Meet Brandon J. Rolle: Composer and Conductor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brandon J. Rolle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brandon J., why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I think in the beginning it was not so much a conscious decision as it was a lifeline. I started as a jazz musician and the improvisatory and interactive elements involved really became the language that best allowed me to connect with people, express myself, learn. It taught me the discipline needed to learn a technique (and theory and scales) so deeply that you can forget about it completely in the moment of creativity–that in particular was, and remains, a huge part of my approach to making and teaching music. Those years performing and writing/arranging as a young person taught me an incredible amount about myself. In college, though, I started studying classical music more seriously and that really changed everything. The intricacy of the scores by people like Schoenberg, Berio, Ligeti, tapped into something deeply personal for me. The way those pages encoded such intense, complex emotions into musical notations felt I was discovering the language to describe feelings that I had previously thought I was alone in experiencing. Holding those scores felt like holding a precious letter that was left just for me–a letter that somehow, with dots and lines, made me feel less alone. That was the reason I decided to pursue this career: to leave my own letters, in hopes that someone will stumble across them in a music library in 5 or 50 years, and know that they were left for them.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My music comes from a personal, interdisciplinary approach to composition that I’ve developed over the years to realize immersive sound worlds I imagine. When composing, I give special attention to the details of sound that you may not hear explicitly, but that you certainly feel–a sudden sense of the room getting warmer or larger, or an uneasy feeling that the piano tuning is, somehow, gradually shifting. I use these types of psychoacoustic effects to amplify musical gestures and clarify musical structure in my work, creating a sort of invisible, perceptual choreography behind the music. I do this by incorporating psychoacoustics, computer programming, and electronic music into my process, which allow me to plan how these psycho-physical elements manifest in the acoustic music; often this involves building electronic instruments that will help strengthen those effects. I was very lucky that early in my career I had the opportunity to study and work with pioneering composers in this subfield like Pauline Oliveros and Clarence Barlow, who provided invaluable technical and musical insight, but who also inspired me to forge a personal path to realizing my music. Forging that path has been, admittedly, difficult: after my undergraduate studies, I spent 2 years getting a masters degree in composition, and then another 5 getting my PhD. The early years of building a freelance career on writing commissions and teaching masterclasses were especially grueling, both mentally and financially. But along the way I have had the opportunity to compose for, collaborate with, and conduct many, many inspiring musicians, and those experiences only deepened my drive and my commitment to a career in composition. Over the past few years, I have been thinking a lot about how to use my own experience to talk honestly to my students and emerging musicians about the challenges and opportunities of working as a professional musician. In 2018, my friend and conductor Vlad Vizireanu and I took on an ambitious project to this end, and founded the non-profit Impulse New Music Festival as a way to provide early-career composers and performers with both the creative and practical skills needed for a career in new music. The festival program has become a really important and meaningful part of my life, and nurtures an rapidly-expanding community of incredible artists. I’m really excited to see how it continues to grow and evolve over the coming years.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When I first moved to LA I lived in Echo Park, so the first place has to be Guisados. Actually, even when I was first thinking of moving to L.A., my good friend Nick (who lived here) took me around the east side to check out the area, and our very first stop was for tacos at Guisados. It worked, haha. But after eating all the tacos, maybe I’d take them to see a movie at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, late-night drinks and grub at The Semi-Tropic, morning hike at Griffith Park, coffee and chia pudding at Andante on Sunset. Definitely book browsing at Stories Cafe Lunch at Grand Central Market would be on the list too. See a LACO concert at the Alex. Hollywood Bowl. I mean this list could go on forever…

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family, first and foremost, has been my biggest support and I am so, so grateful for them. My incredible mom passed away at the beginning of the pandemic, but her love and encouragement continue to be one of my main driving forces. My dad, sisters and brothers (and now nieces and nephews!) and partner are the most amazing people and I am ridiculously lucky to have each of them in my life. Among the many wonderful friends and musicians who have made my work possible, I am especially grateful to Joel Feigin and Clarence Barlow for their support of my work and career over these past few years, and to my friend and colleague Vlad who founded Impulse New Music Festival with me in 2018–a program which has become such a rewarding part of both of our lives.

Website: www.brandonjrolle.com

Instagram: @brandon.j.rolle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.rolle.568/