9:46am | Whether teaching, composing, collaborating, or performing, cellist Carter Dewberry brings a mastery of technique, and an artist’s understanding of music’s subtle complexities, to everything she does. While most often performing in thousand seat concert halls, she’s presenting a rare and intimate local performance at Sipology Village tomorrow, Saturday, January 8th, from 7:30 – 8:30 PM.
When we spoke, she’d just returned from a tour. I asked her to tell me about that experience.
Carter: The first stop was Arkansas. I was there for 5 days, and played two formal concerts, one of the film score + discussion, and one more classical/experimental, including loops, at the University of Arkansas. I also played in probably eight schools, in Fayetteville and surrounding cities, maybe four cities in all. Those were everything from interactive workshops, where I showed them what it’s like on a Hollywood film scoring stage, to me playing and asking for their impressions of the different, weird colors for cello, to us talking about the logistics of being an artist or in a band.
Interestingly, the younger students, elementary through high school, loved it. I got a mixed reaction from the University student crowd. I think the string players, and other classical sorts, thought I was over the top, but the composers, dancers, and a few instrumentalists loved me. Nearly everyone enjoyed the looping. I mixed it up, with everything from a Vivaldi arrangement to numbers from my CD that include drum tracks.
After Arkansas, I went to Michigan and Wisconsin. I visited four cities total over ten days, but I did an extended residency in Greenville, MI, my hometown. All in all, I played seven formal concerts, and worked with students in about 10 classes, with some repeats on multiple days.
In Greenville, it was a huge party from start to finish. I got a taste of what it’s like to be a rock star. I sold out of my CDs, got a really good turnout for two of the shows, [the 1000+ capacity auditorium wasn’t full, but it didn’t look empty either], and saw people I hadn’t seen in years. That was fun. After that, I headed South to play at my old university, Western Michigan University, and then ended up in Milwaukee for a film screening. The film director is from there, so it was like a homecoming for him. All in all, I would call it a good success.
Sander: You come from a background of formal training. Is there resistance, either from audiences or peers, to exploring experimental techniques?
Carter: Oh yes. More from peers than audiences. I find audiences want a great experience. While they may have certain personal tastes, they don’t seem to care about the ‘how’ as much. With musicians, it is a different story. Some are adventurous and open-minded, but others want to stick to the traditions. I like to use the analogy of following every articulation perfectly in a Beethoven String Quartet. I see the merit in that, but I usually don’t personally have a problem adding or breaking a slur if I see changing something they wrote might get me closer to the intent of the music.
Sander: There’s the intent, but there’s also the interpretation, right?
Carter: Which starts getting philosophical., and into so many discussions about the meaning of music, the value of retaining the composer’s intention exactly vs. giving the audience a ‘living experience,’ of the imperfections of our notational systems, which George Crumb loved to throw in everyone’s face.
And you are exactly right. I’ve been asking myself for years what is the performer’s role in the equation. I remember reading Aristotle in High School, when he said something about composers being creators and performers being second rate citizens. [That’s totally paraphrased, of course.] I just remember being upset. I am also a creator! But, after having played other people’s music for my whole life, I started to experience this void where something wasn’t being expressed. I spent years hunting for new repertoire in an attempt to express all of me that I wanted to express. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I needed to write some of it myself. I do still enjoy performing some of other people’s music, but I’ve realized I can’t count on anyone else to know and express me fully.
Sander: As a person, and as an artist, that’s a key part of life… The idea of more fully realizing yourself.
Carter: I agree. As a person. I’ve always encouraged others to realize themselves through expressing themselves in some way, whether it’s by making music, rebuilding car engines, or cooking. I love seeing the light in someone’s eyes when they are doing something they love.
Sander: Sure. But, for you, you have a PhD! You’ve spent many years developing your technique so that the instrument, and your body, cease to be impediments to expression.
Carter: At least sometimes! But the creative process isn’t about perfection, at all. It is true that I have lots of experience in music, but that’s because I want to share it publicly. I do a lot of things that keep me zesty for life that I don’t share with the public, and in many of those I’m a complete amateur. But I still love it. For example, belly dancing, tango dancing, drawing, home improvement, martial arts, and running. In fact, I like deliberately keeping some of these activities for my enjoyment only. Running, for example. I used to train with a friend who got all serious about times after we ran our first marathon, and she saw what was possible for her to achieve. She got competitive. I chose to not follow that path. I’m competitive enough in music! [smiles] I will say, however, that the search for perfection is something I do love in music. I won’t ever get there, but honing my craft on a daily basis allows me to work towards mastery, and I see that I can work towards mastery in my life through working towards perfection in music.
Sander: Isn’t the soloist’s job to create new interpretations of works, either revered or new?
Carter: I see the soloist’s job as breathing their own life into the composition. and that is different from replicating the intent, at least in some people’s eyes. For example, Schoenberg is famous for saying that he doesn’t care about the performance of his music. He cares about the ‘perfection’ he has created in writing the music. I take that to mean that, in his eyes, he wants it just one way, and that he doesn’t want the performer’s artistry involved, at least in a creative way.
At the same time, looking at someone like Mozart, I don’t get it. He was a rebel, and regularly changed his own music. So why many of my peers think it has to be ‘just so’ is baffling. Many of the earlier classical composers had similar philosophies. When we go back to Bach, the instruments were even different.
But, even in working with composers alive today, I see different approaches. Some give so many notes about every nuance of the piece that I feel suffocated. Others may give direction, but they somehow communicate their desire for me to add my own voice to the music. It’s the latter people’s music I like to perform more. [smiles]
Sander: About your compositions, did you develop pieces specifically for the looping system?
Carter: Not exactly. It’s more like I have been hearing things in my head, and I needed the looping program to get them out. I try to write with no bounds to technical feasibility. I use Logic and go at it, but there are certain times when I’ll think of a phrase, and then another, and stack them in my head. Those are the times I know I need the looper.
Other times, I wish I had more hands so that I could create drum tracks on the fly while playing. That’s why, for some of my pieces, I use pre-recorded drum tracks. Not enough appendages, at least not enough to keep the flow I like to maintain. I like to retain a sense of structure, and keep from meandering too much.
I’ve thought about hopping from instrument to instrument, but unless I’m playing something minimalistic or otherwise repetitive, I get tired of the same foundation. As such, I have some pieces that are strictly loops and others that include pre-recorded tracks. My dream is to someday find a DJ who is perfectly in sync with me and do some crazy jams that retain some ‘classical’ structure. [smiles]
The one thing I have gotten from using Ableton is the huge range of sounds available to me while playing my cello. I’ve been experimenting with distortion, chorus, delay, you name it. But then I always go back to liking the unaltered sound of my cello in the end. Someday soon, though, I anticipate I will find a happy balance.
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For more information about Carter, including her available recordings, please visit CarterDewberry.com. Sipology Coffee is located at 448 East Broadway. Art curation by Sumako of LVXEdge.com. Admission is free.