JAVS Spring 2020

feels like this way on your side but it may feel like that way on their side. The magic is the stuff in the middle, so you can’t really be upset as a composer or performer if not everyone gets what you do . . . everyone’s going to feel things in a different way, and that’s ok.

Many thanks to Jessica for this article! You can check out her compositions and playing on her website and on her album, Ring Out , on the Bright Shiny Things Label. In 2021 she will be the composer-in-residence at the Spoleto Festival that includes a premiere by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, will premiere her viola concerto at the Miller Theater in New York, and her work will be featured in Carnegie Hall and around the country as part of their interactive orchestral Link Up Program. Jessica has generously allowed JAVS to reproduce “O elegant giant”, the third movement of her duo for viola and voice, Space, in Chains . The work is a set of three songs using the text of acclaimed poet Laura Kasischke. Meyer describes “O elegant giant” as “a passionate depiction of the unraveling of an unexpected relationship.” The work was commissioned by Melissa Wimbish and premiered at Carnegie Hall in October of 2016. You can find a recording on Meyer’s Soundcloud page. nightclub and the art space. Specializing in Classical Arabic music as well as Jazz and European Classical music, she combines styles to create repertoire for solo viola and loops generating layers of sound — from lyrical melodies to driving rhythms and textures — that simulates a whole room full of musicians. After years of freelancing in New York City performing with artists such as Simon Shaheen, Cedar Lake Ballet Company, and poet Robert Bly, Leanne now teaches at SUNY Buffalo, performs, and leads creativity workshops in the Buffalo area. Violist Leanne Darling is a performer, improvisor, composer and teacher who is comfortable in the concert hall, the

Where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself doing more of what I’m doing now in more established places. I hope to have a much wider reach of my music, because up until now everything has been very much word of mouth. I’m developing many different parts of myself but I’m still very much a violist and still very passionate about creating a body of repertoire for the instrument that will outlive me. My plan is to have a huge body of art song that involves viola, mixed ensembles and string ensembles where the viola really has an integral part to play and shine. Everyone who is playing and wants to write should draw from their favorite things to express themselves and just start writing. Please give yourself permission to start composing. I made a pact with myself that whenever I write something, I strive to go back to my five-year-old self at the piano, and then use my 40 plus years of my experience after that to inform me on what should stick. You have an idea, write it down—you are either going to keep it or tweak it tomorrow, and that is better than not writing it down at all. We are all inherently creative beings, and schooling and society makes every attempt to knock it out of us: conservatory training is often about “do what I told you to do,” then you are suddenly faced with “do what you want” right after. Not all teachers and institutions prepare you for that—that is why improvising and regularly activating creative and reflective thinking can develop that part of the brain needed to establish your own constructs and grow your career after school and throughout your life. It is simply never ever too late to honor and be yourself. Any advice for other composer/performers?

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 36, No. 1, Spring 2020