Interview with Daniel Felsenfeld

     My one on one interview was with Daniel Felsenfeld. The orginial composer I had been contacting stop responding to my emails, so Caroline Worra saved the day and helped me find him and contact him. They met each other during the time with American Opera projects. It is a program where young composers and vocalists get to work together to help create new music. If I end up on the east coast is it a program I will definitely be applying to! Danny was quite a great guy! Jordan and Chris both came with me to talk to him. I primarily asked him about writing opera. He talked to us about the process of finding a libretto. He said one time he tried to tackled the libretto himself and that he would probably not do that again because it was just too difficult. He also once worked with his wife who is a writer and said he was surprised that that ended up working out well. He is very interested in telling stories of women from all times. When I asked him if he often chooses topics from the recent or current time he said it is interesting to him but he does not limit himself to stories from the recent past. 

      He also told us a lot about living in New York. It seems the new music world is its own little subculture of the city. He listed of a bunch of people that he knew and he knew George Lamb who was another composer we met. He said that the city is just an inspiring place to be as a musician, composer and performed. There are so many people doing the same thing as you that it almost feels like a normal way to live, unlike in many other parts of the country where performers also seem to be the outsiders. He said that no matter what you do you need to always be trying to improve your craft in one way or another, which is a really valuable piece of advice across the board. He also said that you are going to have to find other things that you are good at to make money. He has written books and teaches in addition to composing.

    I really enjoyed how down to earth and real with us Danny was. Especially when we asked how he balanced all the things he does for his carrear, having a wife, and a three year old daughter. He said that it was an impossible task but if you want to make it work, then you will do it and that he wouldn’t trade his daughter for the world. A lot of times I feel discouraged about how hard it will be to have a family and a performing life but talking to him made me realize that if that is what I really want, then I will do everything in my power to make it happen. I haven’t talk to Danny yet but I plan to contact him soon to see what he is up to!