Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio
Gabriela Ortiz, the first Latin American composer performed by the Berlin Phil, leads OAcademy’s Composing Studio, offering her mentorship alongside a diverse roster of composers and innovators in the composition field, including Missy Mazzoli, Marcos Balter, Tyshawn Sorey, Du Yun, and many others.
Fellows graduate with a high-quality recording of a new work for professional musicians, a portfolio of self-marketing materials, an international network of composers and change-making artists, and the resources to take the next step in their composition journey.
The Creative Process
Insights by Erin Busch
Co-Founding Director of the Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio
These pieces were composed over a period of several months, starting from the very beginning of the program in mid-January.
At the start of the program, ATLYS led two seminars that helped us to get to know them, their interests as a quartet, and the nuances of their instruments. They also provided workshopping time for the composers to ask specific questions about their pieces and to play through early drafts. Composers then had time to return to their drafts to continue honing and developing material to prepare a first complete draft. ATLYS live-streamed a rehearsal of their first drafts towards the end of the program and provided valuable feedback, allowing the composers to finalize their pieces over the summer. Throughout this process of creation, composers in the Gabriela Ortiz Composing Studio had the opportunity to share their works-in-progress through masterclasses and regular peer work shares.
ATLYS recorded these exciting new works in the fall and winter of 2023, and we are thrilled to share them with the world.
ATLYS
2023 Ensemble
in residence
Born from a prim and proper conservatory background, barrier-breaking string quartet ATLYS was formed out of a dream to bust through classical stereotypes and create a welcoming atmosphere for people of all backgrounds. The all-female, powerhouse group has created an atlas of cinematic music spanning a variety of genres, following in the footsteps of groups like the Turtle Island and Kronos string quartets by expanding the boundaries of sound with their traditional instruments and incorporating digital technology through looping and computer programming.
Self-built and fan-funded, they have grown a global fanbase and their music has been streamed over 12 million times worldwide. Their gutsy and virtuosic sound has taken them to venues like Red Rocks and the Gorge amphitheaters, but they’re equally at home in small, intimate venues. They’ve supported artists from a plethora of backgrounds like EDM producer Seven Lions, Indie songstress Spellling, and alternative, feel-good band, Sammy Rae and the Friends.
ATLYS has revolutionized their paradigm, perfecting the art of remote recording, launching a YouTube channel featuring tutorials and creative, self produced music videos, and publishing their unique arrangements. Post concerts, you’ll find them out by the merch table delightedly embracing and meeting fans and likely even sharing photos of their pets!
Remote Recording Studio
ATLYS has been refining their remote recording process since early 2020 when suddenly it was their only way to make music together. Though they are back to performing regularly and recording traditionally all together in studios, they continue to record dozens of projects remotely each year as the end results have become virtually indistinguishable! The success of the recording depends on each member reading off of the full scores to imagine the complete big picture as they play alone, into which they copy in all bowings, phrase markings and character indications as they would if they were rehearsing as normal.
To begin recording, an intricate, custom click track (metronome) is created for each piece to reflect all the ebb and flow of tempo in the piece, and the quartet members record one at a time with an identical microphone set-up to ensure cohesiveness. With each new voice added, the quartet members take the utmost care to blend seamlessly with and complement the previous voice(s). It never fails to be a magical moment when at the end of the process the complete product emerges after only hearing one voice at a time.
#Fellows’ Voices
Luis Ramirez’s Creative Process
1
Planning
Have a rough idea of the concept
2
Imagine
Go for a walk and think
3
Main theme
Find a solid foundation
4
Improvise
Play with motifs at the piano
5
Structure
Use recurring motifs
6
Playability
Always good to ask a friend for help!
7
Record
Use real instrument or virtual instruments in logic
8
Delete
Keep what you like, throw away what you don’t, repeat
9
Notate
I like using Sibelius
10
Layout
Make it look pretty, musicians will appreciate it!
11
Rehearse
Get feedback from musicians
Compositions
Seikilos Variations
by Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi
Seikilos Variations has its theme sourced from an ancient Greek memorial tablet from around the 1st century C.E., called the Seikilos Epitaph - it is the oldest complete composition that has survived to our days.
The original text of the music, which influenced the variations, goes as follows:
While you live, shine - have no grief at all [since] life exists only for a short while and Time demands his due.
These variations try to evoke different parts of Life in a form of a snapshot: parts being happy, sometimes melancholic, sometimes exuberant.
Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi is a Japanese-Mexican composer born and raised in Mexico City. He studied composition at Mannes College in New York City and at the Royal College of Music in London with Rudolph Palmer and David Tcimpidis in New York, and with Kenneth Hesketh in London. He believes that complexity is a result of what the music needs to express, never a goal. His objective when he writes music is that when that last note of the piece is played, the sound ―the resonance― inside the minds of his listeners still rings, leaving a lasting impression of what they have heard.
Ration Vibe
by Maia Steinberg
Ration Vibe is a composition inspired by the different type of brainwaves and what their represent in our bodies. Each movement is inspired on a different "state of mind", so to speak, and is accompanied by binaural beats in the frequency of the brain waves that are being represented.
Maia Steinberg is an Uruguayan/polish composer, singer and sound healer, creator of ProjectA and an advocate to create change in the world through music. Maia has been creating music for interdisciplinary performances, audiovisual, theatre as well as sound and song healing events and other type of performances in many different countries, exploring how to blend the world of academic music, folk and traditional music and sound healing.
Rumore molto Rumore
by Aures Moussong
´
Rumore molto Rumore was originally composed for viola da gamba quartet for the prestigious Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. The work reflects the rich historical tradition of the viola da gamba while pushing the boundaries of its resonant possibilities. In this adaptation for string quartet, the composer endeavors to preserve the distinctive resonance and timbral nuances inherent in the original version, while exploiting the nature of the string quartet.
The piece unfolds through a series of interconnected sections, as melodic lines intertwine, creating a dialogue that is both evocative and contemplative. The composer employs various bowing patterns to enhance the quartet’s expressive range.
Aurés Moussong received his Bachelor's degree in Music Composition in Mexico City in 2017. Later he pursued his Masters studies at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and completed them at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Recently, he has won numerous composition competitions including Ibermusicas, Egidio Carella, China CEEC Chamber Music Competition or Winds of Central Europe, as well as receiving Honorable Mentions in others.
A brief collection of ripples and waves
by Fermin Leon
´
´
Barely a couple flicks of the brush become long strokes of ink that spiral inwards. Dashes in chaotic arrays bubble up the turbulence that bathes the paper with tiling blue. Falling rain collects in puddles, out comes a trickling brook. Overflowing streams that become rivers, gather into lakes. When dropped they become cascades, sprung out, geysers, united, a rage of seas that stretch beyond the horizon. Many shapes are nothing but water, sharp is the eye to categorize what is in essence a continuum, fine the brush that captures the lengths between each wave crest and the next.
In 1903, the Japanese illustrator Mori Yuzan published a catalogue in three volumes containing traditional designs depicting water ripples and waves titled 「波紋集」 or ‘Hamon shū’ (Wave Crest Collection). Although it was originally meant simply as a handy guide for local craftsmen, the unpredictably large number of possible ways to depict water; all compiled into a single work, staggers in its overflowing imagination and acuteness of perception required to capture the minute details that differentiate a lake from an ocean.
This piece was conceived while gliding through the pages of this waterline atlas. A brief collection of ripples and waves is made up of a single intervallic cycle, that in its never-ending flow goes through a series of transformations of timbre and texture that delineate a voluptuous expressive arc of contrasting sections, much like the blue inked water depicts all its possible patterns through the brush of a painter.
Fermín León is a composer based in Mexico City. His works for various ensembles highlight the expressive relationship between the performers and their instruments through a virtuosic musical language and an emphasis on audible processes.
Quartet No. 2
by Mark Contreras Waiss
Quartet No. 2 is a short piece with three brief scenes inspired by Peruvian cultural landscapes, incorporating rhythmic and melodic elements from the composer's home country.
Mark Contreras Waiss is a Peruvian academic composer. He holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the National University of Music. He has written music for various instrumental ensembles. Currently, his style incorporates elements of Peruvian culture.
String Quartet No.1 "The Call"
by Abraham Gomez
´
String Quartet No.1 "The Call" evokes the captivating painting of Remedios Varo, "La Llamada". "The Call" embodies the spiritual concept of being summoned to unite with the divine and merge with the energy of the cosmos. It is a poignant reminder that when our life cycle concludes, we too are beckoned to return to the very source of all existence.
Abraham Gómez, a clarinetist and composer from Monterrey, Mexico, studied his bachelor degree at the ESMDM and further Codarts, concluding his master degree. His composition "Astro Errante" won first place in the 14th Calefax composer competition in 2021.
Leaven
by Luis Ramirez
Leaven tells the story of yeast's adventurous journey throughout the bread-making process. It guides the listener through the different stages - kneading, proofing, baking - and ends with a solemn march honoring the yeast's sacrifice in providing substance, aroma, and flavor to the bread.
Luis Ramirez, born and raised in Aguascalientes, Mexico, is a Mexican-Canadian composer with a penchant for rhythmically colorful textures and visually arresting soundscapes that often incorporate elements of Mexican folklore and a cinematic approach to musical narrative. He is currently pursuing a doctorate with Randolph Peters at York University.
Alpenglow
by Dianna Link
As the sun slowly peaks above the horizon, the sky is flooded with vibrant hues of orange, yellow, and red. All the while an incandescent warm light cascades down the face of the mountain and glistens amongst a blanket of snow. Alpenglow is a string quartet about the little moments that matter the most. It is about the seemingly insignificant things that give you that warm and fuzzy feeling, about something as simple as the joy of watching the sunrise or sunset against the Rocky Mountains.
Enchanted by the Rocky Mountains, composer Dianna Link writes music driven by narrative and nature. Her music has been played by numerous ensembles including; the Colorado Symphony, Ivalas Quartet, and ~Nois. In 2021 Link was mentored by Alexandra Gardner as part of the Elizabeth Henriksen mentorship program through the Boulanger Initiative. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Colorado, Boulder College of Music where she studied with Annika Socolofsky amongst others.
La historia del soldadito
by Eduardo Herrera Arevalo
´
Sometimes we've been made to believe that greatness and power are directly related to size or stature. Large and thick books could almost guarantee a well-told story and well-developed characters. Governing figures who are two meters tall impose themselves even in videos and on television. People in everyday life seem to have some advantages... I wonder, where does the intrinsic greatness of objects or people without tangible greatness escape to?
I think that many times (or most of the time) it goes to the small stories, the miniatures, the short tales, or the brief narratives. That's where small characters and stories demonstrate (effortlessly but skillfully) that other virtues can be of great magnitude, and that those small, great things that aren't seen but exist from within can achieve great changes in ourselves and in others. This work is a miniature based on Igor Stravinsky's 'The Soldier's Tale,' who is an endless source of inspiration for the composer Eduardo Herrera. -Mariana Martínez
Eduardo Herrera Arévalo, born in Mexico City, started his musical journey at three, delving into trombone and piano studies later on. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Innovation degree, specializing in composition. Passionate about education and music production, he co-founded Academia de Músic Albor. Eduardo's compositions have premiered internationally. In 2023, he pursued an Artist Diploma at the OAcademy in collaboration with Harvard University, showcasing his dedication and love for music and aiming to make a positive impact on the music world.
Thank you for listening!
