For Good Measure

Angélica Negrón - Part 2

October 17, 2022 Angélica Negrón Episode 20
For Good Measure
Angélica Negrón - Part 2
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For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 20: Angélica Negrón (part 2)

Looking for a way to listen to diverse creators and to support equity in the arts? Tune in weekly to For Good Measure!

In this week’s episode, we talk to Angélica Negrón about her process composing one of her earliest pieces, “Sueño Recurrente” (performed by E4TT in January 2022), and her experience as an artist of color. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Angélica Negrón, check her out here: www.angelicanegron.com. Parts of this episode originally premiered on November 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

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Nanette McGuinness:

[INTRO MUSIC] Welcome to For Good Measure, an interview series celebrating diverse composers and other creative artists sponsored by 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 by Angélica Negrón, who we spoke to in November 2021. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] E4TT is concert on January 29 2022, includes your wonderfully melancholy "Sueño Recurrente." And can you tell us about the piece and what inspired you to write it?

Angélica Negrón:

"Sueño Recurrente" is a piece that I wrote a long time ago, it's, if not my first, my second piece that I ever wrote. It's very influenced by sati. I'm a huge fan. And Sati was one of those composers that really inspired me this kind of very, very unapologetic simplicity, while at the same time having a sense of irreverence, and at the same time being incredibly meaningful. Just I don't know how he does it. But But yeah, so I know that wouldn't is very much inspired by by SETI and, and also by Recurrent Dreams I was having at that time, I kept dreaming about these cars that were flying. And I think of them as ghosts, cars. I didn't, I really don't know what, what that means. But just this thing that keeps coming back in your dreams, and then you try to make some sense of it. But maybe that's not the that's not what it wants, it just exists. And it's an image that stays with you.

Nanette McGuinness:

You've said, artists of color have been ready for a long time for the conversation to get past justifying why we deserve a seat at the table. Now a lot of the conversations are at a deeper level when we're lucky. And we get to have conversations about how structurally we can also be involved so that the change really starts happening. That's exciting. Can you talk more about this?

Angélica Negrón:

I think I'm looking forward to the conversation moving forward in a way that is more connected to sustainability and support, and community. And especially now thinking about a lot of artists of color, getting more commissions and more performances and more works, because since last year is racial uprising, there's been a an obvious shift in the programming, especially in major organizations, like orchestras and realizing that, that we exist, and we're here and and we have things to say. So I think I'm I'm interested in when that happens in a way that is not a natural progression. Or it's not something that has been at a pace that feels normal, it just feels like all of a sudden for some organizations, I'm I'm interested in the conversations that we need to have about how can we make that sustainable and how we can best support artists to make the art they want to make not commissioned them to write about their trauma, not have commissioned them to write something about being an artist of color, having this openness that we have for other artists be the same for for us. And and I also want to talk more with colleagues about how do we make sure that once we're invited in places that have historically been excluding us, how we can make sure that we're treated with respect and and then we can also find ways to invite other folks that haven't been invited in those spaces.

Nanette McGuinness:

Does it feel important to have teachers mentors and role models who share your background and heritage?

Angélica Negrón:

I think it's really important that faculties and universities conservatories and summer camps and programs, administration and organization So, I think it's really important that all of those look like the world we live in, and that they reflect all the different perspectives and the different backgrounds of people. That's unfortunately, not the case. And we are mostly in a white male dominated culture. And so there's that, that lack of balance, and can have a lot of consequences for students and young artists, when they enter into the spaces. And I think it's really important to have role models and teachers that, that share our background and heritage at the same time, that is a small part of who we are as an artists. For some people, it's bigger for some people is smaller, but it is not the totality of who we are as artists and as human. So I think it's important to have the option. But at the same time, it's, for me at least even more important to consider the multiplicity of identity and that there are many interests that that people have, and that there are other other factors that come into play when you when you are looking for a role model or when you're looking for, for a mentor or a teacher, and that your heritage is is an important part of that makeup, but it's just an element from that totality. And then finally, if I have any advice to give to aspiring artists, or current artists, and these times or in general, I would say make the work that you want to make. I know it sounds very simple, but for a long time I struggled with that. I was not making work that I wanted to listen to. I was making music that I the music that I thought other people wanted me to make. And I don't mean audiences I mean mostly, and in school just overthinking means music that would be interesting to talk about or that I could talk about the different operations I did to a certain group of nodes or a scalar, or the chord progression I used are the those things are obviously great technical resources and are also things that are really important for for some composers, but not for everyone. I feel like finding the thing that feels right for you, the thing you're most excited about, and then pursuing that and trying your best to let go of all the voices that tell you otherwise. And never forget to have fun.

Nanette McGuinness:

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Angélica Negrón 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]

E4TT’s concert on January 29, 2022 includes your wonderfully melancholy “Sueno Recurrente.” Can you tell us about the piece and what inspired you write it?
You’ve said: “...artists of color have been ready for a long time for the conversation to get past justifying why we deserve a seat at the table… Now a lot of the conversations are at a deeper level, when we’re lucky, and we get to have the conversation..
Does it feel important to have teachers, mentors, and role models who share your background and heritage?