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What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?
There are lots of pieces of art, particularly music and literature - that have influenced my life and development as a musician/artist. And naturally all of it has been incorporated into the voice that I have found as a composer and musician.
Especially when writing, but also when performing music; I rely on my natural instinct for finding the right balance and natural development for the piece I am working on. The right balance, the right blend of all the ingredients; harmony, melody, rhythm, tone, sound, dynamics, etc., is essential.
When I first discovered Dvorak's string quartet in F major "The American" I was still in my teens, and I listened to it every night for many months. It was the first time I really listened to something that was so complete, so balanced, so playful, yet intricate, and so full of expression. Composed and performed on such a high artistic level, and because of it's depth and intensity I was able to connect with it again and again, every night, and continue to be amazed and experience it over and over again on an emotional level.
I think what this piece of music did for me, was to set a standard for how good a piece of music, and a performance, really should be. And listening to this piece so many times, probably helped form my intuition for when the right balance, in any given composition I am working on, has been achieved, and what it takes to get it there; and intuitively know the right direction and natural development of the composition when I hear it.
A native of Denmark, bassist/composer Anne Mette Iversen has brought elements of European classical music to the New York jazz scene over the past decade. Her strings swing, especially on her Brooklyn Jazz Underground disc, Best of the West, which comes highly recommended. Iversen's new release, an ambitious double disc titled Poetry of Earth, matches 18 English and Danish poems to her uniquely engaging brand of chamber jazz. Iversen and her band (including saxophonist John Ellis!) play selections from the disc at An die Musik this Sunday at 5 pm and 7 pm. All tickets to the 7 pm show are just $10.
