An Interview with Composer
M. Zachary Johnson
Johnson has written extensively for both small and large ensembles. He served as Composer in Residence of the 2007 Austin Peay State University Governor’s Honor Band Festival. He is also the founder of The MZJ Ensemble, a symphonic group based in New York City which performs his larger compositions. The recipient of ASCAPlus Awards in 2007 and 2008, Johnson currently teaches in the Preparatory Division of Mannes College the New School for Music.
BD: How and when did you get started composing music?
When I was a teenager, I was very interested in music but had no formal training. After a lot of urging from me, my family finally got a piano--that's the instrument that really interested me--and then I played on my own; since I didn't have any proper training and couldn't read music yet, I made up my own things to play. They were pretty rudimentary, but looking back on them, I can definitely see the seeds of my style. That's when I first got started composing, informally.
BD: So when did you begin to compose “formally?”
When I entered college, I started taking music classes right away as a freshman. It was then that I started composing in a more formal fashion.
BD: You did your undergraduate at the University of Michigan. Did you know when you got to U-M that you wanted to study music?
No. In fact, I was a business major at first – that’s also an area I’ve always been interested in. But my interest in music dominated more and more over time. It was a very gradual change. I took voice lessons, composition lessons – I tried all sort of things – but it was clearly composition that I was most suited to and most suited me.
BD: What are some of the challenges you faced as a young composer? And how did you conquer those?
A very big challenge for me is that I’ve always been a slow composer. Over time, I’ve gotten much faster, mostly credited to the need to meet deadlines. I’m very meticulous about things, and I tend to go slow.
BD: What kind of advice do you have for young composers?
There are two things really: One is the practical element. Engineering students know that their prospects for income are good upon graduation, but in a field of music, there is always uncertainty – for composers even more so than instrumentalists. You don’t know what people will support, what CDs they’ll buy, or what shows they’ll purchase tickets for. The financial element is really hard. You have to have a back-up plan. I don’t mean you give up music or composing, but find something that runs in parallel with it, like teaching or a part-time job that enables you to do both.
Two is the artistic element. Sticking to the kind of music that is right for you requires integrity. There are pressures from academia and the popular music world to write things that are “accepted.” Having the integrity to stick to your own genuine voice is really something to pay attention to. I write music that is not in keeping with academic modernism and I got a lot of resistance on that when I was in school.
A historical perspective on this issue – the type of style that got institutionalized in academia are a result of people’s choices in the past. That doesn’t mean that’s the way it’s always going to be, or that the future will be shaped like that. What will be institutionalized later depends on what people do now.
BD: Was there anyone early in your life who encouraged you to pursue your passion of music?
No, it was pretty much all me. No one supported me in it, but no one objected. I supposed I should mention that my mother made me play violin in the school orchestra when I was in fifth grade; but I hated it and dropped it. Now I'm quite fond of the violin, though.
My brother was interested in singing from a young age--he's a professional opera singer now (tenor Chad A. Johnson). So there was some influence between the two of us on the music front. Growing up, we played recordings for each other, talked about performers and so on.
BD: You continued your education at Mannes College. Can you tell me how the school prepared you for your career?
I was looking to prepare myself for teaching and composing, so I decided to get a masters degree in Music Theory. Mannes is renowned for its technique and perform program. Going there provided me with musical fluency that other schools could not. It was at Mannes that I really learned, grew, and developed to a professional level. I think Mannes has a wonderful curriculum and wonderful teaching methods, and helps students gain fluency in music in a very optimal way. The program at Mannes was founded by Feliz Salzer, who had been a student of Heinrich Shenker in Vienna, which is the source of the program's virtues, in my opinion.
BD: Who has been your favorite musician to work with?
Brian Horner – he and I have been working together for 10 years and we still get along! We get a lot done. He’s a good player and he’s interested in playing my stuff. We both have musical and business skills. It’s been a very good collaboration.
BD: You and Horner recently released the album, Serenade. How did the two of you connect? Why do you feel your collaborations work so well?
Brian and I know each other from college at the University of Michigan. The collaboration started when Brian heard me working on a piece, asked what instrument it was for, and then when I said I hadn't decided yet, he said if I'd compose it for saxophone he'd be glad to play it. That piece became Serenade, the title track on our album. That collaboration went well. We have similar values in music, we like the same sorts of things to a large extent. So the collaboration continued, with, I think, great results.
BD: Why are you proud of the new CD? What kind of time and effort went into putting it together?
I'm very proud of the CD. For me, it represents the culmination of 10 years of painstaking composition (I've gotten faster over the years, but painstaking is the right word for my process). And it represents a culmination of my collaboration with Brian, including all that I've learned from him about how to use the saxophone, what works well on the instrument, how to notate things optimally, how to handle breathing issues, etc.
BD: What ventures are you currently pursuing?
I have a lot on my plate at the moment. I have some non-musical work to pay the bills, some teaching responsibilities, but I'm also pursuing a lot with my own work. I am composing a double concerto for clarinet and piano for Vovka and Dmitri Ashkenazy, just getting started on an opera, and composing lots of things for my new ensemble in New York, the MZJ Ensemble. We've had two concerts this season, with our third coming up on May 23, and at each concert we perform new works of mine and I talk a bit about the music. It's been a great experience so far and I expect it to get better and better as we hone the group.
BD: You founded the MZJ Ensemble. Can you talk more about that?
Over the past 10 years, I have established a step-by-step program for improving my ability to compose. I started out by writing a piece with a single line and from there I wrote a piano piece and then a quintet…it grew on the number of forces I was calling on. Then I needed someone to play it. You can always hunt down your conductor friends, but at a certain point, I thought, “I know a lot of musicians. Why not put together a group of my own?” I started implementing the group about a year ago and we had our first concert in October 2008. We’re starting out small and building up the repertoire that we have to perform. There are typically 16 players and a soloist of some kind. If any instrumentalists are in NY area who are interested in playing with the group, I’m always open to having new players.
For More Information Please visit http://www.mzacharyjohnson.com/