Grete Pederson, artistic director and principal conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival, creates programs illuminated by her fascination with sound. Sounds of all sorts, from gorgeous melodies and strange dissonances to the quiet language of snow.
KAZU's Lisa Ledin spoke with Pederson and the festival's executive director, Nathan Lutz, about this
season's theme,"The Nature of Sound."
Lisa Ledin: Grete, last year [the festival's theme] was Dialogues—music, past and present and conversations. [It's] something different this year. Explain "The Nature of Sound" and how this works out.
Grete Pedersen: Yeah, we're really going into, you know, trying to get into the cell of what the sound is, and starting from there. And sound can be so many different things. It's common for all of us that we have sounds all around us that we are overwhelmed.
![Carmel Bach Festival's executive director Nathan Lutz [l], KAZU's Lisa Ledin [center] and Artistic director Grete Pederson in the KAZU studio](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/1cab812/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5712x4284+0+0/resize/840x630!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F26%2F85%2Ffd50e3bc469bbb4f3e2ce8b78acd%2Fgrete-lisa-nathan.jpeg)
Lisa Ledin: Nathan Lutz [and Grete], you work together.
Nathan Lutz: Yeah, that's one of the best parts of my job is getting to work with Grete and understanding her approach to programming. It's been really fun to explore this theme. I've loved thinking about how sound can create a sense of place. So we've programmed pieces like [Copland's] Appalachian Spring, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Those also can create that sense of place and calmness and inspiration.
Lisa Ledin: Grete, also Haydn's Seasons.
Grete Pedersen: Yes, yes. One of these masterpieces. Within the Seasons.
Nathan Lutz [in conversation with Pedersen]: you've programmed a piece by a Norwegian composer.
Gret Pedersen: That's true. He wrote it for me and the Norwegian Soloist Choir and Ensemble Allegria for Haydn's
Seasons. It's written exactly for having these two pieces together. And the text is 18 words that the Sami people, the Lapland, you know, have for snow. They have actually 300 different words for snow. Because that's what they have around them so much of the time. And it's important how they explain the snow, right?
Click the audio player at the top of this story to listen to the interview or read the highlights below. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
On this year's festival artist-in-residence Angelica Negron:
Lisa Ledin: Speaking of sound, we need to talk about Angelica and what that will bring as far as surprises.
Nathan Lutz: We're really excited to work with Angelica Negron this summer. She's been inspired by the natural world. She uses recorded sounds of nature in her music.
She hooks up electrodes to plants and runs synthesizers through them. We're going to be featuring her works, but she's also going to be curating a chamber concert of other composers that she's selected.
Grete Pedersen: It was Nathan who introduced me to her music. She's really such a fascinating composer and musician. And the audience has to be ready to bring some things from their home to take part in the concert with some sounds.
The Carmel Bach Festival runs July 11-25 and is one of KAZU's underwriters. Our editorial decisions are made independently regardless of our relationships with underwriters.
