[00:00:03] Hey everyone Lynn Vartan and you are listening to the A.P.E.X Hour In this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentations onstage. We will also give you some new music to listen to and hope to turn you on the news and new genres. You can find this here every Thursday at 3pm or on the web at suu.edu/apex. But for now welcome to this week's show here on.
[00:00:51] Welcome to the A.P.E.X Hour My name is Lynn Vartan and we are talking about music this week. We've just been having such a wonderful time. My guest in the studio is Marisa Michelson. Welcome Marisa.
[00:01:07] Hi. Thank you. So happy to be here.
[00:01:10] We been having so much fun. I have so much to tell all of our listeners about you and your work and we're going to be playing examples of your work. Marisa is a composer based right now in New York.
[00:01:23] That's right.
[00:01:23] And I have some of your list of accomplishments and so bear with me while I celebrate one of the things that's really interesting about this work which we'll get into is that it's really interdisciplinary music theater choral. We're going to talk about composition music composition coming in and out of your body. She has several awards the group that she works with now which also I can't wait to talk more about is the constellation corer an ensemble for which she is the founder and director and collaborator. And some of her words include her song A Song of Songs Music theater piece one a 2017 Creative Engagement Award from the Lower Manhattan Culture Council. She also is a grant recipient 2018 National Endowment for the Arts 2017 Creative Engagement Award. Jonathan Larson award. American music voices the next generation award and then a grant to study Indian Hindustani singing in India. She's been in residence at the Madame MacDowell Colony very elite. Incredible I'm sure experience which we can ask her about. Blue Mountains center TheatreWorks Palo Alto Montclair University Millikin University and wow you've just been all over sharing your voice as a composer. So thanks for spending the time today.
[00:02:59] Well it's so great to be here. I've been having an amazing time and very exciting.
[00:03:04] Yeah. The reason that you're here is a work that you had written called Naamah's Ark and I'd love for you to begin sort of by telling everybody about this work and the reason that you're here doing this work is that you are working with all of our singers and some dancers and we're going to be going up to Salt Lake Southern Utah University is going to be going up to Salt Lake in January January 4th to perform your work at the cathedral the Madelin and then we're going to be back down in Cedar City January 12th. So tell me what Naamah's Ark is about.
[00:03:44] Yes so Namas Park is called a community oratorio and it was written composed by me and written by myself and the librettist Royce . And this is about an hour long oratorio that was originally commissioned by master voices in New York City for five choirs. Hundreds of singers and had a performance this past June in Rockefeller Park starring Tony Award winner Victoria Clarke and many other incredible incredible singers. And it's an oratorio show that is meant to involve professional singers and professional musicians as well as community members who may or may not have the opportunity to sing before there's a gospel choir. There's a Hispanic choir there's a Jewish choir. The shule choir. There's a drum circle and there's a high school choir and a children's choir. In addition to this kind of main choir and Southern University is taking on many of these roles and the soloists and being the main choir and then well then you all are collaborating with additional community groups in Salt Lake in and around Salt Lake. Oh there's also a call to prayer. So this is an auditorium that tells the story of Noah's Ark from his wife's perspective after they land. Her name is Naamah. And our piece and it's her job to make sure that all of the animals can settle in the new land. And she wonders whether they are going to be able to get along. And this is a container for exploring many different cultures musically and making space for different religious traditions to coexist in the same piece.
[00:05:36] Yeah yeah and community oratorio. I mean that's not something you hear every day.
[00:05:43] Yeah I don't think it's really a thing but it felt right for this piece. And in oratorio has a very classical connotation classical music and there's plenty of classical inspired music in this. But there's also a major folk element and there's like I said before music that's meant to be able to be sung by people of different levels and ultimately the whole thing comes to life only when a community is involved. So in my vision for this piece it's an oratorio for the people and that can be done in various places and by lots of different communities to make music together.
[00:06:25] Yeah yeah. Sort of the vision. It goes beyond the music in that way I mean it's really about bringing the people together. And I know you and I have had a chance to talk a lot this week about your personal feelings about that and the importance of that sense of community and that for you. Maybe music is the vehicle to do it but what you really want is people connecting us especially now. Right.
[00:06:53] That's right. And especially for this piece. This is a vehicle for communally making music communally inviting multiple perspectives voices to have an opportunity to sing and to sing together. So it's not so common at least in the world I'm in that there's a gospel choir singing next to a Schule choir and that at the same time all of the different musical groups are also being part of a piece that is artistically speaking and artistically virtuosic as well. So my my desire was to combine these elements of folk and community with a piece that is full of musical experimentation and inquiry and that felt like a great way to also to also bring communities into conversation with each other through exploring music. They probably haven't really explored before. There's a lot of elements in this that are not usual.
[00:07:56] and one of the things that you sort of just alluded to is that you know as a as a modern living composer we tend to the music that's written in the new music world tends to be very complex very virtuosic but maybe doesn't have that community or that that that sort of deep spiritual plays the same way and then the community music or you know maybe doesn't have that. So it really kind of trying to bridge those words.
[00:08:30] Yeah I do sometimes think of myself as a bridge or not that I have accomplished being a bridge but that that's a space I am attempting to create and occupy and that's a bridge between musical styles a bridge between classical and folk a bridge between virtuosic and physical. And it's true that for me at the center of all my work there has always been probably always will be but you never know the kind of spiritual longing at the center of it. And this piece is a biblical story of course and it does reach for transcendence in the music. And so in a way it's kind of a ritual of creating a spiritual experience that ends up being sung by by all of these different cultural religious groups coming together in one moment to create a new spiritual experience.
[00:09:35] Yeah yeah I love that. And so. So now you know I wanted to kind of start by talking about the work and the reason you're here. Now let's backtrack. That's a very fully realized place. I feel that you're really in touch with and connected with. Tell us a little bit about how you came you know how did you get from there to here in your own story. How did you evolve to this point where this is what you're doing and how you're doing and why you're doing it.
[00:10:10] Where kind of spiritual inquiry is at the center.
[00:10:14] Yeah and because I know that you you started composing very young and so I know you've you've had this conversation with me but for our listeners kind of how you sort of origin story.
[00:10:28] Yeah yeah I started playing classical piano when I was 4 years old and I I loved piano right away I loved it I loved practicing. I was interested in making up my own songs. And at the same time I was also performing and singing and musical theater. As a young person and as I as I grew up I became more and more interested as you become a teenager and angsty music and I was writing. I was writing music that was potentially I mean inspired by Tori Amos who is my hero still is. And I was also performing and acting and actually and I don't think I've actually mentioned this yet but I went to NY use graduate musical theater writing summer program as a 15 year old and that's when I kind of got the idea in my mind that one could write a musical. I had been writing either classical music or my own my own kind of version of angsty folk. And I enjoyed that because as an actor I was interested in embodying different people's perspectives so that became something I was exploring and I wrote a musical about McCarthyism that was ended up becoming my independent senior project in high school. So my school I grew up in Amherst Massachusetts was super supportive of that and then we performed that musical. And that was a big experience for me. I remember just you know it's a lot to hear all of your music performed by so many people out loud. And it was also totally filled with anxiety. I wanted it to be so perfect and it was not perfect. And I would run out of the room and I would just cry in the bathroom.
[00:12:26] Oh no.
[00:12:27] But that helped me start to learn from a young age that I how to engage with the process in a way that wasn't going to be so painful. I've had to learn that lesson again and again and again and again in every project I work on. Yeah and I kept going and writing and it's my journey has taken me more and more from the world in which I was born which seems like the musical theater world and more and more into experimental abstract spaces and more and more into my body. And inherent to me has always been a deep kind of emotionalism and a deep seeking seeking for for Spirit. And one thing I remember when this piece I wrote this with this experimental musical called Tamar of the river which was produced by Prospekt Theatre in New York City and starring Margot Seibert. I remember when when in a workshop of that happened in DC. One of my parent's friends saw it and I think she said something to my mother like Marisa has so much deep spiritual yearning in her. Doesn't she and my mom told me that and I remember in some ways that was that made that verbalized an experience I hadn't been verbalizing was as natural to me that there's something you know I'm seeking that is of the spirit.
[00:13:57] Yeah. And then you say you went to India.
[00:14:02] I did yeah. I went to India and I studied Hindustani singing there. When I was around 21 or 22 I think and that was hugely informative and I loved it. I wish I could remember and just pop out now for you. URANGA me singing I got to get on that because.
[00:14:21] Oh I would love that.
[00:14:21] I know I know I can I don't it's like I don't have a good long term memory maybe but that was that was a transformative experience and fascinating to get to know music in a different way.
[00:14:34] And you said that when you were there you sort of went to study music a little more generally and then just kind of found a teacher.
[00:14:44] Yeah I was super disciplined human my whole life and kid and I went with. Somehow I went to this residency in India with this idea I was going to be writing music every day I even dragged my my keyboard with me into a crazy person. Never will do that again. And once there I just had a super strong experience of I'm in India. I gotta I gotta get out.
[00:15:18] Yeah.
[00:15:18] Can't write anything I can't write anything I can't I can't absorb and create like I can only absorb right now. And so I felt like how can I stay with with this grant and still do music. And it was so obvious I had to do this music I had to learn this music and so I found a teacher through. I don't even remember somebody I'd met. And he was amazing.
[00:15:41] And he didn't speak any English. So how did the lessons work?
[00:15:43] So how did the just demoed to me. He would bring his harmonium and he would just sing and he could say a few words and he would indicate. Now you do it. So he would yeah. And that's kind of how it just went.
[00:15:56] That's amazing.
[00:15:56] Yeah. So I didn't learn any theory of Indian music it wasn't like that at all it was just a very experiential process of let me sing this music with you.
[00:16:04] Well speaking of your singing We have some musical examples and I think we'll start with them. This is an excerpt from the third movement song of Song of Songs. Do you want to tell us a little bit about what this movement is about and what's going.
[00:16:20] Yes. So this is a piece that's part of my desire divinity project which is ultimately going to be three parts part one right now is Sophal fragments taking the poetry of Sappho and setting it to voice and movement. And part two is sung a song of songs. So I have used a translation that I love and I've been using that text and also writing some of my own and also devising a little bit of text with my ensemble constellation core. That group is the ensemble. This piece was written to be performed with and in this third movement the piece in an abstract way goes on a journey from the from the kind of more traditional to the unconventional from the front from the classical in a way to the contemporary and from hetero normative to queer. That's the idea behind it and in this movement the text that you'll hear is from Song of song saying bind me. Now I know you. If I'm a wall and my breasts are towers for my lover I'm a city of peace. And that text is taken up by various members of the group and sung in different ways and there's lots of movement happening and there's some improvisation as well. So yeah.
[00:17:45] All right well let's have a listen. Against the third movement EXCERPT FROM SONG AND Song of Songs.
[00:20:17] OK well welcome back. So that that you just heard was song the third movement excerpt from Song A Song of Songs and the composer is Marisa Michaelson who is joining us in the studio today. And this is the A.P.E.X Hour you're listening KSUU Thunder 91.1 Welcome back Marisa. Thank you both for being here. That is such a powerful. I mean it's so beautiful.
[00:20:42] Thank you. It's a pleasure to perform. It's a real moment for all of us in the group to come together. I just like to say in addition to me singing solo there you heard Heath Saunders and Patrick Creegan and Aubrey Johnson was the woman doing the kind of crazy. At the end there. She's a friend of mine and a fantastic singer.
[00:21:07] It sounds like you were saying that her range is just spectacular.
[00:21:12] Off the charts.
[00:21:16] Well one of the things that I've been really fascinated to learn about and it's like so excited about is this your group the constellation corps. Tell me how that group came to be so it came to be a kind of many small miracles and the first the first initiation of it came from my time at McDowell actually. So I went to MacDowell after Tamar of the river which I think you're going to hear a little bit of later happened off Broadway in New York City. And then I had gotten another commission to write a piece called the other room with librettist Mark Campbell. And so I did that piece and that felt like a real busy time for me and one piece right after the other and I was I needed a way to get out of the city and kind of reflect on everything that had happened it felt like a real turning point in my life as an artist. It felt very obviously to me at the time and it still feels that way today that coming to the end of tomorrow. The river was like the end of an era. Wow. For me like it was like the end of Part One of my life.
[00:22:28] Did you recognize that at the moment or.
[00:22:31] So it felt so.
[00:22:32] That's so interesting because usually Upon reflection though so.
[00:22:37] I remember even telling my dad at one point like I've written my magnum opus and he was like not definitely don't say that you're like five years old but it felt to me like that piece was The culminate tomorrow. It was a culmination of everything I'd ever been born to do and to write. And I was completely satisfied with it musically honestly like I felt it accomplished what I had set out to do and it was a great expression of everything I was looking for as a musician and artist to that point. And then I knew I was going to go off into another direction but not one that was divorced entirely from from that same path. I'd been on the same lineage but one that was just starting something new. So sometimes I feel like I was at a very high level at the where I was and I was then going to start writing pieces that might be at a low a lower level you could say in the new the new path that I was going on. So it felt like not to me at the time and then I needed to get out of the city and reflect and write. And I thankfully thankfully got into MacDowell and then... So I had kind of which is in Wyoming I had a total of basically two two and a half months or three months out of the city. And that was a deep soul searching time for me to go inward and think what is next and what do I want and do I want to write another piece like tomorrow or do I want to even write anymore. Why do I want. And I never felt like a clear answer came to me while I was on these residency. But for some reason it came to me after and it never came to me like a light a flash of light. It was just I got back to the city after this this time and suddenly other things were clear and happening.
[00:24:32] And for people who might not know you know a composer residency like McDowell or like we know what those are. But for the general population that I mean you're you're really a loan for a chunk of time often.
[00:24:47] Right. Well I love being alone. I will say but I. Yes. So a residency is a place where you apply to go. Generally I mean you can have your own residency as well. But and then you are given a studio with a piano or if you're a visual artist with materials or room to paint and your taken care of you're given three meals a day. MCDOWELL They leave your lunch for you outside of your room and ask it every day. Her Yeah it's it's incredible. And I have to say you know being an artist is not generally being super supported in a luxurious way. And I really it was so transformative to feel like people are here setting up an experience for me to just be as creative and full as I can be like that's that's what they're want. They're trying to make it make my life as easy as possible so that I can go deep and create art. And there's something about that kind of support that feels just magical and is so so supportive and so not normal.
[00:25:58] And you didn't. The isolation because I know other composers I've known other composers who've done MacDowell but you didn't feel isolated.
[00:26:07] I mean were you at all but you also can you see everyone tonight for dinner ever everyone needs dinner in the same place and breakfast. But no I will say I've I've always been a person who has a high tolerance for solitude. I just always loved. And he also loved being around people and super extroverted and introverted. but I in order to get to make my art that is to me comes from solitude. So I'm never bored and I am I never have nothing to do and I never feel like I have enough time like I've never felt like this is too much. Cause I always feel like I can go deeper. Yeah. So for me no know that wasn't a thing.
[00:26:48] Well I totally went off on a tangent. I'm curious about those. It is an interesting thing. But then you got back. Well yeah.
[00:26:56] So at MacDowell I started to come to me that I I some kind of germination of this idea about an ensemble. It wasn't like I want to have an ensemble it was like How can I create work in collaboration with other humans and how can I experiment in the ways that I want to experiment with people who I trust and respect. And so when I got back a couple things magically came into place. I reached out to some of my trusted collaborators. A few come to mind. Chad Goodridge as someone who's been part of the ensemble from the beginning and someone I've already worked with for eight years or so and Tamron Goldberg who was in tomorrow and I reached out to my friend Shawn Shaffner just people who I'd had these working relationships with and asked at first if they would be willing to just come to my room once a week and play with some Saphire and they all said yes and Troy Anthony actually at the time was one of the people. And so that was that was great. I was just like hey let's come let's have a drink and play. But then at the same time for some reason I had been interested in space at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. It's right on Washington Square Park. It's a historic space that has been. Oh it's a working active church extremely progressive extremely committed. And at the same time it's also been a supporter of experimental arts since the 60s. So I kind of I don't even remember it was another small miracle I reached out to Micah who is one of the ministers there and he is also an artist and I think there was an opportunity somehow to to be involved in his magic time program which is give some resources of support to create a piece to perform on Wednesday night magic time. Yeah it's called Madrona highlights another little magical moment. So that was when I was able to manifest song of song of songs. And then out of that I talked to Micah about could we come here every week. My group of collaborators and I. And he said yes. And that's so extraordinary because in New York City that's just very difficult to come by. And not only did he say us but most people in the group wanted to commit to this and camote starting at 8:00a.m. on a Friday which for performers is not really prime time I guess exhausted and it just it just kind of happened like let's just play together. Let's just let's just play let's just how does this feel. What do we want. What are we like. What if we try this. Do you all like doing that. If I give you this material OK. No what if we try this and then it coalesced into a more formal entity where I feel like the the process was has been very organic unlike other areas of my life where I have fought very I feel internally like I've fought super hard a lot of what happened here came soupert manically and then flash forward in time and we ended up performing in the premiere at the New York Philharmonic of Ashley furious piece with the new conductor up on stage and in just a month ago. Yeah. So it's just one of those things that.
[00:30:35] These collaborators now. I mean you had the original collaborators which I'm sure some of them are still with you and you've added more people. How do you choose these people what is special about these individuals are you looking for in your band.
[00:30:50] Yeah. First and foremost I'm looking for energetic alive ness and kind of vibrant spirit and sense of presence. Also playfulness curiosity and the and the desire to try things and go deep. First and foremost that and then also that there's a discipline in which a person is very passionate whether it's composing or dancing or singing or I don't know acting. And there has to be a level of virtuosity in a field. But the first and foremost kind of consistent thing that I'm drawn to for people is a sense of their authentic alive ness as I see it yeah yeah.
[00:31:50] I love it. but we have two sort of short examples. and that's just a quick minute as one of your is it come out of one of your Friday morning sessions.
[00:32:03] So every Friday. Now we actually make a 1 minute video for Instagram.
[00:32:08] Oh that's awesome.
[00:32:09] It's actually become fun. It's become a real joyful interesting fun artistic part of the process. And what we do is Chad Goodrich who I mentioned before he comes up with the visual idea and films us and we have and I take one of the people. We always record ourselves improvising each week and I take one minute clip of our improvisation and either just use it as is or add some effects to it. And so what you'll hear is improvisation and I wish you could see them but you can go to Instagram.
[00:32:44] And these are on Instagram but they're also they're also on the constellation core websites.
[00:32:50] And for longer videos on it as well and more of our lengthy work.
[00:32:53] Yeah and Constellation core constellation as you would expect it to be spelled and then c h o r dot com constellation cor dot com. Well let's listen to one of them. This is Hugh meana. This is one of the Constellation chor Friday performances. It's just a quick little excerpt and we'll have a listen. And here you go.
[00:33:53] The OK so that was humane and the Constellation core improvised and directed by Marisa Michelson
[00:34:28] And if you really want to check it I mean there are beautiful images. Does an amazing job gather all the faces of the performers with emotions like that.
[00:34:38] So again that's consolation chor.com One of the things with the Constellation cause I'd love to know what are your future plans or as much as you can tell us what are you working on right now. You've got the Friday meetings.
[00:34:52] Yeah yeah. So the ethos of consolation chor is about a kind of performance practice and I want to be clarifying those principles in writing. And for all of the members of the ensemble so that we can all own them more and more clearly and be able to teach those principles or make it easier to invite in new members. And because constellation chor has been such this unfolding experiment one of my primary intentions with it is to just make sure in every moment that any project we're part of is super in alignment and that there's like a 50/50 relationship between my action and the universe meeting us back. So one of the things that seems to be happening is that there is this group wants to collaborate with other musicians and that and other groups. And that seems to be coming so there's a couple of things I can't talk about but that are in the in the future as far as how was our ethos and our group going to meet this other groups ethos and whether I'll be composing for that or whether someone else will. Yeah all of that is up in the air and we are in consolation core as a group as a group that improvises consistently as a practice as a communal practice as a as a point of view as an ethos as a KM commitment to being in the world as an improviser. So it's kind of a practice for us and hopefully could become a practice for many people. And I believe that having that consistent practice makes composed work that we do so much deeper and stronger that to have a kind of company of humans who meet regularly helps to bring a deep life to whatever projects were part of. Also there is a kind of bigger project sense that I have for the group so I I like to write things that are at least an hour often that evening length pieces that are epic kinds of pieces. So more than just doing individual songs were not that kind of group where a group that dives really deep into an aesthetic and ethos and then works very hard and and in a committed and subtle manner on on more lengthy projects. So we have a couple of things even all the way into 2022 I think yeah that we're going to be just diving into and developing and working on. Yeah.
[00:37:50] And so we kind of want to go back in time a little bit to Tamar because we have a couple of great. And one example that we would like to play is traveling which I know is a little bit of a departure from what you're doing now but certainly has fueled who you are. And so the excerpt that we have is is traveling and we're going to try to play that. Can you tell us a little bit about.
[00:38:13] I mean yeah and connecting it to constellation. Like I said I work with. I like to develop long term relationships with people so Tamron Goldberg and Jenna Niah are. You'll hear them they're singing in this traveling music and they are also currently in Constellation chor and that's where we met was doing Tamar of the river. So and this is actually already the main seed of what I was interested in which is vocal textures and voices and what the voice can experiment with and do in groups is already the main thing that's happening tomorrow. The River Tamar of the river is about this woman Tamar this young woman who is going on a journey to bring peace between the warring lands of east and west and she believes she's the prophet that she's been called to do so by the river. And then the river is sang and danced by 11 12 people. And so so everyone you'll hear in this is the river singing to Tamar in traveling music. It's when she has just finally decided she has to leave her home and venture out to the west. And this. So in this piece the river is being kind of guiding her where to travel and she goes up a mountain and that's where you'll hear John Oh. And then there's moments where she arrives at a clearing in the forest and you'll hear that I think reflected in the music. And then finally she's looking for the source of the river for the river's source to hear what it has to tell her. And that's what you'll hear at the end. And just one more thing. There's amazing pictures you can find on my website and I just want to shout out to chase Brock who is an incredible choreographer and choreographed this this piece.
[00:40:06] Great. OK well this is traveling music written by Marisa Michelson from Tamar of The river
[00:45:16] Well welcome back everyone. and that was we were just chatting about how beautiful that is. I mean it definitely has a musical quality and again that's traveling music from Tamara on the river by composer Marisa Michelson who's in the studio. Welcome back. Thank you. Yeah.
[00:45:32] Of the river. And that was Margot Seibert. You heard her friend and student of mine and she played Adrian and Rocky on Broadway. She's an incredible actress singer.
[00:45:41] Yeah it does have a musical quality would you say that that one is your work. That's the most like a musical.
[00:45:50] No actually the one that was produced after that kind of recently. One thousand nights and one day I would say even most like a musical although in just different ways Tamar of the river has a more traditional narrative and less traditional music and 1000 nights has a kind of excitingly chaotic narrative jumping back and forth in time and the music that I wrote for that piece which was written by Jason Grote is also called upon a bunch of different genres but are very securely situated in musical theatre writing like here's a song here's a song.
[00:46:26] I see.
[00:46:27] There was also a lot of electronic music in that one. We're going to record that when there'll be a cast album at some point but no this one was I just feel like I was taking all my forces and interests which were off in a lot of experimental voice and new music and channeling it very clearly into writing a musical into this form.
[00:46:47] I think well we when I have the show I talk a lot about about people's process and about their writing process and I've had a chance to speak with you a bit about this fascinating part of your process which is so body oriented in your composition. This writing from the body and the body. Can you talk a little bit about how that works.
[00:47:14] Yes yes. For a number of reasons I felt I needed to move away from sitting either at the piano or at the computer in order to create music partly my body actually revolted. And I couldn't do it. I was I had too much physical pain. I needed to be moving. And also I felt that I was I felt somehow I was cutting myself off from the life force that I wanted most deeply when I was sitting still for so long in one place inside.
[00:47:46] Yeah.
[00:47:46] So I wanted to take my writing outside and I wanted to take it into my body and I wanted to make sure I was bringing my wholeness and my body with me wherever I went. As a writer that that's what brought me into voice and I use a process that involves kind of mindfulness meditation often allowing a is an external something outside of myself whether it's let's say a color or a plant or let's say it's it or you could also consider an idea something external something that sparks my imagination is something external a smell a touch allowing the external to act on my internal state through mindfulness and then allowing inviting a kind of impression into my whole body spirit mind psyche and allowing that impression to build in intensity and energy until it comes out of me as Voice Movement. And then that is that is and then play and then continue playing in that arena so that I am feeling like I'm in touch with the essence of the thing I'm exploring with my own body and voice. And then after doing that I will take a step back and reflect whether in with words or with images or thinking and see what it was that was coming alive in my voice and body. And once that's present then I can go and do the hard work that I still have to do of sitting at the computer and putting it all into the different Stobbs and you know making sure that that everything is going to work together and.
[00:49:27] It sounds so integrated. I mean it sounds so organic and so integrated and so so pure.
[00:49:35] You know it's like an attempt to get back to a kind of purity that was actually an intention I made for myself in going to MacDowell. I was very clear I even had a birthday party and invited all these people so they they remember they were in my room when I said my goal right now is to get back to a kind of bravery and purity that I've felt as a child.
[00:49:55] And you had a birthday party sort of celebrating that desire for the year or that intention.
[00:50:00] Yeah.
[00:50:01] That's so awesome.
[00:50:03] Yeah it was great.
[00:50:05] And do you have those people kind of hold you accountable was that .
[00:50:09] No I didn't. I just it was to me it just manifested it kind of expressed it very clearly out into the space.
[00:50:15] I love that.
[00:50:16] I wanted to do and it was actually a first action of being brave to have to share in front of a lot of people like I don't feel I'm as brave as I want to be and I want to be braver and so and pure is another word and I don't think I have so far to go and it's more that the process is one that I'm continually just attempting to enter into. I'm I don't do it perfectly. I make mistakes all the time but it's like a kind of signpost for me a goal a way like it's an anchor setting that I can connote like a process I can love and aspire to yeah and play with.
[00:50:56] That's beautiful. I have two more questions. One is do you have any advice for people who might want to be exploring this intentionality or were exploring perhaps some things. I mean you know it seems like you went at it pretty instinctively or directly maybe. What advice do you have for for anyone who might want to do some of this work like composing work or like intention work whatever field I think they feel mean or whatever you'd like to offer.
[00:51:29] Sure I mean I sometimes I feel like I can't give advice ever because I just don't feel like everything is so individual and we're all coming from such different background right. I feel like if it's possible to really combine discipline with with seeking like like use your ability to be disciplined to discipline yourself towards towards finding ways to explore spaces that are not so held in the current world we live in. So it's not necessarily like everyone's like oh yeah this is my three hours to just turn off all of the Internet and phone and just you know try to commune with the spirit for my art. Like that's not necessarily something everyone is talking about it's not common. So I would say if that's of interest to you. in some small way then just discipline yourself.
[00:52:27] I just love discipline seeking. I feel like that could be something I could paint on my wall. You know I love that.
[00:52:34] Yeah Yeah.
[00:52:36] Thank you for that. So my last question is some some of our listeners favorite question is what's turning you on this week. And so this can be anything it can be. It doesn't have to be related to your work. It can be and we've had everything from people saying like a Bravo TV show cast to a book to a magazine to an article to a writer to to whatever.
[00:53:01] Yeah.
[00:53:02] So I ask you Marisa Michelson what's turning you on this year.
[00:53:05] I mean the first when you say that the first thing for some reason I'm just going to go with my first impulse yes improvisation. Yeah is Radiolab podcast is just killing it lately and particularly there are three part series. No no. Serious and oh.
[00:53:27] OK.
[00:53:28] Which I think is apropos for our time right now. With the all the #metoo movement. And I think that they dive into it with so much smartness and sensitivity and wideness of perspective everyone's voice needs to be heard. Men women people of all genders like we're not at war. We're trying to find a way to be together. And that series made me consider things and cry and also feel hope and learn stuff. And I would recommend it.
[00:53:58] Fantastic. So that's radio Radiolab and it's the No series in particular. Everything they do is great and it is awesome. Well thank you so much for that. Yeah that's pretty much all the time we have for today. So I'd like to thank my guest again Marisa Michelson. We are so excited to be performing your work I can't wait.
[00:54:17] And this is such a pleasure and I love podcast.
[00:54:21] Well and the podcasts of course is widely available and if you're interested in hearing more about the production of Naamahs Ark here in Cedar City you definitely can check out our Web site which is suu.edu/apex Or the College of performing and visual arts. suu.edu/pva Or suu.edu/music whatever when you can remember or think of those performances will be in January and if you're interested in Morrises music and want to know more about what she's doing she has a website. Marisa Michelson dot com and then the group that she is the founder of Constellation chor dot com also.
[00:55:04] So thanks so much Marisa. All right well sign up for this week and we will see everybody again soon.
[00:55:13] Thanks so much for listening to the A.P.E.X Hour here on KSUU Thunder 91.1 Come find us again next Thursday at 3pmp.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus. Find out more check out suu.edu/apex Until next week. This Lynn Vartan thing goodbye from the A.P.E.X Hour here on Thunder 91.1
