The email was unexpected. Libby Larsen, it read, "we are delighted to inform you that by vote of the membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, you have been elected as a member ..."
One of the country's most prolific, most performed living composers, Larsen has earned many awards over the years. Honorary doctorates, medals and, in 1993, a Grammy.
But her induction into this highly selective and respected honor society for composers, artists, architects and writers, announced last week, wasn't something she strove for or imagined.
"It took me about 24 hours, actually, to wrap my mind around it," the 73-year-old said. "I belong there. But it was not in my frame."
She sees it as "an honor for Minnesota as well." Though Larsen's work often takes her out of state, she said, "By choice I've made my life here, and I'm deeply grateful and proud of the crazy culture that supports ideas — like no other place in the country."
Of the 19 inductees voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (AAAL) this year, two are Minnesotans: Larsen and renowned author Charles Baxter.
Like Larsen, Baxter grew up in Minnesota. Like Larsen, he lives in Minneapolis. Other newbies, elected to lifetime terms, include composer John Williams, best known for his film scores.
"Of course I was flattered, gratified, humbled, all of those adjectives, and very pleased and honored, as anybody would be," Baxter said.
Speaking at her home near Lake of the Isles, Larsen used the news to praise the music-making culture of the Twin Cities. She cited not only the Minnesota Orchestra, where she was the first woman to be a composer in residence, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which regularly commissions her work, but dozens of other, smaller musical ensembles. Not only Prince but Cornbread Harris.
It's a culture that she's helped build: In 1973, she co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum.
"People here really love to make music," she said, "which is true everywhere, except that it seems to be more here with a smaller population."
At one point in her busy career, packed with commissions, performances and recordings of works for orchestra, opera and band, she thought, "Where else could I make music? Just make music — instead of spending a year or two trying to get in the door to make music?"
The answer kept her here.
'Flattered, gratified, humbled'
Baxter, 76, can add election to the AAAL to a list of honors that includes fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, two Minnesota Book Awards, the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, a nomination for the National Book Award (for novel "The Feast of Love") and inclusion in the Best American Short Stories collection seven times.
The Minneapolis native, who retired from teaching creative writing at the University of Minnesota in 2020, has written six novels (the most recent is the Minneapolis-set "The Sun Collective") and six story collections, as well as compilations of essays and poetry. He learned of the Academy of Arts and Letters election last month but was told to keep it under his hat.
Baxter has met two other Minnesota literary figures who are in the academy, Louise Erdrich and Garrison Keillor, in professional situations. He and fellow 2024 inductee Larsen have mutual friends, and Baxter said, "I'm a great admirer of her music."
Although he retired from teaching in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Baxter has been busy writing — inspired, in part, by the pandemic.
"People were suffering and I didn't want to write something that made them feel worse than they already did, so I wrote a comic novel called 'Blood Test,'" said Baxter. Intrigued by the Amazon website's algorithm, which tries to predict what users will like, it's about a test that can analyze a person's DNA and predict their future behavior. "Blood Test" will be published by Pantheon in November.
Baxter, previously honored by the AAAL with an award of merit in literature and a citation for short story writing, also is at work on a new project that involves "micro-stories and micro-essays," some as short as a page long.
He said the honor, which will be presented May 20 at an induction ceremony in New York, comes at a good time in his acclaimed career.
"I think that it would have made me feel differently about my life and my work if it had happened when I was younger but the wonderful thing about being my age is that I'm pleased but not overly affected," said Baxter. "I think, 'Oh, well. That's wonderful.' But it doesn't change much in my life.
"I'm going to go on living in very much the way I have and it's nice to know that other writers seemingly have liked one's work enough to have given me this honor."
'Music is the issue'
Like Baxter, Larsen continues to write. On a recent afternoon, neatly penciled sheet music sat on the Steinway in her living room and a table in her dining room. A new commission, she said, about a theme that runs through her work — human carelessness with the natural world.
"It's about the gyres in oceans that are collecting mountains and mountains of plastic," she said with a raised eyebrow.
Past compositions on that theme include "Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth," in 1992. The ANCIA Saxophone Quartet recently performed 2015′s "Confluence," inspired by rivers that once sustained populations but are now so polluted that they threaten them.
"One of classical music's real strengths is that it lets the audience dwell for a long period of time on an abstract idea," Larsen said. "There are many ways to focus on issues that need focus. And one of them is to write music — and let the music itself do its job.
"Rather than writing music about an issue, music is the issue."
The AAAL has honored Larsen before; in 2000, she won its lifetime achievement award. Being inside the academy offers her the ability to award young musicians and composers grants, she noted.
But Larsen has enjoyed one other perk of her election: "I'll tell you, I'm having a very good time saying to people, you know who one of the other musicians is? John Williams. Their faces!"
