索菲亚·塞尔吉（Sophia Serghi）与“Chamber Punk”一起摇滚'
Sophia Serghi’s fingers hurdle from one piano key to the 下一个, dashing to form sounds both strident and soothing. 她的背挺直，闭着眼睛，一个接一个地扯出一个完美的音符。
She gives an emphatic, almost violent, nod for violinist and friend 苏珊通过 to join her. She jumps in, her own hands engaged in a sprint down the page of Serghi’s 走向火焰.
It’s all blissfully athletic business for the two William & Mary 音乐系 professors as they prepare to perform six of Serghi’s original compositions Sunday night at 6 p.m. on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington, D.C. Joining them will be double bassist Dan Via, soprano Michelle Trovato and the Flux string quartet.
The concert, entitled 从拜占庭到庞克k, is sponsored by the College and the government of Cyprus.
“Most of the music that is going to be performed springs from my experience in the Byzantine church,” Serghi enthuses. “But embedded in there are all these wonderful rhythms that come out of my rock experience. It’s a very strange combination. 但它是有效的。”
Serghi’s music has been performed around the world – from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center to the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad five years ago in Athens; 由美国作曲家乐团、塞浦路斯国家乐团和海法交响乐团共同演奏。 但这次在肯尼迪中心亮相的机会显然很特别。
“I’m really happy about Kennedy Center for two reasons,” she explained. “One, it’s so close to my home and a nationally renowned venue. Two, there’s a good chance for the Greek community to have access to music that for many reasons was inspired by my Greek heritage.”
现年36岁的塞尔吉在塞浦路斯长大。 The island had only one radio station that played top-40 music only once a week, so there were mad dashes to the record store whenever new “vinyl” arrived. In 1990, she began undergraduate studies at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, where “Grunge” had engulfed the music scene in the Pacific Northwest.
“In high school, I was definitely a heavy metal fan,” she said. “But I also was influenced by those wonderful bands Nirvana and Pearl Jam.”
Her aptly entitled composition 喘不过气来的朋克 is a strength-sapping five-minute battle of wills that meshes Shostakovich and Punk rock.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” she explained. “The performers have to (start) drinking Gatorade 24 hours ahead of (performance) because it is non-stop, very difficult, very virtuostic music. I like translating the adrenaline that one gets from sports activity to music.”
在大多数情况下，谢尔盖以惊人的速度创作。 She finished two of Sunday’s selections, about 20 minutes of music, in two weeks. 喘不过气来的朋克，伴随着大量的音符和强烈的节奏，花了一个月的时间。
“I don’t wait for inspiration to come; if it’s there, it’ll come out, which it did with 走向火焰,” she said. “There are many composers who write in systems, methods, and within theories. I’m very much a stream-of-conscience composer. I’m very aware of form and how things should fit, and I put them together in my own ways with my own tricks. But I’m very much a ‘left-to-right’ kind of composer, as though I were writing an English essay.”
All of Serghi’s work begins at the piano, with the simultaneous transference to the keyboard of a rhythm or melody that she generates by singing.
“The singing voice might end up being a melody for a string instrument, or it might end up being another instrument (added later),” she said. “But I write at the piano because I trust that my fingers will get it. “
Reflective of someone who successfully juggles her artistry with teaching, marriage, motherhood, sailing, hiking, painting, cooking, reading and friends, Serghi won’t allow herself to “over-compose” a piece. She knows when it’s done and when it’s done, it’s done.
“When you’re a student, you’re taught to go back and revise, revise and revise,” she said. “As I became a teacher, especially with my students, I just urge them to ‘Get it done, go on to the 下一个 thing.’
“It’s a thought, an idea. 继续. . . . I have no issues once I put down the double bar – unless one of the performers says in rehearsal that something doesn’t work. Then there’s a back and forth between the performer and the composer.”
肯尼迪中心的音乐会预计将吸引数百名观众，甚至更多。 有些人会去看她，听她说话。 有些人会参加，因为他们会定期去肯尼迪中心看看是谁在表演。
“It’s music people don’t know,” Serghi says. “I’m hoping that when we’re done, the music will be accessible to a wider audience than it is now.”