Interview with Composer George Lewis in I Care If You Listen

Trailblazing composer, MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, musicologist, scholar, educator, polymath, and acclaimed trombonist George Lewis was recently interviewed by I Care If You Listen in advance of the East Coast premiere of Curtis Opera Theatre’s production of his new opera, The Comet / Poppea, November 1–3, at Philadelphia’s historic 23rd Street Armory. The internationally acclaimed avant-garde artist, who served as Curtis’ 2023–24 composer-in-residence, discusses his longstanding connection with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musician (AACM)—a legendary incubator for primarily Black jazz and avant-garde musicians on the South Side of Chicago—and how it became a community for him since his first introduction in the early 1970s. 

In the article, the pioneering composer of electronic and computer music, whose catalog includes solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works—talks about his longtime use of AI technology and the ethics of using it as a tool of power instead of interaction between machines and people, and his operatic setting of W.E.B. DuBois’ The Comet, juxtaposed with Claudio Monteverdi’s baroque masterwork, L’incoronazione di Poppea. 

“‘The Comet’ is a proto-Afrofuturist short story,” says Mr. Lewis. “A comet kills many people when it hits the earth. The only two people who find each other are a Black man and a white woman from very different classes. They’re faced with a lot of dilemmas. DuBois was thinking about what happens if white supremacy is removed—and this is the most extreme way of removing it.”

Mr. Lewis discusses the production’s innovative turntable stage, which is divided into two halves, offering audiences a unique experience depending on where they are seated in the space; the time travel and parallel universe aspects of the score and Douglas Kearney’s libretto; the intentional casting of Black artists in the Poppea ensemble, who are often excluded in the casting of Baroque operas; and his doctrine of cultivating spaces for Black musicians.

Read the interview HERE.

Photo Credit: 1.) Portrait of George Lewis; Maurice Weiss. 2.) George Lewis speaking at Curtis New Music Ensemble’s “Portrait of George Lewis on April 13, 2024, at Gould Rehearsal Hall; Yonnie Simon. 3.) George Lewis in 1999; Ian Cummings. 4.) Marc Lowenstein, Yuval Sharon, Luther Lewis, and George Lewis in rehearsal for The Comet / Poppea in Los Angeles; Erin Baiano, Image by Erin Baiano, courtesy of The Industry.