Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • SUMMER 2017 • PAN PIPES 15 D E I J K N O P T U SAI PHILANTHROPIES Dr. Andrea Clearfield, an SAI Honorary Member and member of the SAI Composers Bureau, is an award-winning composer of music for orchestra, opera, chorus, chamber ensembles, dance, film, and multi-media collaborations. She received a D.M.A. in Composition from Temple University, where she studied with Maurice Wright, and received an M.M. in Piano from e University of the Arts, where she studied with Susan Starr and served from 1986-2011 on the composition faculty. Active as a pianist, she has performed with numerous groups, including the Court of the Dalai Lama and has been the pianist in the contemporary music ensemble Relâche since 1990. Her works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad, and her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and G. Schirmer, to name a few. Among her 140 works are ten cantatas, including one commissioned and premiered by e Philadelphia Orchestra. Her 2012 cantata, Tse Go La (At the threshold of this life), for double chorus, chamber orchestra, and electronics, co- commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club and the Pennsylvania Girlchoir, was inspired by her treks documenting Tibetan music in a restricted northern Himalayan region of Nepal. It was this piece that she worked on while staying at SAI's Pan Cottage at e MacDowell Colony in 2011, one of five times that she has been a Fellow there. We caught up with Dr. Clearfield recently, to hear about her experiences at MacDowell, her impression of Pan's Cottage, and her work while there as a Fellow. What is your typical schedule while a composer resident at MacDowell Colony? "I have long been a "night owl". is pattern may be attributed to so many late night concerts or it might very well be the romantic allure of what (at the time) feels like unending and expansive solitary hours to work. At MacDowell I generally sleep in, stop at Colony Hall for coffee and, if I'm lucky, find breakfast leovers (where I gladly replace my mainly gluten-free diet with famous MacDowell home baked goods), take a walk along the woody paths, write in my journal, and do some organizational things. Aer enjoying a tasty lunch (love the soups) delivered to my studio in the legendary picnic basket by beloved longtime staff member Blake, I will begin composing, break for aernoon yoga practice, have dinner in Colony Hall with the other fellows, and continue composing until about 2:00am. If artists are presenting their work in the evening, I'll oen attend as I am interested in, and stimulated by, what my colleagues are creating in their different media." What do you remember of the accommodations at Pan's Cottage? "I was at Pan's Cottage during the summer of 2011. My studio was Irving Fine. Because I like to work at night, I would oen come back quite late to Pan's (which was usually very quiet). What I remember most about my bedroom in Pan's was the light. e room was a magical space at the top of the stairs that had a special lightness to it, with a lovely window looking out into the green. It was small, personal, and the perfect "womb" that I craved aer hours of composing, researching, improvising, problem solving, and listening. I am so grateful to SAI for its generous and visionary role in building and maintaining the lovely Pan's Cottage almost 100 years ago and caring for Edward MacDowell's historic Music Room at Hillcrest. One of my favorite evenings at MacDowell is when Residency Director David Macey welcomes the Fellows to Hillcrest to watch the old MacDowell documentary in the Music Room. Always a special night, we feel a palpable connection to Edward MacDowell and his music, decades of artists envisioning, exploring, manifesting there, and to Marian MacDowell for her tireless efforts in keeping MacDowell going, even during times of great duress. I feel such admiration for Marian and for other great women who have had seminal roles in building colonies A Day in the Life at MacDowell Colony Composer Dr. Andrea Clearfield in front of the Irving Fine studio during the summer of 2011.

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