JAVS Spring 2022

If so, where? Composition class or one-on-one? None of the above?

International Viola Competition and premiered during the competition at the Colburn School. In the beginning, the idea was that the entire concerto was going to be asked for at the competition. However, better minds prevailed, and after taking the length of the concerto and technical complexity into consideration, the second movement was chosen. The piece I wrote for the 2020 AVS is called The Immigrant . I was asked to write something for five violas, with varying degrees of complexity between the parts and about ten minutes long. The Immigrant is music personified, as it makes its way from a cathedral somewhere in Europe in the middle ages to present day America. DP: Let’s backtrack a bit at this point and discuss your Concerto for Viola and Orchestra , which you premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. CC: I premiered the concerto in its entirety in October of 2018. The conductor, Louis Langre, thought it would be nice to pair it with other Quixotes . So, the first piece on the program was Telemann’s Don Quixote (I didn’t play it), then my concerto which is based on DQ, intermission, then Strauss’ DQ (which I did play). It made for a lot of playing and a long couple of days, but it was worth it. I did learn something very good that day: it’s definitively the journey and not the destination. I know there are plenty of bumper stickers and t-shirts to remind us of it, but it’s great when you get to experience it instead of taking someone else’s word for it. I remember standing backstage before entering to play my concerto –

CC: One day I just simply began composing. I think it stems from a curiosity of personal expression. One enjoys playing and listening to other composer’s music, but there came a time when I said, “Hmmm, I wonder what I would say?” Instead of staying with the curiosity, I did what I usually do— I just did it. Sometimes, no amount of imagination or books or visualization will do the trick. You just have to jump in and find out what it’s all about. I also find this to be true in life in general. Too many times people wait for a sign or inspiration to start something – for me it has worked the other way much better: do the action, then inspiration finds you and the universe presents a path.

DP: Did you write for the viola in your early compositions or hone your “compositional chops” first?

CC: I purposely never wrote for my instrument, violin or viola, until much later. I started with full orchestral works. DP: Tell me about your commissions for the American Viola Society in 2014 and 2020, one which was premiered on schedule and the other apparently on hold because of COVID 19.

CC: Aldonza (the second movement of my viola concerto) was written for the Fourteenth Primrose

Figure 1: Christian Colberg, Viola Concerto, I. Alonso, mm.7-13.

Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 38, No. 1, Spring 2022

57