When it comes to honoring the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin, three is this Thursday’s magic number: Led by three-time Grammy winning composer Missy Mazzoli, “Composed for WCW” features a trio of world premier performances to celebrate a truly Cream City trinity: the 150th anniversary of Woman’s Club of Wisconsin, the 45th season of Present Music, and the 10th anniversary of Luna Composition Lab.
Thursday night’s “Composed for WCW” will highlight Milwaukee’s past, present and future of modern classical music in ideal elegance: hosted in the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin’s historic ballroom, the sounds will soar through the arched ceilings and dance among the chandeliers. The night starts at 5:30 P.M. for cocktails with dinner served at 6 P.M. The concert itself will begin at 7:30 P.M., tickets are still available.
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This event at the Woman’s Club of Wisconsin triangulates the meaningful connection among these organizations: Present Music, a Milwaukee group dedicated to providing voice to new music through “inclusive programming, identifying emerging talent, and integrating new technologies.” Luna Composition Lab, which offers “mentorship, education, and resources for young female, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming composers ages 13-18.” Woman’s Club of Wisconsin: Milwaukee’s “gathering place where women and mission supporters go for friendship, learning, service, dining, culture, celebration and meaningful connection.”
No one encapsulates this triumphant trio of Milwaukee music better than Missy Mazzoli. Before the Grammy awards and world-wide acclaim as a composer, Mazzoli’s string trio (there’s that number again), “Lies You Can Believe” was commissioned by the Woman’s Club of Milwaukee and given the opportunity to reach audiences through Present Music. Bringing it all back home, Mazzoli co-founded the Luna Composition Lab, which gave rise to young composers like Alex Temple, Olivia Bennett and Zola Saadi-Klein. All three of these composers will all be sharing a world premiere of their respective pieces on Thursday, along with Irish fiddler and composer Liz Carrol.
To get a better understanding of being a young composer, I spoke with Alex Temple about what brought her here.
What music/sounds got you excited when you were a little kid?
I was very into songs from Disney movies, especially patter songs like “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid and “Friend Like Me” by Aladdin. When The Nightmare Before Christmas came out I watched it endlessly, and also bought the soundtrack on cassette. I even tried to get my dad to transcribe “Making Christmas,” not realizing how difficult that task was!
What inspired you to get into creating your own music?
When I was young my family used to travel by doing house exchanges. One time, when I was 11, we ended up at this ridiculous marble-floored mansion in Padua. It also had a collection of classical CDs, and there were a handful of pieces I ended up listening to practically on repeat. One day I asked for some music paper, and I just never stopped composing after that.
How vital is the Luna Composition Lab for upcoming composers?
I’m so glad I was able to work with Luna Lab. Especially now, in this time of rising sexism and transphobia, young women and nonbinary composers need all the support they can get. They’ve had a fantastic collection of mentors over the years, including Angélica Negrón, Mari Esabel Valverde, Inti Figgis-Vizueta and Valerie Coleman — all composers doing great work in wildly different styles.
Tell us about your composition “7×7×7”, how did you get inspired, how did it develop?
My initial idea was: what if we heard the same chord over and over again, but the color of it kept changing because each note was always played by a different instrument? That turned into the very beginning of the piece, where the seven instruments play a seven-note chord seven times, but they keep switching places. For example, there’s a C that’s played first by the cello, then by the clarinet, then by the piano, and so on. The whole piece ended up growing from that seed, but it explores all sorts of different moods and textures along the way.
What are you excited about right now, in terms of music, film, book, art, food, etc?
I’ve been reading a lot of gothic literature lately. Earlier this year I read Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” and “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”; more recently I read Rivers Solomon’s “Model Home“ and Katherine Packert Burke’s “All Us Saints“, two modern gothics that are both by trans authors. The genre as a whole has me thinking about how beautiful excess can be, in contrast to the frequently cited ideas of “less is more” and “never use two words when one will do.”
Anything people should know about your work?
I like to say that I’m interested in narrative, surrealism, postmodernism, polystylism, queerness, shininess, cheesiness and major seventh chords. Naturally, any given piece will focus more on some of those than others. In the case of 7×7×7, with its vibraphone and electric guitar, shininess is at the top of the list.
