In conversation with Erin Jorgensen, violist Melia Watras talks about work as a performer and composer, Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s new work written for her and SMO, improvisation, the viola and her musical interests.
EJ: So, where did you grow up?
MW: I was born in Hawaii, but I moved all over. I spent a lot of time going to school at Indiana University, because I did my undergrad and I did my masters’. I think now I’ve lived longer in Seattle than I did in Bloomington. But these are the two places I’ve lived for most of my life. My husband and I, we had the [Corigliano] quartet, we went to New York after Indiana. So we were at Julliard, we were concertizing, so we just stayed in New York and then moved out here.
EJ: Did you study composition as well?
MW: I took it as my cognate when I was in school, but when I was at Indiana I was more inspired by my teacher Atar [Atar Arad], who was a performer who was composing. So that really opened my eyes. He had finished his first string quartet while we were there, and I was in a quartet coached by him, and playing his piece. And seeing that process from his perspective really influenced me. I call myself a performer/composer.
EJ: Do you think you do equal amounts of performing and composing now?
MW: It’s been a balance I work on. So I’m trying different ways. I am enjoying composing so much that I am composing more, and I have a lot of great colleagues who are very kind to play my pieces.
EJ: I watched a bunch of them online – is it mostly for strings?
MW: Yes. I did write a piece for percussion and viola. Everything has a string instrument somehow associated so far. Yeah, that’s just my world…Nobody has heard them yet, but I wrote some vocal things. But yeah, I’m from that string world.
EJ: Have you worked with composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia before?
MW: I have not worked with him one on one – I became aware of him when Cristina [Valdes] and the Seattle Modern Orchestra brought him out to play. And I was playing on that concert too. And I was playing a piece by Feldman, and he studied with Feldman.
EJ: I listened to some of his music online and it’s really – I have a real affinity for that kind of – I haven’t listened to all of it obviously – kind of like looping, a little bit – not repetitive – but you know, it kind of expands –
MW: Yes! He expands time. It slows down from our daily lives for sure.
EJ: I really like that. I had that experience actually listening to one of your pieces today.
MW: Oh cool!
EJ: Yeah. It was great actually. I just noticed how, sometimes when you listen to music – I was having a very anxious day, and when I went back to practice I was like, “oh, I feel so much better!”. They were really beautiful – I was curious about some of the improvisatory [pieces]. I didn’t do a ton of improvisation, so can you talk a little bit about where your head goes and what kind of parameters you have?
MW: Yeah. I think improvisation is so important for performers, especially if you want to be a composer/performer. For composers, you get a lot of material that way. But I use improvisation for my students in many different ways. So one thing I did this quarter that we were experimenting with was, traditional scales can become – you get locked in. So you see it in a piece, and you use that fingering, you use the sound, but it doesn’t always fit the piece. So my teacher, Atar, had us play scales from pieces. So I had them choose a scale from the piece they were working on. And then they took that scale and they did an improvisation where that scale appeared three times. And that it could have some reflection of the way it was in the piece, and it also could just go off into its own thing. And it was pretty amazing what they came up with. I find it so helpful to then go back and play the written piece, because then you have the different angle to think about that same scale.
EJ: So did he [Garcia] write it [the clouds receding into the mountains] for you?
MW: Mm-hmm.
EJ: Cool! So…how is that process going?
MW: It’s great! I mean – every composer/performer relationship is different. Some people like to give you a finished piece, some people want to work on it with you…He basically gave me a finished piece, and asked for some thoughts, just little things here and there. It’s a beautiful piece.
EJ: Can you just talk a little bit about the viola and what you love about it? And why you played it?
MW: Yes! I love all sorts of things about the viola. I’m happy to talk about it. I love the viola for its tone. It’s the instrument that doesn’t fit in the violin/viola/cello/bass sort of world. I guess bass also kind of had its own thing. But what I mean to say is, in the creation of the history of the string family, violin and cello were with set parameters. Violin especially. It’s going to be a certain size. The viola, when it first came out in the Baroque, there were actually two. There was an alto viola that you played on your chin, and there was a tenor viola that you played like a cello. And those two instruments existed for a while, and it caused the viola to not have a set size. So we can go from 15” up to 17”.
EJ: Still?
MW: Still. We don’t have – like violin – the exact parameters. But that means that we have a lot of variation. We have a lot of variation in the sound production as well.
EJ: I mean, not the viola [vs the violin] but – different sizes of the viola, within the viola that exists now? There is a difference in sound?
MW: Yes, a lot. Really different. Because not only do they vary the length, they vary the width. And then people are coming up with all sorts of shapes and stuff. But yes, mine for example is 16” because I can’t really play bigger. But it’s wide. So it sounds like a bigger instrument. But you can have nasal, you can have metallic, you can have woody, you can have all these sorts of sound possibilities in the viola. And I liked that it’s not set. And violin used to not be so set as it is now. But it got set from great performers, you know…Lots of people talk about when Heifetz was king of violin, Heifetz had a sound, Szigeti had a sound, Francescatti had a sound, Oistrakh had a sound. You would hear it and you would know, oh, that’s Oistrakh. And then it became more codified after that. Well, luckily viola is not codified!
EJ: Can you talk a little bit – it’s hard to choose a favorite, but I mean – what kind of music are you, for playing, what kind of music are you most drawn to? Is there a genre, or maybe even like favorite pieces, or a feeling, or…?
MW: Well, yeah, I could list quite a few things I love. I’ll name some. You know, when you’re playing a concerto, one of the best things – I love the Martinu Rhapsody because he just put that in our wheelhouse. So he put it in a place on the instrument that we can just crank and sound amazing. And it’s fun. It’s amazing, soulful music. So I love playing that. I was just working on improvisation with a chamber group right before I was teaching Alessandra [Alessandra Barrett], and I was telling them to listen to Lutosławski ’s String Quartet, so I had Lutosławski on my brain. And I adore Lutosławski. He’s one of my favorites. I think he just sort of broke things open. As a violist I have to give a nod to Hindemith. I feel like he was pivotal. He was also a composer and performer and he gave us so many sonatas that, again, it’s like he knew what he wanted to draw out of the instrument. So – they’re amazing. But really I love so many things. Mozart Sinfonia Concertante – that’s classically perfect in a way.
EJ: Do you prefer playing contemporary over classical? Or are they both just like…
MW: I play more contemporary. If you’re a violist and you don’t like contemporary music, you’re playing the wrong instrument. Our repertoire is heavy in contemporary and 20th century.
EJ: Is that when people kind of started taking it seriously? As like, “Hey, this is a solo instrument.”
MW: Yeah! Like, we were the neglected one for so long that we would play the new composer’s work. So they were like, “Oh! Let’s write for that! Because they’ll play it!” I’m sure there were other reasons, but that was part of it. So I do heavily play contemporary music, but I love playing any good piece of music.
EJ: So it doesn’t really matter. Do you feel like there’s a different way that you approach music that’s contemporary versus classical?
MW: One hundred percent. And I talk to my students about it all the time. We must approach classical differently than contemporary. The bows were different, the instruments were different, the strings were different…it doesn’t mean we have to play it in a period style, but we should acknowledge what was happening there. Alessandra just had her lesson, she’s playing two contrasting pieces, Stamitz and Bartók. So 20th century and a classical piece. So we’re looking for elegance and refinement in the Stamitz, and then the Bartók – the sound can be post-Romantic, so there are Romantic moments, but Bartók obviously is heavily influenced by folk music, so searching for that folk quality with the more laser sound as opposed to the lifted, clipped sort of sound of a Stamitz concerto.
EJ: This kind of gets into the next question that I wanted to ask you, I’m very interested in the body, especially in playing percussion, but I’m wondering – first of all, when you’re talking about grace and elegance versus more attack – obviously you think about it mentally, but you’re probably thinking about it physically as well?
MW: One hundred percent. Yeah. You have to change your bow arm, you have to lay into the instrument. I personally feel that even Schumann, even though it’s Romantic, it still requires more caressing of the instrument. Whereas you need to have a sharper start – well, it depends on what you’re playing – but yeah the bow arm, the vibrato, the weight of the bow, the attacks of the notes, all of these things change. And in contemporary music, it changes for the composer…I’m going to approach Orlando’s piece with no attacks. I’ve just started learning, so this may change, but this is my initial feeling. But going for the timeless aspect by not having such abrupt starts, but having long lines that evolve as he shapes – you know, he sort of morphs these long lines.
EJ: That makes a lot of sense. It kind of connects with – I feel like when I was in school, there was almost kind of like a disconnect between your body and your brain. I mean, it’s everywhere, in life! But I’m kind of curious if there is anything you do outside of playing to stay healthy or stay more in flow, or like – what are your tricks?
MW: I take Pilates, and I walk. But 100%, I have to – the viola is big to have on your neck. We often get TMJ. So I do stretches. I know some gentlemen who are just naturally strong. They don’t have to do anything. But I think that’s unusual. For people my size, I think you have to be in shape.
EJ: It’s a serious thing, I was thinking! To be like this [imitates playing a viola] all the time.
MW: And your body is contorted, you know. Because we’re approaching the instrument this way, so the right side of your body is slightly forward. Yeah.
EJ: Ok, I’m going to just ask you one more question: what other kinds of art do you like? Just so people can kind of go down a little rabbit hole and learn about other stuff, it doesn’t have to be music.
MW: I love all art. I love books, I love literature, I love paintings, I love the ballet. I love everything. So, whatever is inspiring to me.
EJ: For your pieces, do you feel like there is anything specific that you are inspired by, that you specifically notice?
MW: I’ve written pieces based off of literature, I’ve been inspired by photographs –
EJ: I saw that Tolstoy one, was that –
MW: Yeah, the Kreutzer. That one is super cool because it has a lineage. Not just from the book, but music. So Beethoven wrote the sonata, and then Tolstoy wrote his novella based off of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata. And then Janáček took Tolstoy’s book and wrote a response, basically, in response to Tolstoy’s novella. And then there are films…so, those are the first three, and then I think it just splintered. That was super cool, because I took the two pieces, the Janáček and the Beethoven, and took the themes that were morphed, and then I made third morph of those themes.
EJ: Is that what was happening? Was there a live improvisation in that piece?
MW: The piece I wrote was not improvised. But Mike [Michael Jinsoo Lim] and I did do an improvisation based on Tolstoy at that same concert. – Edited by Jeremy Jolley and Michelle Cheng
Melia Watras will perform on Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s the clouds receding into the mountains for solo viola and ensemble on April 14, 8 PM – GET YOUR TICKETS ONLINE
Seattle Modern Orchestra is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike.