Edition #12 – Heidi Breyer answers 7 questions

by | May 9, 2022

1. Why are you a musician?

Being a musician is my small way of making the world a better place and we need more music than ever right now. I write music that hopefully will allow people to see a little of themselves in when they listen. A reflection of their own beauty and light. That in turn, will hopefully lead to good feeling and emanate out into the world. It is a slow, incremental but conscious process but enough musicians do it, I believe it can be transformative in the times we are living in.

2. Who are your musical inspirations?

Arvo Part, Bach, Mendelssohn and several contemporary composers/musicians… Rutter, Richter, Horner, Zimmer and more.

3. What is your practice routine?

Currently when working towards a concert or tour, three hours minimum daily starting with scales 30-45 mins and diving into memory work or whatever is calling. If I’m composing I can be absent from my family for a whole day and night and again the next day before I surface!

4. Why did you make this album?

Amor Aeternus: A Requiem for the Common Man
By Heidi Breyer

This music became an album, but was not an album made for the sake of being an album. It is music that is meant to be shared live for any sized group no matter how large or small to immerse themselves in an emotional and spiritual musical experience that connects them to one another. It was written (and subsequently recorded) over the course of almost a decade as a tribute to our humanity to acknowledge the grit, deep faith and moral fiber that we have demonstrated throughout a myriad of tumultuous times…from migration of refugees from war-torn countries, to the aftermath of mass shootings, to racial inequalities and of course latterly Covid.

So much has tested us and many times it has been the ordinary citizen, the common man who has helped his neighbor or stepped up when the systems and resources have not been available. This is a testament to our humanity. It is the beauty in us all that shines through despite our collective, continual hardship. It is my belief that we are reinventing ourselves and experiencing the evolution of mankind where intuition refines our logic and reason. It is for the everyday people, the unsung heroes up on whose back our world so often now depends. It is for them I wrote this Requiem.

5. What were the biggest obstacles in making this album? How did you overcome?

Learning Finale software on a more advanced level than I had ever needed to before Learning how to set liturgical text accurately, moreover Latin, which has definite inflections and syllabic treatments. Recording the WHOLE WORK remotely during Covid. I do believe this is an unprecedented feat.

I have never heard of a composer (and team of producers) collecting 100’s of lines of vocal tracks, instrumental tracks and literally putting them altogether. A collaborative work of this magnitude would usually only be done in a large setting with choir and orc together…and perhaps soloists brought in at different times to track.

6. Who is featured on the album?

  • Composer and Piano Centric narrative by – Heidi Breyer
  • Sopranos – Elizabeth Rogers, Barbara Hill
  • Baritone – Nathan Halbur
  • Eugene Friesen – conducting Carnegie and managing the string players
  • Charlie Bisharat – Violin
  • Jill Haley -English Horn

7. Where may we find you online?

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