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"I live in a very ethnically mixed
neighborhood, which has a lot of Jews
who moved here after World War II,
more recent Russian immigrants,
Hispanics and blacks. It's a vibrant
and sometimes unpredictable neigh-
borhood, and [it was one of] the
things that inspired the music."
The drive to compose has dominat-
ed Kernis' life since he was 11, and his
career choice was made when he was
17. After deciding to attend the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music, he
moved on to the Manhattan School of
Music, where he earned a bachelor's
degree, and then Yale, where he did
graduate work.
His Yale mentor, Jacob Druckman,
suggested Kernis' Dream of the
Morning Sky for a 1983 performance
by the New York Philharmonic. Other
acclaim came through various awards,
such as a Guggenheim Fellowship, the
Rome Prize and a National
Endowment for the Arts grant. After
European study, his commissions kept
increasing.
His work has been inspired by a
wide range of subjects, such as the
horrors of the Persian Gulf War
(Symphony No. 2), the love poems of
Anna Swir (Love Scenes) and the antics
of a child (Before Sleep and Dreams).
He accepted a Disney commission to
create a choral symphony for the mil-
lennium.
Kernis, whose music is having its
debut performance by the DSO,
assumes that New Era Dance was put
on the program because it has to do
with looking to the new century,
which was in his thoughts as he was
drafting it. Quite popular with music
directors around the country, the piece
relates to String Quartet No. 2, the
1998 suite of dances that won the
Pulitzer.
"There's a side of my work that has
been very influenced by popular
music, but that's sort of receding,"
explains Kernis, who serves as music
adviser to the Minnesota Orchestra
and fills out his days with commis-
sions that carry his schedule through
the next five years.
"I have a number of pieces, some of -
which are very light and entertaining,
that have those influences and others
which are more serious. I'm always
interested in what's going on political-
ly, but in my work, there was a period
of time, between '91 and '95, when a
whole string of events became intense-
ly [represented]. My major works then
had to do with conflict and suffering.
"When the war in Bosnia was
reaching its height, I became very

active in reading about the Holocaust
and rediscovering my relationship to
tharthrough the lens of ethnic cleans-
ing in Bosnia."
Romance changed the style of the
composer, currently working on a fan-
fare for the opening of New York's
Museum of Space and background
music to be played continuously on
one of its floors, a full work for the
Santa Fe Opera and a song cycle for
soprano Renee Fleming.
"I wrote a piece called Lament in
Prayer for the 50th anniversary of the
end of the Holocaust in 1995, and
that acted as a close to the politically
and world conflict-motivated side of
my work," explains Kernis. The com-
poser has completed six pieces with
Jewish themes ranging from the
Holocaust to very spiritual subjects.
"I had gone to the Polish concen-
tration camps and had experiences
that affected two or three of my major
works," he says: "Since then, I've been
writing more abstractly and with dif-
ferent kinds of texts.
"At the time I wrote Lament in
Prayer, I felt that I had exhausted
myself musically and that I had said
what I needed to say about those
issues. Shortly before I got married
three years ago, I felt that I wanted to
start looking forward rather than look-
ing at the past. I wanted to look at
other things in my life, maybe more
positive."
Kernis, married to pianist Evelyne
Luest, with whom he loves to dance,
has written dance music into his
repertoire because it provides what he
considers a wonderful contrast to
songs and because it brings energy
into the concert hall.
"I find that audiences can seem a
little sedate and a little snoozy, and
one of my roles as a composer is to get
people excited," he explains. "I'm not
saying that I write music to have peo-
ple become excited, but I write music
partially because
excited and want
to communicate what excites me. I
want to be moved, and in that way,
I'm like most listeners." ❑

The Detroit Symphony
Orchestra performs Aaron Jay
Kernis' New Era Dance 8 p.m.
Friday and 8:30 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 21-22, at Orchestra Hall.
Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2
and Prokofiev's Symphony No. 6
round out the program.
$19-$62. (313) 576-5100.

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