Finding The Music For Cold Mountain

KUNM | By Spencer Beckwith

Published August 14, 2015 at 8:12 AM MDT

A disillusioned soldier in the Civil War deserts from the Confederate army and journeys home on foot to the mountains of North Carolina. A new opera based on Charles Frazier's 1997 bestseller Cold Mountain is having its world premiere this month at the Santa Fe Opera.

The music is by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon who grew up just 60 miles from where the novel is set. Higdon talks about the process of writing her first opera and how the bluegrass music of the North Carolina mountains found its way into her score.

The complete interview with Jennifer Higdon, recorded at the Santa Fe Opera on July 29, 2015, a few days before the premiere of Cold Mountain.

jennifer_higdon_voice_long_version.mp3

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Spencer Beckwith

Spencer Beckwith reports on the arts for KUNM. For ten years, until March of 2014, Spencer was the producer and host of KUNM's "Performance New Mexico," a weekday morning arts program that included interviews with musicians, writers and performers. Spencer is a graduate of the acting program at the Juilliard School, and, before moving to New Mexico in 2002, was for many years a professional actor based in New York City.

See stories by Spencer Beckwith