Pianist Natalia Kazaryan interviews Composer/Pianist Gabriela Lena Frank to discuss her latest album Her Own Wings, compositional language, and career at-large. Both artists studied under Logan Skelton at University of Michigan, where each received a DMA (in different eras).

Her Own Wings

Natalia Kazaryan: Your recent album Her Own Wings (performed by musicians of the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival) tells a story of place and identity, of family and friendship. How has your family background, particularly your multicultural identity, inspired these works, and how did your friendship with the musicians of the quartet shape your musical experience?

Gabriela Lena Frank: Both of these works are a reflection of a period of active travel to Perú with my mom between my mid-twenties through my late thirties. Growing up, I heard many stories from my mother of her young life in her native country, ate the Peruvian dishes she served up at the dinner table, and frequented Andean music concerts that were popular events in the Bay Area in the 70s and 80s. These experiences met my imagination to create a fanciful sense of Perú, and when I finally had the chance to travel, after many years of classical music training, it was a natural artistic homecoming for me to compose music inspired by my cultural heritage. Being able to work with friends just makes it all better.

Recording In A Barrel Room

Natalia Kazaryan: Why did you choose to record in a barrel room?

Gabriela Lena Frank: Oh, I didn’t know about the barrel room until Sasha and Leo told me about it! I heard a concert there and the sound is utterly fantastic. So when they mentioned doing the recording in there, that sounded like a marvelous idea to me.

Gaining Mastery Over The Tools

Natalia Kazaryan: Your unique compositional language has its roots in your childhood. During your Doctoral studies at the University of Michigan, you were inspired by composers like Bartok and Ginastera, and the way that they embraced their culture in their music. How has your formal education helped you gain the necessary skills to tackle large forms, while letting your unique voice shine through?

Gabriela Lena Frank: For any training regime, the imperative is to not let the tools master you, but for you to gain mastery over the tools. Hence, a kind of paradox presents itself if an emerging composer is embracing non-western influences while embedded within a western training program. While there were people in my schools that might have thought what I was exploring wasn’t of interest, others were supportive of my out-of-the box approach to self-education, such as the aforementioned trips. So, it was a balancing game for me, fashioned from personal choices.

Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music

Natalia Kazaryan: What inspired you to create the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, and what are some of the most important lessons you want to convey to young composers?

Gabriela Lena Frank: I never thought of myself as someone that would create an institution, rooted in my freelance persona as I was. Then, my husband and I embarked on a cross country trip from northern California to New Mexico for a summer during the waning months of the 2016 presidential election. I was so disheartened by the economic decline, cultural desolation, and racial strife we personally witnessed. I had already experienced real dismay at how awful the national discourse had become, denying essential elements to our multicultural American identity. I realized that I had to do something. A week after the gig, I was cold-calling emerging composers I knew and performer colleagues to embark on this grand experiment with me. The rest is history.

Creative Leader

Natalia Kazaryan: You are a composer, performer, educator, and a creative leader. What is your secret to productivity?

Gabriela Lena Frank: No secret at all. It’s hard work. And the various roles ebb and flow. Oftentimes, they are one and the same. I also have an amazing support team in my publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc., my personal assistant, and my GLFCAM staff. Without them, I’d be toast.

Natalia Kazaryan: What are your upcoming projects?

Gabriela Lena Frank: Well, like every other musician, due to COVID-19, much of my professional life is in flux right now. I remain the composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra, have a recording in the works on Naxos with the Nashville Symphony, have accepted a fascinating gig with the LA Opera for a digital premiere of a short work with my long-time librettist and collaborator, Nilo Cruz, and continue new programs at GLFCAM, including a soon-to-be-announced distance learning program. At GLFCAM, we are also soon to wrap up our months-long COVID-19 emergency relief program for performers in need (#GLFCAMGigThruCOVID). On the non-musical side, my husband and I have been hard at work to protect our homestead from wildfire. We’ve been held in the grip of this emergency for four seasons now, and the work is never-ending.

Gabriela Lena Frank

Currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the storied Philadelphia Orchestra and included in The Washington Post's list of the 35 most significant women composers in history, identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank's music. Born in Berkeley, California (September, 1972), to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela explores her multicultural American heritage through her compositions. In 2017, Gabriela founded the award-winning Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, a non-profit training institution held on her two rural properties in Boonville, CA for emerging composers from a vast array of demographics and aesthetics. 

Natalia Kazaryan

From Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, pianist Natalia Kazaryan has been hailed by The New York Sun for her “prodigious ability,” remarking that she “immediately established an atmosphere of strength and confidence.” Passionate about programming works by female composers, she recently curated and performed a recital of all women composers at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., a performance The Washington Post named “one of the best classical concerts of the summer 2019.” She reprises the program for “All Classical Portland” (OR), and continues to expand her series of lecture-recitals showcasing works of female composers, including a recent performance with the National Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment (women’s suffrage). She also was recently appointed as a board member of the International Alliance for Women in Music.

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