COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Heartland Marimba Quartet Interview Sabrina Pena Young READ THE FULL MUSIC INTERVIEW HERE:  http://www.heartlandmarimbafestival.com/blog-newsletter/2017/3/5/blog-sabrina-pena-young Here at HMF we are committed to building a large community that surrounds and supports the classical marimba arts. To extend our appreciation, we are doing a question and answer with the artists in a blog series. First on the list is Sabrina Pena Young, a member of New York Women Composers, Inc. (NYWC). NYWC recently awarded HMF the 2016 NYWC Seed Money Grant.  We thought that Sabrina would be a great person to do our first blog with because of her unique personality and expansive background in music.  Read below to get a glimpse into her world. Short Bio: As a young girl Sabrina became interested in performing in all sorts of groups ranging from orchestras to rock bands. As she continued her education at the University of South Florida , she decided to take another path. “She...

Young dons comic book makeup for Urban Night: Sounds Me, Myself, and I: The Music of S. Peña Young, Contemporary Composer I originally wrote this tongue-in-cheek article for gig asking for interviews with musicians . Seeing as I had little time to fulfill the deadline for that particular call, I opted to interview myself. I hope you enjoy this snarky music interview, and learn a little something, too. Or not. (written  July 13, 2009) Recently I had the opportunity to sit in front of a mirror and talk to S. Peña Young, contemporary electronic music composer , musician, and self-described “media artist” whose intriguingly bizarre music works have reached as far as Australia and as local as the i-Pod in your pocket. I opened up the interview with the usual professional rhetoric, “What the heck are you doing up at 3am?” Expecting some lofty answer often given to me by the classically trained musician who seems to believe that even a disdainful elitist sniff of an answe...

Music Insider: Kids, Work and Songwriting : One Parent Tells All  Want to write a new hit song but are too busy with a dayjob or juggling soccer practice and diapers?  Set aside a Time Sure, we all wish that we had massive recording studios and infinite amounts of time to work on our music, while maybe our kids are miraculously taken care of, maybe by a magical Mary Poppins that's like, "Hey, I know you have had that song in your head for like three months, so why don't I watch your kids so you can finally record that Top 40 wonder?"  But that's not reality (as my own daughter interrupts me so she can show me her new (stuffed) puppy family.  Instead set aside time to work on your music, uninterrupted time. This might be naptime, when the kids are in school, when the spouse and kids are sleeping, on Saturday afternoons from 1-5, or whatever works for your and your schedule. And despite any guilt or interruptions or "emergencies" (you mean that...

Feel like writing an opera is only for big name composers with big budgets? Or are you willing to take the plunge and create a work in one of the most compelling and cutting edge musical forms...an opera? Almost two years ago I embarked on the largest musical production I have created to date -  Libertaria: The Virtual Opera. After writing the award-winning Creation Oratorio and dozens of multimedia works, I wanted to combine my love of the audio and the visual into a single large scale work.  Find a Great Dramatic Story You need a strong story to write a compelling opera. Fortunately you can easily borrow from thousands of public domain works and modernize them. Think of West Side Story (just a contemporary version of Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet) .   Many great operas use Shakespeare, the Brothers Grimm , and Biblical stories, all of which include interesting characters, strong themes, and action.   Libertaria borrows heavily from messianic sto...