Leonard Bopp: Artist Feature
Meet Leonard Bopp: a conductor, trumpet player, artistic director of the BlackBox Ensemble, and educator dedicated to thoughtful curation, ambitious collaboration, and using music to build strong, equitable communities.
We sat down with Leonard to speak with him about BlackBox, the field of contemporary classic music, and his artistic practice and process.
ABI: Tell us about BlackBox. How did it form, and what are your hopes for its future?
LB: BlackBox started in part circumstantially and in part very intentionally. The circumstantial impetus was that a composer friend of mine - the brilliant Sato Matsui - had a friend who ran a summer concert series at a church, and wanted to include her music. I built a program for the concert series featuring one of her pieces and put together a group of friends and friends of friends to play it. I also called my friend Paul Novak to ask him to write a piece for us, which he did, and since then he’s become one of our most important collaborators, writing another major piece for us last year. So, in some ways, it arose from a unique opportunity. At the same time, though, I was looking for this kind of opportunity. By that point, I had just been introduced to the world of contemporary music in college, and very quickly dove in deep. I also really admired some of the more established contemporary groups in New York who had really forged their own paths and unique identities in the field, and decided I wanted to make that kind of work a part of my own career.
More importantly, though, my interest in contemporary music - and my motivation in starting BlackBox - was very mission-driven. At that time, I saw in the field of contemporary music possibilities for urgent and profound resonances with our social, political, and cultural moment. Our mission has evolved - as have my personal perspectives on these relationships, which have also been deeply informed by the other BlackBox members - but I think there is still this impetus among us to champion music for our time, and a shared belief that, at it’s best, contemporary music can be at least a part of movements for social change. At the same time, we’re really interested in exploring the experimental and interdisciplinary boundaries of the field - our flutist, Annie Nikunen, said that we aim to be “a creative laboratory for adaptable experimentation,” which I think sums it up beautifully. Creative experimentation with an eye towards social justice - that’s us.
The BlackBox Ensemble performing at Grace & St. Paul’s Church in Manhattan during December 2021.
My hope for the near future is that we continue to find new opportunities to grow. We’re working on a number of collaborative projects, which is really exciting, and I think this kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is something we’re all very committed to. We’re also hoping to do more educational and community-oriented work - because if we believe that contemporary music can be a part of shaping the world we want to see, we need to both share it with as many people as possible - including people who might never have thought to go to a new music concert - and inspire students of all ages to imagine that world, and express themselves, through their own work.
Outside the Box Festival
BlackBox is presenting a day-long interdisciplinary community arts celebration, including an ABI musical storytelling workshop. Join us on September 3rd in Hudson River Park at 3pm.
ABI: It’s great to hear all of the overlap ABI has with BlackBox. We certainly believe that interdisciplinary collaboration is vital for musicians to incorporate into their practice and that education is at the center of it all.
Why is championing the works of contemporary composers important to you?
LB: Championing the works of contemporary composers is so important to me for multiple reasons - most of all, it’s what keeps our field alive! All of the classical music staples we now consider standard were once new themselves - many of them were incredibly revolutionary and innovative - and I think that keeping that spirit of innovation alive in classical music is so paramount to our continued relevance. This is also because, as I mentioned, I believe that the composers of our time can uniquely speak to our time. This is both a difficult and exciting moment in our culture. We are collectively reckoning with a multitude of injustices in our society; however, within this reckoning lies the opportunity for re-imagining alternative social systems and ways of interacting with each other.
This re-imagining is simply going to require art, as art itself is a process of creativity and imagination; it is, in many ways, an artistic process, and also one in which art will play a pivotal role. I feel most creative when I’m curating programs and interpreting pieces as a performer - those are the outlets that most excite me artistically - so my goal is to curate projects that contribute to this process of re-imagining, and doing whatever I can to bring to life individual works by musicians - and artists of all sorts - who do so as well.
ABI: How do you approach interpreting a new piece of music as a conductor? What does that process look like?
A still of Leonard conducting
LB: When I start working on a new piece, I like to start with some background research - I want to know what inspired the composer to write the piece, to read their program notes (if they have them), and, especially if it’s an older piece, get some historical context, both in terms of what was happening musically at that time as well as culturally and politically. The musical background might inform my stylistic approach to the piece, whereas the cultural and political background might help me shape my idea of the piece’s meaning, and how that meaning might resonate in the present. To me, having this sense of motivation is very important, as if I’m sharing a piece with an audience, I have to believe there’s an important reason for them to hear it - that it somehow moves or inspires them, or makes them think about the present in a new light. Then, once I have that sense of purpose, that’s what motivates me to dive deeply into the piece.
As a conductor, I typically start by looking at the overall musical structure - phrasing and harmony - and then start making lots of specific musical decisions about dynamics (how loud or soft something should be), articulation (the style in which a note should be played). That kind of thing. This is also where storytelling comes in. Not every piece has a narrative, but many do. Some composers might explicitly state that they’re telling a story; sometimes, something about the structure suggests a story that might be unique to me, but helps me shape my own concept of the piece and what it means to me. (I should also say that while I might have a story in mind as a conductor, if it’s not stated by the composer, every musician in the group - and everyone in the audience - can have their own story in mind that allows them to engage with the music in their own way!)
ABI: Yes! That’s what ABI is all about. Do you have a favorite piece to perform as a trumpet player? As a conductor?
Leonard performing at RPM Underground in Manhattan in Gallery of Sound with fellow BlackBox member Tyler Neidermayer.
LB: As a trumpet player, my favorite thing to play is songs transcribed for trumpet. There are so many songs I love - some favorites are by Mahler, Rachmaninoff, and Samuel Barber - that work so beautifully on trumpet. I think the lyrical quality of the trumpet is often under-appreciated, but it can sing beautifully, as well as be bold and brassy. I also always loved playing in orchestras as a trumpet player - in fact, falling in love with orchestral repertoire is what made me want to be a conductor! I obviously conduct a lot of contemporary music, and in that realm, the pieces that have been written for BlackBox are certainly some of my favorites. When it comes to orchestral repertoire, it’s absolutely impossible to pick a favorite piece (or even composer), but some that come to mind are Prokofiev, Mahler, and Britten.
“I think that keeping that
spirit of innovation
alive in classical music
is so paramount to our continued relevance.”
ABI: Have you ever ventured into other disciplines outside of music? If so, what was your experience?
LB: The only other thing I’ve ever seriously considered doing instead of music was trying to become an English teacher or professor. I studied Music and English as an undergraduate, and I was so interested in how the stories we read - and tell - shape our lives and world in conscious and unconscious ways - and how those stories intersect with culture and politics. I very seriously considered it, but I ultimately realized that I could take everything I was inspired by while studying English and let it motivate my work as a musician.
ABI: At the heart of what most of us do is storytelling, whether it be through music, art, math, science, literature... And like you said, thinking about how we interact with storytelling in our individual lives and as a society is a fascinating way to look at the world.
Why don’t we finish with a story? Could you share a moment you had while teaching that greatly impacted you?
LB: Some of my most meaningful experiences as a teacher were with the student orchestras I conducted during graduate school. They were comprised of undergraduate students who weren’t music majors. During the pandemic, we had socially-distanced rehearsals and a recorded concert. It was tough, but when we got to the concert, it dawned on me that these students had made it a priority to hold onto music in their lives during this very difficult and scary time. For many of them, it was the only in-person activity they were doing on campus. And then, when we were able to resume more normal performance activities the following year, I was really moved to see how much fun the students had performing, and to see their families come out for the concert. It simply reminded me how special we all are - as musicians or as audience members - to have music in our lives, and I was so glad to be a part of that experience for them.
Quick Links:
Learn more about the BlackBox Ensemble.
Website: www.blackboxensemble.org
Instagram: @blackboxnewmusic
Learn more about Leonard at www.leonardbopp.com.
Interested in coming to the Outside the Box Festival? Learn more.