Principal Symphonic Conductor Rossen Milanov leads the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, joined by pianist Alexander Kobrin, on Aug. 1 in the Amphitheater.
Naomi Woo believes that “the reason John Cage wrote impossible pieces is because there are so many impossible problems in today’s political and social world.”
If “performers did impossible things on stage,” Woo said the reasoning went, “it might also inspire the rest of us to try to accomplish impossible tasks in the political and social world.”
That, in turn, inspires Woo, guest conductor for this evening’s performance from the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, set for 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater. The evening includes a premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s “Had to Be,” written for Grammy-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods, who is soloing tonight with the CSO. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43, will close out the night.
“Had to Be” was co-commissioned by a consortium of Chautauqua Institution, the Spoleto Festival, the New York Philharmonic, and Orchestre Métropolitain (where Woo is artistic partner) — which Joachim said was “such a gift.”
Joachim is a performer, composer and assistant professor of composition at Princeton University, Grammy-nominated for Best World Music Album for her Fanm d’Ayiti, an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet and electronics. Her work, influenced by her Haitian heritage, tends to showcase her vulnerability — she finds that “the artists that make the truest impact are artists that are really sharing a piece of themselves within their work.” She celebrates the seemingly ordinary to foster human connection because, “quite frankly, it wouldn’t be the worst thing for us to be finding more and more humanity in one another.”
“Had to Be” is the second piece that Joachim has written for Woods. Their friendship was a part of her inspiration, but another is the fashion movement called Black Dandyism. The aesthetic is typically associated with Black men — although it goes beyond gender, Woods said — who demand respect through sharp street style curated to dismantle ideas of what Black people are supposed to look like.
“There is something so subversive and powerful about upsetting the preconceived notion of what people may expect you to be,” Joachim said. “Harnessing that as a quiet power, a thing that we can control, and also a way to subvert whatever preconceived notions folks might have of us is just a really bad-ass way to move through the world — especially a world that wants to inherently have you claim less and less of yourself.”
Throughout the piece, Joachim keeps different threads of musical lineages within the African diaspora. The first movement of “Had to Be” gives nod to a traditional funeral march — a celebratory procession involving brass instruments — that Joachim witnessed once in Haiti.
Playing the movement, Woods said he feels a sense of “searching for self with release, relief and joy.” The first and third movement carry a similar connotation, he said; “it’s the beginning or end to a journey.” The second movement is a little flirty and dense, he said.
Joachim has been performing and composing for as long as she can remember; her grandmother would often encourage Joachim to tell her about her day through song.
In doing so, she was passing along the tradition of Haitian Folkloric music, which “instilled a lot of authenticity” in the young composer’s work; however, the musical lineage uplifted in the curriculum of The Juilliard School, where Joachim studied, led her to compartmentalize aspects of her musical life.
“It was clear that what was valued within the conservatory was something quite different, so it did take a long time for me to claim all of the pieces of myself equally and understand that was not a hindrance,” Joachim said. “My greatest superpower was that I had all of those pieces of me fostered musically, creatively, and artistically throughout my life. Bringing them together in one space turned out to be sort of the best thing that could happen for me in my career.”
Joachim believes that “the only thing that any of us has, that nobody else has, is being ourselves.” One of the ways Woods does this, he said, is by showcasing personality via the textiles he wears. In addition to the conversation being had through the cello, clothes allows him “to say a little bit more about myself beyond” the instrument.
“Had to Be” begins with an off-stage band, meaning that instead of “showing off everything you can do,” Joachim said, “it’s an invitation to us all to be in the space and participate in something that’s inherently collective — it continues to reinforce that about itself.”
That was how she said she transformed the idea from “a seed of inspiration” from a fashion movement, into the question: What does Black music mean?
“What does it mean to bring them all together in this space that hasn’t been the friendliest space for Black music? How can we turn that on its head? It was definitely fun,” Joachim said.
From “Had to Be,” the CSO pivots to Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, one of the greatest symphonic works in the repertoire, guest conductor Woo said, that “veers from the darkest depths to the greatest emotional relief.” It was written as Finland was seeking independence from Russia, and was almost immediately adopted as a statement of Finnish nationalism, Woo said, because of the Finns’ “deep, personal sadness and fear for their country but also real, tremendous hope.
“The ease of silence is also really powerful,” she said. “It’s one of the things that most interests me in music — what do we hear and understand in the spaces between the notes?”
Woo’s interest in conducting stemmed from the collaborative nature of the work; even as an undergrad, she was conducting student orchestras, drawn in by the back-and-forth with musicians. What Woo loves most about music is “working alongside other people to make something beautiful on stage.”
Seeing the role music has in reflecting the world as it is, and imagining how it could be, led to her dissertation at the University of Cambridge: “The Practicality of the Impossible.” Studying the works of composers like Cage — impossible pieces, for impossible problems — has informed the ethos of her work.
“What can I put on stage,” Woo asks, “that will inspire audiences to make the world a better, more collaborative, more peaceful place?”
