Something unusual happens when people talk about flutist Claire Chase. An experienced musician brightens up with cheerful optimism. They use superlative expressions that would seem reckless if not repeated too often. The most disgusted of them seem unable to think of anything negative.
“It’s very difficult to talk about Claire,” said composer Marcos Balter. “She is so much more than a virtuoso flutist and an educator. She is a true catalyst for change. But so much more. She makes everything seem possible.”
Chase’s reputation is the equanimity she maintains as one of the most enterprising and imaginative musicians in her field: the busiest fundraiser and dedicated interpreter of new music. It’s all the more remarkable because of the fact that it is, and often delivers unconventional performances. request. This is in addition to her life traveling to and from Cambridge, Massachusetts where she teaches at Harvard University. Brooklyn. And in Princeton, New Jersey, her partner, author Kirsten Valdes Quaid, works, where she’s raising her 10-month-old daughter.
This month is one of the biggest stress tests in her schedule. In early May, she performed Kaija Saariaho’s Concerto ‘Ere du Songe’ with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Next she plans to 10 performance marathon A look back at the last ten years of her Density 2036 project. This project was a huge undertaking that was to last for 24 years, commissioning new works for flute every year until the 100th anniversary of Edgar Varèse’s instrumental “Density 21.5” solo. ”
Her upcoming concerts will culminate in two premieres at The Kitchen on May 24th and the following day at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.she is also released Box set of “Density” recordings And started a fellowship to ensure that this music reaches the next generation of flutists.
Chase, who turns 45 on Wednesday, recalled being told in an interview at her Brooklyn apartment that when it comes to parenting, everything else “becomes like miniature golf.” It was helpful.
“Two weeks after my daughter was born, I was like, ‘Oh, I get it,'” she said. “We have 10 Density shows and one that is finally launching, and it’s just miniature golf. All you have to do is feed this little one, take care of it, and learn from it.”
Much has changed in Chase’s life since “Density” began, but her restless restlessness has remained constant. She was the founding artistic director of International Contemporary Ensemble — perhaps America’s leading performer of new works — grew out of her time at the Oberlin Conservatory in 2001. With that group she generated a wealth of commissions that made composers like Balter famous.
But by the time “Density” took off, Chase knew he wouldn’t be in the ensemble forever. Leaving was always on the back of her mind, she said. All artists, we have to be very honest about what we fear, but I was really scared to hold it back. “It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, but it was also one of the best lessons she’d ever learned,” she added.
As the years of “Density” went on, further development took place. She joined the faculty at Harvard University and was asked to become one of the eight co-partners of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. She met Quaid and created a family. Since then she has approached her own work with her fresh sense of time.
“I have limited time and energy each day,” Chase said. “If this month’s ‘density’ had happened in a different place in my life, I’d be practicing eight hours a day, living and eating and breaking down, and just looking at this material.”
Despite the limited time, Chase has received thorough attention from fellow musicians, performing Felipe Lara’s double concerto on tour with Esperanza Spalding, and revisiting the “Density” repertoire. considered to be dedicated. Audiences, too, can recognize it from her lively but unexaggerated movements, her dizzying technical installations throughout the flute family, and her extended techniques that extend to vocalizations and dramatic text readings. .
Composer and scholar George E. Lewis, now artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble, said that his interpretation of Density’s early work, Emergent, was so advanced that it was “just like it was different.” I hear you,” he said. Between early and late Coltrane. Susanna Marquis, who led Chase in her performances of the Lara Concerto and Saariaho at Carnegie, says her standout among contemporary music experts is that some are “very scientific about it.” Maybe, but Chase said it’s because he hasn’t forgotten: , Basically, most composers just want to reach the listener.
“Approaching this as an intellectual exercise won’t work,” he added. “We have to balance it out, but she’s so generous, enthusiastic, and so charming. Her aura extends from there.”
It spread not only to my fellow performers, but also to my fellow musicians in the broader classical music field. Lewis says Chase has a knack for seeing “how things will go, not where they are now” and in the process, “she inspires enthusiasm and believes she can do anything.” I will let you,” he said.
Salonen recalled meeting her as part of a New York University project on the future of classical music. When the inevitable theme of getting young people interested in boards of educational institutions came up, she said, “Her problem with ICE was that she really wanted to meet older boards and audiences. “It’s about being there,” he recalled.
“Jaw dropped,” he said. “You heard me. Then I thought, ‘This woman is up to something.’ She’s aware of something we don’t know. ”
Through the ensemble, Chase came to the attention of Matthew Lyons, curator of the experimental arts nonprofit The Kitchen. When she introduced the idea of ”Density” before it even started, he immediately got on it. “I have a weakness for long-form creative projects, but Claire came with contagious energy and the determination and courage to tackle it,” he said.
The kitchen is the New York home of “Density,” and Chase has been given time to prepare a theatrical multimedia presentation for each edition. The program will include feature-length works, like two of his premierings this month, Craig Taborn’s Busy Sorrows and Endangered Charms and Anna Solvalsdottir’s Yubike. You can include just one or a series of new releases. In any case, it is believed that the project can be finished in his 24-hour performance, with one installment usually adding up to about an hour.
The composer roster is diverse in almost every sense, including age, race, gender identity, and career stage. “It’s not uniform,” says Valter. “Claire is the glue, but not the aesthetic glue.”
If there’s one defining aesthetic, it’s virtuosity. Lewis said the request meant writing her songs for “someone who can do it all”. Premiere of “Busy Griefs” In the kitchen on the 24th, requiring performers to roam among the audience and navigate through notated improvisational material. “Yubike” 25th at Carnegie HallHowever, although it is fully notated and a journey in itself, nothing is left to chance.
“I always had Claire in everything I was writing,” said Thorwartsdottir, but with more abstract ideas about density and ubiquity: “color and timbre, inter-instrumental The exploration of the nuances of the textures of the film,” he said. Thorvaldsdottir isn’t the only “Density” contributor to write specifically for Chase. It can be hard to imagine anyone other than Chase playing this idiosyncratic, challenging, and sometimes massive piece of music.
Chase knows that as Density enters its 20th year, the new repertoire must not just exist, but extend beyond his concert calendar. She is already her teacher and mentor, and her young flutists “follow her like puppies,” Lewis said. And now she’s also created a Density Fellowship, the first of which was announced this month.
Ten young flutists will take on one of the project’s pieces, spend a year studying it with Chase, and often with the composer, and then perform and possibly record it. Clare said future concerts may not feature the spectacular multimedia treats of The Kitchen’s program, but that’s always planned.
“My dream for all the work I commission, not just the Density piece, is that it could work with me and the Bluetooth speaker in Grandma’s cart on the subway,” she adds. rice field.
That philosophy makes “Density” similar to other classical music. There are infinite possibilities for how it can be interpreted and expressed. A repertoire only needs to be played for generations to survive. She hopes that fellowship with Chase will be the beginning.
“One little thing at a time,” she said. “It’s so nice to be able to think 20 years from now, or just 10 years from now, and 13 years after this is over. Oh, that makes me so sad. What am I going to do?” mosquito?