Freya Waley-cohen
When meant to be practising the violin as a teenager, I was always improvising. My mum suggested I went on a young composers’ course in the US. It was a really cool place. There were people doing all sorts – an American country trio came by, and jazz musicians from New Orleans. Composer Pauline Oliveros ran a deep-listening intensive fortnight. It was really different from growing up playing Haydn’s String Quartets.
As well as being my teacher, Oliver Knussen was a mentor and a friend. He was incredible on orchestration, and brilliant at seeing what you’re trying to achieve. I’m writing a 25-minute orchestral song cycle, and in one lesson we spent a couple of hours going through loads of poetry. We talked about text and ideas, and listened to different ways that other composers have used them. I really wanted to write a piece that was spatialised in a way.
I mentioned it to my sister (violinist Tamsin) and an old university friend who happened
to be an architect. We applied to Aldeburgh Open Space, and that’s where we developed Permutations. In the end we had a space with six separate chambers. Each one had these amazing invisible speakers built into the wood of the ceiling, playing one of the parts. You could adjust the acoustics of each part in myriad ways.
The relationship between the listener and the creative process is so important. It’s about how being a spectator can be transformative rather than passive. Immersive pieces don’t exemplify my work, but Permutations pushed me to listen and think in a different way that now seeps into my traditional concert music.
Being asked to write a piece for the LA Philharmonic is a dream commission. It came out of the blue, and I have very little clue about how they found me. I’m writing for 16 players, and I’ll have a lot of freedom with musicians of that incredible standard. John Adams will be conducting it.