Modern-day composer: Stamford native enjoys debut of classical music album

Cristina Spinei plays a piece by composer Philip Glass at her parents' piano in their Stamford, Conn., home. Spinei, a composer now based in Nashville, Tenn., has had her first album released on U.K.-based Toccata Classics. The half-dozen tracks were written over several years, with many composed in Stamford. less Cristina Spinei plays a piece by composer Philip Glass at her parents' piano in their Stamford, Conn., home. Spinei, a composer now based in Nashville, Tenn., has had her first album released on U.K.-based ... more Photo: Christina Hennessy / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Christina Hennessy / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 11 Caption Close Modern-day composer: Stamford native enjoys debut of classical music album 1 / 11 Back to Gallery

At times, Cristina Spinei synched with the motion and rhythm pulsing through Grand Central Terminal; at other moments, she stepped back. Swept up in the click-clack of high heels and shuffle of loafers across the Tennessee pink marble, she watched and listened while the iconic four-faced brass clock atop the information booth kept time.

It was the late 2000s and this 2008 Juilliard School graduate was carving her path through the bustle, hoping to make a name for herself as a composer. Every morning, she settled in among the suits, using the train ride from Stamford to New York City to work on compositions. Years later, those memories helped to create “Meet Me Under the Clock,” a seven-minute piece for marimba and cello.

“It captures being a commuter,” she says. “It’s about the energy of people moving through a place. It’s about being caught up in the movement, but also standing in place and watching it. It is the juxtaposition of being an observer, but also being caught up in all of that.”

For the moment, sitting on the couch in her parents’ Stamford living room, Spinei is caught up in the excitement of releasing her debut album, “Music for Dance,” with British-based record label Toccata Classics, which includes that 2013 piece and five others, including several commissioned dance pieces. Even in the era of digital music, a record signifies a milestone — a sense that one’s music is part of the classical canon.

She credits the ballet she studied as a child, as well as piano lessons, as fostering her affinity for classical music. She has been composing since she was 9, creating pieces of increasing sophistication and complexity as her piano skills grew.

“I’ve always gravitated toward it, although I love jazz and Latin music, too. I like writing instrumental music, as I am not good with words. I knew I would never be a singer-songwriter. I can’t sing, so that is out of the question. … And the structure of a standard or pop music is so formulaic. … It feels confining, and I don’t particularly see myself being inspired by that.”

Classical music has its own set of rules with a fairly lengthy history, but within that format there is room to innovate, which is why Spinei sees it as much a music of the present as it seems to be associated with the past. She knows the idea of a classical composer can seem dated.

“It’s funny, in Nashville, when I tell people I am a classical composer, they go, ‘Oh, you are the real deal.’ Like I have some sort of street cred,” she says. Spinei, 32, moved to the Southern city two years ago. “It’s like they are going to be careful if they perform in front of me … like they can’t put anything over me. That’s kind of the response, ‘I’ve never met a composer before,’ but I’m not judgey. I think they are amazing musicians themselves.”

Spinei sees opportunity to increase the audience for classical music by getting younger musicians and composers to attract their peers. Performance spaces such as Le Poisson Rouge in New York City have been successful, allowing contemporary classical music to rub elbows with indie rock, jazz, new and avant garde music.

“You can make it appealing and welcoming to people. It doesn’t have to be on a pedestal. It doesn’t have to be this foreign object.”

Since 2009, Spinei has melded traditional with the new, as co-founder and collaborator of the musical collective Blind Ear. In its interactive concerts, the composers create the piece at the time of the performance, using software, laptops and WI-FI to send the work, as it is being written, to the artists who are performing. Set up in front of monitors, the musicians must adjust quickly, and at times are encouraged to improvise. Imagine Mozart having super-human speed, so that he could write out notes, distribute the sheets to his musicians and make changes even as they were playing. But the innovation can flow both ways. Spinei took one of these “real-time” pieces and formally notated it into a permanent piece for strings, 2010’s “Synched,” which also is on the album.

Classical music, despite the wide ranging styles within it, has long been defined by its printed works, largely needed to keep track of the changes of tempos and rhythms, the layers of sound from multiple instruments and the complexity of the composition. These are not typical features one finds in folk, jazz or pop. Technology has introduced an interesting wrinkle in the technique, though the classically trained composers working with new media often come to it with traditional skills.

“You learn your craft first, and then you go off and do whatever you want with it,” Spinei says. “It is very much focused on technique, history, theory and orchestration, because that is a big part of it and that is a tricky thing to learn. You have to know what each instrument is capable of before you really write for it. Each instrument has its own idiosyncracies.”

Classical music is going through a shifting identity, one that incorporates traditional orchestral compositions with innovative work of the present that is hard to categorize, says John Nuechterlein, CEO and president of the American Composers Forum. For instance, the organization’s Innova Recordings label includes the album, “Tower Music,” by Joseph Bertolozzi, which features compositions created by natural sounds of the Eiffel Tower captured by microphones.

Then there is Martin Anderson, who started the Toccata Classics label in 2005. He wanted to bring out music that was not being produced by anyone else to provide a fresh sound for a fairly staid genre. His titles feature music by composers “from forgotten corners of the world.” He is pleased to add Spinei into the catalogue — one of the youngest composers, and one of only a few women on his roster.

Spinei says today’s composers also need to get comfortable with social media and online promotion. She laughs as she tells the story of how “Synched” ended up being played by the Racine Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin last year.

“I saw a tweet from the Racine Symphony Orchestra asking for recommendations for their program and seeking suggestions. So I tweeted, ‘How about my music?’ From there, I got a performance. So, you know, you just have to try everything.”

chennessy@hearstmedia.com; Twitter: @xtinahennessy