Composer Mara Gibson completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. Her compositions span numerous media, from chamber and solo works to electroacoustic music and a collection of works that combine video, electronic music and live performance. Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Gibson taught at the UMKC Conservatory and is now on the faculty of Louisiana State University where she is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Area Head with tenure.
ASN: You recently released a portrait CD, The Music of Mara Gibson: Unseen World. Can you tell me a bit about the process of making a portrait CD? (e.g., how did you record it, fund it, find distribution, etc.)
MG: This is my third portrait album. After I write and record several pieces, I try to release them around a concept; this one was inspired by visual art—paintings and lithographs—and nature—birds, bees, snow and breath. Since I view performers as partners in the process, we have an equally vested interest in recording new pieces. I am very grateful to work with people that I share a synergy with, and everyone featured on this album is a musical colleague and friend. Their mastery of their instruments helps me to write music for them specifically. Every single one of the players on the album connects to LSU.
The project started with Escher Keys which I started in 2020. I received a very competitive ATLAS grant through the Louisiana Board of Regents that enabled me to: put together an orchestra, hire a videographer and stellar engineer to record this “dream project” with Darrel Hale, my former colleague at LSU (he is now at UNT). I had written him one other piece in 2019 (White Ash), and fell in love with the bassoon and Darrel’s playing. Our first performance was cancelled due to COVID, but we got an excellent recording by Mark Morette who we were able to bring down from Buffalo, NY (one of my old stomping grounds) to record the project. Also, we recruited Scott Terrell, at that time our new orchestra conductor at LSU, to conduct. It was a challenging project. Hard music, new musicians and a big idea. Scott did a great job at bringing the musicians together with limited rehearsals. My aim in writing the piece was to create an aural conundrum like Escher’s visual puzzles.
Right around that time, I also wrote Fight||Flight for Atlantic Brass Quintet who were scheduled to come to LSU in 2020, but delayed, again due to COVID. Seth Orgel (French horn) was also my colleague at LSU. Seth and the ensemble helped me realize the effect I was looking for—buzzing bees. Fight||Flight melds two sources of inspiration: the eponymous human stress response and the process that honeybees go through when making honey. Seth and the ensemble and I literally figured out stuff over Zoom. It was an entirely new way of working for me. Finally, the quintet came down to LSU in 2022. They played it more and then we met again at Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs in 2023 and decided to record it. They recorded something truly masterful.
Pranayama (2021) was commissioned by the duo of a former LSU composition student, Thomas Kim, who received his DMA in clarinet with a minor in composition. A painting by Anne Pearce (a longtime friend and exceptional visual artist) was a starting point, combined with yogic breath practices. The Sanskrit “prana” refers to the universal life force, and “ayama” means to regulate or lengthen. The piece was a part of a CMA digital residency and has been performed a ton by Melody and Thomas and others. It is centered around breath.
Snowball (2021) was commissioned by an LSU trumpet student who as an honor’s college student proposed a wonderful initiative to commission female composers at LSU—my students and I were all part of the project. Mine was a study on mutes. Hollyn’s teachers Jena and Matt Vangjel, also dear friends that date back to my Kansas City years, agreed to work with me on an arrangement for two trumpets which helped make the mute transfer more seamless. In 2024, when they were expecting the birth of their second child, just before moving back to KC, recorded the piece just weeks before his birth. They have the most magnificent sound together.
Finally in 2022, Swansongs, which I also composed for LSU students Eduard Teregulov and Albina Khaliapova, as a part of a women’s program, was inspired by the Swedish visual artist Hilma af Klint. This piece also, we took around and has since been played by several others. Eduard and Albina recorded it in Fargo in December 2023. They now work at Concordia College in Minnesota.
In 2023, Mark Morette approached me with the idea of an album after we got such good reception from Escher Keys. Like the performers on this album, I have Mark to thank for pushing the idea. Mark mastered all the recordings from many different places. Anne Pearce painted the album cover which speaks to the textural nature of the music. Olivia Lucas, my colleague in theory at LSU, helped me edit the liner notes.
I funded the album through faculty funds and good will. I wrote all these pieces free of a fee or monetary commission. I do not do this often, but these collaborators are special. We all believed in getting the work out, and so I paid the recording engineer fees, and they recorded in exchange for the piece. This is an unusual situation that only works with exceptional collaborators.
ASN: The pieces on this CD, like many of your pieces, are inspired by visual art. What about visual art excites you and drives you to create music?
MG: Visual art excites me like poetry and nature excites me. It is different from the language I know, and it enhances my experience and allows me to craft a narrative that connects with my emotional landscape. It is a deeply personal process for me.
ASN: You taught at UMKC for over a decade and have now been at LSU for almost 8 years. Why did you make this move, and how was the transition?
MG: I made the move because many things changed in my life. My composition colleagues and students at UMKC were stellar and still inspire me every day. They shaped my creative and pedagogical philosophies. LSU provided an opportunity to build a new program already rich in history. It was the right time at the right place for a shift. There was synergy (the theme for this interview). I love working with my colleagues and students at LSU, as I did at UMKC. It was a difficult decision to make, but it was the right one and I knew it in my heart.
ASN: You’ve noted that LSU’s composition studio has tripled in size since your arrival in 2017. How does the recruitment process work? What advice do you have for faculty who are seeking to increase their numbers?
MG: Like composing, building a studio of composers requires thinking about aligning one’s own vision for making music with a group. Young composers need support. I am a facilitator. I hope to encourage everyone’s artistic voice to speak. My job is to help balance the mind and heart with making music that resonates in the student’s voice while building a toolkit. I structure an environment that allows everyone to feel welcome and safe above all. I try and help create opportunities as I have learned to do in my own career. Students must believe that it is in their own bounds to make stuff happen. It is amazing to me that both and UMKC and LSU, it just requires compassion and craft, and listening, lots of listening. Like following a path in anything, if there is a will, there is a way. I try to instill a will and passion for making music. Tools can be taught. Finding those with a passion, drive and are willing to collaborate make successful studios.
From my teaching philosophy:
“By actively practicing what I encourage my students to do, students discover a fundamental skill for music and scholarship: how to learn through doing. Teaching students how to ask questions and find solutions is more valuable than teaching textbook facts. In creative fields, the answer is most always found in the question. . . . My job as a teacher is to structure learning experiences that challenge students to pursue wisdom, growth in judgement and the ability to discern their musical choices. I aim to inspire in students a sense of purpose; I aim to stimulate them to work hard and make critical appraisals of themselves, their peers and the community around them.“
These principles guide the larger group. When students are modeled these skills, they share them amongst themselves, and a healthy studio is born. Recruitment then becomes a natural consequence of a healthy and vibrant studio.
ASN: Student readers might be wondering also: What do you look for in potential composition students? (How) does this differ between considering undergraduates and doctoral students?
MG: I look for an artistic hunger and will. We can fill in the gaps (we all have them in our training) and that’s why we go to school. If there is a hunger and a will within a comfortable/safe environment, it happens. We focus on building a collaborative space where everyone can contribute and thrive. Undergraduate and graduate students have different skill sets, but the approach is generally the same for me.
ASN: How do you balance your creative life with faculty duties? And what do you do to stay energized?
MG: That is an excellent question. I will not lie. It is hard. Many might say, I probably allow myself to get too caught up with my students, but I believe the balance serves both my own creative situation and teaching equally. I cannot be a composer without teaching/sharing and I cannot teach without my own creative goals. Surrounding myself with excellent colleagues, performers and students allows me to be my best creative self. It is a balancing act. I see the struggle, but I do not see it as an either/or situation. I see it as a balance of both.