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Pianist found his path at Berkeley, returns to lead Ojai music fest

By Anne Brice

When Vijay Iyer came to UC Berkeley in the early 1990s, he didn’t know he would go on to become what the New Yorker referred to as “the most lauded piano player in jazz.”

Iyer was 21, and a doctoral student in physics. His trajectory was set. But after a couple years, he knew he had to follow a new path. Things started to dawn on me, like, ‘Hey, they might let me make music in the world,” he says. “There might be a space for me to do that. That’s when I made the change.” He went on to receive an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in the cognitive science of music in 1998.

Now, nearly 20 years later, improvisational musician and composer Iyer is back at Berkeley, this time as the music director of the 2017 Ojai Music Festival, which has partnered with Cal Performances to bring Bay Area audiences the seventh season of Ojai at Berkeley. The annual music festival, founded 70 years ago, presents music, symposia and educational programs that emphasize adventurous music by mostly contemporary composers over four days in June.

This year, Iyer will be joined on stage for four concerts by renowned performers and composers, from violinist Jennifer Koh to jazz saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa to composer and trombonist George Lewis.

Berkeley News spoke to Iyer about his creative process, what he thinks makes a talented musician and how he struggles with writer’s block.

Berkeley News: Can you describe your creative process?

Vijay Iyer: With composing — the word compose just means put things next to other things. So you could compose a salad. It’s not a big deal. It needs to have these nutrients in it. It needs to be this color in the end. It needs to have a certain substance to it, like you want it to get you through the day somehow. Those are all just basic human questions, and the fact is that when one makes music, you’re asking those same kinds of human questions about balance and about objectives, but in the process itself — you work with whatever materials you have at hand to make it happen.