Lunar Module with Isabelle Tseng - Part 1

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 140: Lunar Module with Isabelle Tseng - Part 1

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 continue our Lunar Module, a mini-series with the E4TT/ Luna Composition Lab Call for Scores winners and commissioned composers. Today we are joined by Isabelle Tseng, who we spoke to in May 2024. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more, check out her music here: https://isabelleztseng.com/.

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),  in SF, CA on January 29, 2022
Outro music: “Lake Turkana” by Marcus Norris, performed by E4TT (Margaret Halbig, piano), in SF, CA on October 15, 2021

Transcription courtesy of Otter.ai.
Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1903729/episodes/16550129

Producer, Host, and E4TT co-founder: Nanette McGuinness
Co-producer and Audio Engineer: Stephanie M. Neumann
Podcast Cover Art: Brennan Stokes
Interns: Renata Volchinskaya, Sam Mason, Addy Geenen, Yoyo Hung-Yu Lin

Don't miss America pianist extraordinaire Dale Tsang when she performs a piano recital featuring 11 works chosen in E4TT's latest call for scores. She'll play not one but two performances online and on both sides of the Bay, in Berkeley on Feb. 22 and in San Francisco on Mar. 2.

Chapters

• 0:43 In this week's Lunar Module episode, we are joined by E4TT Luna Composition Lab, commissioned composer Isabelle Tseng who we spoke to in May 2024.
• 0:58 Please tell me about yourself: Who you are, where you grew up, your background in music, where you're going next, what's important to you... Give our listeners a picture of who you are.
• 5:19 You say that her (Veronika) way of teaching was more abstract, and I'm really curious if you can either define or give us an example so that we can see what you mean.
• 7:48 What does being a composer mean to you and what draws you to it? You've addressed it a little bit, but let's focus more in that direction.

Transcript

Nanette McGuinness  00:00

[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 Lunar Module episode, we are joined by E4TT Luna Composition Lab, commissioned composer Isabelle Tseng [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] who we spoke to in May 2024.

Nanette McGuinness  00:33

Thank you for agreeing to do this.

Isabelle Tseng  00:35

Of course, of course.

Nanette McGuinness  00:36

Please tell me about yourself: Who you are, where you grew up, your background in music, where you're going next, what's important to you... Give our listeners a picture of who you are.

Isabelle Tseng  00:46

Okay, so my name is Isabelle. I'm currently 19 years old. I just turned 19 in May.

Nanette McGuinness  00:54

Happy Birthday!

Isabelle Tseng  00:54

Yes, thank you. I'm currently a rising sophomore at Princeton University, and I'm studying kind of a combination of Math and Economics I'm yet to discover, but kind of musically who I am, I think I started off as a violinist, and I played a lot of chamber music. Was in the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra, did a lot of like, kind of, like solo competitions and stuff like that. And then at some point, I, like, went to Tanglewood, like Boston University, Tanglewood Institute, and I was like, talking to a lot of my friends, and I got really inspired. And I met my composition teacher, Mr. Thomas Weaver, and we talked a bit, and I started learning music theory from him, and I got really interested. And after a while, I started learning composition from him, and I was like, wow, this is a whole new world. Because I think at some point I learned that my way in looking at the music was very performant, spaced. So as a violinist, I would look at music and go like, Oh, this is what I play. This is what the composer meant. Not what do I want to happen in this music, necessarily. And I kind of looked at each composition that I was playing as kind of a like a set of general instructions to base my performance off of, but it was generally set. But then, when I started composing, I realized that, like, the world is my oyster...

Nanette McGuinness  00:57

[laughs]

Isabelle Tseng  01:03

...and I found it an entirely like different type of art form, and I found it really, really amazing. Because, in a way, I was like, Wow, if I don't like a passage, it could completely be different. Or, like, if I just want a little bit of this, I can completely create it with, like, a lot of different things that I learned from, like a toolbox that my mentor like helps me learn, or I like acquire through my previous experiences. So I found that really, really inspiring. And then in 12th grade, one of my friends was like, You should have played Luna Composition Lab. And I did that. And then I've never regretted it was an amazing experience... I worked with Veronika Krausas, and then she was impeccable. She was really amazing. Always had like crazy ideas. And when I was working with her, I feel like I was always kind of struck by kind of how different each mentor, like gave me insights on.

Nanette McGuinness  04:45

mmhmm

Isabelle Tseng  04:46

...because I feel like even though both of my comp teachers at the time had like, come from kind of a conservatory background, like her approach to teaching was a lot more abstract, and it was actually really, really interesting. But then I was like, wow. Like, this is very interesting. So I started talking to my other teachers about my compositions, so, like, my performance teachers, and I realized that kind of, like, everybody has, like, a completely, like even non composers, like especially non composers, I think have, like, a lot more like colorful lens to music. And I started, like, kind of viewing music as a lot more, not just like a sound basing, but a lot more of like a story based thing, because I feel like it's like everybody has their own way of expression, and talking to different people about their expressions, I got a lot more inspiration in that way. So I think now, at the current moment, my music, like kind of stems a lot off of like stories and kind of like little quirks in life that I find really interesting. So for listeners out there, I do think that that's a highlight of my work, in a way.

Nanette McGuinness  04:49

Very interesting. Yeah, we actually have worked with a number of the mentors, but not all of them. And I've heard wonderful things about Veronika, but she's not one we worked with, so, we'll have to reach out to her at some point. You say that her way of teaching was more abstract, and I'm really curious if you can either define or give us an example so that we can see what you mean.

Isabelle Tseng  05:11

Yeah, let me think... so she actually, I feel like the way she guides me is a bit like very picture driven. So let's say I want a vibe of... I wrote my Luna Lab composition, like main composition about a bumbershoot, which is kind of a cross between umbrella and parachute. It's an actual word, but the idea is a lot of rain, right? And then she was like, explaining to me when rain starts, like, it doesn't just go shhh [quick rain sound] because I think in a way, I was like, as a Floridian, my concept of rain...

Nanette McGuinness  05:51

[laughs] I know, I know... and the rain goes wooshhh [quick rain sound].

Isabelle Tseng  05:53

...yeah, it's just all there. But then I feel like the way in which she described that rain starts, like, trickling down and like, slowly, like, starts expanding, and then, like, the entire rainstorm idea, it's a little bit more picturesque, I think. And then a lot of the analogies that she brought in, like, oh, think about like, how. Let me think of another example. She'd give me a lot of like, pictures to think about.

Nanette McGuinness  06:24

Understood, yeah.

Isabelle Tseng  06:24

It came out. It felt like, almost like cinematic when I was talking to her about a lot of like topics and subjects. So I think that's like, where the abstract comes from.

Nanette McGuinness  06:33

I get it.

Isabelle Tseng  06:33

Well it's kind of abstract... I feel like modern music, so sometimes can...

Nanette McGuinness  06:37

[laughs]

Isabelle Tseng  06:37

I think it's like, yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  06:39

Yeah, working with pictures and images and themes, instead of looking at your piece and saying, "Well, this should go to the dominant instead of the tonic."

Isabelle Tseng  06:46

Yeah, yeah [laughing].

Nanette McGuinness  06:47

Not that people talk in those terms, but... or, you know, "This should be an A instead of a B" or something like that. No, that makes sense. I mean, yeah, I grew up in Houston...

Isabelle Tseng  06:55

[laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  06:56

So, a tropical storm starts very differently from like New England, where it gently, you know... anyway [laughs] and I was remiss by not starting out by congratulating you for being picked in our call for scores. All of the Luna Composition Lab emerging composers we're working with and interviewing are ones who were chosen in our call for scores. So, congratulations.

Isabelle Tseng  07:22

Thank you so much for working with my score.

Nanette McGuinness  07:23

Yeah, thank you for submitting and we loved your piece. What does being a composer mean to you and what draws you to it? You've addressed it a little bit, but let's focus more in that direction.

Isabelle Tseng  07:36

Mmhmm. I think, in a way, being a composer is a little bit more like finding exactly what... okay, in one way, I think it's like a form of self expression, and it's kind of like, What do I?... like let's say I have a piece about, like, a certain like, walk in the woods I once had that I feel like it's about my story at that time, and kind of how I want to convey that. And I feel like that, although that sounds like simple a lot of times I'm sitting in front of the computer going, like, these are just notes. Like, these are just notes...

Nanette McGuinness  08:16

[laughs]

Isabelle Tseng  08:16

...somebody arbitrarily plays, and at some point they come together to make a mood. And I feel like it's kind of a slow exploration to kind of my own musical language. So how do I make this sound uniquely because, yeah, sometimes we hear like a movie, and then maybe we have an impression of what like Shark Attack should sound like. [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  08:36

[laughs] Yeah, that will never be the same, since Jaws, you're right.

Isabelle Tseng  08:41

Yeah [laughing] But like, honestly, I feel each composer has their own musical language...

Nanette McGuinness  08:47

Yeah.

Isabelle Tseng  08:47

...in a certain way. Like I was really inspired by like, George Crumb at some point I really, really love George Crumb...

Nanette McGuinness  08:53

Yeah.

Isabelle Tseng  08:53

...and I feel like hearing his music, like the colors are, like...

Nanette McGuinness  08:58

Strong.

Isabelle Tseng  08:59

Very, very strong, yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  09:01

They're vivid, yeah.

Isabelle Tseng  09:02

Yeah, very vivid. And I think like that is something I aspire to do. So composition for me has largely been at the moment, like, kind of finding my musical language, one and two, finding what I want to express with my music, and effectively, like utilizing my musical language too...

Nanette McGuinness  09:20

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure, and a special thank you to our guest, Isabelle Tseng 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, or 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 design by Brennan Stokes, with special thanks to co-producer and audio engineer Stephanie M. Neumann. Remember to keep supporting equity in the arts and tune in next week "for good measure." [OUTRO MUSIC ENDS]