Electra Perivolaris: Island Interviews

It’s been a decade since Electra Perivolaris emerged as one of Scotland’s most exciting young composers, following her success in the BBC Young Composers Competition. A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Academy of Music, she has been busy ever since with a wide variety of commissions, including those from Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In her compositions, Perivolaris often draws inspiration from the natural landscapes and musical traditions of her home on the Isle of Arran, as well as those of the Aegean island of Chios in her father’s native Greece.

What inspired you to compose A Wave of Voices? What specific elements of Scottish music, culture and landscape should we expect to find in your piece?

Initially, I was inspired by the theme of love which unites all of the pieces in the programme of this ‘Love Lines’ concert. A Wave of Voices reflects on the strong sense of love for community, which is so present around my home on the Isle of Arran, and other Scottish islands. This is often expressed through communal music-making.

So, this piece, and the soundscape which I’ve created to frame and transition between works in the programme, draws upon multiple West of Scotland and Gaelic influences – psalm singing, clarsach playing, and the inflections of Gaelic folk singing. The love for community on islands like Arran also extends to a care and connection for the natural world which islanders share, and the natural textures of sea, waves, wind, and flocks of geese overhead, influenced both my saxophone writing and the soundscape.

What type of challenges or opportunities have you faced while composing this piece?

The soprano saxophone as the live instrument in my piece has provided so many opportunities to reflect the nature sounds and inspirations. I’ve previously worked with Simon Haram (Principal Saxophone of London Sinfonietta) on community-based composition projects with children in educational settings. So, I had already heard the soaring vocal quality that he can create with the instrument. Composing this piece for him allowed me to use the full range of soprano saxophone textures and sounds.

Can you tell us more about how the d&b Soundscape system has informed your composition? What elements did you consider incorporating to create an immersive experience?

From the very start of the creative process, the system has enabled me to imagine this new work as an almost multisensory experience for the audience to transport them into the atmospheres, textures, colours, and light of a Scottish island. In the soundscape, I have created a complex layering of natural and man-made sounds, using recordings I made around my home on Arran and its surrounding islands and areas. These layered sounds will surround the audience, offering a new perspective on the works in programme and linking them into a fluid whole.

You have previously had your work premiered at Kings Place. Those by Aurora Orchestra, ORA Singers, and London Guitar Festival, spring to mind. How has your style evolved since you began composing, and what role do you think ‘A Wave of Voices’ for London Sinfonietta plays in your style?

I’ve always been motivated to write music that reflects my natural surroundings. I believe that music has a rare power to express something of the wonder we often feel when faced with the mystery of the natural world.

When I first began to compose, I aimed to reflect the vastness of nature, the opportunity the natural world provides us to escape our own human timescales and to transcend the limits of our narrow human perspective. As my writing has evolved, I’ve become more aware of the levels of complex detail in nature, the patterning and forms which make up the sense of the immensity.

I think it is now the micro-scale and the macro-scale in the natural world which I seek to reflect, often simultaneously. That presents a whole new range of challenges! A Wave of Voices continues this preoccupation with transporting the listener into an altered sense of time and place. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to think about this element of my music in new ways, through the use of the immersive layered soundscape.

How do you interact with the performers in preparation for the premieres? How does it feel when you finally hear your work performed live?

It really varies from piece to piece, but I like to communicate with them as much as is possible ahead of a premiere, not only about the new piece but also about them as people. Having a sense of a musician’s personality, musical tastes and performance style can really influence my composition of a piece. It helps to be able to imagine the performers who will inhabit my music while I write. I think it gives the music some extra character and expression.

It was very fortunate for that reason to write A Wave of Voices as Simon and I had already worked together before, and in outreach settings where we got to know each other as people as well as musicians.

Hearing a new piece performed live is both wonderful and terrifying. I’m acutely aware of the audience around me and what they may be feeling. But there is also a beauty in this moment where the imagination and vision of a new piece of music comes together and so many people are united – the composer, the performers and the audience.

These moments with a shared focus in a particular time and space are increasingly rare in society. I think live performance is one of few opportunities which still provide this shared sense of community.

How does your dual Scottish/Greek heritage influence your musical output?

All of my music is influenced by my mixed Scottish and Greek heritage as my home is on the Scottish Isle of Arran, whilst my father’s side of the family are from the Greek island of Chios. The contrasts – and sometimes surprising similarities – between these two island cultures often play out in my music, with Byzantine and Greek folk music often becoming fused in my mind with Gaelic song traditions.

The natural landscapes of the two islands are also a pervading influence in my compositional processes. I think this is a source of inspiration which I will never exhaust. I have recently written a piece for string orchestra, which reflects the growing and harvesting process of mastic tree orchards on Chios. It is this reflection of the inextricable links between human life and nature, natural processes and communal practices on the islands which is the guiding light behind my compositional practice.

The sea is of course a constant presence on both Arran and Chios, and the eternal and cyclical nature of waves, seasons, and light guides the pacing and textures of my music.

How do you see your music evolving in the future? Based on your experience, what advice would you give to young and emerging composers who are just starting out in their careers?

I hope that I will continue to work on projects which inspire me, meeting people whom I would never otherwise have met. It’s through connecting to people from diverse walks of life that my music will continue to evolve.

In this sense, I can’t predict how my music will evolve, and I think this unexpected nature of composing is one of the elements about it which I love the most. A vital part of my practice as a composer is my work on community-based and participatory compositional projects. It’s through recent projects with Streetwise Opera, working in an East London shelter called The Magpie Project for women and children, a wonderful collaboration with Rare Dementia Support UK (a London Sinfonietta and Live Music Now co-commission) and multiple recent creative projects working with children in schools that I have felt my compositional voice evolving and growing through human connection, collaboration and shared creativity.

In terms of advice for composers who are just starting out, I think the most important thing is to be true to your own voice as a composer. It may sound like a cliché, but it is through developing your own unique compositional voice, writing for friends and the people who you want to work with, pursuing the themes which inspire you personally, and working on the projects which excite you, that a compositional voice can be developed.

A Wave of Voices will be premiered at Kings Place on 6 Dec 2024.
London Sinfonietta: Love Lines, Part of Scotland Unwrapped at Kings Place Hall Two 8pm

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