Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Darian Donovan Thomas and Nina Shekhar

For Good Measure, by Ensemble for These Times (E4TT)
Episode 175: Da Capo Conversations 2.0 with Darian Donovan Thomas and Nina Shekhar

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

Today we revisit Darian Donovan Thomas' and Nina Shekhar's perspectives on their musical journey and background. If you enjoyed today’s conversation and want to know more about Darian Donovan Thomas and Nina Shekhar, check them out here and here. Parts of this episode originally premiered in December 2021, click here and in December 2023, 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.

Co-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, Yoyo Hung-Yu Lin

Chapters

• 0:31 Today we revisit Darian Donovan Thomas' and Nina Shekhar's perspectives on their musical journey and background. Here's what Darian Donovan Thomas had to say.
• 4:54 Here's what Nina Shekhar had to say.

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 episode, we continue our Da Capo Conversations, a mini series where we'll be giving familiar segments a topical twist. [INTRO MUSIC ENDS] Today we revisit Darian Donovan Thomas' and Nina Shekhar's perspectives on their musical journey and background. Here's what Darian Donovan Thomas had to say.

 Darian Donovan Thomas  00:41

Since I was a little kid, there was always music happening in the house. As I said, Before, my parents had a small label, and my dad was a producer, and so I just I remember being in elementary school and hearing my dad mix on like his speaker is right next door to my room, or having nights where I was in a studio probably way too late, but also, like it really prepared me for an artist lifestyle and then having to go to school the next day. So music was kind of just always there, and art was always there, and I knew it would always be something I would do. I tried a couple of different things. I was in choir for a while. I was in a gospel choir for a while. I was in ballet. And then finally, in middle school, there was this weird loophole where, if you, like, took a fine arts elective, you didn't have to take PE and I was like, that's obviously, obviously what I'm going to do. And serendipitously, at the same time, I was watching red violin with my mom, like I had the course card in my hand, and I was like, what, which, which elective is the violin? And she's like, think that's orchestra. I was like, great. And it kind of very serendipitously worked out. And then, I don't know, I just like, once I had an instrument in my hands, I started improvising a lot, and it kind of just never occurred to me, but composing was something I couldn't do because my dad would do it all the time. You know, I was like, oh yeah. You just, like, make a song. You just, that's just the thing you can do. And I started doing it, and I think I got super serious about music sometime in early high school, when I discovered, like, I did a real deep dive on Tchaikovsky, and got really obsessive. And, like, learned all of it. Learned, like, the reasons he wrote a symphony. He's learned about the violin concerto being just as one of the students that he was in love with, learned about Nadezhda von Meck, learned about the patrons, the conspiracy theories about his death, him seeing his mother die of cholera, like how sad that whole circle is. His queerness at that time, and also like him being a part of really creating the Russian sound by basically doing what the new arm people and what Angelica does with, like integrating the pop music of his time, like folk music, into this classical scene, and therefore creating the sound of Russia, right along with the other artists who were doing that at the time. And I was like, oh, yeah, I think I want to be serious about this. Like researching this, being obsessed with this, feels really natural, and so I want to do this. And then later on, as I was getting closer to college auditions and stuff, I realized there was a really brilliant violinist at my high school, Nancy Chou, last name, C, H, O, U, she's amazing. She's still amazing. She's still performing with everyone. But by that time, junior year in high school, she'd already performed with Beijing Symphony Orchestra. She'd already sold with lots of orchestras around the world. Participated in the Sibelius Competition, the Tchaikovsky competition, kind of intense. And I was like, Okay, if that's my competition, I would much rather do composition instead, because I think I'm more willing to fight for composition than for violin. Also, like, I could kind of tell I was, like, if I major in violin, like, I think I might end up hitting the instrument, so I need to not do that to myself, and I think I could handle like people giving me really heavy critique on my writing and not making it better, whereas I think I want to sound more like myself on violin instead. So did that. Got into school, wrote way too much while I was in school, and have kind of continued that, where I still feel like I probably write too much, too busy, but at least now it's balanced out with touring with a lot of bands and stuff like that too.

Nanette McGuinness  04:54

Here's what Nina Shekhar had to say.

Nina Shekhar  04:56

Oh, definitely, it was quite a winding road, I would say, um, you know, when I was a kid, I I grew up playing piano, eventually the flute, like in my school band program, um, and I remember with that, especially, like when I started piano, like, my brother is older than me, he was taking piano lessons, and I would just sit in in the background, kind of an envy, like wanting to also do that. And I eventually, you know, as I started playing piano, I knew that I had this kind of instinct as a composer, like I would write these little pieces at the piano, and I was excited about that. And then I was always very ambitious, so that when I went to middle school and joined our middle school band program, like I wanted, I was like, I'm going to write a piece for concert band. You know, like having this kind of mentality of like, oh, I want to write something too. And, you know, eventually, when I was deciding on college programs, you know, I really didn't think at first that I was going to major in music. I think I thought, like, maybe I would minor. I always thought, you know, my parents had this dream of me going to medical school. Like, I really thought I was going to do some sort of science degree and maybe do a minor in music. Like, I didn't think I was going to actually try to pursue it professionally. And then, I don't know, it's just like, the more I did it, the more I realized that I really loved it and I wanted to, you know, like, actually try, you know, put myself out there and and, you know, study it in college and try to pursue something professionally, or at least make that like, have the chance to make that decision later. And so I ended up doing a double major. I double majored, as you said, in Chemical Engineering and Composition. And it was really a challenge. You know, I to be honest, I would say the engineering major. I mean, I did love I grew to love it, and I do have a wide range of interests, but to be honest, it was to make my parents less afraid. They were so terrified just what would happen financially if I majored in music and I was like, No, you need to have a way to get a job, like engineering, you'll probably get a job. So I did that. It kind of just satisfy them. But then eventually, you know, as I started finding more success as a composer, I think they, they came to terms with it, and thought, Okay, I think she could, she could actually be successful if she wanted to then. And then that's kind of my path, that's and then I eventually, just like, made a decision. I finished both degrees, but then I made a decision that I wanted to really pursue composition as my main profession. And then I kind of put my engineering degree to the side. Haven't really looked back at it, but yeah, but I am grateful I had that experience. Because I really, you know, I think all of these interests that I had, or, you know, these different fields of study that I was exposed to have definitely informed the way I think, you know, as an artist, and you know, just the way I look at the world, I feel like engineers, the way they analyze problems is like so specific and they they understand, like the consequences of actions and in a different way, in A much more like tangible way than maybe artists do, but artists also understand the emotional side of things, so I think seeing both sides of that has kind of definitely informed my practice and my goals as an artist.

Nanette McGuinness  08:52

[OUTRO MUSIC] Thank you for listening to For Good Measure's Da Capo Conversations and a special thank you to our guests 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]