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.