December 14, 2024 • 24 mins
Luis Ramirez talks his unique take on folklore in music, the role of competitions in the life of a musician, the strengths and challenges of diversity, and much more.
Featured music:
Chido, for symphony orchestra
Leaven, for string quartet
Picante, for symphony orchestra
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Notes of the North Talks, a series where we get to know our local
(00:15):
Canadian musical talent.
Today I'm here with Luis Ramirez.
Thank you so much, Luis, for being here today.
Thank you for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
Let's get started.
So where are you joining us from today, Luis?
Where in Canada do you call home?
Right now I am living in Toronto.
I've been here for six years, starting my seventh year, and I'm currently finishing
(00:41):
my doctorate in music composition at York University.
Awesome.
Is there any place else that holds a special place in your heart?
Yeah, you know, I mean, I am originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico, but I moved to Canada
12 years ago, and when I moved to Canada, I arrived to Brandon, Manitoba, out of nowhere,
(01:04):
and I was invited to do my master's, to do my undergrad, and then I stayed there and
finished my master's in piano and composition.
So I was there for six years, and then I moved to Ontario for six years.
So it's been 12 years in Canada, and I'm happily now a citizen, and I still go back and forth
(01:27):
between here in Mexico and here in Manitoba.
So I would say those three places are sort of my home.
That's beautiful.
Can you tell me about your beginning with music?
What was your first exploration?
Yeah, my path started through piano for most of my life.
(01:49):
I mostly considered myself a pianist because I started since I was six, and my parents
put me in lessons, and I just really enjoyed it.
So I kept going, and I realized that there was all this music that sounded really wonderful.
(02:09):
So I really liked it, so I kept playing, and I never thought of it as a career, but just
something that I really wanted to do in the future.
So unfortunately in Mexico, there was just not really a lot of support for the arts in
general, and I had to find whatever source of information I could back then.
(02:38):
So naturally, that kind of gravitated me towards the internet, and I started finding all this
obscure composers and recordings and sheet music and trying to get as much as I could
from the internet of 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
And I got really into it, and I was really lucky that just as I was turning 18, the first
(03:09):
bachelor of music started in my hometown.
So I was able to join, and I'm like second generation of that undergrad.
And I really loved it, so I entered, and then at some point, me and some other pianist classmates
decided to go to a different state for a master class, where Alexander Salikov was giving
(03:36):
concert and master class, and we joined him, we worked a little bit with him, and he selected
me to come to Canada with him.
So I was invited there.
I didn't know anything about Brandon, I didn't know anything about Maritoba, I knew barely
anything about Canada, but I decided to go for it.
(03:58):
And so when I was 20, I decided to really commit to my musical career, and it was the
best decision I've made.
It really taught me a lot about not just about music, but also looking back to Mexico about
(04:20):
the scene, about my culture, and about the sort of musical aspirations that I wanted for myself.
It opened the path for me to composition.
And yeah, it was a lot of work.
It was really hard, obviously, being an immigrant and not really having any support.
(04:43):
I moved on my own and I struggled with money for many years, but it was a path worth fighting
for.
So I'm really glad I made that decision.
Your strength and resilience is just so admirable.
That's amazing.
So tell me more about this moment, since you describe yourself as primarily a pianist, tell
(05:05):
me about the moment where you realized you wanted to start composing or pursue composition.
What was that moment like?
You know, I think that's a very important moment.
So I'm glad you asked because I think for a lot of musicians, we are just presented
with an automatic path forward, which is bachelor, master's, doctorate in performance, if you're
(05:30):
a performer.
And the path, at least in my discipline of piano, involves entering a bunch of competitions,
entering workshops, festivals, trying to get known, you know, build your name, make some
recordings, send it everywhere, that kind of stuff.
(05:54):
And I was really not happy with the kind of practice or the limited repertoire required
for such things.
I think it was something about that aspect of repeating the repertoire over and over
for a competition or for a performance or for a contest.
(06:17):
Like I really just love playing music.
And I wanted to play whatever I wanted, you know, I didn't want it to depend on like,
what are the entry requirements for this competition, blah, blah, blah.
So at one point I realized that that was not the path that I wanted.
(06:40):
I was basically told by my teacher, you have what it takes to be an international pianist,
but this is what you have to do.
You have to enter competitions, you have to practice this repertoire and perfect it.
And that's when I was like, okay, well, then I'm not going to do it.
Because honestly, I'd rather just play the repertoire that I like.
(07:01):
And that pivot sort of opened another path for me.
And it was also compounded by the fact that I was trying to play a lot more contemporary
music.
So as I started playing more contemporary stuff, I realized that my love was not necessarily
(07:25):
just for piano, but it was for music.
And piano had just been my medium, you know.
So I started to venture into what it would be like to compose my own stuff.
And so when I finished my piano undergrad, I decided to do both a piano masters and a
(07:49):
composition masters at the same time, to just try to get some lessons and try to write some
stuff, you know.
And it really helped that I already love all this orchestral music.
And I had this background of just really being immersed in music in general, not just in
(08:10):
piano.
So classical music always was my niche, but in composition, I found a way to expand that
even more and sort of find myself through the composing.
As musicians, it's so important to find your own way to express yourself and your own unique
(08:32):
voice.
And I'm so glad you were able to do that.
We'll find that.
Thank you.
Especially with the limited repertoire that's already out there, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Fantastic.
So if you could describe your musical style with five words, what would come to mind?
That's a really tough question.
You know, the first I can think of is cinematic.
(08:58):
Because the way I conceive of my music is sort of as if it's a movie playing in my head.
And then I use all these elements from film, these techniques of transitions or lighting
or video effects or composition or shots or camera lenses.
(09:21):
I try to kind of use those parameters in a musical way.
And this just comes from a sort of interest in that part of filmmaking, the whole production
aspect of it.
So I would say that at least for my orchestral pieces, it tends to be starting from this
(09:46):
movie that only exists in my head and then comes out as music.
Another word maybe would be a bit of a simple term, but just colorful.
I really lean strongly towards harmony.
I like listening to harmony in my ears.
(10:09):
I think that's one of my favorite aspects of composing is discovering not just new colors
and harmony, but also new paths, new pathways through a progression.
And some of my most enjoyable parts of composing is just finding a progression that tells a
(10:30):
story by itself.
So I really enjoy the trial and error that is finding a compelling harmonic progression.
I believe you've mentioned your Mexican roots.
Do you ever integrate Mexican folkloric elements into your music?
Yeah, I do.
(10:51):
But it's not usually in the way one would expect.
There was, I think from my own experience, traditionally when people incorporate those
or when they say that they incorporate aspects of Mexican culture or things like that, it
(11:15):
tends to be very traditionalistic, as in music from folkloric sounding backgrounds.
So more traditional roots of music like son jarocho or merengue, salsa, cumbia, those
(11:35):
sort of folkloric elements.
And when I do it, I try to do it more through my own lens of what I deem Mexican culture.
So I might focus on the candy that I ate growing up or the traditions of breaking a piñata
(12:01):
or the streets that I grew up in, the slang that we use.
It's more of an urban approach or as a modern folkloric approach because those kind of elements
(12:21):
resonate a lot more with me, the kind of peculiarities that make Mexico stand out from other countries.
I like to focus on those idiosyncrasies and put the lens on them to bring them afloat
in my compositions as part of a story.
(12:42):
So I would say that another word if you want is storytelling because so much of my music
is very centered around a concept or a story or a narrative.
And that's something I really enjoy, it's giving something to the listener beyond just
(13:02):
the sound so that they can have a grounding, so that they can imagine their own story through
my music but with some kind of baseline to begin with.
That's so fascinating how you described all those folkloric elements.
It's almost like an entire sensory experience or immersion for the listener instead of the
(13:26):
traditional interpretation of these folkloric elements.
Super interesting.
Could you recommend a piece of yours for the first time listener, like an introduction
to your work?
Sure, yeah.
I think precisely within this line of thought, I think one of my favorite pieces to share
with people is my orchestral piece, Chido.
(13:49):
This piece was originally just a piece of homework.
This was my final composition submission in my master's and my professor encouraged me
to apply with it to a competition and then it won that competition so I got invited to
(14:19):
the Composers Institute with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra where they premiered it
in the New Music Festival.
It was awesome, it was really fun, it was great, it was my first experience ever with
orchestral music and ever since then I just never wanted to stop.
I've been very fortunate that I've had more opportunities like that but I think because
(14:44):
it was the first time it still holds a very special place in my heart because you can
still hear that I don't know what I'm doing and because of that it's really different
than most of other stuff.
What I like about it is that it's just a very simple story.
It's a story of someone that thought they were chido which means very cool or very awesome,
(15:13):
fascinating, interesting in Mexican slang and it's sort of set in this imaginary urban
landscape with them just kind of walking with swagger around the city and everything's fine,
there's not an issue and then he wakes up.
(15:36):
So it just plays with that twist at the end and I think what I hear from people is that
they really enjoy the rhythmic groove of it because it's this sort of suave sort of walk
and it's quite unique in its groove but it's also clear in terms of the story when the
(16:07):
different scenes happen and when the waking up occurs.
So I feel like that's a great example of everything that I've already talked about, this kind
of cinematographic development with the story and ultimately using some kind of Mexican
(16:31):
folklore through this urban landscape.
That is so cool.
Now I can't help but ask because you did mention the competition being a huge stepping stone
into your discovery of orchestral music and such, what do you think is the role of competitions
in the life of a musician and do you think they play an important role?
Do you think it's something that everyone needs to go through as musicians because I
(16:53):
feel like there's sometimes this stigma around competitions that they sometimes prohibit musicality
and creativity if you're suddenly following this rigid structure that you need to conform
to in order to do well in them?
Yeah, I think the main takeaway of competitions is that you shouldn't take the result too
(17:18):
seriously because it's ultimately always going to be a very subjective thing.
There's always going to be a jury that is going to base their result on specifically
how they're feeling that day and what their context is.
And so it's never going to be an accurate representation of an actual hierarchy of what's
(17:44):
good and what's bad.
I think it is important to aspire to them and prepare yourself with that in mind, but
I think it's also important to not take their results too seriously.
I think the best thing I did for myself was just kind of accept failure from the beginning
(18:05):
and just embrace it because I had to accept that that was just going to be the normal.
I was going to get rejected many times and sometimes it was going to work and sometimes
not.
So I even for many years now, I've been labeling any email that I have been rejected from a
competition or eliminated or whatever.
(18:26):
I always save it in my folder of fails and whenever I get selected for something good
and or invited for a commission or whatever, I save it in my folder of wins.
And this allows me to see the ratio of those two things.
And it's always going to be like for every 20 bad things, there's the one good one, you
(18:50):
know?
And that at least allows me to see that it is still good and it is still going to happen,
but you just kind of have to do it.
You have to keep shooting and something's going to hit and it is good to try at least,
to get into that mindset.
(19:11):
But what I also think it's important is to acknowledge where do you fit in?
I think that's something that might not be very evident initially for many, many students.
But if there's like a competition that where you can listen to the past winners and their
music tends to be of a certain sound or aesthetic or style and you write more like post romantic
(19:39):
sort of stuff that still sounds very tonal, classical, it doesn't fit in, right?
Like it just, there's no point in wasting your time or money.
Ultimately you want to be in this kind of competitions to connect with the people, to
connect with the performers, to be heard by those audiences, you know?
(20:01):
And I think competitions become more of a path of self discovery where you learn more about
who you are and what your music is going to be, what you're performing is going to be
and I think because of that it can be a very good thing if it leads to sort of an introspective
journey.
Right, ultimately it's this never ending learning process, learning journey.
(20:26):
Exactly.
Awesome.
So what do you see for the future of composition and composers in Canada?
Yeah I think there's a very good scene in Canada in that there is something for everybody
and I think that versatility and eclecticism is a strength because when I first moved to
(20:52):
Canada I had in my head an idea of what contemporary music was and it was really not at all like
an accurate representation of the field, you know?
It was just whatever I was told by my composer friend or what I had heard in my university
and it was all this very specifically modernist style that can be fairly experimental or very
(21:20):
alienating for some listeners and for me what was crucial was precisely going to the Winnipeg
New Music Festival and discovering new music there.
It was the very first time I heard Canadian music and I realized that there's a huge amount
(21:41):
of diversity but it was because of that that I was like oh I kind of want to do this, it
sounds pretty cool.
You know it was like the discovery of people like Dinuk Vijaratne listening to his Tabla
Concerto was like life-changing, it was amazing music or discovering music from American minimalists
(22:04):
like John Adams or Philip Glass.
It was this kind of moments where I discovered music that resonated with me, that propelled
me into composition and so I think what Canada has is this ability to hold many realities,
(22:27):
many ideas of what can be contemporary music at the same time and so there's I would say
there's a path for everyone and because of that you can find a community that resonates
with your music.
So I think that's a strength but I also think that there is a bit of an important factor
(22:50):
that I don't really hear often which is a lack of national identity in the same way
that you can't tell, like you can name Canadian food, I think there's a bit of a crisis about
music too because you can't really describe what Canadian music is, precisely because
(23:12):
of this sort of multi-diverse sort of you know melting pot of music.
So I think it has some good things and bad things but I think the strength of its diversity
could also use a bit of an exploration of its own identity, of what does it mean to
(23:41):
make Canadian music, to be a Canadian composer.
I think that's an ongoing quest in my opinion.
Amazing, that's a beautiful way to end off today's episode.
Thank you so much Luis for sharing such beautiful pieces of your art and heart.
Oh my pleasure, thank you so much, I'm glad this was helpful and thank you for listening.
(24:04):
Until next time folks, keep listening for the Notes of the North.
Hello and welcome back to Notes of the North Talks, a series where we get to know our local
(00:15):
Canadian musical talent.
Today I'm here with Luis Ramirez.
Thank you so much, Luis, for being here today.
Thank you for having me.
I'm really happy to be here.
Let's get started.
So where are you joining us from today, Luis?
Where in Canada do you call home?
Right now I am living in Toronto.
I've been here for six years, starting my seventh year, and I'm currently finishing
(00:41):
my doctorate in music composition at York University.
Awesome.
Is there any place else that holds a special place in your heart?
Yeah, you know, I mean, I am originally from Aguascalientes, Mexico, but I moved to Canada
12 years ago, and when I moved to Canada, I arrived to Brandon, Manitoba, out of nowhere,
(01:04):
and I was invited to do my master's, to do my undergrad, and then I stayed there and
finished my master's in piano and composition.
So I was there for six years, and then I moved to Ontario for six years.
So it's been 12 years in Canada, and I'm happily now a citizen, and I still go back and forth
(01:27):
between here in Mexico and here in Manitoba.
So I would say those three places are sort of my home.
That's beautiful.
Can you tell me about your beginning with music?
What was your first exploration?
Yeah, my path started through piano for most of my life.
(01:49):
I mostly considered myself a pianist because I started since I was six, and my parents
put me in lessons, and I just really enjoyed it.
So I kept going, and I realized that there was all this music that sounded really wonderful.
(02:09):
So I really liked it, so I kept playing, and I never thought of it as a career, but just
something that I really wanted to do in the future.
So unfortunately in Mexico, there was just not really a lot of support for the arts in
general, and I had to find whatever source of information I could back then.
(02:38):
So naturally, that kind of gravitated me towards the internet, and I started finding all this
obscure composers and recordings and sheet music and trying to get as much as I could
from the internet of 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
And I got really into it, and I was really lucky that just as I was turning 18, the first
(03:09):
bachelor of music started in my hometown.
So I was able to join, and I'm like second generation of that undergrad.
And I really loved it, so I entered, and then at some point, me and some other pianist classmates
decided to go to a different state for a master class, where Alexander Salikov was giving
(03:36):
concert and master class, and we joined him, we worked a little bit with him, and he selected
me to come to Canada with him.
So I was invited there.
I didn't know anything about Brandon, I didn't know anything about Maritoba, I knew barely
anything about Canada, but I decided to go for it.
(03:58):
And so when I was 20, I decided to really commit to my musical career, and it was the
best decision I've made.
It really taught me a lot about not just about music, but also looking back to Mexico about
(04:20):
the scene, about my culture, and about the sort of musical aspirations that I wanted for myself.
It opened the path for me to composition.
And yeah, it was a lot of work.
It was really hard, obviously, being an immigrant and not really having any support.
(04:43):
I moved on my own and I struggled with money for many years, but it was a path worth fighting
for.
So I'm really glad I made that decision.
Your strength and resilience is just so admirable.
That's amazing.
So tell me more about this moment, since you describe yourself as primarily a pianist, tell
(05:05):
me about the moment where you realized you wanted to start composing or pursue composition.
What was that moment like?
You know, I think that's a very important moment.
So I'm glad you asked because I think for a lot of musicians, we are just presented
with an automatic path forward, which is bachelor, master's, doctorate in performance, if you're
(05:30):
a performer.
And the path, at least in my discipline of piano, involves entering a bunch of competitions,
entering workshops, festivals, trying to get known, you know, build your name, make some
recordings, send it everywhere, that kind of stuff.
(05:54):
And I was really not happy with the kind of practice or the limited repertoire required
for such things.
I think it was something about that aspect of repeating the repertoire over and over
for a competition or for a performance or for a contest.
(06:17):
Like I really just love playing music.
And I wanted to play whatever I wanted, you know, I didn't want it to depend on like,
what are the entry requirements for this competition, blah, blah, blah.
So at one point I realized that that was not the path that I wanted.
(06:40):
I was basically told by my teacher, you have what it takes to be an international pianist,
but this is what you have to do.
You have to enter competitions, you have to practice this repertoire and perfect it.
And that's when I was like, okay, well, then I'm not going to do it.
Because honestly, I'd rather just play the repertoire that I like.
(07:01):
And that pivot sort of opened another path for me.
And it was also compounded by the fact that I was trying to play a lot more contemporary
music.
So as I started playing more contemporary stuff, I realized that my love was not necessarily
(07:25):
just for piano, but it was for music.
And piano had just been my medium, you know.
So I started to venture into what it would be like to compose my own stuff.
And so when I finished my piano undergrad, I decided to do both a piano masters and a
(07:49):
composition masters at the same time, to just try to get some lessons and try to write some
stuff, you know.
And it really helped that I already love all this orchestral music.
And I had this background of just really being immersed in music in general, not just in
(08:10):
piano.
So classical music always was my niche, but in composition, I found a way to expand that
even more and sort of find myself through the composing.
As musicians, it's so important to find your own way to express yourself and your own unique
(08:32):
voice.
And I'm so glad you were able to do that.
We'll find that.
Thank you.
Especially with the limited repertoire that's already out there, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Fantastic.
So if you could describe your musical style with five words, what would come to mind?
That's a really tough question.
You know, the first I can think of is cinematic.
(08:58):
Because the way I conceive of my music is sort of as if it's a movie playing in my head.
And then I use all these elements from film, these techniques of transitions or lighting
or video effects or composition or shots or camera lenses.
(09:21):
I try to kind of use those parameters in a musical way.
And this just comes from a sort of interest in that part of filmmaking, the whole production
aspect of it.
So I would say that at least for my orchestral pieces, it tends to be starting from this
(09:46):
movie that only exists in my head and then comes out as music.
Another word maybe would be a bit of a simple term, but just colorful.
I really lean strongly towards harmony.
I like listening to harmony in my ears.
(10:09):
I think that's one of my favorite aspects of composing is discovering not just new colors
and harmony, but also new paths, new pathways through a progression.
And some of my most enjoyable parts of composing is just finding a progression that tells a
(10:30):
story by itself.
So I really enjoy the trial and error that is finding a compelling harmonic progression.
I believe you've mentioned your Mexican roots.
Do you ever integrate Mexican folkloric elements into your music?
Yeah, I do.
(10:51):
But it's not usually in the way one would expect.
There was, I think from my own experience, traditionally when people incorporate those
or when they say that they incorporate aspects of Mexican culture or things like that, it
(11:15):
tends to be very traditionalistic, as in music from folkloric sounding backgrounds.
So more traditional roots of music like son jarocho or merengue, salsa, cumbia, those
(11:35):
sort of folkloric elements.
And when I do it, I try to do it more through my own lens of what I deem Mexican culture.
So I might focus on the candy that I ate growing up or the traditions of breaking a piñata
(12:01):
or the streets that I grew up in, the slang that we use.
It's more of an urban approach or as a modern folkloric approach because those kind of elements
(12:21):
resonate a lot more with me, the kind of peculiarities that make Mexico stand out from other countries.
I like to focus on those idiosyncrasies and put the lens on them to bring them afloat
in my compositions as part of a story.
(12:42):
So I would say that another word if you want is storytelling because so much of my music
is very centered around a concept or a story or a narrative.
And that's something I really enjoy, it's giving something to the listener beyond just
(13:02):
the sound so that they can have a grounding, so that they can imagine their own story through
my music but with some kind of baseline to begin with.
That's so fascinating how you described all those folkloric elements.
It's almost like an entire sensory experience or immersion for the listener instead of the
(13:26):
traditional interpretation of these folkloric elements.
Super interesting.
Could you recommend a piece of yours for the first time listener, like an introduction
to your work?
Sure, yeah.
I think precisely within this line of thought, I think one of my favorite pieces to share
with people is my orchestral piece, Chido.
(13:49):
This piece was originally just a piece of homework.
This was my final composition submission in my master's and my professor encouraged me
to apply with it to a competition and then it won that competition so I got invited to
(14:19):
the Composers Institute with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra where they premiered it
in the New Music Festival.
It was awesome, it was really fun, it was great, it was my first experience ever with
orchestral music and ever since then I just never wanted to stop.
I've been very fortunate that I've had more opportunities like that but I think because
(14:44):
it was the first time it still holds a very special place in my heart because you can
still hear that I don't know what I'm doing and because of that it's really different
than most of other stuff.
What I like about it is that it's just a very simple story.
It's a story of someone that thought they were chido which means very cool or very awesome,
(15:13):
fascinating, interesting in Mexican slang and it's sort of set in this imaginary urban
landscape with them just kind of walking with swagger around the city and everything's fine,
there's not an issue and then he wakes up.
(15:36):
So it just plays with that twist at the end and I think what I hear from people is that
they really enjoy the rhythmic groove of it because it's this sort of suave sort of walk
and it's quite unique in its groove but it's also clear in terms of the story when the
(16:07):
different scenes happen and when the waking up occurs.
So I feel like that's a great example of everything that I've already talked about, this kind
of cinematographic development with the story and ultimately using some kind of Mexican
(16:31):
folklore through this urban landscape.
That is so cool.
Now I can't help but ask because you did mention the competition being a huge stepping stone
into your discovery of orchestral music and such, what do you think is the role of competitions
in the life of a musician and do you think they play an important role?
Do you think it's something that everyone needs to go through as musicians because I
(16:53):
feel like there's sometimes this stigma around competitions that they sometimes prohibit musicality
and creativity if you're suddenly following this rigid structure that you need to conform
to in order to do well in them?
Yeah, I think the main takeaway of competitions is that you shouldn't take the result too
(17:18):
seriously because it's ultimately always going to be a very subjective thing.
There's always going to be a jury that is going to base their result on specifically
how they're feeling that day and what their context is.
And so it's never going to be an accurate representation of an actual hierarchy of what's
(17:44):
good and what's bad.
I think it is important to aspire to them and prepare yourself with that in mind, but
I think it's also important to not take their results too seriously.
I think the best thing I did for myself was just kind of accept failure from the beginning
(18:05):
and just embrace it because I had to accept that that was just going to be the normal.
I was going to get rejected many times and sometimes it was going to work and sometimes
not.
So I even for many years now, I've been labeling any email that I have been rejected from a
competition or eliminated or whatever.
(18:26):
I always save it in my folder of fails and whenever I get selected for something good
and or invited for a commission or whatever, I save it in my folder of wins.
And this allows me to see the ratio of those two things.
And it's always going to be like for every 20 bad things, there's the one good one, you
(18:50):
know?
And that at least allows me to see that it is still good and it is still going to happen,
but you just kind of have to do it.
You have to keep shooting and something's going to hit and it is good to try at least,
to get into that mindset.
(19:11):
But what I also think it's important is to acknowledge where do you fit in?
I think that's something that might not be very evident initially for many, many students.
But if there's like a competition that where you can listen to the past winners and their
music tends to be of a certain sound or aesthetic or style and you write more like post romantic
(19:39):
sort of stuff that still sounds very tonal, classical, it doesn't fit in, right?
Like it just, there's no point in wasting your time or money.
Ultimately you want to be in this kind of competitions to connect with the people, to
connect with the performers, to be heard by those audiences, you know?
(20:01):
And I think competitions become more of a path of self discovery where you learn more about
who you are and what your music is going to be, what you're performing is going to be
and I think because of that it can be a very good thing if it leads to sort of an introspective
journey.
Right, ultimately it's this never ending learning process, learning journey.
(20:26):
Exactly.
Awesome.
So what do you see for the future of composition and composers in Canada?
Yeah I think there's a very good scene in Canada in that there is something for everybody
and I think that versatility and eclecticism is a strength because when I first moved to
(20:52):
Canada I had in my head an idea of what contemporary music was and it was really not at all like
an accurate representation of the field, you know?
It was just whatever I was told by my composer friend or what I had heard in my university
and it was all this very specifically modernist style that can be fairly experimental or very
(21:20):
alienating for some listeners and for me what was crucial was precisely going to the Winnipeg
New Music Festival and discovering new music there.
It was the very first time I heard Canadian music and I realized that there's a huge amount
(21:41):
of diversity but it was because of that that I was like oh I kind of want to do this, it
sounds pretty cool.
You know it was like the discovery of people like Dinuk Vijaratne listening to his Tabla
Concerto was like life-changing, it was amazing music or discovering music from American minimalists
(22:04):
like John Adams or Philip Glass.
It was this kind of moments where I discovered music that resonated with me, that propelled
me into composition and so I think what Canada has is this ability to hold many realities,
(22:27):
many ideas of what can be contemporary music at the same time and so there's I would say
there's a path for everyone and because of that you can find a community that resonates
with your music.
So I think that's a strength but I also think that there is a bit of an important factor
(22:50):
that I don't really hear often which is a lack of national identity in the same way
that you can't tell, like you can name Canadian food, I think there's a bit of a crisis about
music too because you can't really describe what Canadian music is, precisely because
(23:12):
of this sort of multi-diverse sort of you know melting pot of music.
So I think it has some good things and bad things but I think the strength of its diversity
could also use a bit of an exploration of its own identity, of what does it mean to
(23:41):
make Canadian music, to be a Canadian composer.
I think that's an ongoing quest in my opinion.
Amazing, that's a beautiful way to end off today's episode.
Thank you so much Luis for sharing such beautiful pieces of your art and heart.
Oh my pleasure, thank you so much, I'm glad this was helpful and thank you for listening.
(24:04):
Until next time folks, keep listening for the Notes of the North.
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