- Will you consider this?

To make and hear music wherever she goes on.

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds, join me to discover more about our Peoria Symphony's special guest.

(soft music) Well, maybe she started out by humming tunes, but for some time now, composer in residence, Stephanie Ann Boyd has put melodies to paper and instruments.

Welcome Ms. Boyd, is it okay for me to call you Stephanie?

- Sounds good.

- All right, great.

So you grew up in Michigan.

- [Stephanie] In Ann Arbor, Michigan, yes.

- In a musical family, or?

- My grandmother was a piano prodigy, the youngest of six children of farmers growing up in the dust bowl and hopped up onto the piano at age four, started playing four-part harmonies.

And she lived five minutes down the street when I was growing up.

So she was my babysitter and yeah, composing was a part of my life.

- So you play the piano or other instruments.

- I played violin for a very long time.

Yeah, not anymore.

Now I get to work with wonderful violinists, but yes, I started violin at age eight.

- Interesting.

Is it through Suzuki program or?

- No, not initially, but in high school I was able to study with John Kendall at the end of his life.

He's the pedagogue who brought the Suzuki method to America in the 60s.

So I got it right from the horse's mouth as it were.

- Really?

Good for you, good for you.

You are very young and music is your life.

- [Stephanie] Yes.

- And you have come back to the Midwest, which is nice.

'Cause you spent a lot of time in a lot of different places.

What all do you do?

- I mean, in usual times it's staying in a very small, small room composing and not talking with very many people and then also being on the road for concerts and events.

And so it's really lovely to be here and be having that, that social interaction and be working with musicians again after an odd year, yes.

- A pause, a very good long pause.

- Very long pause, yes.

- Well, where do you get your inspiration?

- All over the place?

Of course.

But as somebody who grew up in the woods, certainly nature is a very important part of my work.

I like to bring, help my audience members become naturalists in a way.

And also women's memoirs is another subject that I find myself either being hired to pursue and write about and also taking stories about women's experiences and putting them into, you know, concrete musical form is a very attractive thing to me.

So yeah, that's where the inspiration starts at least.

- Interesting too.

Do you sleep?

Are tunes constantly running through your brain?

- Yes, when I'm working on a project, I do certainly feel haunted, in a way, because the melodies that I was writing or working with that day are, they are still there with me in my dreams.

So that can get a little intense, but yeah, sleeping to make sure that the brain is well rested and can get back to it the next day is very important thing also.

- Well, we're so fortunate to have you and you are here for a very special event with the Peoria symphony, tell me about that.

- Yes, so the Peoria Symphony has commissioned me to write, it's going to be about a 20-23 minute piece for orchestra narrator, mezzo-soprano and violin soloist all about the work and life of Betty Friedan.

Peoria's own.

- Native to Peoria, right?

- Yes, a-ha.

And so I've taken text from her book, The Feminine Mystique and constructed that, so that not only do we feel almost like we're reading Betty's diary as it were, and really following her through her life, but we also are seeing very much the impact of her work in that 23 minute chunk.

- And so she was here long before you were even on this earth.

How difficult is it to research something like that and to come up with some inspiration?

- I mean, I wish I had my copy of the book here to show you, it was actually almost too easy.

From the very first paragraph I got the book at the Strand Book Store in New York and I went into a park and sat down and started reading.

And I knew I was in trouble when I had already underlined every line on the very first page.

I'm like, this is going to be a long time with making a lot of cuts.

But I mean, that's the beauty, and also, I guess, speaks to the importance of her work now, is that not only is her work deeply resonating with me, but we're now 60 years after that book was published.

So it's lovely to connect with her work, but I almost wish it wasn't relevant to me.

- And you kind of want to meet her.

- Yeah.

And it's been lovely being in Peoria to be at least able to meet like her best friend's son or a journalist who had interviewed her.

And so I'm getting the pleasure of spending so much time with her words and very much being in her brain space.

And then also being able to have long conversations with the people who knew her very intimately, yeah.

- Have you written the piece already?

It's still in the process.

- Most, everything is written, there's some orchestration still to be done.

So how I talk about it is that the skeletons already done and most of the clay is already on it as well.

And so working with the Peoria Symphony musicians this week has been lovely because there's still time for me to write in an extra solo for somebody.

So it's a really great as a composer to be able to actually spend time, of course, with the musicians that you're writing for, 'cause then you can really write to their strengths.

- And how did this all come about?

- This came about when I met George Stelluto, the Peoria Symphony music director at Ravinia, at a Chicago symphony orchestra concert two years ago.

And when he saw that I was a composer, he said, "well, what sort of stuff do you do?"

And I said, "well, very intense, but hopefully beautiful works about women's memoirs is usually what I do."

And send him a few pieces, two of which are actually on the program of November 20th.

So yeah, the next day he said, "oh my goodness, I finally found the composer for this project."

And so we've been dreaming up all of the practical aspects of writing this behemoth piece, really, for the last two years.

And so I can't tell you how happy I am to finally see it coming to fruition.

- Is it really difficult though, to try to, let's say with Betty Friedan or some of the other subjects that you've done, to put a life into notes on paper and then to have them perform.

- Well.

I mean, for me there's always this sort of tentative feeling of I want to be very respectful the telling of this story and to this person, right?

I mean, you don't just hand your life story to anybody.

And of course, with music, I'm able to write many different emotions into the music.

And so I also want to be telling a story that has the most authentic emotions too, for the audience.

But for example, like taking Betty's text and writing it into a vocal line, for our mezzo-soprano.

I really feel like I'm taking so many cues from Betty herself because the rhythmic structure that's inherent in her beautiful writing, I'm not changing that.

And there's so much contour already to her lines.

And so at some points, I really feel like I'm just taking dictation.

- So these are her exact words?

- Her exact words and actually, I really wanted this piece to be made up from just her words.

I didn't want to have to, or I don't want to insert myself in it, or take texts from other places.

And so actually there was one part of the narrative that I was trying to construct, and I needed to have an explanatory sentence and I was looking all over for something there, you know, at the top of every paragraph.

Couldn't find anything.

Finally, I looked in the footnotes where she had beautifully written a sentence explaining exactly what I wanted her to explain.

- So you were channeling?

- Well, I'm trying.

I'm trying to be a good, yes.

A faithful servant to the life and the work.

- Just amazing, amazing.

And you've done a couple of other social justice type compositions.

- Yes.

- And are you also commissioned to do those?

- Yes, so one of the other pieces on this program is a work called sheltering voices originally for orchestra, soprano solo and women's chorus.

And this was commissioned a few years ago by the Eureka Ensemble in Boston when I was their composer in residence for a few years.

And they always do themed concerts so that they are highlighting some social issue in Boston.

And of course, using that concert as a vehicle to raise awareness and funds to help the issue.

And so I still remember their music director calling me up and saying, "Stephanie, I want to bring awareness to the issue of domestic violence in Boston.

And I would like to do a piece with women's choir.

And I'd like to work with local women's shelters and raise money to let whoever of these women want to be in our chorus to give them stipends and make sure that they're fed, and housed, everything."

- [Christine] Beautiful.

- Yes.

And so I decided to bring in a poet that I work with a lot.

A women's rights activist and award-winning poet.

Marvelous, I mean, we've worked now on, I think, 15 pieces.

Her name is Jessica Lynn Suchon.

And she wrote a set of a crown of sonnets, so five sonnets, each referencing in some way, the five steps to recovery after this sort of abuse.

And so, yeah, it was very, very powerful, powerful piece, powerful concert.

We raised a lot of money for these women's shelters.

and yeah, a lot of good came from it.

And the news clips of it went viral, you know.

I don't know how many hundred million views in the few days following, and that actually spawned similar endeavors from different orchestras all over the US and when supported the orchestra was so inspired that they stepped up and decided to financially support this women's chorus, in perpetuity.

So I think it's still going.

- That's amazing.

So you have been, your numbers have been recorded.

- [Stephanie] Yes.

- And you've worked with many symphonies and philharmonics throughout the world.

- Something like that, yep.

I mean, each year, the number gets bigger and bigger.

I also have a premiere this year with the Wyoming Symphony.

That concert has been sold out since December of 2019.

So by the time we get there, yeah.

It would've have been sold out for like three calendar years.

- Wow.

I mean, it doesn't get much better than that.

- It's pretty phenomenal, yep.

- Now, are your parents still alive or your grandmother who inspired you?

- Yeah, my grandmother, I call her every day.

That has been one of these points of stability during the pandemic is calling her every day saying "hello?

Long distance from wherever I am."

She's always very interested to hear these stories of my composing life, 'cause of course, I probably have 3% of her ability, but thanks to the time I was born in, I'm able to have the career that she couldn't.

So I love being able to really carry on her legacy in a way.

- She can live vicariously through you.

- She very much is, yep.

And she's very happy and in Peoria.

And I remember calling her from Wales two summers ago and asking her what title I should be giving this piece for the Peoria Symphony.

- Wow, and so she helped you come up with that?

- Yes, I mean, she's almost Shakespearian sometimes in her way with language.

So yeah, she was very helpful with that.

- Well, you sit down and you, or do you do it on the computer or you're just doing everything by hand or?

- Initially, it's what I call brain to page.

So for example, I would have the book in front of me, I'd know exactly what text I wanted, I'd put that into the computer so that I have only what I need, nothing else.

And then, I sort of read the text.

Hear the melody should be going along with that in my mind.

And I'm writing that out and singing the intervals to make sure that that they're correct.

And then once that is all ready to go, then that goes into the computer and yeah.

As I'm listening to that and thinking about that, then I start to like, hear the other instruments, then those go in their parts.

And then of course there's a certain point where you're making executive decisions just based on your composer toolbox and what you know are the limitations of the instruments you're working or the time, you know, the timeline that you have, the time span that you have.

I mean, it would have been fun to have it be a whole hour long piece, but of course we don't have that time.

- Do you eliminate any instruments or are you talking about that you make sure that there are solos here and there.

- Oh yeah.

So, the exact instrumentation was discussed and decided on, I guess, a while ago now, like two years ago.

Yes, with my sister.

And so really the only time of, like taking away instruments are when I know that the narrator is going to be speaking.

So I have to make sure to either have the orchestra very soft or have it only be with a few instruments.

So when you're working with soloists, there's always that difficulty of a balance because gosh, you very much do not want your orchestra to be covering your soloists, everybody will be mad at you.

- Who will be performing the narration, etc.

- So our soloists, we're very lucky to be working with the violinists, Serena Hong and the amazing mezzo-soprano, Michelle DeYoung, and our narrator is the marvelous Deborah Rudder coming to us all the way from the Kennedy Center.

- We're very fortunate.

- We're very fortunate.

Yes, and it's marvelous to be able to have their artistic voices in my mind, as I'm writing this piece.

- Do you ever hit a brick wall?

You know, the writer's block.

- I want to say all the time.

I also went to say that I feel like there's no such thing as writer's block.

I think that we can be far enough away from our work for a certain amount of time that we build that, maybe negative associations with it.

I've told students in the past, I've said, "well, if you ignored your wife for a week, she probably wouldn't want to be talking to you either when you came back."

So when you ignore your work, it's a very similar thing.

And so there is this issue of keeping up momentum because really the only thing that's going to keep you alert and creative, keep the machine oil, as if were, is the work itself.

But certainly when you're starting off a piece and there are so many decisions to make, that's where it goes, that's the slowest, and I guess most agonizing part of the process in the sheer elimination of things, right?

You could do like, the world is you're always start at the very beginning, but then eventually you hit, what I call sort of the point of no return, then it's all this lovely, downhill race.

Because it's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, right?

All of a sudden, you know exactly where everything goes.

- So conveying those thoughts and all that onto paper.

This is old hat for you, whereas each time a challenge.

And how did you arrive at a 23 minute composition for Peoria, for Betty Friedan?

- Yeah, I think, Maestro Stelluto had originally been wanting to do a piece about Betty in the style of Copland's Lincoln Portrait, which is actually a much less in terms of time.

I think it's maybe like 15 minutes, I mean, somewhere around there.

And that also is taking Lincoln's words, having a narrator with them.

And we both agreed that Betty definitely demanded a little bit more time, just a little bit more.

And so when you're writing, when you're writing music contracts, usually you'll make sure that the time has a little bit of wiggle room because when you get to it, you don't want to have to chop off a minute when that climax... - You're taking a big slice out it, right?

- Exactly, yeah.

Oh, editing your own music after it's already written is a very tough, tough thing indeed.

- Editing your own writing, no matter what it is, it's hard, 'cause you're so close to it, it's emotional.

- Well, you cannot be a creator and an editor at the same time.

- But you are.

- [Stephanie] Well, I... (Christine laughs) There's certainly different hats.

There's certainly different hats.

And for editing usually, I mean, it's very much a different part of the process.

'Cause it's only the analytical aspects going on as opposed to the creative aspects of creation.

So usually when I'm going through a big editing session, I'll be listening to podcasts and not too heavy podcasts, but definitely listening to podcasts because so much of that is just visual, the editing, making sure that all of the markings are exactly in their correct spot, yup.

- And you said you have been traveling a lot lately.

Does a composer in residence generally stay, what's the length of stay?

- So this is actually, I have so many people say, "oh my gosh, you're moving to Peoria" or "you are moving to Wyoming or Boston."

I say, no, composers in residence have several weeks during the time of their residency where they come in and add value to the community.

They come in and give talks to high schools or colleges, speak with the ticket holders at the symphony.

- The supporters, right?

- Yes and come and do, other events.

And of course we have this lovely experience of having a chamber music concert of my works with the musicians.

And so my residency is just about two weeks of time.

- [Christine] Here?

- Yes, in Peoria.

Over the course of a year.

And otherwise, composers, you get brought out to premiers and it's usually, sort of a similar thing.

It's just a mini residency a few days instead of multiple weeks.

- Growing up, did you think this is something that you would do?

You loved music, but did you know that you would be composing?

- In eighth grade, I asked Frau Walsh, in German class, how to say in German that I wanted to become a composer when I grew up.

And so that's sort of the earliest time I can date it to when I had made that decision.

But certainly growing up with a grandmother who composed so many works of her own, it was, as I say, the most germane thing in the world to be a composer, let alone a woman composer.

- Did you toy with things then, in eighth grade?

Were you already writing some things?

- Oh, yeah.

- [Christine] Hum a few bars.

(Christine laughs) - Oh my goodness.

I need to take another sip of water.

- There's gotta be something, your very first one.

- I'm trying to think.

I can hum a little bit of that piece I wrote in first grade.

That's very cute and it requires a little bit less, it was just a little piece on the piano in C minor.

And it was just, ♪ Rain is falling ♪ ♪ Rain is falling ♪ ♪ Rain is falling ♪ And then again, and then I count the drops of rain with a ♪ 1, 2, 3 ♪ Yeah, so silly little things.

And of course my subject matter did change from rain drop... - Drastically.

- Yes.

But yeah, first for a string quartet, I was in sixth grade.

And then first ballet was in grade.

And then by high school I was playing in the Michigan Youth Symphony Orchestra and falling in love with Tchaikovsky and Dvorak and Barber and Vivaldi and realizing that the only thing more, I don't know, the only human experience, more beautiful than playing such amazing music was creating my own.

And so, yup.

I haven't looked back from there.

- Have you ever incorporated Rain is Falling in any of your other numbers in any way?

- No, but I have, let's see.

My first flute sonata, Imogen.

I did take two melodies that I had written when I was 12 and incorporated those into the first two movements.

And the Peoria Symphony musicians are playing a chamber music piece that is literally Opus One.

It's a piece I wrote at age 17 when I was in love with a cello boy.

And I realized that I wanted to give him a present three days before Valentine's day.

So yes, it was a... - Did he like it?

- Yes, I think so, I think so.

And what's probably more important is that that piece has touched a few hearts.

So that piece actually is one of my most performed pieces.

- [Christine] Really?

A Valentine's gift.

- A Valentine's gift and the very first chamber music piece that I've like properly wrote, yes.

- I am so pleased to meet you.

Thank you very much for sharing and sharing about your life there, your little ditty that you performed for us in the last minute like that.

Thanks for coming to Peoria.

- Thank you.

- Enjoy this visit very much.

And I do hope to hear this original composition.

It'll be fantastic.

- I think it will.

- Thank you, Stephanie Ann Boyd for being with us.

Thank you all for being with us.

Enjoy, stay safe, and healthy.