Natasha Sinha: Top Ten!

Natasha Sinha: Top Ten!

Natasha Sinha Photo by Raj Sinha Natasha Sinha talks with Frank J. Oteri at the New York City offices of ASCAP May 24, 2001—11:30 a.m. Conversation videotaped by Jenny Undercofler Transcribed by Julia Lu   Natasha Sinha Interview Excerpt #1 FRANK J. OTERI: You’re involved with so many different kinds of activities, both composing music… Read more »

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

Natasha Sinha
Natasha Sinha
Photo by Raj Sinha

Natasha Sinha talks with Frank J. Oteri at the New York City offices of ASCAP

May 24, 2001—11:30 a.m.

Conversation videotaped by Jenny Undercofler
Transcribed by Julia Lu

 


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #1

FRANK J. OTERI: You’re involved with so many different kinds of activities, both composing music and playing piano, and you’re also involved with sports and Lego, and with mathematics, but since our main interest is your music, let’s talk about music. When did you start writing music?

NATASHA SINHA: I started writing music in I think 1998, two and half years ago. I first started composing because I had been playing piano for awhile and I wanted to see what the composer’s perspective was so I decided to have one instrument as a piano and compose music. Then I decided to have two instruments and that’s what I won for last year, My Rainbow. And then I did a few songs with two instruments. And I did one with the piano and the cello, one with the piano and the oboe, and one other one with the piano and the violin.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now how important is composing music among the various things you do in your life?

NATASHA SINHA: It’s pretty important, ‘cuz I think it’s a very free thing for me to do and it makes me relax a lot because I get to just put all my ideas out and there’s no real wrong way to write music. So I like it a lot.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you feel that you’re going to be a composer for the rest of your life?

NATASHA SINHA: Probably, but just as something I would do once in awhile. I do it pretty often now and I’ll just always have it with me probably ‘cuz I really enjoy it.

FRANK J. OTERI: Would you say then you would want to be considered in your life first as a composer?

NATASHA SINHA: Possibly. Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: Well what else would you want people to think of you as?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I want to be an inventor. I’m interested in inventing robots and helping other people out with different problems they have and if they can’t do things as an aid to help them.

FRANK J. OTERI: So you feel throughout your life you would be able to do that and compose music?

NATASHA SINHA: …possibly as a hobby.

FRANK J. OTERI: How old do you think most composers are?

NATASHA SINHA: I think they mostly start from, obviously a little bit older than me so that would be around like maybe 20 to about maybe about 60 to 70. Somewhere around there, or maybe longer…

FRANK J. OTERI: You know, it’s interesting, there’s a composer who is still alive, an American composer, named Leo Ornstein who turned 108 last year.

NATASHA SINHA: Wow. That’s fantastic [sotto voce]

FRANK J. OTERI:Elliott Carter who I spoke to last year is still actively writing music. Some of the best music he’s written in his life. And he’s 92 now.

NATASHA SINHA: Oh wow. So it’s just probably ranging a lot.

FRANK J. OTERI: And of course you know Mozart started writing symphonies at the age of eight. And you know there are other composers who were as young writing great music. Henry Cowell was very young when he started composing. But certainly you know you’re younger than any of the composers I’ve ever talked to for NewMusicBox and it raises an interesting question. Can anyone be a composer? What does being a composer require?

NATASHA SINHA: Actually basically anyone can be a composer because all you have to do is be able to make up a tune. And many people do that right now. Like they just are improvising on a song. Like there might one song they heard a lot and they just start improvising something new. And that’s basically composing. They just haven’t written it down yet.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #2

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you feel that audiences appreciate music in general in this country?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I think so. Some of them like certain kinds of music and those kinds of music they like, they appreciate it, but sometimes I don’t think they appreciate it, like how much work they have to go through to get everything perfect. For example, like there are some band groups that make up all these songs, but they don’t realize what you had to do to get songs. You don’t just say “Oh I have a song, let
‘s play it.” You have to go through and put it down.

FRANK J. OTERI: Well, what’s your process when you’re working on a piece of music?

NATASHA SINHA: Well first I decide what I’m gonna write about or compose about. And then I just start making my melody in mind so that’s like my first draft. And then I start adding all the fine details later. And then what I do is after I get all that down, I make another copy of it that’s a little bit neater. And then what I do is my mom helps me sometimes to write it on the computer. And then we find people who can start learning all the different parts. And they start practicing it and a few times before the real thing where you perform it, we hear it and we make corrections of what I, or my teacher Alla Cohen, wants.

FRANK J. OTERI: So you work through the scores by hearing them in performance with other musicians playing. Do you play the music yourself as well?

NATASHA SINHA: Not yet because actually I’m not that familiar with playing with other people yet. And I’m just making a new song called Wild Swans and I realize that now since I’m a little bit older I can start playing. So there’s a sort of difficult piano part in this song and I decided to start playing the piano in that song.

FRANK J. OTERI: You also are a pianist.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: I heard your piano recital CD, which featured a lot of different music. And the CD of your own music features the piano quite a bit. So that was not you playing?

NATASHA SINHA: No, that wasn’t me. It would take me awhile because I’m not very much used to playing with other people because I basically am the only one in my family that still plays music all the time. But my mom was a pianist, but my dad really never did anything.

FRANK J. OTERI: Interesting. So what, what started the interest in music? Where did it come from?

NATASHA SINHA: Well, when I was about four, I always listened to music ever since I went to bed. And I always thought about “Wow that person who did that must have been really good.” And then sometimes at night I would dream about what they might think. And I decided that one day I would want to start composing like they did. And so I’ve always liked music.

FRANK J. OTERI: And what music do you listen to at home?

NATASHA SINHA: I listen to classical music, but then I also listen to lots of other things, I like a particular band group in pop. I like the Back Street Boys. And also I like jazz music and I like the blues a lot.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you feel that all these other types of music will somehow find their way into your own music?

NATASHA SINHA: Eventually, but not right now.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now to follow up on what you were saying before about audiences appreciating music and audiences listening to music, do you feel that most Americans appreciate what we’re calling classical music?

NATASHA SINHA: Not as much as I thought, especially in the younger ages. Because a large amount of people have started to hook onto pop and more of the rocky music, but still there’s a pretty good amount like some of the elderly. I still like classical music, but at least a wide variety in my school don’t really understand classical music ‘cuz they don’t really understand much about it.

FRANK J. OTERI: So what do your classmates and other students think, here you are a student just like them who’s writing cello and piano music? What’s that?

NATASHA SINHA: They think it’s awesome?

FRANK J. OTERI: Yeah? They’re into it?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, they think it’s awesome that I’m composing. But I don’t think they realize that ‘cuz see I’m like one of their friends and they’re like whoa this like girl that’s like next to me she composes. But if suppose someone else like a 20 or 30 year old composed music for cello and piano, they’d be like “Oh another one of those.”

FRANK J. OTERI: Well, you know it’s interesting the notion of who a composer is. You know there’s this notion more in classical music than any other music that a composer is somebody who’s a man whose got gray hair and maybe a wig, like Amadeus

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, that’s what everyone imagines…

FRANK J. OTERI: …but you know, you’re not a man, and you’re not wearing a wig! And you’re an American. We all could potentially be composers if that’s what we set out to do.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah. Most people think of composers, at least in my class, of like 18 year old and onwards. But they don’t really think of anyone being younger than 18.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #3

FRANK J. OTERI: I want to talk to you about some specific pieces of your music. I’ve been really enjoying it. I want to talk a bit about My Rainbow. I heard things in it that pressed certain buttons for me and I don’t know if these composers will mean anything to you, but I want to mention these composers to you to see if you know of them because I thought there was a kinship: Howard Hanson, Amy Beach, Arthur Foote, Samuel Barber. Do you know their music?

NATASHA SINHA: I think I know Amy Beach. Yeah and I like her music. I’ve heard it a little bit. I sort of like it.

FRANK J. OTERI: And I thought it was interesting, you living in the Boston area, writing music in the tradition of the great New England composers. And I’m wondering, is there something in the water up there that makes people write rhapsodic beautiful music filled with counterpoint that is very gracious to performers. I mean this is music that performers would want to play.

NATASHA SINHA: Well I think that whenever I compose music, I always try to think of things, especially in one song, it was The Brook. And I thought of a tropical rain forest and how sometimes there’s sometimes like little brooks and all. And also I think of the rain, and how it comes down and then how the water starts flowing. And whenever I come by water, I always start hearing sounds that are not like sounds from the water, but music that just starts coming.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now I know that you have played Poulenc‘s
music. And there’s a wonderful flute and piano sonata by Poulenc. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it.

NATASHA SINHA: No, I don’t know that.

FRANK J. OTERI: Who are some of your favorite composers?

NATASHA SINHA: I like Bach, Beethoven, Bartók, Chopin and I like Grieg.

FRANK J. OTERI: You played Bach’s Two-Part Invention No. 8 on your piano CD and I definitely heard it as a departure point for a lot of the music you’ve done. That sort of sense of line in the invention sort of translates into one of the movements of the flute piece. I also heard echoes of it in the last movement of The Seasons, the cello and piano piece, and in your oboe and piano piece. Bach is somebody whom I also find a constant source of inspiration as a composer. But it’s interesting… Why is this man who lived in Northern Germany 300 years ago relevant still to us today in America?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I think that his music still shines. Because just the way he writes, he wrote the music, it brought out a lot of melodies that I enjoy even though it was such a long time ago. I don’t pick music by when it comes from. I mean I wouldn’t really mind if it came from like 300 years ago or 400 years ago, but I still like the music because I like the way it sounds.

FRANK J. OTERI: You love Bach, and you also love the Back Street Boys. Is there any music you don’t like?

NATASHA SINHA: I don’t really know if I don’t really like any music. I think of music as just being second nature to me because it’s always around and I don’t think there’s any wrong way to play music.

FRANK J. OTERI: That’s wonderful. It’s a shame that a lot of people don’t feel that way and some people get so caught up in one area of music making that they close out everything else.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, some of my friends like rap music and I like some rap, but not like I love it. But all they do is like rap. They don’t understand really what classical is or anything. And they think it’s boring.

FRANK J. OTERI: Because they don’t take the time to get into it…

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah. They always like turn on ‘N Sync

FRANK J. OTERI: Well, it’s interesting in terms of talking about other influences, because I heard some interesting things in your cello and piano piece, The Seasons. I’m thinking specifically of one of the movements, the Fall movement where the cello sort of sounded like a Chinese erhu, which is this two-stringed violin and there was sort of a Chinese-sounding scale. Were you trying to incorporate Chinese music at all in that?

NATASHA SINHA: I learned in the theory class I take at the New England Conservatory, about the minor way of playing something. And that sounded sort of interesting to me. And that particular section I thought that would fit in well there.

FRANK J. OTERI: So have you listened to Chinese music?

NATASHA SINHA: Not really.

FRANK J. OTERI: Any other sort of non-Western music, Indian music

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I listen to Indian music sometimes. And then I also listen sometimes to African music. I like how the rainsticks and stuff sound.

FRANK J. OTERI: Have you heard Lou Harrison‘s music?

NATASHA SINHA: No.

FRANK J. OTERI: I think you would be very interested in his music. Also Alan Hovhaness who died about a little over a year ago. Lou Harrison is still alive. He’s in his 80s now. He’s in California. And he writes this really lovely music that combines really tuneful sounding music for violin, cello, piano, with Asian influences like Indonesian music and Chinese music.

JENNY UNDERCOFLER: Lou Harrison wrote a piano concerto that you would like a lot. The piano has to be tuned in a specific way though. It’s not the regular piano tuning. In one movement the pianist gets to play with a block instead of the left hand. You play part of it with a block. It’s a really cool piece. You’d like it.

FRANK J. OTERI: Yeah, it’s wonderful. I’ll send you some music to listen to.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #4

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you write out stuff by hand originally or does it go straight to computer?

NATASHA SINHA: Like I explained earlier what we would do is we would first do it by hand and then we would make a second hand copy which was neater because sometimes we would sort of hurry to write things down. And then from that, we would put it on the computer because it would be neater on there.

FRANK J. OTERI: And what program do you use?

NATASHA SINHA: We use Cakewalk Overture. And then my mom helps sometimes and sometimes my dad, but I do it most of the time.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now does that computer allow you to listen back to the music at all?

NATASHA SINHA: No actually, there’s a second way to actually do it on our computer which is to play it on the piano, but you would have to be exact about when to start. And it would change the signature if you weren’t. We have a keyboard and we hook it up to that, so like if you started playing and then you went a little bit faster, it might change the signature…

FRANK J. OTERI: It’s terrible. I started using a notation software program that I absolutely love called Sibelius for my own music… And you can hear the music, you enter it in the computer, but then you can play it back and it plays it.

NATASHA SINHA: Oh wow.

FRANK J. OTERI:
And I thought it was interesting because you were saying that you get musicians to play the music and then you make corrections based on what you hear, but with this program, you can hear it all as you are creating it…

NATASHA SINHA: Oh, no, no, no, what I mean is from what they’re playing. Like the way they’re playing. If they’re playing it too loud or soft, that’s what I mean.

FRANK J. OTERI: How long does it take you to write a piece of music. Like the cello and piano piece, how long did it take you to write that?

NATASHA SINHA: It took me about like four or five months.

FRANK J. OTERI: And the flute/piano piece?

NATASHA SINHA: Uh around that.

FRANK J. OTERI: Same, same length of time. One of my favorite things that I heard on the CD was the second movement of the Rustic Suite, the piece for oboe and piano. What I thought was so nice about it was it was so spare. There were passsages where the oboe played and the piano didn’t play at all. And then the piano came it. It wasn’t crowded with notes. Every phrase was allowed to breathe. And I think a lot of times there’s a desire to fill up the page and have as much going on as possible and I think it was wonderful how this music just breathed.

NATASHA SINHA: Well sometimes I feel that also the players sometimes need a rest. But also I sometimes think that as you said, sometimes things get too compacted and I don’t worry how much music I have. As long as it’s not like one note, obviously, the only thing I’m really concerned about is that the music sounds right to me.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now when you hear other people playing your music, how does it make you feel when you’re sitting in the audience?

NATASHA SINHA: It makes me feel just really happy because I usually just close my eyes and just think about it. And sometimes I’m just surprised that I wrote that because I’m just looking at a piece of paper and just playing notes and sometimes I need my teacher to help me. I’m just playing it on the piano, but then when I really hear it with all the instruments, it sounds so good. And I really like it.

FRANK J. OTERI: Have you ever heard a performance of your music that you did not like?

NATASHA SINHA: I don’t think so because most of the times, they’re pretty good.

FRANK J. OTERI: So they do a good job with your music.

NATASHA SINHA: We usually get players who are pretty good and if there’s just one little thing that goes wrong, I don’t make a huge deal about it because we’re all human.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #5

FRANK J. OTERI: In talking about both the flute/piano piece and about the cello/piano piece The Seasons you said that you wanted to convey something, some sort of a message. So is it program music? Do the notes mean something besides just the notes?

NATASHA SINHA: Well the notes for me mean what I feel about the music. Like in the cello piece The Four Seasons I tried to convey how the Summer went or how the Summer is for me. How it goes by so quickly. Many fun things happen. And the Fall, how all the leaves are falling. How it’s beautiful and how there’s some touch of magic in it. And then in the Winter, how it’s like sometimes really bad and good. And then in the Spring, how everything starts blooming and everything like life comes back again.

FRANK J. OTERI: I definitely got the sense of winter in the Winter movement. It was actually my favorite movement. It really felt cold. So, you definitely got that across! But, the strangest thing on your CD I thought was the violin suite. There’s one movement that I thought was very, very weird. There are cat calls and there’s banging on the piano lid, pitch bends on the violin… It’s out there!

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah. It was supposed to be like that.

FRANK J. OTERI: It was great. I loved it. What made you write something like that?

NATASHA SINHA: Well, I decided to write something about a person who wasn’t in the best position at his time. It was about a fiddler in the attic of this huge apartment. In the first scene, or the first song, he was happy; everything was going nicely. And then the second scene, the landlady comes to collect the money. So that’s when you hear the banging and asking for the money… And that’s when all the cats are around. And the third scene, she goes away and then the fourth song, he starts becoming forgetful. And then he actually starts playing wrong notes and I thought it was pretty interesting. I wanted to write something where there wasn’t only just one subject in it. There was more than one subject. It was like the violin was actually part of the story. Then the cats were in it. The landlady was in it. And so was the man…

FRANK J. OTERI: Now, in terms of story, is this your own story that you made up?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you write stories also?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I do. At school sometimes we get to improvise our own things.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you think an audience can hear the story you are trying to tell through this music? I heard it and I had a different interpretation entirely. Music, of course, is abstract. I heard the catcalls. And it sounded to me like a cat was playing the piano. That’s what I thought you were trying to convey. All of a sudden cluster, cluster, cluster, cluster and then rrriaow, rrriaow… My cat has tried to play the piano a few times and that’s kind of what it sounds like.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, that’s what I tried to convey. Obviously, you know, a cat’s foot is about this big. And obviously you can press like two or three notes and then sometimes you don’t press just the white notes or just the black notes so they might go on the sharp or the flat. So I tried to do that.

FRANK J. OTERI: Have you heard the music of Henry Cowell at all?

NATASHA SINHA: I haven’t.

FRANK J. OTERI: He was a composer who starting writing music around the turn of the twentieth century. And about 1911, when he was still very young, he invented this thing called a tone cluster. You take your arm and play the keys of the piano all at once. You can do it all on the white keys and that’s one sound and you can do it all on the black keys that’s another sound. You can do it on all of them and that’s yet another sound. And Bartók, whom you mentioned was one composer you like, learned about Henry Cowell’s tone clusters and wrote a letter to Cowell asking his permission to use them!

NATASHA SINHA: That’s so silly.

FRANK J. OTERI: Well Cowell’s response was that Charles Ives also did this in his music independently, before Ives had ever heard Cowell’s music… We’ve gotta get you to hear some of this stuff! Have you heard John Cage‘s music at all?

NATASHA SINHA: No.

FRANK J. OTERI: There has been a lot of music in the last 100 years that’s taken this sort of notion of experimenting with scales, doing other things, and going into a whole other universe with it. Are you interested in exploring that sort of thing more? Or was this sort of an unusual thing for you?

NATASHA SINHA: Well, I wanted to write something sort of funny, a little bit different. And I decided to write a piece that was not just a regular piece like some of my other pieces are. I wanted to make it a little bit different. I wasn’t just writing the same thing. It would be a little bit more of an “up” thing to most of the other things.

FRANK J. OTERI: What did the audience think of this piece?

NATASHA SINHA: Oh, they thought it was funny and they liked it a lot.

FRANK J. OTERI: And the players?

NATASHA SINHA: Oh, the players. They thought it was good too because they thought it was funny, but it also wasn’t terribly hard for them to play. So, they thought it was good.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #6

FRANK J. OTERI: Well now, so far you’ve written music for one instrument, just the piano, and then you’ve written music for two instruments, piano and something else. Have you thought about writing for larger combinations?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah I have. I just recently made a piece called The Little Orchestra and that has three, actually four in it. It’s the piano, the violin, the viola and the cello. I’m still working on it right now. I’m making a piece called The Wild Swans and it has the same thing, it has the piano, the violin, the cello, and the viola, and then I’m going to add in some brass instruments.

FRANK J. OTERI: Wow.

NATASHA SINHA: The trumpet and then a little bit of percussion instruments.

FRANK J. OTERI: Neat. So you haven’t done anything yet that doesn’t have the piano in it. Everything has piano.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, so far.

FRANK J. OTERI: Is that because you’re a pianist?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I think, the piano has some special role in most of the pieces I have because I think that the piano always has some part in whatever I’m doing. Because it just sounds right. Eventually I might have something where it doesn’t go and I can pick maybe the harpsichord or something. But actually one time I did not use the piano. I actually used the harpsichord…

FRANK J. OTERI: What piece is that?

NATASHA SINHA: Right off the head, I don’t remember. I used it for a piece I thought was more like in the olden days.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now do you have a harpsichord at home?

NATASHA SINHA: No actually I have a keyboard though and it has a harpsichord on it. Like you just press the button…

FRANK J. OTERI: You have a piano at home though.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: So much of the stuff you talk about has a story. But you haven’t done anything for voices yet, for singers. Does that interest you?

NATASHA SINHA: Not at the moment, but I’ve been thinking about it because just recently, I saw the Phantom of the Opera and I thought that was really cool. But for right now, I’m not sure about that, but I’d like to do it someday.

FRANK J. OTERI: So you’d like to write an opera or a musical theater piece or something?

NATASHA SINHA: And eventually, I wanna create for maybe not a full orchestra, but a pretty good sized orchestra.

FRANK J. OTERI: You write mostly suites of linked movements, but every one of the movements is very short. Some of them are about like a minute and half, two minutes. Have you done anything that’s a longer stretch of continuous music?

NATASHA SINHA: You mean in like one movement?

FRANK J. OTERI: Yeah.

NATASHA SINHA: Not yet.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you want to or do you feel that the short movements are better?

NATASHA SINHA: Well, I’ve considered that but actually I have longer movements now in The Wild Swans because there are lots of parts where you have to repeat stuff. And another thing is that in this new suite I have to be more detailed which means that I have to make it more lengthening.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #7

FRANK J. OTERI: Let’s talk a little bit about your playing the piano. You’ve entered competitions…

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: …and have done quite well in those competitions. How long have you been playing the piano?

NATASHA SINHA: Ever since I was four, four and a half.

FRANK J. OTERI: One of the things I thought was so interesting is that you don’t play a lot of standard repertoire. You play all this obscure stuff. There were some composers on your demo CD that I’ve never even heard of. You’re playing music by Alexander Goldenveyser and Karl Albert Loeschhorn… I don’t even know if I’m saying their names right! And Racov… Who is Racov?

NATASHA SINHA: He’s a Russian I think. My teacher’s Russian and he likes pieces that are Russian or near Russia. I would like to start playing “Heart and Soul.”

FRANK J. OTERI: You mean the popular song?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah. I only know the melody. I don’t know. And then sometimes when I’m playing the piano, I just start doing a tango, but I don’t really know how to play it.

FRANK J. OTERI: So these obscure pieces were things that your teacher suggested for the most part?

NATASH
A SINHA:
Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: But you enjoyed playing them?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I liked playing them because I thought the songs were good. I just didn’t really know the composers that well.

FRANK J. OTERI: Who is Shin Daw Lien?

NATASHA SINHA: Um, that’s the composer who did a frog song and I used that when I went to Washington DC because there were Chinese composers there and judges. So I decided to pick a Chinese song.

FRANK J. OTERI: Great. But you haven’t played a lot of the standard stuff, you know, like Beethoven

NATASHA SINHA: Oh actually yes. I’m playing a sonata and also I was just recently finished playing a Rachmaninoff piece a month ago. And it was very beautiful.

FRANK J. OTERI: D you feel like you want to keep going as a concert pianist and playing music?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I think so. think it’ll always stay with me.

FRANK J. OTERI: How often do you practice a day?

JENNY UNDERCOFLER: Oh, that’s a mean question!

FRANK J. OTERI: It is a mean question. Sorry.

NATASHA SINHA: Well it varies, sometimes I have more time like on some nights I get in like two and a half hours or something. And then other nights, I can get half an hour or an hour in. And then usually on Sundays, before I go to my piano lesson, I go even more time like three hours.

FRANK J. OTERI: Wow.

NATASHA SINHA: Because I need that much practice because some of the pieces that I’m just starting are sort of difficult.

FRANK J. OTERI: Wow, it amazes me that you find the time to do all of this stuff. Now you study at New England Conservatory.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I do theory there.

FRANK J. OTERI: Who are your teachers?

NATASHA SINHA: Alexa Vogelzang. And a few years ago I had Mr. Peisch. And he taught me musicianship, which was the very beginning. And this year in theory, I was learning about the changes in a chord and how it inverts to a different chord and how to open a chord and close a chord and how to do that.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #8

FRANK J. OTERI: What do you feel is the most you’ve gotten from your teachers?

NATASHA SINHA: In theory?

FRANK J. OTERI: In anything.

NATASHA SINHA: Well I’ve a learned respect for liking that thing. I’ve started to like music more. I started to appreciate all the people’s work that they’ve done. I’ve appreciated my teachers more because the way they pick out from the many good composers the best ones.

FRANK J. OTERI: Would you be interested in teaching one day?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I think so.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you think it’s difficult to teach?

NATASHA SINHA: I don’t think it’s very difficult unless you don’t know how to do it.

FRANK J. OTERI: One of the most amazing things I read about in your background is your commitment to the community and you mentioned this in the very beginning about wanting to help people. In 1999, you started this program called “Share the Music” at Milton Hospital.

NATASHA SINHA: When my grandma and grandpa used to go out there once in awhile to help out, I realized that some people are really sick and that there was this new thing that was saying that music can help people get better. Or at least possibly come out of the hospital for awhile ‘cuz sometimes you can’t really move much. And I decided that since music is so relaxing and calming, it could help. I decided to gather a few kids from different schools, actually I used Milton Academy, and we decided to go there on one afternoon and play music. And there were a bunch of people, some in wheelchairs, some with canes and before we started, we said that we hoped that they’ll feel better. And we played as best as we could. And after we did that, we asked if anyone felt better and many of them did. They said it was very relaxing and it was actually the first time they had heard music in a long time.

FRANK J. OTERI: Wow, now you organized this whole thing?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: What did you have to do to get people involved with it?

NATASHA SINHA: I made posters and I gave them to the Milton School and I decided that since we were sort of friends with them since I went there for a year. We talked to the music director and said, “Can you please post these around the music area?” or wherever there were posters. So we got a few kids who were willing to do this. And we thought it was very nice of them and at the end we gave them a nice treat.

FRANK J. OTERI: That was a couple of years ago. Are you still involved with that?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I am. Once in awhile I do it but, it’s sort of a little bit difficult now since I have more things going on. But sometimes we do.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #9

FRANK J. OTERI: Now tell me a bit about, you also in addition to all the music stuff you do competitive figure skating.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I used to.

FRANK J. OTERI: You don’t any more?

NATASHA SINHA: Actually no, I don’t because it started taking up too much time. And if I did that, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this. Like I wouldn’t be able to do much piano ‘cuz it was either giving up ice skating or giving up piano and I decided to give up ice skating because I could have gotten injured since I was getting near the higher levels where you have to do more turns in the air and stuff. So I decided that. I mean I c
an always come back to it. But I just didn’t wanna like grab onto that because also I think that music is very important.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now with the figure skating, you got pretty high. You were number four in a U.S. Regional in 2000.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: You placed first in the Providence Open Competition in 1997. When did you start skating?

NATASHA SINHA: I actually started skating when I was about four and a half. And I did that until I was eight and a half I think.

FRANK J. OTERI: Wow.

NATASHA SINHA: So that was the last.

FRANK J. OTERI: And you said that you also like tennis and you want to get into softball.

NATASHA SINHA: Yes sort of. I wanted to do softball, but actually I didn’t get a chance to get into softball. I like tennis a lot. Tennis I always like because it’s always on television and I think tennis is a very nice game because you don’t have to be running every second. But you have to use your muscles and be able to predict when something comes, where the ball will be coming and have to throw it back in time.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now do you feel there’s any connection between sports and music?

NATASHA SINHA: Actually I do because usually when I did skating, there would always be music playing. And for some reason, whenever I’m doing anything, I just start singing. I don’t know why. I just start humming tunes in my head because I have them and I think sometimes some, some songs just start coming out and I really enjoy it.

FRANK J. OTERI: Well it’s interesting that you said that you gave up skating because you didn’t want to be injured and hurt your piano playing and you couldn’t give the time to practicing skating and also the time to practicing piano. We always talk about how music is an art and an intellectual thing that involves the mind and engages the soul, but we often forget that making music involves the body. Playing the piano is a physical act of endurance a lot of the time. Especially if you’re entering competitions. That’s like a sports competition in some ways, no?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you feel when you’ve played in piano competitions that you feel physically stressed by it…

NATASHA SINHA: Actually usually I don’t because I’m usually not stressed and the reason for that is because I know that I’ve practiced a lot and that I wouldn’t be going to the competition if I didn’t know it. And that I don’t try to be stressed because if I do, I feel all worried and usually I’m not worried because even if I don’t do well, at least I tried.

FRANK J. OTERI: In terms of the skating competitions, did you ever feel stressed with those?

NATASHA SINHA: Not usually, unless I had a cold. Like the last time I ever skated, I was really sick and I didn’t feel well and I wasn’t sure if I was gonna have to stop in the middle of my program. But that was actually basically the only time ‘cuz I wasn’t feeling well. That morning I had to take this stuff that made me really drowsy.

FRANK J. OTERI: You got into music because your mother had a musical background and you had music in the house all the time. How did you get into the skating?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I had always watched it on television and I personally thought that was very interesting ‘cuz you’re skating on ice. It’s almost like a bike basically except you’re having something that is less friction and you’re basically gliding and you’re jumping up into the air and you don’t just come down with a thud and stop. You come down and you start, you start sliding again and I just thought it was very interesting and I wanted to start skating.

FRANK J. OTERI: In the very beginning of our talk, we spoke about music audiences in this country and people not always appreciating classical music, but there’s an inclination for music that isn’t developed. Sports definitely does not have that problem! Sports has the biggest audience in the world.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, see what I think the thing is, is that well many people get excited for games because you don’t really know what’s gonna happen. But in classical music, for some reason people think that it’ll always be the same and that nothing will really change. And they always have the best players like on the team that they’re on. No one really says “Oh you guys, let’s go and hear this kind of music.” It always has to be like a band group that’s like the newest or something.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you feel there’s something we should do to add more of an element of surprise to music to make it more exciting?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I think that we should somehow persuade people to start liking other kinds of music ‘cuz many people are just stuck in one kind of music ‘cuz that’s all they really care about. But if we could just explain to them how beautiful all kind of music is, even if it’s not preferably your favorite music, you can always like some kind of music. Because at first you can explain to people that there was only classical music. Everything was built off of the caveman days and how it came up from there. Like you would say “Who want to listen to rocks and bones?” And they’ll say, that’s basically saying who would want to listen to pop music, because that developed a whole thing about music and beauty.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #10

FRANK J. OTERI: I was reading about you on the Lego website. How did you get into Lego?

NATASHA SINHA: I’ve always wanted to create things and I’ve been very interested in making things move on their own so you don’t have to do it. And so I decided to use something called an RCX. It’s sort of like a mini-computer. And it downloads things that you type on the computer. And what that does it transforms it into like something the robot can read as ones and zeros. And that allows the robot to do whatever it’s told to do. And you can easily have many programs on there. Now, coming back to Share the Music, suppose you wanted to have something be played, but you couldn’t go over and press the buttons. You could have a robot crawl over or be programmed so that for a few seconds it goes one way and then it turns around. And then it could have an arm extending and it would press exactly at that one place. And it would know that it was playing and then the person could make it program another program so that it would come back and come right next to them so they could do something else with it.

FRANK J. OTERI: The thing that’s interesting about Lego is it’s all these small building blocks that you build larger structures with.
Do you feel there’s a connection between Lego and music?

NATASHA SINHA: Actually I do because I’ve noticed more and more people have started to use crickets which are these little chips and that have batteries in them and they make clicks. And those clicks people have been researching about and I know there’s this one man at MIT. He’s using those crickets to make a vest that has music all over it made out of Legos. So you would like press something and it starts singing a tune.

FRANK J. OTERI: I went over to MIT to meet with Tod Machover for an issue of NewMusicBox and he showed me this denim jacket. It has little patches and you can play scales on it… It’s wacky stuff. Are you interested in creating music like this with machines…?

NATASHA SINHA: Yes, but right now I’m just focusing on inventing the things. And then later when I need music and obviously I love music, but right now I haven’t been doing that yet. So right now I’m just building things. But I would love to obviously put music in.

FRANK J. OTERI: But there’s also a connection between music and Lego on another level. I’m thinking about the first movement of your oboe and piano piece, Rustic Suite, which has these little motives that go here and there. In a sense, motives are the musical equivalent of Lego building blocks. You make larger structures from tiny pieces. With music if you listen to it or look at it on the printed page you can see all these little units that are the building blocks that created this larger thing.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: So do you feel like working with Lego has influenced you as a composer?

NATASHA SINHA: I actually think so because as you said, I think that the notes are like the little pieces of Lego. And sometimes I just like to freely write music. I don’t actually write it down. I just start playing. And sometimes I just think of something I’ve made. Like one time I wrote a little mechanical music. And it went ta-ta-ta-ta…As though something was going like this. And that obviously started the melody for this little thing I started to write. And from there, as you said, those are the building blocks and then I made it into a little bit bigger piece and made it a little bigger until finally I got it.


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #11

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you have hobbies? Are there things you do just for fun?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I personally think that all things I do are basically what I like to do. It’s not like I’m being pushed to do anything. I like music, I like theory … All the things that I’m doing I like. I’m not being pushed to do anything. Like if I didn’t like piano, I would probably pick another instrument that I like, maybe the violin. ‘Cuz when I was very young I started the violin, but I never used the cloth and that’s very important and it was always pressing against me. So I decided to do the piano. But if I didn’t like the piano, I would have gone back to the violin or picked something else.

FRANK J. OTERI: In the interview you did with the folks at Lego, you said that you enjoyed movies.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah.

FRANK J. OTERI: How do you find the time? How many movies do you see?

NATASHA SINHA: Once in awhile we go to a movie, like on Mother’s Day. And then once in awhile I go. I think a few months ago, I went to see Spy Kids. And that was fun. It was just on some random weekend. It’s just once in awhile I don’t do it at…

FRANK J. OTERI: You said you like spicy food.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, ‘cuz my dad’s Indian and ever since I grew up I always ate Indian food.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you like vindaloo?

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah!

FRANK J. OTERI: I do too…


Natasha Sinha
Interview Excerpt #12

FRANK J. OTERI: You’ve won two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards; you’re the youngest composer to win this thing two years in a row. You’ve placed very successfully in piano competitions, in skating competitions. Lego found out about you and did a feature about you on their website. And there’ve been articles about you in newspapers. In some ways, you’re more successful as a composer than many composers in this country who’ve been working on music for years and years and years. So, as a successful composer, what advice do you have for all the other composers out there who are trying to get people to pay attention to what they do.

NATASHA SINHA: Well, personally I think that you shouldn’t just have one thing to work on. You should have a few things as sort of a backup. You can just try your best. And even if something’s not going quite well, you should always keep your spirits up. Because that, that’s what I always did. And I was so surprised this year when I won again because I felt really happy. And sometimes, even if you don’t get all the attention, at least you’re getting some attention.

FRANK J. OTERI: Now in terms of getting your music out there, you made a CD of your music. Can people buy that CD?

NATASHA SINHA: We would have to edit more things onto it. This is just something to put all of my things together, ‘cuz that’s all over the place. And I decided to just put everything on one CD or actually 2 CDs, so I thought that would be easier.

FRANK J. OTERI: And in terms of your scores, if somebody wants to get a score of your music…

NATASHA SINHA: Oh, I’d be happy to give them one.

FRANK J. OTERI: To get performances, do you send scores of your music out to different people.

NATASHA SINHA: I do sometimes, but not as a major thing.

FRANK J. OTERI: Do you see the Internet as a way to get your music out there? And the word about what you do.

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah I could. Actually awhile
I had started doing something called “Natasha’s Collage” and I haven’t put it up on the Internet yet. But I’m gonna put some of my songs on there. And then I’m gonna have like click on here, listen to this piece. And it will just be for free. But it’ll be something I’ll enjoy because other people could see my music. They won’t have to come over or get a CD.

FRANK J. OTERI: In terms of it being for free. You know there’s a lot of talk right now, we’re at a real crossroads with the Internet and music and this whole Napster thing. I don’t know…

NATASHA SINHA: Yeah, I know about it. Like they’re using songs without getting permission from the other people if they can’t be paid for it.

FRANK J. OTERI: As a composer, how can you be financially rewarded for what you’re doing if you’re giving it away for free?

NATASHA SINHA: Well I don’t really compose just to get money. I compose for the fun of it. I like to do it. Unless I like am totally serious with it, I would obviously ask for money. But for right now, I don’t need the money.

“Song of the Brook” from My Rainbow (1999)
Suite for Flute and Piano
Rustic Suite (1999)
for Oboe and Piano, Second Movement
“Winter” from Seasons of the Year
for Cello and Piano (2001)


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RealAudio 
My Rainbow
RealAudio 
2nd Movement
RealAudio 
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

 

Violin Suite (2000)Old Russian Fairy Tale
(1999) for Solo Piano
RealAudio 
1st Movement
2nd Movement
3rd Movement
4th Movement
RealAudio 
Old Russian Fairy Tale