Episode 3.1 - Katahj Copley
Season 3 launches with composer Katahj Copley! Carrie and Ashley talk with Katahj about his musical and compositional journey, dive deep into a few of his compositions, and hear about a few incredible upcoming projects.
To learn more about Katahj and all the resources he recommended, check out the links below!
Faculty at University of West Georgia
The University of Texas at Austin Music Faculty
Storyteller - Jam group
Find your community!!
Full Transcript
Carrie Blosser 0:00
Welcome to the third season of Diversify the Stand. Together we speak with a wide range of musicians who talk about topics that are important to them. I'm Carrie Blosser.
Ashley Killam 0:08
And I'm Ashley Killam. We're so excited to dive into talks with a whole bunch of guests this season. If you like following along and are a fan of our podcast, please leave us a five star rating and review. To start off season three, we welcome Katahj Copley, composer and current master student at the University of Texas at Austin.
Carrie Blosser 0:28
Thank you, Katahj, so much for joining us.
Katahj Copley 0:30
Great to be here. Thank y'all.
Carrie Blosser 0:32
So we wanted to ask you, how did you get started in music?
Katahj Copley 0:35
Okay, well, for me, it started with band and for a lot of people it started with band. And I was in sixth grade not knowing much about anything in the world. But I knew that the saxophone look cool. And something drew me in to that instrument and it drew me into that world to where I was staying past. Like, okay, I was gonna give it a try and sixth grade. Alright, we liked in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, and we just kept pushing and pushing. And I never realized, like, what drew me to it while I was younger, but now I realize it was just, it was sort of a calling to just go into music and just create. Didn't know at the time, but it was the it was that pull, was that attraction. Yes, I started in music was just playing in band, seeing all my friends in band, and growing with them and with music in general.
Carrie Blosser 1:33
That's so awesome. I always think like a saxophone ensemble has so many, like such a wide, like range of styles and sounds, like I think the saxophone is one of those instruments that really fits in a lot of places.
Katahj Copley 1:45
Exactly, exactly.
Carrie Blosser 1:47
You might have started hearing different versions, because now you are a composer as well as a saxophone- you're more composing, are you doing more composing now than saxophoning?
Katahj Copley 1:56
Yeah, I'm doing more composing now. I'm taking a break with saxophoning just to focus on the on the writing. But every now and then I get together with my friends, and we just jam. It hasn't happen since I've moved to Texas, because they're all in Georgia. But I should be going back pretty soon. And the first thing that we're gonna do is, we're just gonna go and play.
Ashley Killam 2:19
That's great. And then with your compositions, your first composition premiered in 2017, which isn't a long time ago. So kind of one first, how did you get into composing? And then what kick started your career that now you're going to pretty well known composer?
Katahj Copley 2:36
Yeah. So to kind of get started with the, I guess, how I got into composing when I was a sophomore in high school, things that I cannot control in my life, affected me both mentally, emotionally, and physically. There was a really dark time for myself and my family. And at that time, I didn't even want to be a composer, I wanted to be a film director, um, I love film. And I was, again, like, in a very dark place. And so I was trying to create with film, but again, I was turned down by people around me. I was, I was shut down by like everything. So I was not able to express with words or anything, what was going on with me, until we had a chamber ensemble concert in high school. And this is my junior year. So for that one year, just completely dark. And I didn't know what I wanted to do in life. But then the next year, we had chamber ensembles. And again, I had no energy, no motivation to do anything. But it was for a grade. So I had to get that out of the way. And I got together with four of my, my close friends. And I was on tenor saxophone, there were two others on alto saxophone, clarinet and a tuba. And so no one had any flex band pieces at the time for that. And so we're like, what are we going to do? And I was like, I can just arrange something. I don't know what told me to say that. I can try something. And so I did. And I did Bohemian Rhapsody from the beginning to the guitar solo, and I mentioned this like, even though it wasn't my piece, it felt like I was able to express what the colors that we had as ensemble with the colors that the band had, and merge them to create something that was unique. Something that was unique to me. And when we went to go perform it, it went well and I honestly felt like I was able to finally speak and I've not looked back since then. That was a, that was a big moment. I was like, This is what I really actually love to do. And I actually had started to feel passion for it. And after that, the next year, our senior year, we're like, let's just do this for a full year and see what happens. And so I was just arranging things left and right, just for fun. No, nothing. We had like small gigs here, we were playing, we played at a wedding, which I thought was really fun. Um, we played at, at a Christmas banquet, we did a state conference thing for like the superintendents around Georgia. I was like, this is really going somewhere else. And then, as I'm doing this, we had a, again, the chamber ensemble concert was what we were working on from the beginning of the year to that moment. And we had like a 20 minute time slot this time to just do whatever we wanted. And so we did like four songs. And at that time, the composition professor was Georgia, Dr. Eernisse, he was at the concert, he was like, You should audition for West Georgia. I said, Okay, I will. And so that's how I got into its composition in college. But the main push was my saxophone professor in college, he, Dr. John Bleuel is one of the most unique people I've ever met. He is the definition of passion, within music. And he pushed me to just go for it. I had not had a single composition, like original composition, until November 14, 2017. When I went, when I went to my freshman year, my first lesson, he was like, you're gonna write a piece for the saxophone ensemble concert. And it's gonna be great. And he's like, give it to me in the spring, and then we'll work on it the next fall, I was like, Oh, my, that's okay. And so he gave me full range, just free range to do whatever I wanted. Um, so I just told a story about a person's life, through 20 minutes of just, like, started with nothing, we ended with this giant work, and had it not been for that drive. That push, I would not be here during this interview, I would probably still trying to get up to the part where I'm at now, and had not been for him and his passion. And his belief, belief was the strongest thing just to put that much trust in his in his ensemble, which is about 40 saxophones to just go and say, hey, we're gonna premiere a new piece you've never written before or original piece. So let's just give it a try. And he gave me that much faith and trust, and I went with it, and it fueled me to just go and create after that even more, so I went from zero to now it's looking like 60 in the past four years. That's how it kind of just happened if it wasn't for for the people who were around me, like Dr. Bleuel, like Dr. Bird as well. Dr. Bird is that also at West Georgia, he is the one ensemble director, Director of Bands and he guided me to finding things and using the colors that I had and actually smoothing them out making it more fluid making it more making it more I guess rich. So that happened and Dr. Self gave me kind of like the energy to do things in certain way kind of gave me the personality and and aspects of that so again, I I feel like I didn't do all this but I am just I am nothing if not just a reflection of the people who helped me along the way.
Ashley Killam 9:08
It's like the, the community that kind of morphed to get you into band, and not just you, but like you know we see band is this like community that everyone wants to be involved in. But then it like morphs into the community that makes the thing that you could have never imagined you know, years ago and it's so wonderful you have even with like you know, the roller coaster of life you've got this amazing support system that's like followed you and and grown with you over the years.
Katahj Copley 9:35
Yeah, I was again every time I was in like a dark spot in life or a dark place in life, which were handful times and I wanted to drop myself like bring myself lower but the people around again, helped me pick on pick myself up to help me realize that I am something more than just this. I am doing something bigger than. My goal as I continue with this compositions, like, Yeah, I'm young right now. And at a time, I wanted to be an aspiring composer. But now it's time for me to be an inspiring composer.
Carrie Blosser 10:12
I also really, I really love seeing like you and Kevin Day, I feel like I look on social media and I just see like the two of you hyping each other up so much. And it just makes my heart so happy just to see, we've seen that a little bit with our our commissioning project that we just finished doing. Like they're like now friends on social media, and they hype each other up all the time. So I think that's a cool thing, too.
Katahj Copley 10:34
It's funny, cause, I met Kevin, when at West Georgia, we were doing a conference CBDNA. And, again, the whole idea of trust and building that trust. So Dr. Bird was like, you want to write a piece for us. Do a fanfare, and you're gonna be in the ensemble. I was like, okay, cool. Let's do it. And then I wrote Nova. And then we were also playing one of the movements from Kevin's Concerto for euphonium. And Dr. Bird was like, Hey, we got lesson from him. For you. Just pick a time. I was like, Okay, I've never met this person before. I've no idea who this is. Let's go for it. So I was just like, sitting down, just like being awkward. And then he comes in, and he's on Skype. We're both on Skype. And it just, it just happened like it clicked. It was like two, two energies that, like meshed well, I was like, let's go. And then ever since then, it's been like, where he's at, I'll be at or where I'm at, he'll be at. And it's like, we like crossing paths on each other's journeys. In both milestones and just the small things. I consider him a friend, and he considers me as a friend as well. And yeah, just just like that.
Carrie Blosser 12:05
I love it. I think we can get really competitive, especially in music and you're like oh! there's only one of this or one of that. But I think it's really great when we realize like, there's space for everyone. And we can like support each other and like hype each other up a little bit. Speaking of relationship building, we have worked with the the Tuba Euphonium Social Justice Initiative, and had their president and a few of their members on our podcast and some other events that we've done. We would love to talk with you about your piece that you wrote for that consortium, your piece Limitless. Can you talk about that process? A little bit about the piece? Just anything that you want to chat about for that tuba-euphonium part?
Katahj Copley 12:44
Yeah, that was that was an event. I, I was told that there was like, like a list of composers that they wanted to select, and people could, like, vote on and see. And so my friend who's on who's in the group, he's like, Hey, we should put your name down for this? I was like, Alright, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. So the next like, couple weeks, he's like, Yeah, you made it to the top 20. I was like, okay, appreciate it, man. Just keep going. Hey, you made it to the top five. I was like, Okay, I've seen this. I'm from Georgia. We all know how Georgia sports work. We can go up to here and we go down. So just tell me when, when I'm supposed to go down. It's like, Hey, you made the top three. I'm like, Okay, again. And then they're like, ah, you, um, you were number two. I was like, huh, see? Got it. But number one couldn't do it. I was like, oh, so then I get to do the? Yeah, the project. I was like, Okay, I'll start writing. Now. I had no idea. Like, I wasn't planning to actually be in the project. And, so all these ideas were popping up. And just the idea... Well, first of all, we started off with the, the idea of the word IDEA. And it builds off of having just like a small bit of idea or a thing you want in a change. And then in the second movement, it goes into the belief, to build up the courage to create this movement of change. And then the third movement is the reality of it, which is the battle which you want to bring change to a world that's kind of dark and kind of, kind of cruel at times. And to be that small bit of change for somebody who feels oppressed and who feels like the world is not with them to fight for them. If you create this kind of steps between the belief, the idea of the belief, and the reality, then anything that you want in any reality will become limitless. So that's where that piece came from. And yeah, it was a process, it was a very interesting thing because I never, I didn't have the belief in me to even get this thing to happen. And then it happened. And I, I enjoyed that piece, I enjoyed writing it. My favorite movement is the second movement, because it's just, that was when I was starting to feel like the belief within myself. So honestly, this piece was time lining of what was going on with me as well.
Ashley Killam 12:50
That's one thing, there's just so much depth in in your writing, like, whether it's large ensemble piece, or like Brass Quintet works, you can just really hear and grasp what is coming through, but then there's still a lot of opportunity for the, you know, any other performers to have their own journey, which I think is so cool.
Katahj Copley 15:59
Yeah, all the pieces, weird analogy that I have, for all my pieces, it's just but it makes sense. I treat each one like it's my kid. Why is because they start off with from me, and I build them, give them the experiences that I know, and kind of help them create their own identity. And then when they're all grown up, I send them away, to go and do whatever they need to do to go in impact other people, because that's what kids do, um, like your kids, once they go off, they impact somebody else's life. And that builds on life. And that goes and goes and goes, printing this huge connection, yet. So I treat each one as like my kid. And for me, when I'm creating the actual pieces, it is the idea of storytelling, it is the idea of this is something that I need in my life as well. So I'm going to go in and just be completely vulnerable and write about the things that have impacted me the topics that some people don't want to talk about. Some people choose not to talk about. And when you're, when you're at your lowest at one point, you're going back up, nothing seems taboo, nothing seems dark. And my writing processes, I think I put in my my website about the idea of taking out, putting your heart on a piece of paper, and just spreading it on a sheet of music and saying here, here is something that I can't take back because now it's out in the world. Do what you will, tell me your story that you hear from this. And, um, I think the biggest example of that is my last piece, Where The Sky Has No Stars, that piece, is it is a piece. It's 20 minutes of emotions for me. And I have my own story to it. I wrote it, but for others, I when I asked them when they're performing, what's your story behind it. And the number one theme about it was the idea of letting go or letting go pain. For me, it was the combination of younger me meeting older me and older me telling younger me, that's gonna be okay. Like, no matter what happened. In the span, we are okay here. We are, where we're at now. For some people, it was saying goodbye to their grandparents, not getting that chance to say goodbye. And the idea of not being able to say goodbye or not having the moment to resolve whether they're parts of that person's gone, or they don't want to another person was the idea of relationships, and being in a battle and trying to find yourself again. And this piece just has so many different symbols for everybody. But ultimately, it's just the idea of breathing in and letting go. That's just a way of how I guess storytelling works in my music. And again, it's just it's kind of funny, because for me, um, yes, they feel like children, but they're also kind of like diaries into my life. And just like different adventures that I've been on, or different ideas of thought about. So I think it's kind of cool that I am, I can give you a text or book, and then you interpret it however you want. And that's just the best thing about music as well.
Carrie Blosser 19:51
That's fantastic. I think too, especially some of the work that you're writing for, maybe even younger musicians that are in school, like having an outlet for like those big emotions is so important. And I think, no offense to like the standard wind band cannon, but there, I think there's just there's a need for that for sure. Ror students and for grownups and anyone who plays music, like we need that outlet to take those internal emotions and turn them external in a productive way, if that makes sense. In a not obstructive way, I think that's it's really important to have that outlet.
Katahj Copley 20:26
Yeah, and like, again, just like the topics that we're dealing with now and the conversation that we have to have, and I mentioned this to someone, but I had to remind them that music is, is nothing, if not a reflection of the times that we're in. So if we can create music about the time that we're in, so not only be um, I guess, for kind of a historian aspect of this is what we're writing. But kind of this is how we view the events that are taking place around us. And how can we a learn from them and be changing them? For the future?
Ashley Killam 21:11
Small break from questions to listen to one of Katahj's newest works for wind ensemble, it's a piece called Dope and it's all about combining styles and types of music that has inspired and influenced him. After this clip. We'll be back with questions
An upcoming thing. That's super exciting is your premiere of a Living Color happening Midwest this year.
Katahj Copley 25:50
Yeah.
Ashley Killam 25:51
And so yeah, we'd love to hear about that piece, how that all came to be, and how now you're going to be this at least country, you know, U.S. famous composer with, you know, a piece being premiered at one of the biggest events.
Katahj Copley 26:04
Yes. So, last year, I was in my room. I was just talking to a friend, we're like, this is also during the pandemic. So we're all like, Skyping and FaceTiming, before we realized that Zoom was a thing. And, um, we were just talking and then I get an email. And it said, Brian Covby, Midwest. I was like, Yeah, I'll be right back. So I checked the email, and it said, Hey, can we play one of your pieces? Eureka, for a Midwest effect of that year? And I was like, yeah, yeah. So I was like, getting into like, what all you had to do from in Westland. There's a lot of stuff for just music, but okay. It's a lot, a lot of format. And instead of just like, hey, play what you like to hear, but that's not me. And Midwest was cancelled that year, or was virtual, So no performances. Yeah, I was like, aw man, because not only that, but the Atlanta Wind Symphony wanted me to create a piece as well. So I did, and that piece is gone going on as well. Next, well, this year, so Infinity is going on as well. But with In Living Color. Brian again, reached out to me and said, Hey, we just got back on. We're going for 2021. And in June, I was like, this is the first time for a lot of people to get back in here live music and get back into do this thing in Midwest. And so I call Brian I was like, Hey, I'm funny story. Is there a way I can just maybe just write a piece? That's not something I already written? And just kind of create something that's just brand new. And he's like, yeah, go ahead. What are you thinking about? I was like, Well, I just want to make a mash up of, like, some of my favorite songs I've listened to, in concert, and just kind of create, like an homage to that and make it into, like, this weird kaleidoscope of colors and energy. And he's like, Yeah, okay, just let me know, because we're starting to build up the program. And I said, cool. So I think in June 1st, yep, June 1st. And I was like, alright, time to write. And it happens every now and then, like, some energy takes over. And I'm like, oh, this is nice. This is it. And like, I was living with roommates at the time. And they would hear me be like, yep, that's the one. That's, all right. Let's go and then are like, are you okay? I'm like yeah, but this is like, I'm really getting into it. So it went from June 1st to June 4th. It was June 4th. So of that time, I was just writing this kind of like, I'm getting back into the feeling I'm getting back in. And yeah, it was, it was crazy. Because I hadn't written like that since Where The Sky Has No Stars. But I was like, I'm getting back in I'm feeling this kind of energy again. And it created this weird, fun, just colorful piece. And I was like, we're back. And we're in living color. We're where we need to be at we're getting to the stuff to where we need to be. So it was like, let's just push this even further. Let's get the energy that we need for not only this piece before pieces after mine, and just let's see where we go from there.
Carrie Blosser 29:54
That's really cool. I'm so excited. So we didn't want to spoil it earlier and hopefully we didn't. So we're recording this now in In November of 2021, Midwest happens in December of 2021. And then as listeners are listening, it will be February 2022.
Katahj Copley 30:08
Yeah.
Carrie Blosser 30:09
Scary to say that number out loud for some reason, but in your future, can you talk about any other exciting projects that you have coming up for us to keep an eye out for?
Katahj Copley 30:20
Yeah, so I have, well, this week, this week, in November, I will be going back home for Where The Sky Has No Stars, the Georgia premiere, and it's going to be a huge, it's gonna be an emotional ride, um, because that piece was written with the idea of some of the people who were at that school to help me be this. And so being able to give like a final thank you, for this piece, the premiere of it is going to be so special. Some of the people are in the ensemble, some of the people will be an audience, but it's going to be an emotional feeling. And I'm excited for that. And I'll also be at my saxophone professor's last concert because he was retiring. So if anything, I owe that man a lot. So I'm most definitely going to that. And then in December, it's Midwest, in January, at GMEA, a local school that I grew up around, not my alma mater, but Central High School, Central Carroll High School, they're doing a piece because they're, um, they got into GMEA, and it's like, let's just get everybody who was in the Carroll County area and create something of that. And so I created this piece called Havens, and I'll be promoting that really soon. But Havens is about the idea of home is where the heart is, and, like, I am 888 miles away from my actual home, or from from my actual friends, but I still have them here. And the concept is, no matter how far you travel, as long as you keep the people that you care about the most, this is always gonna be home. So that's going to be January. And then in February, me and Kevin, were going to CBDA in Fresno to do um, a joint premiere. He's doing his Requium for the Fallen, and I'm doing When Heaven Cries, and it's both about pieces about police brutality, and the lives lost to that. And yes, gonna be emotional as well. All that to say, I would not have imagined like this ride four years ago, this Sunday. Not this Sunday, but next Sunday, yeah, next Sunday, sorry. It will be the four year anniversary of Spectra. And I cannot imagine, again, this whole thing happening, this whole weird journey from not being able to find myself to all of a sudden finding myself in multiple states and three different countries. It's, it's really funny how music does that. And once you have passion and something the profit comes.
Carrie Blosser 33:33
November 14th is also my birthday, so I remember when I was reading through your pieces, I was like, I will never forget you because not my obviously birthday because I'm not four years old. More than four.
We are at the final final question for you today. We would love to know what is on your music stand this week and how are you diversifying your stand?
Katahj Copley 33:56
Yeah, so I don't really have actual PDFs of oh, well I don't actually have paper by to have this wonderful, I'm going to hide the product, this wonderful tablet here, and this wonderful tablet helped me discover different colors that I want to add on to my already wide palette, I guess to go back into the, when I had the premiere for The Sky Has No Stars. When I listened to it, it was a complete shut off of like, everything like it felt like I was released, but also was like, Well, you just wrote about 23 years of your life. What are you gonna do now? So I'm like, I feel like I'm now like two months old. And just going in and just be like you wrote in this style for so long. Why don't you just incorporate the other styles that you love? Like why is it so hard to incorporate hip hop into your own writing, I was like, and my professor Professor Thomas asked me, I was like, Oh my gosh, I've not thought about that. So I, in order to make something new, I had to go back. And I go, I went back to exactly the things that I love. On my stand is Kamasi Washington's The Epic, and me transcribing his lines in that album. Not only that, but trying to incorporate the many, the mini colors, and just the pure artistry of Kendrick Lamar, his last couple of works, putting them in and trying to see, Okay, that'll be nice as a woodwind line, or they'll be nice as this and just helping to break that, that barrier that we have, between this is how music supposed to sound versus that's not music supposed to sound. Why do we have that barrier? How can we break it? And how can we create something that will be I don't even have a title for it. Like, how can we create the untitled? How can we create the untitled? So with that, I still I also have my one of my favorite composers, the Takashi Yoshimatsu and his Trombone Concerto. It is bananas. But he creates so many different colors and I just want to be like, just lend me like your way of orchestrating. Tell me why you chose this and just like, why, how did you create a palette we just had you create a masterpiece with six colors with the palette that he has. And so this weird blend of Yoshimatsu, Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, John Coltrane, this mix of classical jazz, hip hop, and in creating something that is, again, untitled. That's the biggest challenge I've had these couple of weeks. But it's just been so fun to like, dive into and be like, That's cool. Let me see if I can use that and then blend it to create me, to create a new me.
Carrie Blosser 37:15
Wonderful. Thank you again so much for joining us.
Katahj Copley 37:18
Thank you.
Carrie Blosser 37:19
Thank you for listening to Diversify the Stand. To support us and our projects. Visit our website at diversifythestand.org.
Ashley Killam 37:26
And a huge shout out to Eris DeJarnett, who wrote the intro and outro music. The piece that we've been playing as Bored Games for two trumpets and fixed media. Links to their website are in the podcast description.
Carrie Blosser 37:36
And as always, we ask our guests, what's on your stand?