{"id":37945,"date":"2016-08-08T11:14:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T15:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37945"},"modified":"2016-08-08T13:37:36","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T17:37:36","slug":"five-minutes-monica-pearce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/08\/08\/five-minutes-monica-pearce\/","title":{"rendered":"FIVE MINUTES | With A Very, Very Busy Monica Pearce"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Monica
Monica Pearce (Photo: Terry Lim)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a composer and arts administrator, Monica Pearce<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s accomplishments often match the success of composers twice her age. Along with her composition schedule, Pearce is also executive director of the Music Gallery<\/a>, an eclectic downtown music venue, as well as artistic director for the Toy Piano Composers<\/a>, a collective of composers and musicians that Pearce founded with Christopher Thornborrow and Elisha Denburg while still in graduate school.<\/p>\n

Compositionally and artistically, Pearce\u2019s music is defined by subtle innovation and often diverts expectations through methods that are more quirky than confrontational: composing chamber music for toy piano, tabla, and bicycle bells, or writing pocket operas for a wandering troupe of bicyclists<\/a>, to name a few projects. Pearce\u2019s responses to our questions show that writing music can feel like solving riddles or fixing problems, with the best solutions often being unconventional or slow-growing.<\/p>\n

\"MPearce\"<\/p>\n

\n

Playlist<\/h3>\n

April<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 short opera performed by the Bicycle Opera Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

damask<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0toy piano and tabla – performed by Xenia Pestova\/Shawn Mativetsky<\/p>\n

Leda Songs<\/a>\u00a0\u2014<\/strong>\u00a0mezzo, clarinet, violin, viola, cello – Talisker Players with Andrea Ludwig<\/p>\n

#1.\u00a0How do you write your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really love sitting with ideas for a little while. Turning them around in my mind like a riddle, exploring possibilities, discovering which challenges I want to tackle. I am often inspired while travelling, and I will usually write long notes about an idea, and come back to it, sometimes much later. Sometimes the ideas hibernate for years because I am not ready for them yet – for instance, I had an idea for a piece with cell phones, music box and electronics back in 2006. I had completely forgotten about it, but then it resurfaced, and I finally wrote in 2014.<\/p>\n

After the initial idea, there’s usually a long period of incubation \u2014 often this is where I explore a dozen approaches to the concept and either expand on them or crumple them up and throw them in the proverbial wastebasket. But once I start working on the piece, I like to work fast and keep the musical material fresh in my mind. It’s important for me to have that time to incubate because the material quickly takes on a life of its own (especially when text is involved) and I need to make sure I know what I want.<\/p>\n

#2.\u00a0When do you write your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My other hat is in arts administration (currently ED of The Music Gallery), so I balance my composing with a 9-5 desk job. I have to be extremely organised with my creative time because of this, and the conditions that I need to compose. I have to actually schedule my creative work into my calendar and protect it from outside forces which can be tricky!<\/p>\n

I primarily write on Saturdays and Sundays \u2014 sleep in late, have a huge coffee or two, and get to work at the piano. I break mid-afternoon and either go for a run or a walk. I usually do a second round of composing in the early evening. I sometimes do sessions after work on weekdays, but\u00a0usually, they are reserved for stuff requiring less stamina like parts or formatting, or program notes.<\/p>\n

#3.\u00a0In classical music,\u00a0there is the concept of a “canon” of music, which is\u00a0used by classical music establishments\u00a0to monitor repertoire and assign a\u00a0qualitative value to works. How valuable is this “classical canon” to you as a contemporary composer? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The concept of a “canon” feels a bit foreign\/jarring to me \u2014 I don’t particularly relate to it as a composer. Especially because where I am coming from \u2014 or other composers I look up to \u2014 neither are really currently represented in any classical canon, that I know of.\u00a0 For the concept of a “canon” to be useful, it would have to evolve quite a bit from where it is now. But I do ardently believe that a living history of composition is continuing being constructed all around us, and I am especially inspired by the educators I know (Jason Doell, Emilie Lebel, Zorana Sadiq, etc.) who are working to broaden the conversation.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both an arts administrator and a composer, Monica Pearce explains how she manages to find a balance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,18,6259,29],"tags":[6275,2260,6261],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/08\/IMG_0886.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9S1","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37945"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37959,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37945\/revisions\/37959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37945"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}