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THE PETRIFIED FOREST PROJECT from cellist Rhonda Rider pays homage to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, where Rider carried out a residency in 2015. The forest is home to Triassic fossils and an over 200 million-year-old ecosystem. The works here, all commissioned as part of the residency, highlight elements that make the park so special.
Today, Rhonda is our featured artist in the “Inside Story,” a blog series exploring the inner workings and personalities of our composers and performers. Read on to learn about her passion for bringing music to unusual places, and her time spent living and performing in two of America’s most iconic national parks…
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
I am very fortunate to work with so many wonderful composers. The process is often very collaborative, which I love. Entering into the world of a composer and their creative process is thrilling. When they have an idea of what they want but not necessarily what it would sound like (for example in Raven Chacon’s Invisible Arc, the sound of time moving backwards), it opens up new sound worlds for both cellist and composer. I never tire of looking for new sounds on the cello. I guess composers and cellos are my collaborators.
How do you prepare for a performance?
Each piece wants something different. I strive to let the color, or sound world, reveal itself as well as how the work lives in time. Of course, preparing new music influences how you look at older repertoire. There needs to be the same curiosity and attention to detail whether it’s a composer you have just met or Beethoven.
What’s the greatest performance you’ve ever seen, and what made it special?
This would have to be hearing pianist Robert Levin performing a Mozart concerto and improvising the cadenzas. He takes you to the brink of what’s possible. You feel the risk taking. Some people climb mountains or skydive, others play music. The risks can feel similar.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?
I’d hope to be an art conservator of some kind (chemistry notwithstanding).
Take us on a walk through your musical library. What record gets the most plays? Are there any “deep cuts” that you particularly enjoy?
There is a video recording of Jessye Norman singing Mahler’s Ich ben der welt abhanden gekommen, that I have my students listen to every year. Of course, Norman’s tone and timing are always stunning. This is really one of the most beautiful performances I have ever heard. I ask my students to listen for those moments of transcendence and to analyze what Norman is doing with her tone color, dynamic range, vibrato, and timing to create such moments.
Where and when are you at your most creative?
As a recreative artist, the opportunity to play in beautiful concert halls is always a treat. But, bringing music to unusual places is what is most important to me. This started with a concert series I am still part of in rural Washington County NY which began in the 1980s called “Music from Salem.” From there, I formed The Cello Seminar with a group of dear colleagues. TCS is a contemporary classical cello music course that takes place on a farm and presents concerts in an old Vaudeville Hall, a Russian Orthodox Monastery, and a bakery. Our audiences are made up of people who are familiar with older classical music and others who are just curious about all those large instruments playing together. Delightfully, there are few preconceptions about what they might hear.
I’ve also been fortunate to be an Artist-in-Residence (AiR) at both Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks where I lived and played in the Parks. 19 works for solo cello were commissioned for those residencies including six on my new release, THE PETRIFIED FOREST PROJECT.
For over two decades, cellist Rhonda Rider was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian Quartet and Triple Helix Piano Trio. An advocate of contemporary music, Rider has premiered and recorded works by composers including Raven Chacon, Yu-Hui Chang, John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Laura Kaminsky, and Elliott Carter. Her interest in presenting music in unusual places has led her to be an Artist-in-Residence at both Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks. Rider has adjudicated at the Fischoff, Stulberg and Concert Artist Guild Competitions. She is Professor of Cello at Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she was twice awarded Teacher of the Year. Rider is heard on over thirty chamber music and solo recordings.