‘When you meet the creator of the music, everything changes’ – interview with Leila Josefowicz
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
The contemporary music champion explains the thrill and practicalities of working with living composers, what she learnt from Miles Davis, and why new music should never feel comfortable
Leila Josefowicz is undoubtedly one of the most interesting violinists of our time. Eschewing her early prodigy status and the usual trajectory of performing the same few concertos around the world, she turned to commissioning and performing new music, finding energy and freshness there to sustain her career. She has worked with many of today’s leading composers, and continues to support new talent. I recently interviewed her about her July tour for Musica Viva Australia, but she also had many interesting things to say about her approach to new music and working with composers.
What do you get out of working with composers?
‘It’s a pleasure to collaborate and work with a living artist, as opposed to one you’ll never meet because they died 250 years ago. It’s a different way of seeing and feeling art and music. In school, there was of course so much respect for Beethoven and the other great composers that we all know. But they’re anonymous to us, in a certain way. When you meet the creator of the music, everything changes. I love that. It’s why I do what I do.’
What have you learnt about commissioning music?
‘I try to be clear about what speaks to me, without telling them what to write. It’s helpful for them to know what works best for me and what I have learnt. Every composer is a different universe. The way they write is very individual, and it’s fascinating for me is to see how all these different minds work. To be a composer you have to believe very much in what you’re doing. You need such a strong, convincing inner voice. This is one of the biggest challenge for composers.
One of the joys of a collaboration is to tap into their most positive qualities, as well as what I feel. Somehow, we inspire and influence each other, and give each other energy that generates spontaneity, imagination and creativity. It’s always different. You can never say, ‘Well, this worked for this piece, maybe it’ll work for that piece.’ That’s a dangerous road to go down. Every piece requires something new.’
What are you looking for in new music?
‘I prefer a certain amount of freedom to be lyrical. That means a simplicity on the page, especially when it comes to being able to show off my sound and what I can do within even a single note. If a composer writes trillions of fast-moving notes, that doesn’t give me the opportunity to explore the kinds of sounds I can make. That’s the Miles Davis way: what can you say with a single note? What can change within the period of playing that note? Rhythm and groove have also always been at the rock centre of my playing. There’s a way to contrast these things, to juxtapose them, and that suits me well.’
Can you tell if a piece or a composer is going to stand the test of time?
‘It’s a question that each person would answer differently. Some people need a lot of tonality – I don’t, necessarily. I’m more interested in the strength and originality of the gestures, the uniqueness of the voice. It’s easy for composers to be influenced by other things that have been written – every composer is, in a certain way – but some fight the reaction to fit into a mould. I admire those who invent a whole new language from the first note of the piece. There may be certain influences you can hear now and then, but they don’t rely on these. This takes incredible courage, imagination and thought on the part of the composer. It should be challenging. If it’s not, it’s too easy – for me, too!’
How has the attitude to new music changed since you began your career?
‘It’s changed a lot since the early 90s. On the whole, I think it’s going in the right direction. There are many more performances of newer music now. There are so many different voices and styles. We’ve never experienced it before in music history, in that there isn’t any set of rules that anyone needs to follow anymore. It’s a free for all, where it’s only about someone’s creativity, imagination and skill. It’s not like the Second Viennese School where you have to write a 12-tone row, or anything like that. However, it’s very important for composers today to know the history of where they’re coming from. It shows when they do.’
How has the classical music world changed?
‘It’s been amazing, since Covid, to see the number of young, super-talented conductors who are starting their careers – many of them women. I could never have imagined that when I graduated from Curtis Institute in 1997. Many of them are from younger generations than me, and sometimes they’re learning pieces for the first time – the Berg Violin Concerto, for example – and I’m helping them to get to know these masterpieces. They often say, ‘Thank you so much, I learnt so much from you.’ This is a role reversal from when I was younger, when I was learning so much from older colleagues who had performed pieces so many times.
It’s also good to see the shift in players’ openness to contemporary violin makers. I play a Sam Zygmuntowicz from 2019, which is a robust instrument with a dark, rich tone and so much colour.’
How do you cope with the challenges of being a soloist?
‘You try to enjoy as much of this as you can. Realistically, some days, months and moments in the course of a career are more challenging than others. Everything is constantly shifting. We’re in this for the music: to communicate, to be creative and to have something positive to add to humanity, which we’re all very aware of these days, on different levels. To be able to make something beautiful, and to communicate it as a shared experience, is very special.
I never stop learning. There are always things happening musically, collaboratively, that I apply to my music making, so it’s always something that evolves. As Miles Davis said, ‘Do not fear mistakes, there are none.’ You can always make the best of something you didn’t expect and learn from it. That’s the mentality I always try to keep with me.’
