Nansi Carroll - AMO: A Musical Offering

one of the great free treats on YouTube.
In the Barenboim tradition of multifaceted
musicianship, Nansi Carroll
is a quadruple-threat, adept at piano,
composing, singing, and conducting. She
is also artistic co-director of Jubilus, an
annual classical-music concert series, and
during its Spring Gala at the Doris Bardon
Community Cultural Center in May,
she and fl autist Christine Alicot collaborated
on two pieces by Debussy. Later in
the program she returned to the piano as
bassoonist Javier Rodriguez’s partner in
Villa-Lobos’s “Ciranda das Sete Notas.”
“I’ve known Javier since he was 13,”
she later said, adding that it “was amazing
to see him develop over the years. I
wrote for his senior recital for his bachelor’s
for unaccompanied bassoon. Then
he requested other pieces for his recitals.
“The bassoon used to be called ‘the
clown of the orchestra,’ but it has extraordinary
pitch, agility and range. It
has a lot of depth.”
Puerto-Rico born and Gainesvillereared,
Rodriguez’s doctoral dissertation
concerns Carroll as a composer,
and he also commissioned her to write
“Mr. Mitty,” a piece based on a James
Thurber story.
“I learned a lot about my piece listening
to Javier’s lectures at recital,” she
reminisced with a smile.
In 2009 Rodriguez and saxophonist
Sean Fredenberg, who holds a Master
of Music degree from the University of
North Carolina, launched the Post-Haste
Reed Duo, and in order to expand their
repertoire commissioned Carroll to
work on “The Servant Girl at Emmaus,”
a composition for soprano saxophone,
bassoon, contralto, and three sopranos.
“Javier and Sean wrote the contralto
solo with me,” she said, and explained
that she drew on a Denise Levertov
poem about the dinner the resurrected
Christ ate with the two disciples he met
on the road to Emmaus. “A Velasquez
painting inspired Levertov’s poem. The
main fi gure is the servant girl. She recognizes
Jesus before the disciples do.”
The divine presence is only suggested
through Velasquez’s use of light.
In May, Carroll had just completed a
rush job celebrating the 25th anniversary
of the ordination of Rev. John Phillips,
formerly of Gainesville’s St. Augustine
Catholic Church and more recently of
Holy Faith. As for future compositions,
she said she is “collecting ideas for a
piece for the Post-Haste Duo. Javier and
I will be applying for a composing grant.”
Shedding light on how she goes about
24 July 2012 seniortimesmagazine.com