WINNER OF THE 1998 Pulitzer Prize for music for his second string quartet, "Musica instrumentalis," Aaron Jay Kernis writes ardent, inspiring lyrical lines in works that explore spiritual quests, make political statements, and riff on pop music.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and its music director Marin Alsop will play his newest orchestral work, 2005's "Newly Drawn Sky," contrasting its atmospheric beauty with the terrestrial inspiration of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony. Violinist Timothy Fain will also join the BSO to play Kernis' "Lament and Prayer."

» EXPRESS: You've written pieces in very different styles throughout your career.
» KERNIS: Within the small culture that is contemporary music, I feel often there's been too much emphasis on doing one thing, having one voice. I've just followed my instincts, done whatever I thought I needed to do, and at times I've thought, "Where is this going?"

At the same time, a lot of my works tend to have similar construction, to return to a home key. There are certain things that tend to happen at the end of pieces, an arrival point or a revelation somewhere in the piece.

» EXPRESS: Has your music been performed in the D.C. area?
» KERNIS: Not much. But Marin has been doing my work at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and some other places for a while. I'm absolutely thrilled to be included in [her] first season. It's a great season.

» EXPRESS: Can you tell me a little about "Newly Drawn Sky"?
» KERNIS: I had the title of the piece in mind for a while. It comes from a time the first summer after my kids were born. I was walking on a beach in Far Island, in Long Island, and my kids were five or six months old. The sky was changing from a little blue to pink and purple. It was very windy, carrying my kids around the beach, and I had to walk another mile to get back home. And it really hit me that my life was completely different from this day. Something about that change in light. Color has always made a big impression on me, physically.

There are some transformational aspects from which the musical material was developed. The middle of the piece is very relaxed and very lyrical, like summer evening music. About two-thirds of the way through, there's a big buildup of wind sound and the percussion section of the orchestra — it sounds very much like an echo of nature.

» EXPRESS: "Lament and Prayer" is a little bit darker-hued.
» KERNIS: It has some contrasting sections, but mostly very elegiac, pensive. [The two pieces are] very close in the melodic writing, which is an essential part of my work, even though the harmonic language and approach is a bit different.

» Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda; Sat., 8 p.m., $21-$84; 301-581-5100. (Grosvenor-Strathmore)

Written by Express contributor Andrew Lindemann Malone
Photo by Kim Pluti

Posted by Express at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2007
Tagged in Entertainment , Grosvenor , Maryland , Music , Top Stories