Interviews

  

Ann McCutchan's book The Muse That Sings: Composers Speak about the Creative Process includes an interview with Lois V Vierk.  Ann McCutchan is the author of six books, numerous essays and articles, and nine music libretti.

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Frank Oteri interviews Lois V Vierk for the New Music Box, web magazine of the American Music Center, November 30, 2007. This transcription by Julia Lu.

Includes topics:

  • From Lutheran Hymns to Gagaku
  • Infinite Pitch Possibilities and Exponential Structure
  • From Multiple Guitars and Trumpets to Tap Dancers
  • Compositional Hiatus
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Robert von Bernewitz interviews Lois V Vierk about many aspects of her musical training and career. 

"An interview with the composer who utilizes her extensive knowledge of the ancient art form of gagaku in her music. 'Every slide serves to move the melody forward. Every slide has a meaning, besides being beautiful.' "

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Jonathan Mitchell interviews Lois V Vierk for National Public Radio's "Studio 360" from WNYC:

"The composer Lois Vierk gives her music titles taken from dramatic phenomena, like Jagged Mesa and Demon Star and Simoom, an Arabic name for a certain wind. So it seemed appropriate that when producer Jonathan Mitchell interviewed her about what she considers beautiful music, the forces of nature intervened."


 

Article

Vierk's article "Studying Gagaku" about her 12-year study and performance of Gagaku, Japanese Court Music, is one of the articles in this book:

Arcana: Musicians on Music, edited by John Zorn

Vierk was privileged to study Gagaku, Japanese Court Music, for ten years in Los Angeles with Mr. Suenobu Togi, and for two years in Tokyo with Mr. Sukeyasu Shiba. Both her teachers, Togi-sensei and Shiba-sensei, are from hereditary families who have played Gagaku, the oldest continuous musical tradition in the world, in the Japanese emperor's court since the 8th century A.D.

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