Nicolas Lell Benavides - Part 3

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 18: Nicolas Lell Benavides (part 3)

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In this week’s episode, we’re joined once again/ more by Nicolas Lell Benavides, who talks about his artistic goals and his experience as a composer navigating the pandemic and moving from SF to LA.. Plus, as a special bonus, we meet his adorable dog “Pepito!” If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Nicolas Lell Benavides, check him out here: ww.nickbenavides.com . Parts of this episode originally premiered on Oct 18, 2021, found on Youtube, click here.

This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors, like you. Want to support For Good Measure and E4TT? Make a tax-deductible donation or sign up for our newsletter, and subscribe to the podcast!


Intro music: “Trifolium” by Gabriela Ortiz, performed by E4TT (Ilana Blumberg, violin; Abigail Monroe, cello; Margaret Halbig, piano),  as part of “Below the Surface: Music by Women Composers,” January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), as part of “Alchemy,” October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Roziht Edwards and Merve Tokar

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness: 0:00

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to "For Good Measure," an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists, sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council. I'm Nanette McGuinness, Artistic Executive Director of Ensemble for These Times. In this week's episode, we continue our conversation with Nicolas Lell Benavides, who we spoke to in October 2021. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] What has it been like being a composer during the pandemic? Has it been difficult? Or have you had positive experiences?

Nicolas Lell Benavides: 0:40

I had a lot of things that were scheduled premieres that I was excited about that got canceled, which actually isn't isn't the bad thing. That's okay. I understand. And I agree with that, I think they should have been canceled. It's been really hard to really, I think write pieces that I think embodies felt the pressure to write music that responds to this time. And there's, it's almost like self defeating, right, because you're writing these things that respond, but they take time to do so you're trying to capture in lightning in a bottle in that one moment. But pieces take weeks to write sometimes. And I found myself sort of tripping over myself as the pandemic. And as the new cycle changed, it was really hard to keep the same same flow of thought, going from one moment to the next. I think the things that, you know, it's been tough, but the things that I've really learned are, you know, thinking about how audiences consume our concerts, I was supposed to have a CD release party of my one act opera in the spring. And of course, that couldn't happen. And luckily, we were smart enough to record footage of the recording session. And so that video is now up, we spent a week editing together my wife, who's a rockstar, video editor, and just saying, You know what, like, it doesn't need to be a live performance or anything special. It's just like a video of the recording session with different camera angles will be enjoyable with the full audio quality. And that was a good experience. But of course, very difficult to do. I wrote a piece for guitar, just plug straight in. And with a few effects. I was very intimate. And actually, I think that piece would not have been as successful in a concert hall just because it's fun to see him up close with his hands. Everybody has the same seat in the house. I wrote, I'm writing another few solo and chamber music pieces. I did a piece for two melodic cars that had like these weird video editing things, you know, just pieces that just wouldn't work on stage. I think writing a Sinfonietta right now doesn't really make sense, trying to write electronic music that uses MIDI instruments to sound like an orchestra. It's just, it's just unsatisfying. And I think, you know, I'd love to say that I some people were very productive, that I made an album of electronic stay at home music, but I didn't really, I really just spent a lot of time just trying to play catch up and figure out what people are even doing. And then just plan for the future.

Nanette McGuinness: 3:08

What are your current artistic goals and your vision for yourself?

Nicolas Lell Benavides: 3:11

Right now I just want to survive the end of my doctorate. I actually have some projects that are coming up that I'm really excited about that play into what I want to do. So I think ultimately, you know, My ultimate career goal would be to be a composer who writes full grant operas. I just love the spectacle of it. I love the big stage. I love the audience. I love the full set of the orchestra. I love choreography and costumes. And, you know, I don't I would love to write a symphony, but I don't think deep down, I'm going to be the best sinfulness in the world. I think I resonate with stories. I think I do my best work there. So as a career goal, I would love to eventually get there where I can write full operas. And right now I'm doing a few projects that play into that right now. I'm working on an opera for music of remembrance, which is the same opera company that commissioned a few offers by like Jake Heggie and Jean Shira, Tommy Pulo. They had something recently come out by Saba mini Kia and Mary Kay MGN. So they were really, I think dynamic company. They were founded on remembering the fallout and the really terrible legacy of the Holocaust and making sure we don't repeat those mistakes. And over the past few years, they've pivoted to also start to think about stories of people who are displaced refugees. People who are seeking asylum, for example, just basically people in need who don't have many avenues to go for help. So they commissioned Marella and I to write an opera about the border crisis umbrella, Martin Cook, my librettist and our opera thrusts. minutos is based on a real policy by the border angels built in conjunction with the border angels and the US government, where the US government allows them to open up the border We're at a certain place for a set amount of time. And it's for people who can't cross the border one way or another. Maybe they have a ban on, you know, they can't get a visa. And they're given time to just touch hold hands hug. And it's almost like a fairy tale. They're generally given three minutes per her group of people, which is, in a way generous, but in another way, it's kind of cruel. It's so short. And so our opera focuses on two siblings, one, Born on this side of the border, one born in Mexico, who grew up together and one of them is deported, and they get this chance to meet and the opera is a 45 Minute chamber work about what can you achieve in three minutes? What does it mean, to share blood to share lineage to share parents, and to not share a home or a location, you know, so that I think I'm really excited about that project. And I'm also working on a dance piece for the Glimmerglass festival about Traktor. It's not even about New Mexico. So we'll see how that goes this coming summer as well. I'm really looking forward to that.

Nanette McGuinness: 6:03

As a composer who has been based in both LA and San Francisco, how do you find that the two cities different cultures have contributed to your musical inspiration and experience?

Nicolas Lell Benavides: 6:14

I really don't think I would be who I am. If not for living in San Francisco for you know, what, a decade or so. i There's something about, you know, like, you read about so many artists, like you know, I don't know why I'm trying this example. But like Gertrude Stein going to Paris, you know, there's something about finding yourself in a place that's not you something distilling about it. And I think I don't think I would have appreciated being your Mexican so much, if not for slowly becoming homesick. And I lived in this glorious city that I adored, but it wasn't really home, it was the closest thing I could get aside from New Mexico. And, you know, grappling with what it meant to be me. And then I got a double shot of that when I moved to LA, because suddenly I had no friends circles. I had nothing else and I moved to LA for my doctorate and I just arrived and I was walking the streets a complete stranger, like really just nobody but myself, and LA. I love San Francisco but la in many ways is a much more multicultural city These days. And seeing people just in the street speaking Spanish, you know, and going to markets, interacting with people that felt to be honest, culturally more similar to New Mexico than San Francisco did, was further distilling and refining and further shocked me into place. The opera Pepito is partially based on very loosely based on me and my librettist, the protagonist, Camila, she's someone who grew up in a place that is not known in the opera, but where she speaks Spanish. She's Latina, and you ascertain from the opera that she misses where she's from. She's a little homesick, and she's been like hardcore pursuing her career. She's on the wire in this case, but someone who went to a university got a high education elsewhere. And this dog poquito really sorry, my dogs, actually my literal literal dog's name for pizza, and he keeps coming to the dorm. And I keep saying that. But however, this dog for pizza sort of brings back her her desire to reconnect with that sort of wakes her up and reminds her like, Oh, this is where I come from. No matter how no matter how fancy of a school I go to, I can't take that away, I can't ignore it.

Nanette McGuinness: 8:30

Is there anything else you'd like listeners to know?

Nicolas Lell Benavides: 8:34

are these topics that I'm exploring, not as someone who's a professional in the field. But if you want to explore with me, I have a lot of writings on different blogs. I care if you listen, as hosted an article by me, I've also contributed to Gabrielle Anna Frank's blog about just be in New Mexico and learn how to write that way. So I encourage folks to check that out. And if they want to listen to the opera that I referenced, Pepito, there's a free video on YouTube, that people can listen to with the recording session, I'm conducting the recording. It's short, just 22 minutes. So I'd love for folks to check it out.

Nanette McGuinness: 9:13

And now meet Pepito.

Nicolas Lell Benavides: 9:17

This is my dog, the real life Pepito. Our place in San Francisco didn't allow dogs so we never were able to get a pet. And then when we moved to LA, we moved to a place that allowed dogs intentionally but then we were dragging our feet. To do it with a very we'd have we'd have time whenever and then of course the pandemic hit and we thought well, we'll never get a dog. And we just applied and got rejected and then finally someone responded with this dog. I've always had big dogs and he looks kind of big if you think if you don't see him in context, anything else? He's proportions are right in that way, I guess. We showed up and he was like a third the size of what I thought he was. But he's so friendly that we ended up taking him home and his name was in the show. altar was Petri, which I don't really like that name. But it was close enough to Papeete though, so we decided to go with the name of the opera that I wrote.

Nanette McGuinness: 10:08

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guests, Nicolas Lell Benavides for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast by clicking on the subscribe button and support us by sharing it with your friends, posting about it on social media and leaving us a rating and a review. To learn more about E4TT Our concert season online and in the Bay Area where to make a tax deductible donation, please visit us at www.E4TT.org. This podcast is made possible in part by a grant from the California Arts Council and generous donors like you. "For Good Measure" is produced by Nanette McGuinness and Ensemble for These Times, and designed by Brennan Stokes. With special thanks to audio engineer extraordinaire Stephanie Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]