Composer, pianist and Newcomb Department of Music Professor Courtney Bryan has a lot going on right now: presenting her recent work “House of Pianos” alongside works from Steve Lands and Sultana Isham, and co-founding the Jazz Generations Initiative, which helps connect the New Orleans music community. We caught up with Bryan for an edition of 7 Questions ahead of her participation in “Dialogues” at the New Orleans Jazz Museum to discuss her creative process, her MacArthur Fellowship, and how collaboration shapes her work as a composer and educator.
You’ll join composers Sultana Isham and Steve Lands for “Dialogues” at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, hosted by Tania León, on Thursday, October 29. What are you looking forward to sharing about your music and creative process, and what do you hope to take away from the conversation?
I am very excited about this event for several reasons. Composer, conductor, educator, and institutional builder Tania León has been a hero of mine since my time as an undergraduate at the Oberlin Conservatory when our Black Musicians’ Guild, recently formed during those years, invited Professor León to campus to meet with students. I became a huge fan of her music and spent hours in the Oberlin Conservatory Library listening to her recordings.
Later at Columbia University Department of Music, I reconnected with her at an event and got to know her better. I have had the opportunity to learn directly from her and composer Alvin Singleton as I wrote my first orchestral composition, “Sanctum.” As someone who is personally interested in institution building as well as curating events, I am inspired by her in those arenas as well. So, when she mentioned that she was bringing her New York-based organization Composers Now to New Orleans and asked me to help with recommending composers, I was honored and excited to be involved as a connector and to be invited as a composer.
I am overjoyed that she will moderate the “Dialogues” conversation, and I am proud that the organization I co-founded, Jazz Generations Initiative, will help host a post-event reception at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
You bring your experience as a composer and performer into your teaching at Tulane. How do your own creative experiments and collaborations influence the way you encourage students to approach music, composition and improvisation?
My creative work and my teaching go hand in hand. I bring my real-world experience as a composer and performer to my students, and my experiences in the classroom impact my creative work as well. For example, teaching History of Jazz for the past decade became an inspiration for my piano concerto, “House of Pianos.” It is an ode to some of my favorite pianists across musical styles and eras. Also, a graduate-level class I created, Creative Process, has been an inspiration to me personally in how I approach the creative process. I always try to bring what I’m learning in my music career into the classroom and give my students the best I have to give.
Your new opera, “Suddenly Last Summer,” is based on Tennessee Williams’ play of the same name. How did you approach translating Williams’ work into music, and when can New Orleans audiences expect to see the opera here?
My new opera was co-commissioned by Fisher Center at Bard and Opera Philadelphia. We had the world premiere in the three-week run at Bard this summer, with the Philadelphia premiere running October 22, 23, and 25. I am very excited to join and see this current run, following such a successful run at Bard College. I am looking forward to bringing the opera to New Orleans. It absolutely should happen in New Orleans!
As a co-principal investigator of the Jazz Generations Initiative (JGI) New Orleans, you are guiding the experimentation, creativity, and interdisciplinary explorations. What needs or opportunities in the New Orleans’ music community inspired you to get involved, and what do you hope JGI will make possible?
I look forward to diving into this question more, but for now I can share that we hit the ground running for this grant from the Mellon Foundation. I am blessed to work with such a great team! Dr. Robert O’Meally and I are co-founders of the two-city project (New Orleans and New York City), and I work alongside JGI New Orleans Creative Director Dr. Denise Frazier to shape a lot of the exciting projects we have been doing in the New Orleans community. We have a whole team that makes this work possible, and I encourage people to check out our website to read more about the team and the upcoming events in both cities!
Since receiving your MacArthur Fellowship in 2023, how has the award shaped your creative freedom, the projects you’ve pursued or the directions you’re exploring as a composer?
Aside from the prestige and financial gift that the MacArthur Fellowship gave me, one major benefit of this award was the encouragement of my lifelong love of experimenting and trying new ideas. While I am recognized mostly for my work as a musician and I invest a good amount of my time as an educator, this spark towards realizing new dreams has led to my current focus on curating events and institution building. We learn so much about what is possible when we have room to dream big and take chances, and the MacArthur Fellowship has helped me to dream bigger.
Your compositions often bring together different musical traditions, influences and forms of expression. How do you decide which sounds and traditions belong in a piece, and when do you know a composition is taking the shape you envisioned?
Most of the creatives I am inspired by in music and beyond combine influences organically and refuse to be forced into any box. I take this seriously in everything I do. I am interested in discovering connections, and I believe in finding inspiration from a wide range of influences. As a musician, I have actively avoided being boxed and categorized by others for my whole life. I like to have an honest relationship with my music and see and hear where it will lead me. And I continue to learn through every piece of music I create.
As you move between composing, performing, teaching and community work, how do these different roles inform one another? Has one of them recently changed the way you think about another?
I love being a student of music, and my practices of composing, performing, teaching and community work all influence each other. What I would like to do is have some still moments to consider all the ways this has been evolving in this recent chapter of my life. This will help me know in what direction to take my goals next. At the moment, I am focusing on moving forward, working hard, and trying to give the best that I can.