For the upcoming Imagine US: Celebrating America at 250, IPR has appointed two Interlochen Arts Academy student tour ambassadors to keep us informed about how tour preparations are going.
This week, we get the latest from Sydney Kassekert, a senior in the Singer-Songwriter program at Interlochen.
Listen to Sydney's latest dispatch on demand, or read an edited transcript below.
On writing her song "Imagine" for Yo-Yo Ma to learn
I started writing it in my head, writing down lyrics on one of my nice hard copy notebooks. I have the very rough drafts and the most recent drafts in there. But it's been a big process of going through Google Docs and sending it to different people [for revision].
But Wesley [Stoker, her friend and collaborator] has the cello part notated, and we're sending it out to Yo-Yo Ma this week. He and I will probably rehearse it once or twice before the tour. Maybe he'll give feedback, maybe he won't. Maybe he's like, "Let's extend it so I can do a little 'me-ifying' and stuff."
If Yo-Yo Ma plays it differently than written
I think I would be very scared to say anything. I'd be like, "Nope, that's perfect. You do that," and I'll adjust to it.
On the first run-through of the whole show
We had a whole day to work with Diana [Wyenn, creative director for the Imagine US tour]. A bunch of different people came for a full run-through. We had Trey Devey [president of Interlochen Center for the Arts] there, and Camille [Colatosti, provost of Interlochen Center for the Arts]. It was great to have their support.
We were workshopping the performance and the ways that I'm going interact and really internalize the piece, so I'm super excited for that.
The devisors and their roles
My arts division at Interlochen is contemporary music, we also have dance and film and all the other different mediums, and those are the different devisors and pieces that are tying in the threads of what's happening on stage.
For example, animation is just weaved through this entire performance. We have cool, immersive backdrops when the theater students are playing with the orchestra. It's going to tell a whole story. I saw a train coming through on the stage - it's going to tell a whole story.
On her custom dress that's been designed for her for the tour
I've seen the final version. It's so beautiful, it's so cool. I probably won't get to wear it for rehearsal until tech week.
I'm a little clumsy. Sometimes I'll be walking and my black puffer jacket will have a red sauce on it, and I'll remember that I had tacos today.
I might need to bring Wesley in to say, "No, Sydney, you can't eat this certain food. This is gonna mess up the whole thing. We have to protect the dress at all costs."
About the tour
This March, Interlochen Arts Academy students are hitting the road and going on tour.
After a kickoff performance in Interlochen, they’ll then travel to Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston.
The tour is called Imagine US: Celebrating America at 250.
The tour program includes the premiere of a new cello concerto, composed by Wynton Marsalis and featuring Yo-Yo Ma as the soloist. The students are also performing the Symphony no. 4 by Charles Ives and RE|Member, a work by Reena Esmail.
In each city, Arts Academy Orchestra members will play alongside professional musicians from the host cities' orchestras: the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
All of these orchestra pieces are woven together with multidisciplinary elements.
Classical IPR has invited two Interlochen Arts Academy students to serve as tour ambassadors, giving us regular dispatches as they prepare for the tour. They’ll send updates from the road once they’re on tour, and then we’ll talk with them after they return to find out how it all went.
Get the latest from IPR's tour ambassadors every Monday morning at 8:30 a.m. on Classical IPR or on demand online.
