PRESS

“…in the sextet’s piece The Glam Seduction, the 1980s rock music of Eddie Van Halen meets the instrumentation of Niccolo Paganini, a 19th-century violinist who was known for stunning, fast-fingered compositions… The result – Paganini on coke.
(Performance by Eighth Blackbird – April 2004)

“New operas don’t often score knock-outs. But, if crowd response were the determining factor, “Approaching Ali” sure sounded like a champion Saturday night at the Kennedy Center, where Washington National Opera presented the premiere of this hour-long piece. The applause was loud and long, a heartening reaction to witness for any freshly written opera. And there certainly was a lot to cheer in this modest-dimensioned, entertaining work.”

“‘Approaching Ali’…features an imaginative score by Baltimore School for the Arts alum D.J. Sparr. His harmonic style is nicely spicy, but fundamentally tonal, and he reveals a good sense of propulsion; like Ali in his prime, the score is nimble on its feet.”

“…Sparr knows how to send a vocal line soaring vividly, and how to extract a great deal of color from a 10-member orchestra…”

“The opera even has something that you might not expect — charm. That’s no small achievement.”

“…”Approaching Ali” makes a worthy calling card for the American Opera Initiative. It also demonstrates Sparr’s considerable potential; his first attempt in this tricky genre lands some very solid punches.”
(Performance by the Washington National Opera – June, 2013)

“Electric guitarist D.J. Sparr’s Jimi Hendrix-inspired solos were stylishly played. Spirituals combined with Sparr’s impressive guitar picking in “Chicken Pickin” to bring the work to a powerful, momentum-building close.”
(Performance of Michael Daugherty’s “Gee’s Bend” with the Alabama Symphony – March, 2010)

“His name sounds like an aggressive vinyl scratcher who’s always ready to throw down in a rap battle. And D. J. Sparr knows it…. Sparr, whose initials stand for Donald Joseph Sparr, Jr. is a very talented musician and composer. And his latest work is about as far from the genre his name suggests as it could be.”

“The chirpiest music on Saturday was found from the mind of guitarist/composer D. J. Sparr, whose Woodlawn Drive might have also been subtitled ‘Music Box for Small Ensemble.’ With clarion xylophone blows and bubbly woodwinds, the score seemed to propel onward with the imaginary turn of a crank.”

(Performance by Accessible Contemporary Music – November, 2009)

“He required as much virtuosity on the electronics as on the guitar. Utilizing hands, feet and knees he commanded the most fearsome array of rheostats, potentiometers, semiconductors, and integrated circuits this side of Cape Canaveral. And he concurrently accompanied on the guitar, improvising as he proceeded with astonishing know-how.”

“The audience in the Terrace Theater June 09 was held under the spell and magic of a new opera that Sunday afternoon. An opera that told a story Americans know all too well today of how children can be bullied in schools and how they shrink into their own little worlds of submission, feeling that no one understands them and wondering if anyone ever will. It is a story of role models and the power for good and the enormous inspiration and sway they can hold over children, whether they know it or not.

The composer D. J. Sparr seemed equally moved by the pathos of the drama. He lovingly sculpted the melodies around his characters to delineate their emotional states of feeling to be easily felt by the audience….Maestro Sparr’s music has the immediacy of Gershwin, or Menotti, or Copland, and the audience’s reactions are likewise immediate. They were easily caught up in the drama and the power of the music and quick to express their own enthusiasm….

Ali was given an immediate standing ovation in Washington, and with a superb cast it will have the same affect anywhere it is mounted in the USA. Modern Opera for Today’s Audience’s with a real Modern Day Hero…You can’t miss with this one!”

(Performance by the Washington National Opera)

“Washington National Opera has given us a “champ” of a new music-theatre work that is as approachable and inspiring as the great American Muhammad Ali himself. Its creators have bypassed taking a biographical approach, which wouldn’t have worked in this medium anyway, but have crafted something lean, impressionistic and emotionally powerful.”“The work was so satisfying on many levels, but how I wanted to jump up and rescue the orchestra from the pit to hear what made those sounds. Sparr’s musicality is matched by his inventive instrumentation to get the range of colors he heard for the piece.”

(Performance by the Washington National Opera)

“In case you’ve missed one of the most exciting developments on the local classical music scene in years, metro Detroit finally has a contemporary music ensemble that takes no prisoners.New Music Detroit, a cooperative group that made its debut last year, has been turning heads with its ferociously energetic and virtuoso performances of music that’s almost never heard in metro Detroit — everything from downtown idioms like minimalism and its offshoots to the gnarly experiments of the European avant-garde, free jazz, rock hybrids and eclectic post-everything music so new the ink is still wet.

The group — whose founding core includes players mostly in their 20s and 30s and several members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra — made a big splash with a 12-hour marathon last summer that launched it into orbit. On Saturday the ensemble rolls out “Strange New Music II,” its second annual marathon.

Some four dozen musicians will perform music by about two dozen composers, ranging from Steve Reich, and Terry Riley to Olivier Messiaen, Luciano Berio and such bright lights of a new generation as Nico Muhly, Marc Mellits and D.J. Sparr.”

(Performance by New Music Detroit – September 2008)

Odd Man Out

Electric guitarist D.J. Sparr mixes things up at The Cabrillo Festival

by DNA. FRIDAY, 05 AUGUST 2011

Imagine a musician showing up to a symphony rehearsal with a Marshall amplifier in tow, and an electric guitar strapped to his back—the string players brace themselves, the violist covers her ears. It’s hard to be a rocker in a classical environment—but it’s just another day in the life of D.J. Sparr.

The guitarist/composer loves a good riff, but he also has a doctorate in composition and is well-versed in symphony rehearsal etiquette. After all, no classically-trained musician wants to be blown off stage by a guy who sounds like he belongs at Lollapalooza.

From outside Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, Colo., Sparr reflects, “You have to know how to adjust your volume, and it sounds silly, but there aren’t many electric guitarists who could come to a symphonic rehearsal and know how to deal with that—outside a couple of guys in New York, Chicago and LA.”

While the rest of the orchestra is studying music notes, contemplating the tone and sound delivery, and adjusting their bows—Sparr slams the Bigsby vibrato bar on his handmade Finnish JHS Rocktor: a Les Paul Double Cut that features three Lindy Fralin humbuckers and custom wiring.

It was early in Sparr’s life that he attended his first big arena concert, AC/DC. “I grew up with the hair bands,” says the musician, who eventually became enamored with Van Halen. But, after realizing that classical music would afford him opportunities as a musician that he could never have on the bar circuit, Sparr spent the next 15 years working toward degrees and receiving accolades for his work.

“When I play the guitar in front of people at the symphony, I’m fulfilling every kid’s dream of playing for a couple thousand people,” he says. “When you’re younger, you think that it wouldn’t be hard to fulfill that dream.”

The young maestro says he believes he wouldn’t be where he is today without the guidance of composer Michael Daugherty, whom he studied with in graduate school. Considered a maverick in American concert music, Daugherty was the perfect mentor to Sparr’s wild side. “When I went to the University of Michigan and studied with Michael Daugherty, I began thinking that I liked the idea of the old guy composers: Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Mozart,” he says. “Paganini is a great example because he was kind of crazy like a rock guitarist.” And like the legendary “old guys,” Sparr splits his time between his two loves: playing and composing.

These days, it is not unusual to see rock icons partner up with a symphony—from Metallica to the Grateful Dead—and Sparr has not given up the dream of working with one his heroes. “I’m writing a guitar concerto for myself,” he says. “I told the executive director at the California Symphony, Walter Collins, we should try and see if Eddie Van Halen will do it.”

Named the next Young American Composer-in-Residence with the California Symphony, Sparr’s work has been performed across the country and overseas with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Band. Next week, he heads to Santa Cruz for two performances as part of The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

On Thursday, August 11, Sparr shares the stage with Concertmaster Justin Bruns and members of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, for “Music in the Mountains,” an intimate redwoods performance in Nestldown, Los Gatos. Just two days later, on Saturday, August 13, he will lend his guitar expertise to the west coast premiere of his mentor Daugherty’s work, “Gee’s Bend” at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium.

Sparr is confident that attendees at both performances will enjoy his genre-bending classical-rock fusion. After all, “with classical players now, everyone grew up going to rock concerts,” he says. “Even the older generation is used to hearing rock integrated into pop concerts.”

“Classical music that combines innovation and tradition is featured in New Music Detroit’s 2nd annual 12-hour new music marathon, “Strange Beautiful Music II.”Held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the performance will take place from noon to midnight, Saturday, Sept. 6. A schedule detailing performers and pieces will be distributed and listeners can come and go as they please. Tickets will be available at the door for $12.

Building upon momentum generated by last year’s marathon, the event was moved to accommodate the larger anticipated audience.

The program has grown artistically as well, with notable composers D.J. Sparr and Marc Mellits appearing as composers-in-residence. Sparr is known for his ability to combine American vernacular music with current trends in art-music composition that appeals to a broad range of listeners.

Mellits takes on minimalism and offers a new perspective on the works of the minimalist masters.

Joining the marathon this year is a host of classical and jazz musicians from around the country. Frank Pahl, the Motor City Jazz Orchestra, and Robert Tye with Mark Kieme and David Taylor are among the performers scheduled to perform works by composers John Luther Adams, Luciano Berio, John Zorn, Georges Aperghis, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and many others.
(Performance by New Music Detroit – September 2008)

“D. J. Sparr was a terrific soloist.”

(Performance with the Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra – August 2011)

“The audience obviously wanted more after the world premiere of Washington National Opera’s Approaching Ali. The 50 minute work… received a standing ovation from an enthusiastic crowd whom over ninety percent actually stayed for a 15 minute Q&A, an awesome feat for any Modern Opera production…The show is a contemporary human story set to a 21st century score, and polished with an accessible finish.”“Creating a modern opera work without alienating audiences seems to be no small feat.”

(Performance of Approaching Ali by Washington National Opera)

“One more point about this orchestra [California Symphony] as it celebrates its anniversary: It long has nurtured young composers, including Kevin Puts, who won the Pulitzer Prize in music last month. Its latest young composer-in-residence is D.J. Sparr, whose brand new “Optima Vota: Overture-Fantasia” opened Friday’s program. It’s less than ten minutes long, and lovely. It spouts streams of colors, which keep rising up like Old Faithful at Yellowstone, each time capped by a brisk descending fanfare from the brass. The piece shimmers and moves in waves, turns iridescent and wondrous. There’s something about it that evokes the exhilaration of childhood: sparklers on the Fourth of July, that sort of thing. It grows, pulses, leaps to its pop-Romantic apex and ends like a lullaby.” (Performance with Donato Cabrera and the California Symphony – May 2012)

“…Gabriella Frank wasn’t the only composer at Alias’ concert. Sparr, a gifted guitarist, joined Alias violinist Alison Gooding to perform his “Vim-Hocket, Calm” for electric guitar and amplified violin. Sparr said the great contemporary Dutch composer Louis Andriessen influenced his work. Andriessen often scores his works using instruments usually associated with rock ‘n’ roll. Sparr also found inspiration in the music of Charles Ives.His “Vim-Hocket, Calm” is a short, episodic piece that alternates between lyrical passages and aggressive ones. Surprisingly, the electric guitar usually created the most soothing sounds, while the violin part was more angular and spiky. The complex ensemble writing included a slightly out-of-sync canon. To their credit, Sparr and Gooding gave a performance that was always tight…”

D. J. SPARR: PLAYING WELL WITH OTHERS

By Alexandra Gardner on June 19, 2013

Composer and electric guitarist D. J. Sparr draws energy and inspiration from interacting with other musicians. “That’s why I compose,” he says, “to get to the point where I can be actively working with other musicians.” A full schedule of composition commissions, performances of his own music and that of other composers, and educational residencies ensures that he gets his fill of that vitality.

Sparr grew up playing electric guitar (à la Eddie Van Halen), but put down his axe for a time during studies at the Eastman School of Music. Then, inspired by the composer-performer faculty members at the University of Michigan, he started performing again within the realm of classical music. He has since performed the music of Michael Daugherty, Paul Lansky, and others, as well as his own compositions, such as his electric guitar concerto Violet Bond, written for the California Symphony where he currently serves as Young Composer-in-Residence.

Beyond the electric guitar, Sparr has built a varied catalog of works for chamber ensemble, orchestra, and vocal music. His short-form opera Approaching Ali, commissioned and recently premiered by the Washington National Opera, is based on the book The Tao of Mohammed Ali by author Davis Miller, with a libretto by Mark Campbell. It tells the story of a writer at the brink of middle age who visits his boyhood hero in person in an effort to rekindle the spirit and enthusiasm of his youth. This poignant and charming work could serve well as an introduction to opera for people of any age or background.

Educational outreach is a substantial part of the composer’s work with the California Symphony, as it was during his three-year residency with the Richmond Symphony’s Education and Community Engagement Department and while he served as a faculty member at The Walden School. He takes cues from the performance and creativity workshops of Michael Colgrass for his own educational work, employing exercises such as drawing graphic scores and conducting on the spot. “It’s fun to work with kids, and it’s nice to get to know them,” explains Sparr, “and then some of them show up at [my] concerts, so it’s pretty cool.”

Early on in his composing career, Sparr found that what he needed to realize his own artistic goals was not located in Los Angeles, New York, or other large cities, so he left the urban landscape, moving first to the mid-Atlantic coast, and then to Richmond, Virginia to build a life that focused on the more basic needs of, as he puts it, “shelter, food, and writing.” He continues:

The combination of finding the people who support you, writing as much music as you can, and being as nice to everyone you meet as you possibly can, including being happy for their successes — there’s a saying that “A rising tide lifts all boats” — is really the key to making it work. And the composing world looks pretty great right now.

With Approaching Ali under his belt, a new large orchestra composition in the works to wind up his California Symphony residency, and a debut CD of his chamber music works coming out on Centaur Records later this year, it looks as if Sparr is reaching musical high tide. Hopefully his electric guitar case is waterproofed.

APERIO: INDIE-A-GO-GO

By Andrew Sigler on February 3, 2014

…And last but not least, the “new”est piece by the youngest composer of the night, D.J. Sparr’s The Glam Seduction, closed out the evening. Starting out with a harmonically reimagined but structurally spot-on arrangement of the opening gesture of Eddie Van Halen’s seminal guitar solo “Eruption” (including devastating introductory thunder drums courtesy of percussionist Luke Hubbley), this Van Halen reference was laid bare. No coy rhythms here. The piece segues quickly from the opening material to a rising line shared among Moore, Trevor, flutist Judy Dines, and bass clarinetist Sean Krissman. This heads-up collective motive returns several times during the work and serves as a chorus of sorts between solo sections for each instrument. Each player in turn does their best metal impression, though I think if the piece had a less evocative title [2] (and performance notes that obscured the origin of the musical material) it’s quite possible that the “metal” elements would be less obvious.

In fact, there are many tender and quiet moments and sections throughout the work which set off the wilder and more provocative core and do give the ears a rest before things are cranked up once again. The piece goes out with a bang, as well as a huge swaggering coda that all but invites the audience (as Zuraw suggested in his introduction to the work) to break out their lighters and put their horns up.

*2. I’m by no means suggesting it should. I was seduced by this same glam in high school, and played tortured versions of “Eruption” until my parents couldn’t take it anymore.

“The curtain raiser was D. J. Sparr’s “Dacca: Decca: GaFfA” (2008), a bright, cheerfully tonal piece in which attractive melodies shared among bells, a xylophone and a pair of antiphonally placed steel-string acoustic guitars dance around a bed of languid string chords. This pop-inflected piece might have seemed out of place in an orchestral program a decade ago, but it suits the boundary-erasing spirit of today’s new-music world.”

(Performance by the Orchestra of the League of Composers – June 2010)

“Some of the most alluring music was written for the character of Odessa Clay, Mr. Ali’s mother, beautifully enacted by Aundi Marie Moore. She spun out the bluesy humming with a honeyed tone, one of several Americana elements of the score.””Ms. Moore was part of a first-rate cast, a graduate of the company’s young artist program, of which the bass Soloman Howard is a member. He wielded his sonorous voice to vivid effect in the title role, his hands trembling from the effects of the Parkinson’s disease that afflicts Mr. Ali.”

“As Davis Miller, David Kravitz had the no-doubt strange experience of portraying a living protagonist who was at the performance. A charismatic baritone, Mr. Kravitz offered a vividly etched and satisfying interpretation of the author, who reminisces in the opera about his troubled childhood.”

“Mr. Miller was bullied as a child and lost his mother, Sara, who is poignantly rendered here by the mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin. Tim Augustin offered a strong performance as the bereaved Roy Miller, who valiantly tries to help his mournful son.”

“In a genre dominated by four-hour behemoths, it’s pleasantly rare to feel that a work is too short…leaving you wanting more.”

(Performance of Approaching Ali by Washington National Opera)

“Soloist D.J. Sparr wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.”

(Performance with Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra – August 2011)

Soundcheck’s conversation about sports on stage continues as guest host Erin McKeown is joined by two of the people who have helped adapt these stories for the theater: Thomas Kail and D.J. Sparr.

Kail directed two Broadway shows about sports: Lombardi, about Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, and Magic-Bird, about the special relationship between basketball stars Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. He was also nominated for a Tony for his work on In the Heights.

Sparr composed the music for the new opera Approaching Ali, about one writer’s friendship with boxer Muhammad Ali. The production was recently staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

They discuss their firsthand experiences putting on shows about sports.

Thomas Kail, on the similarities between sports and theater:

I think there’s a reason why we all get obsessed with the Olympics. And it’s mostly because of those two minute packages they roll when we find out where they’re from or what they did or what they overcame. And then we’re weeping and we’re cheering for a sport we’ve never heard of. What I’ve found also as someone who came from playing sports — I played soccer and baseball my whole life — is there was an understanding of community that I had that brought me to the theater. Directing and coaching had a lot in common.

D.J. Sparr, on incorporating ideas from football coaching into his composing:

I listen to many interviews of football coaches and how they manage their teams. In some ways, the composer is sort of like a coach in that you’re providing a playbook. There’s a pretty good parallel there. An offensive coordinator would give a playbook to his players. I give a musical score, and then that’s interpreted…. Since I love college football so much, anything I can do to relate that to my job as a composer is important.

Kail, on why sports stories are so gripping to theatergoers:

As a sports fan who watches every sports movie that comes out and tries to see as much theater that’s related to sports, I know what can pull you out of a story…. [Lombardi] was about the pursuit of excellence and the cost of excellence. That was fundamentally a play about a relationship set in the world of football, told with authenticity. I think that’s where people found their way in, whether they’ve seen a game or not.

Sparring Partner

Richmond composer D.J. Sparr translates the life of Muhammad Ali into music.

BY ANGELA LEHMAN-RIOS

Sunday afternoon tea is being poured in the upstairs lobby of the Jefferson Hotel. Decaffeinated classical music plays through the speakers. Downstairs, Richmond composer D.J. Sparr can’t get a cup of coffee. He rings a bell and the sound echoes against the bar mirror. He has the slightly rumpled look of a piece of paper that’s been folded in a jacket pocket and smoothed out on an airplane tray.

The past week was a busy one. His first opera, “Approaching Ali,” was in rehearsal at the Kennedy Center in Washington, so he spent the week in the capital, with another week to go. “I asked to come home for the weekend, so they’re flying me back tomorrow morning,” Sparr says. He’s given up on the coffee and is sitting slantwise on his chair in the empty bar. “Opera people have lots of money,” he says.

The 37-year-old is having a busy year. His first album comes out this fall from Centaur Records. He was selected for a residency at the prestigious Yaddo artists’ colony, and his status as young American composer in residence at the California Symphony was extended into its third year. An active electric guitarist, he also performs solo and with orchestras.

Two years ago, Sparr and his wife, Kimberly, a violist, sublet their house for the summer to Davis Miller, author of the memoir “The Tao of Muhammad Ali.” The book describes the effect the boxer had on Miller’s troubled childhood and their friendship as adults.

Later, when Sparr read a news release from Washington National Opera announcing its American Opera Initiative project to commission American-themed works by young composers, he thought of Miller’s book and emailed the artistic director, asking if it was interested. He got the commission.

“D. J. is a good self-promoter, the way all artists should be,” says Michael Heaston, program director of the American Opera Initiative. “He’s got excellent credentials. He more than met our expectations.”

For Sparr, a typical day of composing involves three work sessions of two to four hours each, punctuated by walks with the dogs and just enough housework to keep Kimberly satisfied. (“I’ve figured out the small things that give the biggest payoff,” he says, grinning.)

He uses a timer to keep himself strictly on task for 45-minute chunks. Each day, he has a goal of how much music he’ll complete, measured in seconds.

“Four months seems like a long time to write an hour-long opera, but it’s not,” he says. “Writing a minute of music a day is a lot.”

To compose “Approaching Ali,” Sparr watched all the videos he could find of boxer Muhammad Ali, internalizing the cadence of his voice. He read about Ali’s religious practices. He listened to the sound of boxers practicing on the speed bag and worked with scales and harmonies from India.

The opera’s libretto was written by Miller and Mark Campbell, one of the most prolific librettists in the United States. The work for six singers and 10-piece orchestra was fully staged with set, lighting and choreography. The performances on June 8 and 9 were reviewed: The Baltimore Sun called his score “imaginative” and “nimble,” while the New York Times and Washington Post were distinctly lukewarm in their reception, particularly of elements influenced by Eastern melodic and rhythmic practices.

Sparr isn’t a New York darling or avant-garde hero. He has no notoriety or megahits. But compared with five or six years ago, he definitely has more work. On the heels of the opera, Sparr has another commission due, a piece for the piccolo player of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a choir of flutes. Then he wants to start on a 25-minute orchestral work for the California Symphony.

“The projects have a bigger scope,” he says. “There are more people waiting on the other side. The deadlines are firmer.”

Despite his increasingly busy life — who flies to Washington from Richmond, after all? — Sparr is slowing his music down. “I’ve been trying to be influenced by the slower pacing of Eastern music,” he says.

Sparr will spend the next few months composing in Colorado, where Kimberly is the assistant principal violist of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra every summer. In the Rocky Mountains, there’s time for slow moments.

“I go to Lookout Gulch and think about music,” he says. S

Guitar Heroes

The Electric Guitar is finding increased acceptance among orchestras and concert composers- many of them guitarists themselves

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