BRANDON—Back in September of 2021, Brandon was the site of the world premiere of “A Murmur in the Trees,” a composition for 24 upright basses. Each bass player was stationed at the foot of one of the two dozen maples that form a double row on Courtney and Devon Fuller’s property on Park Street Extension. The composition itself was based on the natural markings on a piece of birch bark found in the woods, treated as if it were a sheet of music paper with a notated score.
The audience meandered among the trees while the basses issued a slow, droning thrum. The composition, though undeniably musical, scarcely formed a recognizable melody, and the overall effect was as if the secret language of the trees themselves had suddenly become audible to human ears. Several audience members ended up standing totally still, arms outstretched, letting the sound wash over them.
The composer of this unusual piece was Brandon’s own Eve Beglarian. And just last week she learned that she’d been selected for a 2023 music award by the American Academy of Arts & Letters (AAAL), a 125-year-old honors society for the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. The award honors “outstanding artistic achievement” and acknowledges “composers who have arrived at their own voice.” Beglarian is among 16 composers recognized by AAAL this year.
Beglarian calls herself an “experimental classical composer,” a label totally fitting for someone who draws inspiration from sources as diverse as birch bark, the Mississippi River, and Donna Summer. Rather than process the world through a fixed style, churning out one “Beglarian” after another, she approaches each work asking how she can adapt her own talents to the specific demands of the project.
“My job is to notice things in the world that are really cool and then create a framework so that other people can experience that coolness,” said Beglarian.
Eve was born into music: both of her parents were musicians and her father was a professor of music. The family moved with her father’s academic positions: Michigan, New Jersey, California. But Eve made a conscious decision not to follow the professorial path. Instead, she has simply composed, creating a body of work that’s remarkable in its breadth and innovation.
“I wish my parents were still alive for this,” said Beglarian. “I think it would’ve really tickled my father to see this very establishment organization, the Academy of Arts & Letters, recognize composers who took a different route.”
“Hard4the$” is a great example of Beglarian’s unorthodox approach to composing. The piece riffs on the Donna Summer classic “She Works Hard for the Money” as a way to critique the lingering gaps in pay among various gender and racial groups in the United States. While the source material a familiar bit of pop kitsch, Beglarian reimagines and reworks it until the resulting music is, as she puts it, “wackadoodle.” Yet, the craziness of the piece makes a pointed statement about inequality.
Much of her work, however, is accessible to those of us who enjoy pieces with a more lyrical bent. “I Am Really a Very Simple Person” and “I Will Not Be Sad in This World” are two pieces that Beglarian recommends for anyone interested in listening to her work for the first time. They can be heard on her website www.evbvd.com, along with many other works. You can even sign up for her newsletter, “A Book of Days,” which always includes links to works that seem relevant to Beglarian at that moment.
Beglarian has split her time between New York City and Brandon for the past 20 years, first in a cabin she built on 17 acres on Birch Hill Road (which she still owns) and later in a house on Pearl Street.
“I started coming to Vermont from New York with a girlfriend whose daughter was a competitive skier,” Beglarian explained. “Eventually I was ready to break up with the girlfriend but not with Vermont.”
During COVID, Beglarian lived full time in Brandon and began to get to know people in a way she hadn’t before. The difference in neighborliness between the city and the small town was striking.
“Oh! This is what community is!” she said as she started to get to know more people in town. “It was a revelation to me. I plan to be here for the rest of my life.”
Her next projects include a commissioned piece on the reclusive Victorian poet Emily Dickinson, who was particularly inspiring to Beglarian during the isolation of COVID lockdowns, and a planned bicycle trip following the route that a man named Henry Schoolcraft took from New York City to Michigan in 1820. Several years ago, Beglarian traveled the length of the Mississippi by bicycle and kayak, resulting in several pieces of music inspired by the journey. She hopes the trek to her ancestral home of Michigan will be similarly fruitful.
That restless creative spirit has led her to this recognition in her field. Congratulations, Eve!
