Composer to be featured in Scottish Chamber Orchestra performance

Oct. 13—GOSHEN — Anna Clyne is a "composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods," according to the New York Times, and as "fearless" by NPR. She's also a composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which is coming to the Goshen College Music Center, 1700 S. Main St., Oct. 19.

Clyne is the only living artist of the three composers to be featured during the U.S. tour of the international orchestra, including Max Bruch (1838-1920) and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). In the modern age of music composition, Clyne brings an air of collaboration and a love for music to her work. She's been with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since 2019.

"I love collaborating with specific soloists," she said. "I'm writing a violin concerto at the moment and clarinet concertos."

"Each orchestra has their own personality and their own interests," Clyne said. "One of the things that I've loved about the SCO is not only their amazing musicians — as a composer it's a dream to have your music brought to life with that excellent musicianship — but in addition to that, they have some really fantastic educational programs."

As part of Clyne's residency, they developed a program called "New Stories," which features three women composers in the early stages of their career writing one piece for seven instruments with the orchestra in their first year, and then a piece for a chamber orchestra in their second year.

"For each of them, it was their first time writing for that particular ensemble," she explained.

It was during the pandemic so it was done via Zoom.

"You can write all the music in the world, but if you're not hearing it come to life as you'd imagined, it's kind of redundant," Clyne said. "I feel very fortunate to work with some amazing musicians. ... It's a real honor to hear my music come to life with (the Scottish Chamber Orchestra) because you know you're getting the best representation of your piece."

She's also worked with the likes of Jess Gillam, Martin Fröst, Pekka Kuusisto and Yo-Yo Ma. Her next piece is an opera, which she is looking forward to.

In 2022 — 2023, Clyne is serving as composer-in-residence with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra starting in the 2023 — 2024 season.

In 2015, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for her works "Prince of Clouds" and "Night Ferry," and her cello concert "Dance," recorded by soloist Inbal Segev of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Marin Alsop, has seen more than seven million plays on Spotify.

Clyne's musical career began when some family friends in London gave them an old piano, with missing keys, she said.

"As soon as I started to play, I also started to compose pieces for my friends and myself to play," she said. "My best friend was a flutist so my first piece was for flute or piano, and that love of collaborating with musicians is still a part of my life today."

Clyne admits that, despite a love of musical composition, she never intended it as a career. In fact, she'd planned to attend college for English Literature, but switched last minute.

"I actually didn't have my first composition teacher until I was 20, which is quite old," she explained. "A lot of young people in their teens have composition teachers so I started quite late in terms of my professional training."

After graduating in 2002, Clyne moved to New York to continue her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, but it wasn't until several years later, when her mother passed away suddenly in 2008, that she realized she identified as a composer.

"My reaction to it was to compose music," she said. "In that creative space, I was able to find a bit of peacefulness and feel a really deep connection to her in that time of a lot of tumultuous emotions. I think that was a moment I knew whenever I'd received a curveball in life, music is what I'd go to so I knew I'm definitely a composer."

In 2010, she had a five-year residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and for the past three years, she's been a composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra beginning in 2019. She's excited to have her piece, "Stride" featured as part of the tour.

"It draws inspiration for Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique," she said. "It's one of those pieces that is familiar to a lot of people."

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra will perform at Goshen College Music Center's Sauder Hall, 1700 S. Main St., at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The tour will also feature Nicola Benedetti performing the Bruch Violin Concerto and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing under their new principal conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev.

Tickets are $30-$35 and may be purchased at the Goshen College Box Office, by email boxoffice@goshen.edu, or by phone at 574- 535-7566. The box office is open for business from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.