Ivana Themmen Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . .. .

Composer Ivana Themmen

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

Ivana Marburger Themmen, born April 7, 1935, in New York City, is an American composer and pianist, whose Concerto for Guitar was a finalist in the 1982 Kennedy Center Friedheim Composition Competition.

Themmen began studying piano at age 7. She attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where she met and married Harold B. Themmen. They had three children, Paris, Allegra, and Tania.

In addition to the New England Conservatory, Themmen studied in Europe, at the Eastman School of Music, and at the Tanglewood Music Center. Her teachers included Francis Judd Cooke, Nicolas Flagello, Lukas Foss, Carl McKinley, Jean Rosenblum, and Otto Schulhof.

Themmen taught at the Hampton Conservatory, and also worked as an accompanist for the American Ballet Theatre. She received grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Queens Symphony, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Themmen belonged to the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA). Her music was published by Lyra Music Company, and Cor Publishing Company/Wiltshire Music.

== Names which are links in this box and below refer to my interviews elsewhere on my webiste. BD

Ivana Themmen was in Chicago in mid-February of 1989, and during her visit she graciously consented to be interviewed. We talked about general musical ideas, as well as some specific things dealing with her ongoing and future projects. It is interesting now, in 2024, to sift those ideas into what has become her rich legacy of work.

As we were setting up to record, she mentioned something that was unexpected . . . . .

Ivana Themmen:   I’m a little on the shy side.

Bruce Duffie:   [Surprised] I’ll try and draw you out a little bit, but why is a composer shy about talking?

Themmen:   Are they all shy?

BD:   No, not all of them.
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Themmen:   Have you interviewed a lot of them who have felt that way?

BD:   Most of them are eager to talk about their works, although a couple have actually refused to talk about anything, so I get the whole gamut! I hope I can make you as comfortable as possible. My style is very informal.

Themmen:   You should have seen my documentary.

BD:   Were you pleased with the way that turned out?

Themmen:   Yes, it was very good! Everybody likes it.

BD:   I’ve heard the two recordings. Are those typical of your music as a whole?

Themmen:   They were done quite a while ago, around 1978 or ’79, and I still like the pieces very much, especially Shelter This Candle [LP is shown at right. Also see my interviews with Gian Carlo Menotti, Robert Orth, and Jorge Mester.] The singers just go ape for that. They just love it. They tell me that they can’t sleep all night. When they hear the beautiful melodies, it keeps them awake. I’m not bragging, but I’ve heard this many times. They like that work very much. It’s for high soprano, [laughs] but some try to sing it even if they can’t get all the way up there!

BD:   Would you rather have them drop a few notes down an octave, or rewrite it slightly?

Themmen:   Yes, there are a couple of alternatives in the score, but I haven’t had a lot of performances with them. It’s been all over the country, and all over Europe, but for some reason, I don’t know why, I haven’t pursued it. I haven’t pursued singers to do it. But every time, as I said, they love it, so at some point it will probably be a big item.

BD:   This and the Ode to Akhmatova are both unabashedly tonal works. [LP is shown below-left. Also, see my interviews with Jean Kraft, and Steven Gerber.]

Themmen:   Yes.

BD:   Do you always write the way you have to write?

Themmen:   I have various different styles. As a matter of fact, I am definitely a romantic. I didn’t try to be romantic or anything like that. It just came out that way. There is especially one piece, the Violin Rhapsody, which is really tonal, and very gorgeous. Everybody thinks it’s really beautiful, but there is a middle section that’s slightly... I hate to say this, but it’s slightly Stravinsky-esque. I suppose I could call it ‘eclectic’. I don’t really like that term, but once in a while you have to use it, because that’s what it is. But I really do whatever I want, and that’s what comes out of me. I’m a very sincere composer. I don’t fake anything. It doesn’t always come out the way I want it, but my feelings come out. I write operas and a lot of vocal works besides the symphonic stuff.

BD:   Let’s concentrate on the vocal works for a moment. Tell me the joys and sorrows of writing for the human voice!

Themmen:   For some reason, I have a gift for that. I hate to sound like I’m bragging, but people are constantly telling me that I’m better than anybody. [Laughs] I don’t know that I’m better than any... I thought Samuel Barber is pretty good, and there are other people who have been writing operas and song-cycles and things like that, and they’re not that acceptable for some reason. People don’t go ape over them, so I do feel proud that I can write for the voice.

BD:   Are you a singer yourself?

Themmen:   No, never! My father was, and I have twin daughters who are becoming opera singers.

BD:   Then you understand the voice and its workings!

Themmen:   Oh yes!

BD:   Maybe that’s the problem with the other composers. They don’t understand the voice, and that it’s different from the clarinet.

Themmen:   Yes, That’s true. Speaking of the clarinet, my husband was a clarinetist! [Both laugh]

BD:   So, you have a completely musical family.

Themmen:   My mother was a singer, my sister was a singer, my father was a singer, my brother was a jazz musician and a writer of shows, and my son, Paris, was a child actor. He did a lot of things on Broadway, and did a movie called Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He’s very talented and, as I said, the twins, Tania and Allegra, are at the Manhattan School of Music, and they’re doing wonderfully. They have a very famous teacher, Rita Saponaro Patanè, and they have huge gorgeous voices. Besides, they’re beautiful girls, so I’m very proud of them.
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BD:   Have you written for them specifically?

Themmen:   Not yet, but they did do a lullaby on my documentary when they were fifteen. Now they’re twenty-one, so I’m looking forward to the next few years to see where they’re going.

BD:   Did you encourage them to go into music, or did you try to keep them out of it, and they went into it anyway?

Themmen:   I never tried to keep them out because I recognized the talent right away. There’s a lot of talent in the family, and that’s amazing.

BD:   I’m glad that you’re exploiting the talent, instead of letting them become accountants or process servers. [Both laugh]

Themmen:   No, not process servers! That’s all I need! [More laughter]

* * * * *

BD:   Are most of the pieces that you write on commission, or are they things that you just have to write?

Themmen:   I haven’t written anything that wasn’t commissioned, except the opera that I’m starting to write and a work about the Holocaust that I’ve started, but I’m expecting commissions for it. I’m sure there will be a lot of funding for the opera, which is based on Émile Zola, called Thérèse Raquin. It was made into a play form, and done on Broadway in the 1940s. It was a fabulous thing for an opera, so I’m into that now, and the Holocaust idea came up for another reason. That’s a really serious work. It’s very depressing, and it’s difficult to even work with because of the feelings that I have about it, and what happened there. It makes me cry while I’m writing sometimes. But it’s a very sincere work, and if I finish it, it will turn out to be quite something. It’s going to be with chorus, and orchestra, and soloists. Also, I have a something else in mind, another work which would be for chorus, and orchestra, and soloists, that would be a piece called A Symphony of Songs for World Peace, as opposed to A Symphony of Psalms. That would address various issues of apartheid, and hunger, and plague, and war, and various things like that.

BD:   Is it supposed to be a political statement?

Themmen:   Yes, definitely! I will try to get Leonard Bernstein to take it to Jerusalem.

BD:   You told me earlier that you have a little trouble occasionally keeping all of these pieces straight. Do you work on just one piece at a time, or do you have a couple going at once?

Themmen:   It’s either/or! In fact, I wrote the Guitar Concerto back in the early 1980s, at the same time I was writing the Trombone Concerto, both having been commissioned. I’ve been going a little bit back and forth with Thérèse Raquin because the librettist is working on other things. So I go from one thing to another, or a little here and a little there. The Holocaust work is the same.

BD:   When you’re working on one piece, do you get an idea that won’t work here, but it might work someplace else? If so, do you store it away and keep it for later?

Themmen:   Yes, absolutely! I’ve done that. Tchaikovsky did it all the time, as did Prokofiev, Stravinksy...

BD:   Are there certain composers that you look to, such as the ones you just mentioned?

Themmen:   There is one that I especially like, and there’s a whole lot of them really.

BD:   Do you feel that you are part of a lineage of composers?

Themmen:   [Thinks a moment] I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I suppose I am! I guess everybody is! They come from somewhere.

BD:   Then where do you come from?

Themmen:   I know that certain things that I don’t like, and certain systems and things I abhor, or I just think they’re of no interest to me, such as various fads and crazes that have gone. For instance, I dislike Minimalism. It’s terrible in a lot of ways, even when I see why some people like it because of the hypnotic business. But I don’t see it. I know how these people work, and they play like they’re right in the score. This measure repeats 415 times. I just can’t stomach that, and neither can some musicians. There are violinists sawing away for hours, and it’s terrible. It’s a passing phase...

BD:   ...and yet it’s got a great deal of following.

Themmen:   It has a tremendous following, and I don’t want to put it down for what it is really. It’s just that I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t want to do it. I could do it, but I don’t want to!

BD:   Then let me go right to the big philosophical question. What is the purpose of music?

Themmen:   [Thinks again] The purpose? I don’t like the phrase ‘purpose of music’ for some reason.

BD:   Does music not have a purpose?

Themmen:   It doesn’t seem right. The wonderful thing about music is the feeling. Music is such a wonderful thing in many, many ways, and with many idioms. I just love it, and people love it, and it’s an important thing, much more important than people think.

BD:   The music you write is ‘concert music’, rather than popular music or jazz.

Themmen:   I can write popular music, but I’m not really into that.
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BD:   Where’s the balance in your music between the artistic achievement and the entertainment value?

Themmen:   [Sighs, then laughs] You ask hard questions! I like to see it be art and entertainment, but art first because I’m an artist. I’m also a painter and a sculptor, and I know all about that.

BD:   Do you like to combine the arts?

Themmen:   Yes. I can’t help myself.

BD:   Is that what draws you to opera?

Themmen:   That’s another thing, yes! It’s not particularly that reason, but opera is just something that I did once before. It came out well, and was successful, so now I’m ready for another one. I’ll probably be doing quite a few operas perhaps one a year. I’m going to try!

BD:   Then you must get them performed.

Themmen:   Yes, but there’s no problem with that. I had no problem with the first one.

BD:   You’re very lucky.

Themmen:   So far! [Laughs]

BD:   When you’re looking for a text, how do you decide? Does a text hit you, or do you go looking for a text?

Themmen:   I look for it. In fact with Shelter This Candle, I spent two weeks kicking out poems. It was a commission for the Kennedy Center and the Louisville Orchestra. I went through I don’t know how many volumes. They wanted women poets, which is fine. There are a lot of great women poets. I started picking and choosing, and finally I went down to one artist, and that was Edna St. Vincent Millay. The cycle came out of that, and it was perfect. There was another one that I almost used, but this one was just fine for me.

BD:   What about it made it fine?

Themmen:   It’s hard to explain. When you pick up a piece of poetry and you read it, you might love the piece, and then when you set it, you say it’s okay, or something like that. But when you get something that you really like, you know when you see it. For instance, The Mystic Trumpeter. That was a work by Walt Whitman, and I just went flying through that. It was just great. It was the Requiem of 1940. That was a terrible, terrible time, and that really got to me. So I wrote that, and it’s a very serious work. That I haven’t done too much with, and I don’t think people want to get into this. Probably I’m getting myself into trouble by doing the Holocaust and the World Peace. The World Peace might be okay, but the Holocaust is a depressing kind of thing, and that Requiem is definitely depressing. However, I like the work a lot, but it has never been done with full orchestra. It’s only been done with piano, and I’d like that to be done. Also, The Mystic Trumpeter has only been done in the chamber version, but I think I’m going to have a chance to hear it with full orchestra this next season in the fall. [Pauses a moment] I seem to be getting off the track...

BD:   It’s all right. We’re talking about poetry.

Themmen:   Yes. The Whitman thing just absolutely floored me. When I picked up the book, I was looking for something, and when I opened it, The Mystic Trumpeter just floored me right away. That doesn’t usually happen, but this one just hit me!

BD:   Yet it floored you in such a way that you felt you could add something to it with the music?

Themmen:   Oh yes, definitely, and it’s been very, very successful.

BD:   Is there ever a case where the poetry is too strong, and it must stand on its own? You can’t add music to it?

Themmen:   I guess that could happen, but it depends. There are so many ways to deal with poetry. If you like it, you like it! [Both laugh] If it works with the music, that is even better.

* * * * *

BD:   We’re talking about some of your older works. Do you ever go back and revise scores later on?

Themmen:   I should! There are some that I would like to. I wrote a Requiem a number of years ago, and I’d like to make some changes in that.

BD:   Why?

Themmen:   We were in a different style then, and some of the things I liked, and some I didn’t. At one point, the sopranos were too high in the chorus. There are some little things like that which can be fixed. But it’s a nice work.

BD:   To fix details is one thing, but to change the style because you’re now writing in a different style seems very dangerous.

Themmen:   Yes, that’s right. But I haven’t done much revision, actually. [Pauses a moment] I’ve done an awful lot of things for the ballet. I’ve had three ballets, and there is another one coming up. I’m not sure what it’s going to be yet. Of the three, the first one was called Green Willow: A Japanese Fairytale. That was a multi-media work, and I first did it at the Conservatory in Boston. Then it went on to Tanglewood, and New York, and other places. That’s a nice piece. Then a couple of years back, the Indianapolis Ballet did The Marble Faun of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and that was a big success. Then, this past year came The Picture of Dorian Gray with the Louisville Orchestra and Ballet. Now I’m waiting... I think they’re going to do another one with the Indianapolis, and maybe another in Pittsburgh. I like doing theater work.

BD:   When you’re doing a ballet, do you see the action in your head, or do they come to you and say they want this kind of action, and ask you to write music around it?

Themmen:   I just wrote the music and gave it to them. I’ve never had to change a note.

BD:   They simply put their actions to the sounds?

Themmen:   Yes... well, they better! [Both laugh]

BD:   When you’re writing it, do you see certain ideas in your mind that might work?

Themmen:   Yes, I can see that, but I usually do the work collaborating over the phone. Often I just write, and somehow it just comes out. The choreographer tells me what it’s all about, or course. They’ll say they want this character to walk in at this time, and so I have a little scenario, but that’s all.

BD:   Do they set out a time-frame, that they want this ballet to run fifteen minutes or twenty-eight minutes?

Themmen:   You can cut, but so far I haven’t had that problem. I haven’t ever had to take anything away.

BD:   Do they say they want it a certain length, or do you just write it and it comes out a certain length?

Themmen: I write it and it comes out the way I want it. They may decide not to do it, but no one has ever changed anything that I wrote, or asked to change anything. I myself might have thought there was too much music, so I’ll take that out, but I haven’t done it as yet. [Both laugh] I’ve been pretty lucky with that, and I hope I’ll be lucky with the operas.

BD:   Is there a parallel between working with a choreographer and working with a librettist?

Themmen:   It’s different, because the librettist has to go and hibernate and do their thing. Then if I don’t like what they have done, I’ll tell them to change it. But it’s a little different with the ballet. I haven’t had any problem with that at all yet, and as far as the libretto goes, so far I haven’t. It’s just being written right now, so I can’t really tell you too much about that. The previous was done by a man named Norman Simon. He fashioned the libretto himself, and I made some changes of text.

BD:   Do you also make changes in the choreography or the scenography of the ballet?

Themmen:   No, no, not in the choreography. Only the music. I follow the text. I do what I feel is right at that time in each scene. I know exactly what to do, and I do it. I know what has to be, whether it’s very dramatic, such as someone stabbing somebody, or whatever. I follow that text.

* * * * *

BD:   You mentioned that you might change a little bit of the libretto for an opera.

Themmen:   That’s right, because it’s very difficult. It’s the hardest thing in the world to find a good librettist today. I have been trying for years. I haven’t constantly tried, but I have started working with somebody and had to can the whole project several times.

BD:   Because it just didn’t work out?

Themmen:   No, because it wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t right. I have a bunch of things going. I have a black slave opera, and I had to can that. I have a libretto written for me called The Tale of Two Cities, and that’s a little bit slow-going. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that yet. I don’t have a difficult time, but the thing about opera and the thing of me writing vocal works is that they have to be something very special. I can write 20,000 songs and they would be terrible. I am very picky, and I’m not going to let anything change my mind. So if I have the right libretto and the right words, or if I can’t deal with the librettist, then I can’t do it. That’s it! So, for The Tale of Two Cities, I am not satisfied with the materials for arias. So I’ve let that go by for a little while anyway, and I’ll see what I’ll do about that. I might do it, I might not! [Pauses a moment] We’re giving away all my secrets! [Both laugh]

BD:   How you employ these ideas is, of course, your own special genius. That can never be stolen from you.

Themmen:   I hope not!

BD:   While we’re talking about opera, you’re very concerned with the text and the music. Where is the balance between the music and the dramatic effect?

Themmen:   You like balances and parallels! [Both laugh]

BD:   Yes, I do!

Themmen:   I’ve written a couple of scenes and I’m waiting for the third scene. It’s so far, so good! I wrote what I think is a beautiful aria, and I’m happy with that, and I’m happy with Sharon Cumberland [shown below]. She teaches, and she used to work at the Met. She knows a lot about opera, and she’s a wonderful writer. So I’m looking forward to this, and I think it’s going to work.

BD:   But when it gets into the theater, are you looking for a dramatic impact, or a musical impact?

Themmen:   Both!

BD:   I’m asking the Capriccio question, you see. Can you to make a decision between these two?

Themmen:   In opera, the most important things are the arias, and if it’s a terrible story, that’s too bad. But if the music is gorgeous, it’s worthwhile. [Muses a moment] I saw [Schoenberg’s] Erwartung at the Met recently. It was interesting. The sets and all weren’t too exciting, but it was excellent.

BD:   When you get your opera produced, do you have a hand in set design?

Themmen:   No.

BD:   Would you want to?

Themmen:   I haven’t, but I probably could put my two cents in there.

BD:   When you’re writing a piece of music, how much latitude do you give as far as interpretation on the part of the performers?

Themmen:   I know exactly what I want, so I definitely would coach the singers.

BD:   Is there only ‘one way’ to perform any one of your pieces???
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Themmen:   No, I wouldn’t say that there’s ‘one way’, but I have shown vocal coaches. I tell them what I want, and I can’t tell them more than one time. So I don’t know what happens after that if the singer takes the song and sings it. It might be different than the way I wanted it.

BD:   Is there ever a chance that a performer would do something of yours and find something new that you didn’t know you’d hidden in the score?

Themmen:   Where I made a mistake??? [Much laughter]

BD:   No, no, no, no, something great. Some unrealized brilliance.

Themmen:   Something that has never been done before? I don’t know. There are definitely touches in my work that people just go crazy for. I don’t know why! [Laughs] Maybe I’m being modest...

BD:   You obviously like the music you write.

Themmen:   I’d better! I wouldn’t write it if I didn’t like it.

BD:   What do you expect of the audience that comes to hear a piece of your music?

Themmen:   It depends on the audience. If it’s a twelve-tone audience, that’s another story! If it’s somebody who really loves opera, they would like it, and they do like it.

BD:   Are you conscious of the audience when you’re writing a piece?

Themmen:   Hmmm.. [Thinks a moment] I know what you mean, like Puccini wanted to do. I just sort of do it automatically, but I know they’re there. I don’t go just for that. I go for the effect. I hate to say that word, ‘effect’, but whatever the feeling is and whatever I want, I just know what I want when I do it. It may take me a while. Sometimes I might do it bang right away, and sometimes it might take me a few days for one short song or an aria. That’s tricky. You don’t just knock it off and be done. You can, but it depends on the text.

BD:   When you’re writing a piece of music, are you always in control of the pencil, or are there times when that pencil controls your hand?

Themmen:   No, I’m in control!

BD:   All the time, a hundred per cent?

Themmen:   I think so! [Both laugh] I think so! Are you surprised at that?

BD:   Some composers say that a certain passage sort of writes itself, and then they are surprised where it winds up.

Themmen:   Yes, that’s true, and if it follows something else, and it seems right, I can understand that.

BD:   So, you are occasionally surprised where you wind up?

Themmen:   I’ve never even thought about it, but maybe...

BD:   I’m not trying to brow-beat you!

Themmen:   No, no, it’s okay. [Much laughter]

* * * * *

BD:   Do you do any teaching on the side, or is it just composing for you?

Themmen:   It’s not just composing, but I’m not teaching. I have a lot to do. There are all these pieces that I have to write. I’ve got plenty to do.

BD:   What advice do you have for other composers coming along?

Themmen:   Oh boy, there are so many composers these days!

BD:   Are there too many?

Themmen:   It depends upon how you say are there are too many. If they’re all wonderful, there are never too many! So, it’s hard to say.

BD:   What is your advice for them?

Themmen:   [Thinks a moment] It’s hard because it’s very difficult to make a living for composers, or for any artists in any field, and I’m into all of them. I don’t know what to say about that. I don’t know what to advise them. If they want to do it, they should do it, that’s all. Maybe that’s the wrong answer, but that’s what I did. I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t go out and be a secretary, or anything like that. I started when I was four years old tap dancing, and then I went into ballet. I was supposed to go to [Michel] Fokine and be a ballet dancer! But I couldn’t do that because I wore glasses, and in those days they didn’t have contact lenses. I couldn’t see myself in the mirror, so that was the end of that. It just went on that way... I wrote poetry, and everything that’s artistic I ever did has been good or bad.

BD:   Why did you land on music, rather than poetry or something else?

Themmen:   Mozart! [Both laugh] I fell in love with Mozart.

BD:   What advice do you have for performers?

Themmen:   Performers??? How can I answer that question for performers en masse? I can’t give them advice unless they were working with me.

BD:   What about performers who simply want to perform your music?

Themmen:   I usually work with them, and I tell them how I want it! I want what I want, and it’s the same thing with the conductors of the orchestras. There have been no problems. They ask me.

BD:   [Gently protesting] But isn’t this all explicit in the score?

Themmen:   Well, it’s different. Every performance is different. That’s why they do Beethoven over and over and over. There are many, many things.

BD:   Are there many, many things in your music, too?

Themmen:   [Laughs] Yes. I like to write orchestral works, by the way, and some day I’ve got to get around to doing a symphony. But I do want to get a bunch of operas under my belt. So we’ll see.

BD:   What about doing one of your ballet scores in concert without the choreography? Would that work?

Themmen:   I have thought about that. I may do that, but I haven’t done it yet. I have considered it. The thing is there’s always the question of time. I’m working on one other thing, and I can’t stop to do this or that. I have to keep going because I’m being commissioned, and I’ve got to do it at that moment. I really have a lot to do, and it’s hard doing everything.

BD:   When you’re offered a commission, how do you decide if you will accept it or turn it down?

Themmen:   If I don’t want to do the commission, I won’t take it.

BD:   What is it that helps you decide whether you want it... or not want it?

Themmen:   It may be a piece that I don’t want to write. That’s what it probably would be, or I’m too busy, or I can do it maybe two or three years later. It depends, because right now I’m pretty solidly booked up.

BD:   Do you like being solidly booked for a couple of years? Is that a good feeling?

Themmen:   It’s okay. I don’t mind.

BD:   The ideas always come when you want them?
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Themmen:   The thing is that you have to keep working. That’s the only trouble. You have to have some respite, like I’m here now. I’m just relaxing.

BD:   You didn’t bring any scores with you to work on?

Themmen:   No, no!

BD:   Is composing fun?

Themmen:   Yes and no. It’s the way I feel. There are a lot of things that I should do that I don’t do because I just don’t want to do them. Or I’ll do them at a later time. Either turning down a commission or just putting it aside is because I don’t really want to do this. It’s instinctive that I know what I want to do when I want to do it. There are a lot of mysteries in music. For instance, I could be sitting at the piano and fooling around, and trying to improvise some things, and get some ideas. They could come in five minutes, or it might be four days later, and you don’t know why. Isn’t that funny? This great theme just pops right out. That’s what happened with Cupid & Psyche. Four days it took me. I was up in Connecticut and I didn’t do much work up there. I seem to work better when I’m in a city rather than the country. Some people are the opposite. I was sitting there at my old piano, tearing my hair out like crazy! Anyway, I finally did the work, and it’s been commissioned by the Queens Symphony, and then it went to the Boston Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic.

BD:   Do you feel that your music, or any music, is better performed by better orchestras? Will the Boston Symphony automatically do it better than the Queens Orchestra?

Themmen:   Of course. No question there. They are the best, especially for that piece, but it’s a good comparison. They did it on an hour’s rehearsal. John Lanchbery [shown at right] conducted four performances, and it was fantastic.

BD:   If you’re commissioned by the Queens Orchestra, do you write it for them, or do you write it so that you really need the Boston Symphony to play it?

Themmen:   No, no, I write it so that everybody can play it. I haven’t had a commission from the Boston Symphony, although that was the reason for doing the piece actually. I met the violinist Emanuel Borok [shown below], who was associate concert master of the Boston Symphony, and concert master of the Pops. I met him in a health food store across from Carnegie Hall. Lanchbery was a friend of ours, and so we started talking. We decided we wanted to commission a work, so we talked to Jack, and he said yes. Then the Queens Symphony suddenly calls me. They didn’t know anything about this idea, so I said, “Great! There’s your commission.” So it just happened. Another time when something accidentally happened, I met the guitarist Sharon Isbin in my publisher’s office. She was upstairs practicing, or trying out a guitar, and she commissioned me the next day. So it was also by chance, and that happens to me a lot.

BD:   Do you like being known as a woman composer, or do you want to just be known as a composer?

Themmen:   The latter. I’ve never joined a woman’s organization yet! [Both laugh] I may be wrong in not doing that, but I’m not into it. I’m a loner.

BD:   Is it good that women composers are getting more recognition these days?

Themmen:   Yes, absolutely!

BD:   But you’re a loner. You compose alone, and you work alone?

Themmen:   Yes.

BD:   Is it ever too isolated for you?

Themmen:   I’m not really isolated. I work a lot... I’ve spent hours and hours every day, and when I go out with my friends, I’m not that isolated.

BD:   You’re balancing being a wife and a mother, and having a career as a composer?

Themmen:   Well, my children are grown up.

BD:   [With a gentle nudge] But you had to grow them up!

Themmen:   [Laughs] I did, and I still have to give them money, and things like that to help them along! I’m looking forward to their careers. I think they’re going to be phenomenal.

BD:   Thank you for being a composer. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard, and I look forward to much more.

Themmen:   Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It’s very nice of you to come and interview me.

This conversation was recorded in Chicago on February 15, 1989. Portions were broadcast on WNIB in 1995 and again in 1998. This transcription was made in 2024, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

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Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.