Fascinating composer Sarah Kirkland Snider recently released her Mass for the Endangered as a type of call for action or consciousness about the environmental crisis the world faces. In a very special interview, pianist and scholar Natalia Kazaryan chats with Ms. Snider to gain greater clarity on this new recording and her life as a highly-respected female composer.

Natalia Kazaryan: It’s very rare today to see a new Mass. What inspired you to revive this centuries old, highly spiritual form for a modern message?

Sarah Kirkland Snider: I wish I could take credit for the idea to write a Mass, but that belongs to composer Danny Felsenfeld, who together with Julian Wachner at Trinity Wall Street Church in Manhattan had the idea of commissioning five composers to re-imagine the Mass. They asked us to retain the original Latin text for the Gloria and the Sanctus/Benedictus (for possible use in their church services) but other than that, we were free to do whatever we wanted, on any subject, with any text. I asked my friend and frequent collaborator, the poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, what he would want to write on, though I knew what the answer would be: endangered animals and the global environmental crisis. Nathaniel and I share a deep love of the natural world — it's something that inspires creativity and spirituality for both of us, about which we've written before (in our song cycle 'Unremembered'). And, of course, the environmental crisis is arguably our greatest existential threat. I loved the idea of taking these ancient modes of musical worship intended for human self-reflection and using them as a prism through which to worship, celebrate, and eulogize non-human life forces. Like the traditional Mass, we decided we would plead to a higher power for mercy, forgiveness, and intervention — but in our Mass that higher power is not God, but Nature.

NK: What challenges did you face in honoring musical tradition while staying true to your multi-dimensional, genre-crossing musical style, and how did working with the Gallicantus ensemble inform some of your musical decisions?

SKS: I actually try hard *not* to think about issues of style and genre as I'm composing. I find that if I worry about whether an idea is "too classical" or "too poppy," I can get stuck very easily. So I focus instead on what matters most to me: creating a vivid, sharply-profiled narrative, and the communication of honest emotion. Before starting the Mass, I did consciously strive to open the gates in my mind between the Western choral tradition I grew up singing and all of the non-choral vocal popular music I grew up listening to, so that I could focus my energy on best serving Nathaniel's text, regardless of what part of my musical background the ideas came from. In terms of working with Gallicantus, I had written five of the six movements for the premiere with Trinity, but once I knew Gallcantus was on board, I got inspired to write a sixth movement, Alleluia, to highlight the men's voices, which Gallicantus does so beautifully (before this Mass recording, they were a male-only group.) But I did generally revise all of the movements with Gallicantus in mind, striving to take maximal advantage of their pureness of tone and attention to detail with regard to the text.

NK: The Mass is a call for action to save our planet. Can you talk about the genesis of your inspiration to shed a light on this issue through your art, and what role do you think other artists can play to bring more awareness to the environmental crisis that the world is facing?

As I mentioned, the environmental crisis and disappearance of biodiversity is something that Nathaniel and I, like many people, are extremely concerned about. It's a topic on which we both have strong feelings, so the ideas flowed quickly. While I suppose the piece is ultimately a call for action — we would be humbled if it inspired greater consciousness or action — I'm not sure either of us approached it that way artistically. For both of us, it began more as a love letter to the natural world — a space to reflect, grieve, and eulogize. I think a lot of artists who care about the environmental crisis feel helpless to make change with their art — it's easy to say "what difference will it make?" So the art becomes a place to reflect, in part, on these feelings of helplessness. What we tend to underestimate is that if the art speaks to someone, it actually can make a difference. I know that I have been moved to live my life better by specific pieces of art and music. So I would definitely encourage artists who feel passionate about any social issue to pursue it in their art and believe in its power to move the needle. But ultimately I believe that artists should write about what moves them. That gives the art the greatest chance of creating a meaningful connection with another human being, which is equally important for world betterment.

NK: Who are some of the most important figures that have influenced your musical and entrepreneurial spirit?

SKS: My husband, Steven Mackey — he is a composer whose philosophy of art-making, open-mindedness, and independence of thought have influenced me perhaps more than anyone else. My dearest friend and mind-meld collaborator, Shara Nova, and my colleagues at New Amsterdam Records, William Brittelle and Judd Greenstein, have all profoundly influenced the way I think about music, art, and community. Beyond that, I drew a ton of inspiration in my early 20s from non-classical female heroes — Sleater-Kinney, P.J. Harvey, Sarah Dougher, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rachel Grimes — who were just the balm I needed whenever the classical world felt a little exclusively old-white-male. I then got to know the work of Julia Wolfe, Meredith Monk, and Annie Gosfield, and felt very inspired by their examples.

NK: What was your inspiration in co-founding New Amsterdam Records, and what sets it apart from other record labels?

SKS: Our inspiration was to create a home for the classical misfits, a place where composers and performers could pursue projects that fused diverse musical interests and influences without worry as to whether they fit within a certain aesthetic mold. We were fresh out of graduate school with very little institutional support or name recognition, and we wanted to create an artist-friendly, community-oriented label that would support new and emerging artists like ourselves. These days we have a wide diversity of artists in various stages of their careers, but we only release music that has not been previously recorded, which keeps us firmly in the "new." One thing that sets us apart from other labels is our business model: we allow artists to retain the Master recording, we don't "sign" artists per se but work project-to-project, and we give artists 100% of sales revenue from their albums,

NK: What are your upcoming projects?

SKS: I'm working on a chamber opera about the 12th-century composer/mystic/abbess/polymath Hildegard von Bingen. I'm writing the libretto myself, based on Hildegard's texts, which is something I've never done before — and it's my first opera, so it's all a bit intimidating. But I'm enjoying the challenge. Down the road, I have an orchestra piece, a work for piano and choir, and some other projects, but the opera is where my head is at the moment.

Sarah Kirkland Snider

Recently deemed “one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classical composers” (Pitchfork), “a potentially significant voice on the American music landscape” (David Patrick Stearns, Philadelphia Inquirer), and “an important representative of 21st century trends in composition” (New York Classical Review), composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “poignant, deeply personal” (The New Yorker). With an ear for the poetic and the architectural, Snider’s music draws upon a variety of influences to render a nuanced command of immersive storytelling. Of her orchestral song cycle, Penelope, Pitchfork‘s Jayson Greene proclaimed: “Snider’s music lives in…an increasingly populous inter-genre space that, as of yet, has produced only a few clear, confident voices. Snider is perhaps the most sophisticated of them all.”

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.