Lunar Module with Caleb Palka - Part 1

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 146: Lunar Module with Caleb Palka - 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 Caleb Palka, who we spoke to in June 2024. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more, check out his music here: https://lunacompositionlab.org/people/caleb-palka/.

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/16799470

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

Check out Ensemble for These Times' upcoming concert 'Women in Transit' on April 4, a collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music TAC Department, featuring a multimedia program that explores women's migration and identity. For more information, go to www.E4TT.org.

Chapters

• 0:41 In this week's Lunar Module episode, we are joined by E4TT Luna Composition Lab, commissioned composer Caleb Palka who we spoke to in June 2024.
• 1:09 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? Tell us about Caleb.
• 3:42 What's important to you in music, what's on your mind right now, as a composer or musician?
• 4:26 What does being a composer mean to you and what draws you to that? Or is it the same as what you just said?
• 6:02 Are there other aspects of music that interest you?

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 Caleb Palka [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] who we spoke to in June 2024.

Nanette McGuinness  00:33

Thank you so much for doing this interview with us, and congratulations on being chosen in the call for scores to write a piece for us.

Caleb Palka  00:43

Thank you so much, and thank you for having me.

Nanette McGuinness  00:46

Our pleasure, looking forward to your piece, actually. So first, 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? Tell us about Caleb.

Caleb Palka  01:00

Um, yes. So I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and I started playing violin when I was five. Did Suzuki violin lessons, and I also, like, took some fiddle lessons and joined, like, Youth Orchestra, played in a lot of, like, string quartets, chamber music, that kind of stuff. And later in like high school or so, I started Viola as well, but I really got into composition originally through, like my fiddle teacher, who taught me a lot of playing by ear, learning how to harmonize. She was the one who taught me how to use Sibelius notation software for the first time. And then I started taking composition lessons with Kenji Bunch, and I started like participating in young composers program called the Young Composers Project that is run by Fear No Music, which is a new music group in Portland. And that was really the first time that I was writing for like an ensemble of people that were playing my music. And that was really fun. And around the same time, I also started studying with Ryan Francis as well, and it was through, like the Young Composers Project that I like developed music to be able to apply for Luna Lab. And when I joined Lunar Lab, it was a lot of fun studying through Luna Lab.

Nanette McGuinness  02:42

That's great. That's great. And where are you now? Are you still in Oregon?

Caleb Palka  02:48

No, I'm actually, I call the Adirondacks my home. Now, my mom moved to Adirondacks when I started college, and so now we live on a very small town called Wanakena, and I'm here for the summer. I'm going to college at USC Thornton in Los Angeles, but...

Nanette McGuinness  03:10

Got it.

Caleb Palka  03:10

...I'm back here sort of taking in the nature.

Nanette McGuinness  03:14

Yeah, the Adirondacks, they're gorgeous, yeah. So you are a... you're a bi coastal human.

Caleb Palka  03:20

yes [laughs]

Nanette McGuinness  03:22

Wonderful. What's important to you in music, what's on your mind right now, as a composer or musician?

Caleb Palka  03:33

I like using music to, like tell stories and like draw attention to things that matter to me, like such as environmental issues as well as I like the way that music can connect people, kind of like the way it can take us outside of ourselves and connect us to something larger. And I think that like music is can be very profound as a way to like express things beyond words and help us see each other on a kind of deeper level than we might see each other otherwise.

Nanette McGuinness  04:05

Very nice. What does being a composer mean to you and what draws you to that? Or is it the same as what you just said?

Caleb Palka  04:14

I think it's very similar. I've enjoyed writing as well as composing for a long time, and I see them both as like very intertwined kinds of forms of expression, ways of interacting with the world and noticing small details and then sort of shaping these things into music, into words, and as a way of creating something that makes me more aware of everything I encounter in my daily life, I guess, sort of sort of mindfulness, like I find when I go on a walk in the woods I'm listening to, like, all the different types of bird calls. And like, what's the musical shape of the phrase of that bird call? And, you know, listening to the wind in the trees or like the dry leaves crunching under my foot, it just sort of shapes how I experience the world.

Nanette McGuinness  05:13

mmhmm... If music can be described as sound in time, then any sound is fair game, and you're experiencing music in all of its aspects as you walk through life.

Caleb Palka  05:25

Yes, definitely, definitely.

Nanette McGuinness  05:30

Cool. And are you majoring in music, or are you double majoring?

Caleb Palka  05:35

I'm majoring in music composition right now. Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  05:40

Good choice. [laughs] Are there other aspects of music that interest you?

Caleb Palka  05:48

Well, I really like writing for voice because I'm so fascinated with words, and I love the way that you can bring together words and music through writing for voice. But I also really like working with electronics, and particularly like composing at my synth. Or also like doing field recordings. I've started doing field recordings over the summer, recording, especially bird song, and finding ways to bring that into my music as another way of interacting with the sort of music that I hear around me in nature. I think those are some things that I really love about music. I've also started learning acoustic guitar this past year, which has been fun, bringing in a different approach to music through like songwriting on the guitar has been an interesting journey.

Nanette McGuinness  06:48

Yeah. Acoustic guitar, as in classical or more kind of singer-songwriter, pop, more...

Caleb Palka  06:57

More singer-songwriter. Yeah.

Nanette McGuinness  07:00

No, that's fun. I did that in high school. It's really wonderful.

Caleb Palka  07:03

Oh, nice.

Nanette McGuinness  07:04

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