Ever since he joined Ottawa鈥檚聽聽as a boy soprano, German-based composer Thierry Tidrow knew he wanted to be a musician. After rehearsing and performing with this choir (as well as five others) throughout his childhood, he ended up exploring composition later as a teenager 鈥� and started down the path that led him to become a finalist in this year鈥檚 inaugural Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers.
While looking back on his formative years in music, Thierry explained that he faced a crossroads when it was time to apply for post-secondary studies. Not knowing that one could follow a career as a contemporary composer, he went to the聽Schulich School of Music of 海角社区聽to study Early Music as a countertenor. After two years of not feeling completely satisfied musically, he switched into composition and hasn鈥檛 looked back since. Seeking musical experiences outside North America, he went on to complete his Masters in Composition at the聽聽and received an Advanced Studies Diploma at the聽.
Though Thierry has taken a step away from early music since his time at Schulich, he notes that studying that era changed his outlook on music. 鈥淢any composers come from a traditional classical upbringing, where there is a sort of fetishizing of the 19th century aesthetic. Although I do love this century (and you might see a little bit of that in my piece, mainly because the piano for me is the ultimate symbol of that century), I feel that many classical musicians don鈥檛 realize how their mannerisms are impregnated by a mythological 19th-century performance practice.鈥�
As a composer involved in a variety of different projects, Thierry鈥檚 most recent work has been especially unique 鈥� the first piece ever written for an聽. 鈥淚 love these [kinds of] weird challenges because they push me in strange directions,鈥� he explained. Along with exploring unique instrumentations such as this, he revealed that he often finds unexpected sources of inspiration while composing. 鈥淢y most unexpected inspiration came while writing a saxophone quartet for an ensemble that was focusing on the Ukrainian crisis as a theme for their concert. I ended up collecting texts from different media sources and asked the players, as they were all from different cultural backgrounds, to speak their texts in a news anchor sort of way into their instruments in their native languages. I then used the instrumentsas a means to amplify, but also to censor and distort the sound and text. I saw this as a type of symbolism for media censorship in the post-truth information age.鈥�
As another project later in the year, Thierry will be writing an opera for kindergarteners for Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Part of the opera house鈥檚 initiative to bring musical theatre to young children, this work will be played around 50 different kindergartens across the region. As this is the fourth opera that Thierry has written, he revealed that opera and vocal music is 鈥渋ntrinsic鈥� to his artistic personality 鈥� although he doesn鈥檛 perform often as a singer, his training in the past led to his development into a vocal-based composer. [Watch聽聽from Thierry鈥檚 鈥渆xistential office tragicomedy,聽My Corporate Identity, which was performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.]
Thierry is enthusiastic to be a finalist in the Graham Sommer Competition, explaining that the hardest part of a composer鈥檚 career is the time between being a student and a 鈥渟easoned鈥� composer.鈥淐ompetitions like these are invaluable to the flourishing of a young composer鈥檚 career,鈥� he added, 鈥渂ecause they facilitate composers meeting new people and presenting their music in different ways.鈥� Luckily for all of the Graham Sommer Competition finalists, the聽scheduled events聽offer plenty of opportunities for networking, artistic growth, and for their works to reach new audiences.
Until then, follow Thierry鈥檚 other activities on聽.
