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A conversation with eighth blackbird's flutist, Tim Munro, before the sextet's appearance with the Akron Symphony on January 15
by Mike Telin
The new music sextet eighth blackbird was formed at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1996, where its players started out as members of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble under the mentorship of Tim Weiss. Flutist Tim Munro, also an Oberlin alum, joined original members Michael J. Maccaferri (clarinets), Matt Albert (violin & viola), Nicholas Photinos (cello), Matthew Duvall (percussion) and Lisa Kaplan (piano) a bit later in the game. The group joins the Akron Symphony on Saturday, January 15 at 8 in E.J. Thomas Hall for the Akron premier of Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire. We spoke with Tim Munro by telephone to talk about the commissioning project.Tim Munro: It’s sort of a year long run. We premiered the piece in June with the Atlanta Symphony. We did it four times there, and we also recorded it. So that sort of got us off to a running start because it really gave the piece a solid foundation, because we were able to really get to know it, and therefore, the two performances since then have been very comfy, and have been a lot of fun.
Since the Atlanta performances, we did the piece at the Cabrillo Festival with Marin Alsop in August, and we most recently performed it with the Vermont Symphony in December. It has been fascinating for me because I am the newest member of the ensemble, I joined four years ago, but the rest of the ensemble has performed a concerto in the past. But this is my first experience and it is fascinating to hear the differences in the way the conductors and orchestras approach the work, and bring out different things. For instance in Atlanta, Robert Spano and the orchestra got real radiant warmth in the slow music, it really bloomed. Whereas in Cabrillo, Marin Alsop insisted that the orchestra play right on her down beat, and consequently that performance had a real edge to it, which was lovely. Principal guest conductor Anthony Princiotti conducted the Vermont performance, and he gave us a lot of rehearsal time, and he and the orchestra really seemed to be enjoying themselves doing new music. It was interesting to me that the Sibelius 2nd symphony got less rehearsal time, which is so unusual, because most of the time the concerto gets about a half of a rehearsal, then you perform it. So it has been fascinating.
MT: I have read all of the reviews of the performances and everyone began by talking about the bowed piano.
TM: I have to say that what I loved about the way that Jennifer has used the bowed piano is that it is so integrated. But we do hear audible murmurs from the audience as we begin the piece, because symphony audiences have not heard many pieces that begin by six people playing the insides of a piano. But as I said, she has integrated it so well, and really uses it to transition between lots of different material. And I would say that on a whole, one of the hallmarks of this piece is the way she has deftly wound all of these different elements together. Writing a concerto for sextet and orchestra is not an easy task. But one of the things that I think is amazing is how well she has given all six of us a solo. There are sections were we play off against the orchestra, and there are sections where we are one unit without the orchestra, yet it never feels like she is ticking that box, and no she’s ticking that box. To me, it feels like a unified whole. It is also in one movement.
MT: Regarding everybody having their own solo, and I have not had a chance to talk to Jennifer, but I am wondering if she approached this like the Nielsen Quintet where everybody has a variation that was based on the players’ personalities?
TM: That’s interesting. She has known the ensemble since 2003 or 2002. She wrote a piece for the group called Zaka and one called Zango Bandango. I’d say that we have played Zaka almost one hundred times. It’s a big, fun romp, with a beautiful radiant slow section. So she has gotten to know all of the musical personalities in the group. You know she is a flute player, and I feel like the flute section is not so much about me, but what she would want a flute concerto to sound like. So it is sort of dizzyingly virtuosic. It screams up to the highest note and then flies along, but in typical Jennifer fashion, it is beautifully written for the flute. But it’s interesting, because Michael the clarinetist has sort of a glint in his eye, and sort of an impish side to him, and his solo certainly has that. Matthew is a very dramatic player, and he uses his instrument in way that he creates a piece of theatre as well as a piece of music. But his solo is very subdued. It’s just about marimba rolls. Very slow waves of sound. So I think that in some ways she has played our strengths, but she has also contrasted. It’s interesting; I have not been asked that question before. I like the Nielsen reference, because I do remember reading about that years ago.
Another lovely thing about touring a concerto is seeing what orchestras pair the concerto with on the program, and the Akron Symphony has really come up with a well unified and interestingly put together program. I mean how nice — not only did they take a concerto and have the rest of the program revolve around it, but to do that with a brand new piece and to have the confidence to do it — because a new piece could turn out to be a dud. And to have the new piece be the weight to hold the program together is filled with all sorts of dangers. But this looks like a fantastic program and I actually can’t wait to sit in the audience to hear it, but the problem is that I think we are last on the program. Although now, playing this concerto does not really stress me out any more, so I think I’ll be able to be in the audience for most of the program.
MT: Yes they really have taken the whole bird theme and run with it.
TM: Yes and sometimes that can become tiresome for us, because we get so many reviews that have the title “eighth blackbird soars” or “eighth blackbird takes wings”. At least none of them have ever said “eighth blackbird dive bombs audience”. Although the wings thing is actually part of this piece, because Jennifer has written a figure alternating between notes, a forth or fifth apart, so quite wide intervals, which for her is the musical equivalent of flapping wings. This is not idiomatic on any of the instruments except the piano. It is actually incredibly hard on most of the other instruments. But there is something about the effort of doing that that gives it sort of a birdlike quality that she has woven into the piece.
MT: I was reading the group’s bio on your website, and at the very beginning it says that eighth blackbird “delivers mind changing performances to its burgeoning audiences. Combining bracing virtuosity with an alluring sense of irreverence.” So, what do you do to deliver that alluring sense of irreverence?
TM: (laughing) Wow, I am sure that was written by our publicist, although we do approve everything. But, we like to laugh a lot. Actually that is a funny thing because I only realized this recently, but when I go on stage I usually try and tell myself a joke or something, so that I look like I am really looking forward to getting to my stand, which I always am of course. Also, we all walk with a genuine sense of purpose when we go on stage. There is a sense that a lot of classical music is performed with a slumping in chairs, and concentration only on the music. This of course is always an advantage to the music, but it is not always to the advantage to the audience. And we definitely like to take the audience into consideration, not only when we are planning our program, but also when we are trying to work out how we perform the program, and part of that is trying to change in subtle ways the aesthetic of going to a classical performance. We do talk between pieces when we are performing acoustic touring programs. We try to make them amusing and anecdotal. Welcoming the audience into the music rather then trying to scare them away. Now obviously people who give very intellectual introductions have very good reasons for doing that, it’s just that we don’t want to tell people what they should listen to — or what they should be listening for, I should say.
One of the things that you will see in On a Wire is an element of theatricality in the way that the group approaches its performances. Because of the cluster on stage we don’t do very much, but going to and coming back from the piano frees us up physically, and allows us to move around the stage in the way that we are used to doing. But really the reason that we do this is that we try to add theatrical elements in order to bring out the musical relationships that are in the music that may not be audible on a first listen. So we basically give the audience a first listen, and go right on to a second listen. To be able to see that dramatic interplay between the flute and the violin for example. Or the love song between the cello and the percussion. Those sorts of things. We want to invite people into that world as well. I’m so sorry this was such a very long answer.
MT: What do you try to get across to young players when you are coaching them? I heard your performance of the Reich Double Sextet a couple of years ago with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, and it was amazing.
TM: Well an important part of our work is legacy work, and one of the things we really want to give to students who are the next generation of performers, as well as to listeners, is that things can be at a very high level. Even where a lot of times things are not well prepared, and not well put together — but that is because they are students and they have not yet figured out how to be efficient in rehearsals — but things can still be at a high professional level. Actually in the Double Sextet performance, that is exactly why we don’t stand as one sextet and the students stand as another. This way there is no adversarial thing, and we are sort of interweaved among the players. This way we can really bring them with us.
When we go to a university, we make sure that we inform them well in advance of exactly what we expect out of their preparation — things like part preparation and also that they have rehearsed in advance. Because when we, eighth blackbird, walk into a first rehearsal, our parts sort of look like road maps sometimes, because we all have a score and mark up our parts, and we make sure that the students have the same experience. We also demand for a lot of rehearsal time, because that’s oftentimes not as much of a given at the university level as it is for us. It’s not always assumed in the professional world either. But for eighth blackbird, a very important part of what we do is to have adequate rehearsal time so that we can treat chamber music in general with the seriousness that it deserves. We try to create an eighth blackbird laboratory. We don’t treat the students as if they are different, we try to encourage them to lead the rehearsals as much as we do. Sometimes that is not possible at every point, but we try to guide them so that they can have a voice and they’re not just sitting there with us telling them “OK we’re going to start at I again and the e-flat was sharp.” We don’t want to do that; we want to teach them by rehearsing and performing, and how they can take command of that in their own musical lives.
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