Crazy, she said

When soprano Dawn Upshaw asked Maria Schneider to compose a program of original music for her to sing with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra this fall, Schneider told her that was crazy. Yes, Schneider may be the most highly esteemed orchestral composer in jazz today, having garnered Grammys in 2004 and 2007. But she had compelling reasons to rebut Upshaw's request.

"I said to her, 'I've never written for classical orchestra. I've never really written music for words before. I've never written for soprano. I'd have no idea what I was doing. Dawn,' I said, 'it's a crazy idea.'"

"And I said, 'No, I am not crazy. I think it is the best idea in the world,'" Upshaw retorted.

The two women were taking part in a conference call from their New York City homes, discussing this week's world premiere of Schneider's five-movement composition at Ordway Center in St. Paul.

Crazy or not, commissioning a first-ever chamber piece from a jazz composer is consistent with the singer's reputation as a bold, indomitable artist. At 48 (just four months older than Schneider), Upshaw has captured four Grammys, beaten back breast cancer, been awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" and premiered more than 25 works, including award-winning operas and oratorios created especially for her.

The MacArthur grant specifically cited her knack for "stretching the boundaries" and "enriching the landscape of contemporary music." When the SPCO named Upshaw an artistic partner for a three-year stint beginning in 2007, it hoped that she would tap nontraditional artists enticed by the prospect of using her warm, expressive voice and intrepid musical intelligence as a muse.

That's what happened with Schneider, who had the added incentive of being a native Minnesotan, born and raised in Windom.

For her part, Upshaw was alerted to Schneider via another of her contemporary collaborators, composer Osvaldo Golijov. A disciple of the late Gil Evans (best known for orchestrating the Miles Davis albums "Sketches of Spain" and "Porgy and Bess"), Schneider has evolved a distinctive style that features gorgeous, complex harmonies, with a pronounced Brazilian and soft Latin flavor.

"From the moment I started listening to her, the pure joy that I hear in Maria's music is truly overwhelming to me. It just takes flight," Upshaw raved.

Bridging the gap with poetry

Schneider devoted her spring to finding the right framework to bridge any stylistic gaps between her and Upshaw and the SPCO. Keeping in contact with Upshaw by phone and e-mail, she settled on the poetry of popular 20th-century Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade as a key. Four De Andrade poems supply the lyrics and thematic inspiration for the last four movements of the piece. For the opening movement, Schneider used the Brazilian song form known as choro, with wordless singing by Upshaw (what she terms "vocalese").

"Part of what I loved about this poetry is that I could imagine Dawn delivering these words as if they were her own," Schneider said. "My favorite is this poem called 'Souvenir of the Ancient World,' about a woman strolling in the garden with her children, and I just see it as being Dawn. The poems are sweet and generous, and yet they also have the full experience of life in them. That's really who Dawn is as a singer and in her personality."

'A beginner again'

Neither woman has any illusions about the adjustments required to create a successful collaboration.

"For so long I have tried to make my band sound like an orchestra, using mutes and combinations of woodwinds and an accordion, and having them play soft and legato," Schneider said. "And now that I have an orchestra, with the strings, the whole acoustics of the horns are totally different, in terms of body and weight." Furthermore, "the way a classical player hums a note, articulates a note, and what they do with the body and length of that note [are] totally different than the way a jazz player does it."

"Yeah," Upshaw immediately agreed. "It's like the notes are a different shape. We both have to make a leap to meet in the middle, and the orchestra, too."

For example, Upshaw is not enamored of vocalese, especially the Brazilian style of the opening movement, sung in a flat tone relatively devoid of vibrato. Schneider said she thinks that once Upshaw gets accustomed to it, she'll love it. And that gets to the essence of a genuine collaboration, one in which two prodigious artists stray beyond their comfort zones out of respect for the other. All this week, Upshaw, Schneider and the SPCO will be feverishly rehearsing to iron the seams of this highly adventurous project.