JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about a creation of yours featured at this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival. Why exactly does it matter to you and why should it matter to your listeners?
ALEXINA LOUIE: For me, writing music is always a new adventure. It is an act of self-expression as well as a special way to communicate with another human being. Each piece offers the opportunity to write a work that not only suits the request from the commissioner (in the case of Lotus III – Tai Chi String Quartet, Jonathan Krehm), but also offers me new possibilities for achieving my artistic goals. In this case, Jonathan approached me to write a new piece for string quartet plus tai chi performers. It is a unique chance to combine two different art forms – contemporary music for string quartet plus an ancient Chinese martial art.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your creations?
AL: It took me many years to find my own musical voice. It was not a linear journey. Part of the act of self-discovery came from my connection to Western musical literature because I was a piano student from the age of seven through my undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia. In addition, I discovered the depth, beauty, and expressiveness of Asian music. This connection became a most important part of finding myself and became inexorably tied to my musical voice.
JS: What causes you to compose or create as you do? Is it because you play a specific instrument, for instance?
AL: Part of my creativity is tied to the fact that I was a serious piano student for so many years of my life. However, it is not advisable for a composer to write in a pianistic style for other instruments of the orchestra! I write the kind of music that I do partly because of what I respond to in music – that which captures my imagination and activates my mind. Resonance is a major component in my music. I often choose sounds that have a lingering quality.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
AL: The biggest challenge for me is finding what it is that I want to say in each piece – to give each piece its own life. Each work is different even though my sound world emanates from the same ‘space’, so to speak. It is also important for me to discover something new even within my own musical voice. It keeps the act of bringing life to a new piece fresh for me as the composer. It’s also important to take risks so you can stretch yourself as an artist. That can be a bit frightening because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t – but you always have the option of revisions.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person working in the arts?
AL: Composing is very hard work for me, but it shouldn’t sound like it is. I throw out many more pages than I eventually keep. I don’t clock my hours. Any piece of music that I write takes as much time as it takes for me to be satisfied with my creation. Even after a premiere or a performance, I don’t hesitate to correct, edit, revise, or rewrite if I feel that the composition needs it.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you create. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AL: My hope is that more people will listen to the music being written today and find a connection between this music and life in today’s contemporary society. Of course, one doesn’t have to eliminate other genres of music or compositions written in the past. I’d love to see people keep an open ear, an open mind, and have a curiosity about music written in the same time period in which they are living. One’s listening choices don’t have to be exclusive (they certainly aren’t for me).
JS: What new works are you working on at present?
AL: I most recently completed Lotus III – Tai Chi String Quartet and have just begun my very first piece for solo flute. It’s a completely different kind of piece. At the same time, I am also in the beginning stages of a new work for orchestra.
JS: What do you yourself like about the music you create?
AL: The music I compose belongs to my sound world — it’s personal and expressive. I find inspiration from many sources and I explore various styles in order to create music that reveals the world around me and the times in which we live.