Q. You were first exposed to music via your violin. At what point did you feel the desire to compose? How did you find your compositional voice? 

I started composing when I was still a child, but it was never anything that I took seriously. I just did it for fun, almost as a hobby. It wasn’t until my freshman year in college that I felt the desire to take composition lessons and that’s how I found that composing is my true calling. As to the question regarding finding my compositional voice, I don’t think that you ever find it, nor should you purposely look for it. I’ve always felt that I have to write the music that feels honest to me at a particular point. I feel that my music changes considerably from piece to piece (and I’m fine with that) although some of the performers who have played multiple of my works have been able to find footprints and gestures that are distinctly mine.  I don’t really think about all that consciously; I just write the music that I feel I should write.

Q.  Being from Venezuela, you have been exposed to a world of music, folk melodies, and culture that we have not been exposed to as much in the United States. What would you describe as your biggest compositional influences? Can one hear Venezuelan/Latin influences in your music?

I feel that my influences are too many to name. When I started composing, I felt that I had a duty as a Venezuelan composer to sound “Venezuelan” and I tried it in several pieces, with mixed success. In my more recent pieces, the Latin influences are not nearly as apparent, but I still think that a lot of my melodies and rhythms are related to that tradition.

Q. In contemporary classical music, we find more and more that the lines among jazz, classical, Broadway, klezmer, R&B, zarzuela, pop (just to name a few) are blurred. For which genre(s) do you feel an affinity?

To be completely honest, I don’t have a lot of interest in crossing genres. I feel content within the boundaries of “classical” music. For better or for worse, I have spent my entire life in contact with classical music and that is what feels natural and most satisfying to me.

Q. How do you first start a composition? Do you have the melody first? Are you thinking instrumentation initially? What is your process? For which instruments do you prefer to write?

The process of starting a new work is very nerve racking to me. It’s always different, but most of the time I feel like I have to learn how to write a piece of music all over again. I usually get an idea of the instrumentation or the type of piece I want to write next while I’m working on something else, but the actual music doesn’t come until I actually sit down in front of a blank sheet of staff paper or at the piano and start trying.

Q. What has it been like writing for the voice?  Did you grow up singing?  How has your understanding of the voice changed as you have been composing?

As part of my training in Venezuela, I did a lot of solfege and ear training that in turn shaped my ear considerably. I also sang in the choir as a child. But it is difficult to write well for the voice, especially if you are writing in a chromatic language, as I mostly do. It always helps to just sing the lines yourself; if you can’t sing it, then you shouldn’t write it.

Q. What can you tell us about your String Quartet No. 1? Why did you write it? What was your process? How would you describe it? Did you already have the Attacca Quartet in mind?

I had written a String Sextet several years ago, and I knew eventually I’d want to write a quartet. When I arrived at Juilliard in the fall of 2006, the time felt right for it. I had known Andrew Yee (the cellist) back in high school.  When I found that he was part of the group, I approached them with the idea and they seemed interested on the project.

The piece itself came as a response to the great many changes that I experienced in my life when I moved to New York. I was overwhelmed with the new pace and atmosphere of the city and that aspect is reflected in the many changes of mood and character present in the work. Ultimately and without much intention, the work also reflected my feelings regarding a traumatic event in my personal life. So, many things came together when this piece was created.

Q. When you are writing a new piece, do you workshop and do readings with the group for which you are writing?

Not much.  If I’m writing for instruments with which I am not familiar, I always try to check with players if I have any doubts about a passage. I am also always open to suggestions and making changes in the piece during the rehearsal process. But, in general, the piece is finished before the players see it.

Q. What has it been like to leave Venezuela to study in the United States? How did that opportunity come about?

It’s been a little bit of everything. If I hadn’t moved to the United States, I might not have become a composer, so in that sense, I am glad that I came here. I miss my family and friends and it would have been amazing to continue to be a member of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. But, I’m happy where I am in my life, and all of my experiences and Venezuela and in the United States combine to make me who I am today. I realize that I can make contributions both here and there through my music and that is something that really excites me.

Mezzo-soprano and Artistic Director for the Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida Janelle McCoy frequently performs opera, pops, orchestral and chamber works across the United States and in Europe. Her next appearance is with the Chamber Music Society of Southwest Florida on April 28th, where she will give a regional premiere of Osvaldo Goljov’s “How Slow the Wind.”