Women in Western Music Anne Ailstock Interview 2008

Date of birth: May 16, 1934

Where did you grow up?
My father was an army officer, a dentist: Salt Lake City, Utah, Ft Lewis, WA; Palm Springs, CA; Seattle, WA; Panama Canal Zone; San Francisco. CA

Where do you currently live?
Culver City, CA (Los Angeles area)

Has where you are from had any effect on your work?
Yes. On my training (See below) and musical ambition – In Palm Springs, as a pre-teen during WW II I attended many concerts of various styles of music performed for the soldier patients in the hospital by big names including Bob Hope, Benny Goodman, Jascha Heifetz,, Freddy Martin, Lily Pons, etc. I was so thrilled hearing a fine pianist (can’t remember who) play Debussy’s “Clair de lune” that I insisted that my reluctant piano teacher let me learn it. Also, during the war I took voice lessons and was a child vocal soloist in the Palm Springs Community Church, and also sang unaccompanied patriotic solos into a microphone in the back of a van slowly driving up and down the streets soliciting war bonds. After the War, my father was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone where I attended concerts at the Panama National Theater to hear great pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein, Gyorgy Sandor, and Jose Iturbi. I knew then that I wanted to be a concert pianist. I was further inspired by attending some of the last performances of Walter Gieseking and other legends in Heidelberg, Germany where I was living in my early married years.

Has any of your family or friends influenced your work?
My parents paid for my early training and encouraged me all the way. In the past 30 years, several of my colleagues in the music world have become my close friends. We support and often critique each other’s work. We have worked together mostly as members of musical organizations: Mu Phi Epsilon Intl Fraternity, The International Congresses on Women in Music, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the National Association of Composer, USA. Before becoming active in these organizations I was mostly a free-lance collaborative pianist and toured with many instrumentalists and vocalists, usually in chamber music ensembles. All of these artists influenced my compositions because I wrote specifically for them. Sometimes they offered suggestions about additional possibilities for their particular voice or instrument.

What kind of training have you had?
A bit haphazard growing up in many different locales, always with a good piano teacher. High school, college and graduate level training was excellent with outstanding professors and professionals including piano instructors C. W. Reid, Carl Fuerstner, Edwin Schmieder, Leonard Shure, Benning Dexter, Aube Tzerko, Daniel Pollack, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Brooks Smith; and composition/theory instructors Leslie Basset, Hans T. David, Halsey Stevens, and Samuel Adler.

Where did you attend college?
Brigham Young University, BA Gold Medal in Piano; University of Michigan MM; University of Southern California, DMA with Honors in Accompanying

What did the college you attended offer that attracted you to go there?
Strongest Music Department in the area where I was living at the time.

Were there any events that happened while you were training or at college that might have influenced your ideas about music?
The “Once” concerts at the University of Michigan introduced me to the cutting edge of avant-garde musics. With the heavy emphasis on music history in the doctoral program at the University of Southern California, my aim there was to perform and study as many historical styles as possible to help me better determine my own compositional direction.

When did you first begin your career?
Many part-time gigs in areas that I have continued to a more or less degree throughout my life actually began early: taught piano to neighborhood children at age 11; pianist at ballet school at age 12; church organist at age 12; pianist at Army USO playing requests at age 13; high school accompanist for choir, also pianist in shows around San Francisco with teen-age classical and pop artists including Johnny Mathisl a collaborative choral composition for my H.S. choir that I also conducted. Upon completing BA degree, full time position as music teacher in five, later just 2 ½ rural schools 4th through 9th grades; further piano study and solo recitals in Germany where I also conducted church choirs, produced musical revues, taught conducting classes and studio piano, and was substitute teacher in the American High School.

Following MM degree, studio piano teacher, performed classical repertoire and my original compositions with the Pinkston-Lynn-Price Trio (vln/cello/piano), free-lance accompanist – all part-time as I now had five children. I taught on a Teaching Assistantship all of the five years I worked on my DMA degree; this paid my tuition and prepared me for a 25-year career teaching piano and collaborative piano/composition/theory/music history on adjunct music faculties at University of California Santa Barbara, California State University Northridge, and several California Community Colleges – retiring in 2002 from El Camino College in Torrance.

How has being a woman affected your career in music?
Not much as a teacher or performer. Somewhat as a composer: I was not encouraged by the USC faculty to pursue a doctorate in composition – so I decided to get it in piano. When my composition was performed at the USC Shoenberg Institute with the Schoenberg heirs and other European dignitaries present, it received a rousing applause; but when I stood up to take a bow and they saw I was a woman, the applause ceased abruptly; at the reception everyone looked right through me and did not acknowledge me at all. Nevertheless, all the artists with whom I have performed have been enthusiastic about performing my works.

What have been the pinnacles of your career?
1 – Commercial recordings: A Composer’s View (TownHall LP 1983, reissued on SunRays II CD); several cassette tapes in the late 1980’s on the Cambria label as a collaborative pianist performing a variety of styles; SunRays: Music of Deon Nielsen Price (Cambria CD 1996); SunRays II: City Views (Cambria CD 2000); Clariphonia: Music of the Twentieth Century on Clarinet (Cambria CD 2000); Dancing on the Brink of the World, (Cambria CD 2008), soon to be released on NAXOS.

2 – Publication of articles on piano accompanying in Clavier (1980’s), Accompanying Skills for Pianists, (Culver Crest 1991), SightPlay with Skillful Eyes (Culver Crest 1995), and Accompanying Skills for Pianists, Second Edition (Culver Crest 2006).

3 – Performance tours in USA, Spain, Germany, Austria, Korea, China, Mexico, Panama.

4 – Serving as President of the International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) (1996-99), the National Association of Composers, USA (NACUSA)(2002-2004), and NACUSA Los Angeles Chapter 2005-present.

5 – Conducting soloists, choir and orchestra in Handel’s Messiah (1982-1996) and two performances of my original cantatas on the Birth and Resurrection of Christ (mid-1980’s).

6 – Playing solo piano part on “Epitaphs for Fallen Heroes” and recording it and five of my other orchestral works with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine with conductor John McLaughlin Williams, and clarinet soloist and guest conductor Berkeley A. Price (October 2007).

What projects are you currently working on?
Arranging my orchestral works for concert band where there is a greater demand for new repertoire. When the orchestral CD. “Dancing on the Brink of the World” is released by NAXOS, the scores will be simultaneously released for orchestra and concert band. A commission for a trio for oboe, clarinet and piano.

What advice would you give someone about life?
Live as rich and full a life as you possibly can; always be working on developing your musicianship and artistry, spirituality, sociability including marriage and children, physical well-being, intellect, economic stability, and service to others.

What (if any) advice might you have for a woman pursuing a career in music?
Be realistic about the opportunities, or lack thereof, of music positions in the United States. Many of the most rewarding musical experiences are gratis or paid at a low level. Find another source of support for your artistic endeavors. Publishing my textbook, used in some 90 music departments, “Accompanying Skills for Pianists”, now in its second edition, has supported my musical projects. The advice of a School of Music Dean, “You can make a career in music if you are willing to go anywhere and do anything.”

Out of all the places that you’ve gone for your university and community concert series, where was your favorite place to perform?
1 -The Panama National Theater in 2005, because the rococo decor had been newly renovated and was the place where 55 years earlier I had first decided I wanted to be a concert pianist;

2 – A noon concert in the mid 1990’s at Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA) because that was the best solo recital I have ever given –everything (fingers, mind, piano action, expression) came together perfectly for the all-Chopin program and I received a standing ovation from the full hall of faculty and students;

3 – Performing a concert at Beijing Concert Hall with my clarinetist son as the PRICE DUO.

What made you decide to choose the career path that you did?
I have never yet satisfied my thirst for good music. The path has taken me across the U.S. and to Asia, Europe, Central America – as pianist, composer, author, lecturer, conductor, teacher.