Chat with Classical Guitarist Steve Lin, Part II

In Part 2 of my interview with Classical Guitarist Steve Lin, Steve speaks with me about classical guitar, his passion for modern music, and creating new works for the guitar.

J: Why do you feel it’s so important to commission new music for the guitar?

S:There are two levels:

First, the key is collaboration, and in any good collaboration, you grow and learn as a result. Working with composers is like working with other musicians, except composers tend to hear and experience music differently from performers. One of the greatest things about music is the collaborative process, and we live and learn from each other.

The second has to do with new music itself. We need new music so that we can continue the creative discourse that we as artists are obliged to contribute. New music has the power to challenge our notions and conceptions of what music is and what music can do. I love old music, but as artists, we face a challenge of expressing our own voices of our own generation. It is a struggle that is both frustrating and beautiful.

J: I like how you say it’s a dynamic process creating new works, and that’s great…but as an audience member, the thing I don’t really like about modern music is that much of it simply just sounds weird. What are your thoughts about this?

S: This is a topic for a long conversation, but an important one. There is a lot of bad modern music out there, just like there are a lot of bad restaurants and bad consumer products. Like I said, new music offers both performers and audiences a challenge. Thus, it’s important to ask questions: “Why do something like this?” “What’s the point?” “Could the composer have done it some other way?” The good news is, composers and musicians are actually very accessible and approachable—most anyways—and in most cases we are more than happy to talk to audience members to help bridge as many gaps as possible. Some do things just to be obscure, but more often than not, artists do in fact want to be understood.

Take another analogy: I love stand-up comedy and how random some of it is. In a way, it is similar to new music & art and how seemingly random they are. Some of the funniest commercials are pretty random. If you ever stop on any cross walk and just listen, you’ll be surprised at how crazy the world around you sounds—it’s complex, multifaceted, sometimes completely unrelated, etc. They are sounds that reflect the world of our generation, and that in and of itself is an interesting concept. The most important thing is for music to generate questions and to encourage discussion and new thoughts.

J: I don’t know, Steve. Sometimes I think a lot of modern music is like the Emperor that has no clothes… everyone is clapping because they think they should be clapping, but in reality, it was crap.

Often times it’s really hard to tell good music from bad music. But these are subjective terms. If new music doesn’t speak to you, that’s fine. We don’t hope for everyone to like it, but we do ask that everyone listen to the music with sincerity and, above all, a sense of curiosity.

I guess I’ll just have to trust Steve’s word. Thanks to Steve for speaking to me, and here’s more information about his upcoming concert:

May 10, 2008 at 8PM

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
1600 Santa Lucia Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066
$10 at the door
Directions

His latest CD, Imagen, is available via Amazon.com.