Romanian composer Adina Spire and American composer David S Bateman have joined together to create a new and inspiring mixture for film scores, ballet and the concert hall. Incorporating advant-garde orchestral techniques with choir, solo cello, sound design and live orchestral instruments, they conjure up a passionate and intimate musical palette where the ancient and new collide, overlay and interweave.
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A new piece of ours is available to listen to. It is called Dies Illa.
Collaboration Moderne
For most classical composers, the creation of music is a solitary endeavor. It is not uncommon for a composer to spend months or years patiently mapping and
remapping the terrain of a new composition. How would one communicate that journey, or share the vision of such a work with another composer? Language
gets in the way. Mood and intent are easier to evoke than describe. Personal histories and stylistic preferences may clash.
These obstacles conspire to make the vast majority of classical composers creative hermits; they are forced to labor alone. Down through history, there are but precious few collaborations, and only a tiny fraction are noteworthy.
So when you finally hear a classical composition written by two people done well, it feels a little subversive. It is like seeing a beautiful bird, long-thought to be extinct, land on your porch. One cannot help but ask, "Is this real," and "how
did it possibly get here?"
Adina Spire is a cellist, composer and conductor who grew up during a period of political upheaval in her Romanian homeland. She began playing the cello at the age of four. Although she composes mostly sacred music, Adina Spire's style certainly challenges the listener's ideas of what sacred music can be.
Incorporating avant-garde orchestral techniques with choir and solo cello, she uses a passionate and intimate musical palette to conjure a world where the ancient and the new collide, overlay and interweave.
David S Bateman is a Los Angeles composer who works in the entertainment industry. He studied jazz and classical music for many years, and has mastered
writing in such a wide variety of styles, that he is in constant demand for film and television work. He has studied with jazz pianist Paul Smith, and under
European composer Joseph Kolkovich.
How these two composers, living across nine time zones and worlds apart professionally, could forge a musical partnership and create such seamless and fascinating music together is a story that only fate and the internet could possibly bring about.
Through a chance meeting on a classical music website, David and Adina decided to collaborate on some musical ideas which have produced these first two works Lamento and Juxta Crucem. These pieces are musical hybrids; a mixture of live instruments, sound design, percussion and choir. Both pieces feature the Bezdin Ensemble of Transylvania.