Classically Speaking

Classical music in West Virginia and Beyond

Other Voices: Composer - Performer Discussion

By Mona Seghatoleslami

· August 31, 2011

Lindsey Goodman

Flutist Lindsey Goodman commissions and plays new music – you can read about her passion for bringing new music into the world in her recent guest post The Call to Commission.

Grant Cooper is the conductor and artistic director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. He is also a composer. Before Goodman commissioned him to write a solo flute work, he had focused on writing music for his instrument – the orchestra.

Grant Cooper

Goodman commissioned Cooper to write a work for solo flute, and he responded with the work Other Voices. (listen here)

That description makes it all sound much simpler than it was. It took an involved collaborative process to take this music from the initial idea (a piece for solo flute) to a completed two-movement work that expresses the working of the human mind through musical transformations.

This spring, Cooper and Goodman came into the studio to discuss the creation of Other Voices, and their approach to the collaboration between composers and performers. Listen to the conversation below:

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Discussion/interview with Grant Cooper and Lindsey Goodman

You can hear Goodman’s performance of Other Voices by Grant Cooper here on Goodman’s website, in a recording from a Charleston Chamber Music Society concert that was part of FestivALL Charleston in June, 2010.

Last Edited by editor at 8/31/2011 4:57 PM Comments (1)