Ep. 30: Interview with Oliver Dubon

Welcome to Clexical, the podcast dedicated to contemporary classical music! I'm your host, Kweku Poku. Here you will listen to conversations with living contemporary composers about their work, their journey as musicians and their thoughts on the current new music scene. Join us as we explore and influence the vibrant world of contemporary classical music. To learn about our work, please visit www.clexical.org/ You can find the videos of all the interviews we've done so far, all the outreach programs we've done with the schools and libraries, and our well;y blog posts discussing the current new music scene. Today's podcast will be conducted by Jean Park. Today, we spoke with composer Oliver Dubon, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Oliver did not grow up in a traditional classical music environment. He played tuba in his high school band, listened to genres such as hip-hop and indie rock, and originally entered college intending to study computer science. His interest in composition developed later, especially after meeting a composition teacher at Pomona College to shape the way he thinks about music today. Oliver described a creative process that often begins with pencil and paper. Rather than immediately writing notes into notation software, he sketches structural ideas, maps and visual shapes that show how a piece might unfold over time. He is interested in taking a small musical idea and transforming it in many different ways. In his piece Tomorrow, for example, a single C gradually expands into increasingly dense and saturated chords before returning to the original note. Through this process, Oliver explores ideas of resonance, density, tension and catharsis. Another major focus in Oliver’s work is improvisation and the relationship between composers and performers. He is interested in giving musicians more freedom to make creative choices during a performance, describing this approach as a form of “organized disorganization" or spontaneous composition. He is also increasingly interested in theatricality and physical space, including how performers move through a stage or audience and how those movements can become part of the composition itself. Oliver also shared his thoughts on the current contemporary classical music scene. He believes that some new music can become overly academic, while other music can become too simplified in an effort to be accessible. Instead, he argues that composers should create work that is both complex and deeply human while still taking the audience seriously. He emphasized that listeners should not be underestimated and that composers should trust audiences to engage with nuanced and challenging ideas. For young musicians and composers, Oliver offered two especially important pieces of advice: build community and know your history. He encouraged students to listen to music with friends, make music together, and keep the experience enjoyable. At the same time, he stressed the importance of studying earlier composers and understanding the tradition that contemporary musicians are building on. For Oliver, strong craft, historical awareness, and an individual artistic voice are all essential parts of creating meaningful music today.