Martín Letelier
6 Questions for the composer
Martín Letelier is a Chilean composer who has won several awards at the Nocturne Competition 2024. His composition Soliloquy has been published by Carus.
Your first own composition:
The first piece I created that I would describe as a “composition” is a piano piece called “Pequeña Sonata”. I composed it during my first year as a composition student, when I was 18 years old, and I dedicated it to my younger sister.
Which other composers inspire you?
At the moment I find the work of composers like Michel van der Aa, Anna Thorvaldsdottir or Ben Nobuto, to name just a few, very inspiring. But that’s constantly changing.
Your most emotional musical experience to date?
As a listener, I was deeply impressed when I heard a live performance of the complete work Spiegel by Friedrich Cerha at the Salzburg Festival in 2021. It was performed by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher. It was an overwhelming experience for me to hear a work with such diverse compositional techniques and orchestration.
As a performer, I once participated in a version of John Cage’s ASLSP that lasted four uninterrupted days. It was performed on the organ of a beautiful church in a former monastery in Santiago de Chile, and many organists participated in two-hour shifts. I played in the middle of the night, and it was an almost transcendental experience to be in that church, enveloped by the sound of the organ, especially considering that I only had three chord changes in two hours. It was the closest thing to a musical “trance” that I had ever experienced.
Where is your favourite place to compose?
At home or in quiet places where I know I won’t be interrupted.
Your current composition project:
I am currently writing a chamber opera commissioned by the Chilean opera company Lírica Disidente. I’m also working on a choral piece for Festyvocal, a contemporary vocal music festival in Firminy (France). I am a finalist in the composition competition for this festival for 2025.
If you don’t compose or play music, then …
… I enjoy doing ordinary things like reading, meeting friends, playing sports or walking in nature.
Soliloquy
Von Martín Letelier
Carus 9.311/00
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