JAVS Spring 2013

these unbelievable embarrassments of fun people who are talented and have interesting things to say. I’m remembering early on with The Elements of Style , which is a project Nico did with Maira Kalman, and like, Isaac Mizrahi, and like, myself, and Abby Fischer and—

NM : Have you played the Walton?

NS : yes, Walton I played freshman year. Anyway, so I started asking for other pieces because I wanted to— NM : And you commissioned a lot of things that weren’t just for solo viola. [ Eats a bite of food .] (Oh, that is der-liscious .)

NM : Sam Amidon! As a banjo player!

NS : It was the most decadent. It was at the New york Public Library, and I remember that gig very much feeling like it was one of those dreams—it was actually Judd Greenstein who said this—where you’re in a very familiar place but with the wrong people, and things just have this bizarre quality. NM : It did feel strange to have that moment when—we were just doing that additive process where Isaac was spanking that Calvin Klein pillow with a shoe stay, and Maira was up imitating you playing the viola, and like— NS : It was the most insane thing that ever hap pened. Anyway, you are talented at getting people together. NM : yeah, and trying to have curatorial instincts I think is the right one. And you know, I think you must have found this as a violist, because there is not as much rep, you have to sort of invent the kind of fun projects that you want. NS : yeah. Part of the reason I play new music is because I was in a weekly studio class for six years— and let’s just say that there is less standard viola rep than violin rep or piano rep or cello rep—and by the end of six years, I really, really knew those pieces, even pieces I hadn’t played myself . . .

NS : (yeah. I’m going to eat another one.)

NM : um, but there’s this sense in which you started inventing the projects you wanted to be involved in.

NS : When I was still in college.

NM : Right.

NS : And actually if I have any advice—whenever people say, “What’s your advice for students,” it real ly is: you have access to really talented people for free all the time; just do tons and tons of projects!

NM : Before they get expensive.

NS : And people will eventually get expensive.

NM : I mean, one of the interesting things about our collaborations is that we work together pretty much four times a month, and yet, it wasn’t until this year that we figured out how to make a concerto happen.

NS : That’s totally true!

NM : Which isn’t happening for two years, which is really crazy.

NS : But we’ve been talking about that abstractly for ever . . .

NM : [ Laughs .] [ Waiter comes by .] (Oh, Monkfish liver!)

NM : yeah, yeah, and I’ve had the opening written since like, 2003. But it’s a funny thing because at school, as you said, it is free, and you can get away with weird stuff . . . And that’s always the advice I give to young composers: “Find the people who will put up with you and who will answer your ques tions.”

NS : (Monkfish liver, here we go.) But what I was going to say is, “Okay, I’m done with this rep.” I actually never played the Bartók Viola Concerto because I had heard it so many times by that point—

J OuRNAL OF THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETy 18