Hi Marianna, thank you for joining us! I’d love to hear a bit about your background- how you got started in music, and how you’ve ended up in Denmark?

Hi Connor, thank you for inviting me for this interview!

I was born in the countryside of Vermont in the States, and grew up surrounded by creativity, animals, and nature on Martha’s Vineyard, Vermont, and Maine. I began playing piano at two and composing at seven, and my musical voice continues to be heavily influenced by Japanese classical and contemporary music (Joe Hisaishi, Takashi Yoshimatsu), French composers André Jolivet and Maurice Ravel, Czech composer Leoš Janáček, and film such as composers Howard Shore and Daniel Pemberton, among many more.

I relocated to Denmark in 2020 where I earned my Master’s in Music Composition from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2022, studying with Niels Rosing-Schow, Jeppe Just Christensen, and Rune Glerup.

In 2023, I was commissioned by the KGL Theater to write a chamber piece for the Royal Danish Orchestra’s 575th Jubilee, and to transcribe works for Østre Gasværk Teater’s Another Brick in the Wall: Part 5. My work on The Wall subsequently led to a newly completed project with the Østre Gasværk Teater— their new smash-hit Danish musical “Olivia og skyggedansernes hemmelighed (Olivia and the Shadow Dancers’ Secret)”, for which I arranged, orchestrated and participated in the recording of 29 new works for symphony orchestra, written by the Danish composer-songwriters Andreas Sommer, Rasmus Seebach, and Lars Ankerstjerne.

I continue to work full-time as an independently contracted commissioned composer, composing for a wide variety of different ensembles, ranging anywhere from cello and guitar duo to SATB choir and cello octet to symphony orchestra. I am now permanently based in Slagelse, Denmark, with my Danish husband, and work at home from my studio.

Across your work there are some noticeable recurring themes- environmental conservation, nature, and animals- can you speak more to these themes, how they impact your work, your life?

A deep love and appreciation for the natural world and animals has been instilled within me ever since I could crawl! I have grown up surrounded with animals, both domestic and wild, and I found that composing allowed me to communicate my love and wonder for the natural world much better than words could.

These themes have definitely become a primary signature of mine, especially in the contemporary music world, where they are not often featured.

For instance, my recent six-movement work A Vast and Precious Blue for SSAATTBB choir and cello octet with an original text by poet Megan Grumbling, poetically explores six different characteristics of the global ice sheets/glaciers, portraying the glaciers as ancient sentient beings who speak directly to collective humanity in a plea for help.

For concert work and music for media, does your process change at all? Can you speak to your work process- how you start, how you continue?

For all of my compositions, I compose intuitively using a planned narrative form (I.e a story-like structure that contains an inspiring concept, intention, and harmonic language). To begin each piece, I use piano improvisation to shape my initial melodies and harmonies, and then I allow my works to evolve organically.

If the piece involves a text, I use the text as my compositional structure, and organically shape the music around it depending on how the text makes me feel. I never plan ahead— instead, I compose in the moment, because it feels the most genuine to me.

When scoring a film/series, the film/series becomes the structure, and I pay attention to the emotions and of the characters in order to create my sound/instrumental palette, as well as my thematic/harmonic material.

I love your concert piece Jordens Sjæl – the orchestral writing is really interesting and evocative. What inspired you to write this piece?

Thank you so much for your kind words! My orchestral piece, Jordens Sjæl (Soul of the Earth), was really my first true orchestral piece, commissioned by/written for The Royal Danish Academy Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestra Gabriella Teychenné in 2022. I wanted to create a work that would be grand enough for a symphonic orchestra, as well as a work that could encapsulate all of my nature-inspired interests. Therefore, it became Jordens Sjæl, an overture-like celebration of the majesty of the Earth. The challenge of this piece is that it could only be eight minutes long, and had to be written in five weeks! But the inspiration was there, so the challenge was welcome, and I created a story-like structure from which I composed the piece:

Section 1: The beginning of the earth, featuring the darker instruments of the orchestra and a prominent double bass solo.

Section 2: The emerging of the light, featuring a steel contrast from the dark to the light (high divisi string theme).

Section 3: Life, majestic and the first big climactic moment of the piece.

Section 4: Epic percussion section solo, featuring a taiko drum/bongos.

Section 5: Tellus Mater: Dramatic action sequence that inspires imagery of volcanoes/lightning storms/stormy seas, etc. Musicians sing!

Section 6: Oceanic creatures/reefs/bioluminescence, featuring piano/harp, solo winds, intertwining string textures.

Section 7: Trumpet solo, no other instruments— musicians sing “Tellus Mater/Gaia Terra. The musicians stop singing, only solo trumpet remains and leads into the final trill orchestra tutti climax.

What would be a dream project for you? Is there some concert or film that would feel deeply right to work on?

I have a lot of big dreams, as I have a lot of interests in all fields of music! I’d have to say my top three are:

1: Composing and producing my chamber opera, Argonauta, which has been in the works for a few years with my poet friend Megan Grumbling, and have it performed in a prominent venue!

2: Scoring an animated film that makes it to Cannes or Sundance, and/or beyond!

3: Create a large-scale collaborative concert project of my work that combines multimedia such as art-film, theatrical elements (puppetry/dancers), and light animation!

What’s on the horizon for you? Anything you can tell us about what’s coming up?

I’m excited to announce that the musical, Olivia og syggedansernes hemmelighed, just premiered on the 18th, and that I received wonderful feedback from the popstars Rasmus Seebach, Lars Ankerstjerne, composer Andreas Sommer and director Adam Price! They told me they look forward to working with me again, so I feel that something big will be happening later this year!

I also have a premiere in April (2027) of my new seven movement work for the Danish accordion orchestra, Accordeonova, which is a collaboration with a Dutch accordion orchestra! It’s a really fun character-theme piece based on the seven dwarfs of the original Snow White fairytale!

And, I have plans for a few new works, the largest being The Nature of Light, for solo percussion (Jakob Weber, the head of the percussion section with the Danish National Orchestra) and women’s choir (SS/MSMS/AA) for which I wrote five short movements of text. Each movement musically illustrates a different aspect of light found in nature and outer space— i.e bioluminescence, fire, nebulae, etc. If all goes well, it will be performed later in 2027!

Interview by Connor Cook

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