MusicNicoleMitchell

Nicole Mitchell interview by Alpert Award director Irene Borger, and John Corbett, Alpert Award music panelist 2011.

NM

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time by myself in the forest and this connection with nature has been important to me since that time.

My attraction to the flute is directly related to my love of birds. I'm fascinated with the diversity of nature's expression: its power, its mystery, its subtlety, and endless invention. That's really where my fascination comes from in creating. It's the ultimate creativity.

"...Once I have drawn from my sources and absorbed them, I start writing as much as I can...I define myself as an 'inner ear writer,' because I'm hearing the music inside and then translating it from my voice, the piano, my flute or directly to the pen and onto the paper. I write as much as I can and I honor all the music that comes out. I don't edit...I don't ask myself, is this music fitting my intent of what I'm trying to do? I trust it and allow it to flow...after everything is out, then I critique and I choose the pieces that really speak."

From: "Q&A with flute explorer NICOLE MITCHELL" (2008) posted by Independent Ear on Open Sky Jazz

Fear echos questions through your mind
but the Yearning persists and
strengthens in your stillness.

You stand to choose
in a restless field of activity

From When Life's Door Opens by Akaala Redwood Mitchell (Nicole Mitchell)

IB

Could you describe how the working through of fear, impacts - and benefits - your music?

NM

Fear has been a motivator, challenger and subject of my work. I'm fascinated with my relationship to fear. With sounds, my attraction is to reach to the outer edges of what we define as "beautiful" and I may find something rich and perhaps terrifying or obscene. I associate movement and growth with life and living...

Fear of not seeing the Real drives me to keep moving and trying new things. I'm always setting up new challenges, and constantly have to hold my breath and jump in?sink or swim?expanding my artistic expression to meet that challenge. Fear was actually the subject of Xenogenesis and Intergalactic Beings, inspired by Octavia Butler. I considered different gradations and layers of fear and how we carry it.

Fear can be electric and momentary, or subtle, dragging and nagging; it can be familiar or alien. It can cause people to do great or horrific things. How do we respond to it, engage with it, process it? These were questions I asked when composing Xenogenesis.

""The Smell of Fear"" from Xenogenesis Suite

Floyd Webb video commissioned by Mitchell

IB

How does "stillness" (is that silence?) figure in your practice?

NM

I don't believe true silence/stillness exists, because there is always movement/vibration. There is no dead space, only living space. But in a practical way, I need a level of silence to create. Quiet allows me to hear the music inside it. When I compose, I'm really just capturing sound that is already designed in my ear.

Musically, the breath is what brings meaning to sound.

I believe that the quiet and the subtle are qualities of the Source where all creation comes from. Space, rich with life, tunes us in to our inner selves. The breath is at the core of creating sound, especially as a flutist.

I want to leave evidence that "a woman was here," by incorporating my voice with my flute playing...as a woman with a high voice. I have discovered my own signature that relates more directly with the Fulani flute tradition of West Africa. Using my voice with the flute asserts my individual spirit directly into the music. I have created new sounds by singing intervals inside and outside the instrument.

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It can be perceived anytime,
especially when you are watching your breath,
when you are counting the pulse of your blood,
when you are pushing against the forces of life,
or listening for the overtones of water.

From ""When Life's Door Opens"" by Nicole Mitchell

The breath is what brings meaning to sound.

Nicole Mitchell