Interview with Yaz Lancaster

Tell me about your piece and the inspiration behind it.

yesterday, today, tomorrow, the next day, sets Cavafy's poems "Monotony" and "Outside the House." It draws from my routine and recurring daily walks around Harlem with my little dog Nori. Multiple times per day, we take routined paths through our neighborhood and pass by the same buildings, parks, and stores. However, we have also built community with our neighbors, have unexpected encounters with other dogs, and occasionally take detours that bring us to experience our neighborhood in new ways. The piece incorporates field recordings from our walks and training; as well as samples of local birds, jingling keys and collar tags, and ginkgo leaves collected from the sidewalk. It is written in a modular, guided improvisational style that allows the performers to evoke meaning in repetition as well as unexpectedly introduce new gestures, timbres, or ideas; working to express the feeling of finding newness in the quotidian. It was written for the 2023 Hildegard Commission at National Sawdust, in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation and their digital archival of Cavafy's work.

More: https://www.nationalsawdust.org/articles/yaz-lancaster-hildegard

What does your creative process look like?

My creative process is really centered in collage and fragmentation. When I am writing a new piece, I always start on paper– I like to organize ideas into a timeline which becomes the overall form of the work. Over time I forage for inspiration literally anywhere– other types of music, visual art, poetry, film, conversations, everyday life, science, etc. Once I have a general idea of the main concepts of the piece, I start writing the actual music in Sibelius and/or Ableton.

What do you enjoy about composing?

I love putting seemingly disparate ideas and inspirations together to create a piece. It's both like a diary entry/snapshot of a specific moment in time, and like putting a puzzle together. I also love the experience of collaboration and social interaction/intimacy that comes with writing for/with and performing with others.

What advice would you give to composers early in their careers?

You don't have to wait to do what you really want. You can do it now.

Follow Yaz at:

Instagram: @yeehawyaz

Website: https://www.yaz-lancaster.com