listeners, please
go to StefaniaDeKennessey .com to learn more
about her work and start listening to her latest
and delightful album, Microbits. Before I let
you go, we have one more thing to do. It's the
rapid fire questions now. We take this segment
very seriously. You've shared stories and expertise
today, but these questions, next questions, carefully
curated by our team, which is me, will give our
listeners a glimpse into who you truly are. So
let's do this. I want you to answer each question
with the shortest response possible. No explanation
is necessary. So level one, what is your comfort
food? I don't have one. Okay. How do you like
your coffee in the morning? With a little milk.
Cats or dogs? Cats, definitely. Yeah, I've met
your cat. Sunrise or sunset? Sunset. I hate mornings.
Summer or winter? Summer. Level two. What skill
have you always wanted to learn but haven't had
a chance to? Drawing. Good one. What is your
word or words to live by? My word or words to
live by? Yeah. Kindness. What is the most important
quality you look for in other people? Kindness.
Name a composer you wish more people knew about.
Monteverdi. Now, level three. Name one piece
in your current playlist. I don't listen to music.
I write music. Oh, yes. So, yeah, that's right.
And you mentioned that your music is always in
your head. Yeah. So silence is the best. All
right. Fill in the blank. Music is blank. My
life. Beautiful. Ding, ding. That's it. So Stefania,
thank you so much for joining us today and for
sharing your artistry and journey and innovative
spirit with such openness and creativity and
connection. So for our audience, if you'd like
to explore more of Stefania's extensive work,
please visit StefaniaDeKennedy .com and subscribe
to her YouTube channel at DeKennedy and Instagram.
Follow her on Instagram at DeKennedy as well.
Of course, I encourage you to start listening
to her. latest album, Microvitz, on any streaming
services. All links will be in the show notes.
And of course, a huge thank you to all of you,
our faithful fans and listeners for tuning in.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please give a
thumbs up. and subscribe to The Piano Pod on
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TikTok, and LinkedIn. I will see you in the next
episode of The Piano Pod. Thank you again, Stefania.
Thank you so much for having me. This has been
pure joy. It really has. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.