Elizabeth Comninellis

Elizabeth Foster Comninellis composes Fire and Glass with conductor Devin Patrick Hughes

Elizabeth Foster Comninellis composes Fire and Glass with conductor Devin Patrick Hughes

I enjoy the challenge of working within parameters. As a composer, it's best to write for an ensemble you know is going to play your music.  The goal is to write something that works for someone, that benefits them and benefits you, and so I like the challenge of being told, ‘here are the parameters, can you do something creative within these parameters?’ I actually don't find it limiting at all. The parameters give you a guideline, they give you a starting point, which I find helpful as a composer. I wrote many pieces early in my compositional career that I just wrote purely out of inspiration. And a number of them have never been played because I didn't have any kind of practical consideration in mind. I didn't have particular players in mind. I didn't have a particular venue or time in mind. So they sort of got shelved. And then I began writing more specifically for musicians who were friends or ensembles who needed music. I love that collaboration. I love being able to work with a group of musicians who say, ‘we need this for this purpose. Could you put something together for us, could you write something for us?