New for Cascadia’s 12th season is our series of interviews with Cascadia Composer members. Our wonderful host, Antonio Celaya, based in Oakland, CA, helps us gain insight into both the personalities and compositional philosophies and methods of these composers. Learn how both pop music’s layering technique and classical music’s highly integrated structures inform Mike Hsu‘s work. See how Cynthia Gerdes pulled out all the compositional stops in her lively, fun and clever piece, Idaho Toccata Trio, with a nod to Charles Ives. Hear how Cascadia’s founder, David Bernstein, owes much in his compositional craft to Beethoven, Stravinsky and Bartok, and find out what his first instrument was!
Each of Tony’s interviews ends with video of a live performance or two of the composer’s works. We hope you enjoy these glimpses into our composers’ worlds — another unique online addition in this unique 2020 pandemic year.
David Bernstein Interview
Mike Hsu Interview
Cynthia Gerdes Interview