Artist Interview:
M. Ryan Taylor

M. Ryan Taylor is a composer/vocalist based out of  American Fork, UT. As a composer his work has been performed by BYU Opera, The Utah Premiere Brass, The Chicago Brass, The Timpanogos Chorale and others. His opera, "Abinadi," has been broadcast on two public television stations BYUTV and KBYU TV, and has recently been released on DVD. Last year he released three holiday album/songbook collections for children and families: "Thirteen for Halloween" "Thanksgiving!" & "O Sing a Song of Bethlehem" on SongTonic.com. His other website, ChoirWorks.com, primarily deals with sacred choral music.

As a vocalist, M. Ryan has performed in hundreds of concerts and in many dramatic productions, including Cosi Fan Tutte, Tartuffe and in BYU's production of his "Abinadi" as King Noah (onstage, not on the DVD version).

His new opera, "The Other Wise Man" is getting ready to go on tour throughout the Wasatch Front this December.  We caught up with M. Ryan, and he graciously agreed to take some time out of his very busy schedule to talk with us.

RT: I've really enjoyed your compositions. It's refreshing to me to hear "classical" music that is so accessible to the general public, but still has a very modern sensibility. How do pull that off?

MRT: Glad to hear I have at least one fan. ;) Well, I don't know. I've been through the academic bit, which I'm grateful for, because it has fine-tuned my writing and editing skills. However, I just don't enjoy the academic music scene. I know there are exceptions, but it is such a self-conscious world. There is a lot of lip service given to individuality and being true to who you are as a writer, yet a lot of time is spent indoctrinating young students into a musical world completely apart from the one most people know (even in other classical music circles). Still, it gave me tools and made me re-examine myself (many times). Now I just try to listen to what I'm writing without too much analysis and try to come up with something interesting that I would like to listen to.

RT: How does the music creation process work for you, lyrics or music first, for example?

MRT: Depends on the situation, but generally I work with the lyric as a starting spot, at least in choral works and art song. Instrumental music, which I write much less of, I usually start out improvising until I find a theme that interests me and then I start developing it. When it comes to opera, I do a little of both - as I write my own librettos I don't mind changing the words when a really good musical idea comes along.

Often I find the revision in the words is actually better than the original because I've had to do some creative things with the words rhythmic structure.

RT: I've met your wife, Dixie. She's an incredible lady. What kind of An influence does she have on you musically?

MRT: Well, honestly, I'm a religious man (as you know), and I was willing to take another path when I got married to Dixie so that I could support her properly. She, however, has been completely supportive me and loves that I'm a composer, she wouldn't have me change and is constantly encouraging me to push on when I start to lose faith. I don't think I could have written this last opera I finished (The Other Wise Man) without her unflinching support.

RT: What musicians do you listen to and admire, and how much of an Influence do you think they have been on you?

MRT: Oh my! This is always one of those questions that must be asked, but is so hard to pin down. How can you not be affected by almost everything that you encounter? I don't know that I'm anything like the people I admire most. I love the early work of Stravinsky. I adore Holst's The Planets, and admire much of the work of Vaughen Williams. Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, which I sang in high school, had an enormous impact on me. More modern works I admire have been from Arvo Part, Steve Reich, John Adams, and BYU's own Christian Asplund (his opera's have made me re-think what opera can be). I'm also a big fan of a lot of good pop music (there's a lot of good stuff out there). My favorite piece is probably "Today you shall be with me in Paradise" from James MacMillan's Seven Last Words of Christ from the Cross. It is a monumentally beautiful work and always stirs my heart when I hear it.

RT: At his point in your career, the work that has gotten you the most attention is probably the Abinadi opera. I know it got some air play on a local public TV station, and it's currently available on DVD. I know I've enjoyed it. What went into creating and producing that opera?

MRT: "Abinadi" started with a class paper. I was in a Book of Mormon class at BYU in which we were required to submit two ten-page papers for our entire grade. I had been thinking about writing an opera and I asked my professor, one professor Thomas, if I could work on adapting the story of Abinadi into a libretto as one of those papers. He said that I could and the process of writing 'Abinadi' started.

I learned more from the process of creating 'Abinadi' than probably any other experience in my life. The entire process took a number of years while I was still in school. I started it as an undergraduate and finished it as a graduate, all the while taking classes, writing papers and performing in other operas. I thank that professor for letting me do something a bit unusual in his class. That's what real education is about.

I also must give a lot of credit to Dr. Lawrence Vincent (head of opera at BYU) for continuing to 'pester' me about it. Once I told him of my idea, he would periodically ask me to see how I was coming along. This really helped me to keep on going. Finding people who will encourage you in life and creativity is such a blessing (as I already mentioned in the case of my wife). I didn't know if the work would ever get produced, I hoped for it, but there are no guarantees for this sort of thing. Still, the encouragement empowered me.

RT: In "Abinadi," you took a few liberties with the story, adding a relationship between King Noah's wife and the Nephite judge, Alma. To put it bluntly, at the beginning of the opera they're lovers. After Abinadi condemns King Noah and the corrupt Nephite judges, Alma repents, and ends the affair. I found the aria where he struggles with the pain of leaving his lover, in favor or following the commandments of God, to be one of the most powerful moments in the opera, even though it's not part of the original story. What prompted you to create this relationship?

MRT: What can I say? I adapted a part of my life. Not that I was ever anyone's 'lover' before my wife, but there was a certain person I loved very greatly who I lost because I had to make a choice between my values and hers. She chose an 'alternative' lifestyle and I chose to go on a mission.

For me, the plot invention was an act of 'likening the scriptures' unto myself. I certainly meant no disrespect to Alma, but Alma himself never differentiates himself from the other priests of Noah until after his conversion, and the scriptural story tells us that the priests of Noah took concubines. What I came up with was not an unlikely scenario, but no, it is not spelled out in the scriptures. Then again, it is never really spelled out in the opera either, only suggested. We never know what level of relationship we are dealing with here, a flirtation or an affair. That was purposeful.

RT: On the Abinadi DVD, there is a special feature giving some background on you and the opera. In that we see you dressed as King Noah, but you don't play him in this production. (I got a kick out of seeing you in goatee, by the way.) Why were you dressed up?

MRT: Well, there were two casts and I played the part of the EVIL king Noah in the other cast. Great costumes, by the by (courtesy of Deanne Dewitt).

RT: I hear you're about to debut a new opera as well, "The Other Wise Man." If I remember right, it's going to be performed by a choir that you organized. What can you tell us about that project?

MRT: Choir, no, but I have gotten together a chamber opera group I'm calling the Utah Particle Opera Project. The cast for this opera requires six singers, and I have found some really great ones for this production, many of whom have worked with Utah Opera.

We will be performing "The Other Wise Man" this coming December in a Sort of mini-tour fashion, starting in southern Utah County and ending up in Salt Lake. This is going to be a great production, small and intimate. You'll get to hear and see these singers close-up, something you don't normally get in opera.

I have always loved the story of "The Other Wise Man." It was introduced to me through my father, who has long since passed on. I've thought about doing it as an opera for a long time, at least since I was in production on "Abinadi." I think it's a stronger show in many regards, both compositionally and in my writing in the libretto.

RT: One of my favorites of yours is the song cycle "A Light That Shames The Noonday Sun," based on Joseph Smith's first vision. Much of your music seems to take on faith centered themes, especially those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which you and I both members of). "Abinidai" is taken from the pages of the Book of Mormon. How do you think your faith as influenced your approach to composition?

MRT: I'm constantly re-evaluating myself, trying to stay on course, because I believe I am in the service of God only when I am serving my fellow men. Everything I do I try to keep in focus through that lens. So, I can only say that all my work is affected by it, even my secular work.

RT: You seem to have a lot of different projects going on. There's the Choir Works site, the songbooks over at Song Tonic, and the M. Ryan Taylor site. Would you like to fill us in on all of these?

MRT: SongTonic.com has a number of holiday songbooks and CDs for families I worked on the last couple of years. I'm particularly proud of "Thirteen for Halloween" and will be featuring songs from it in a Halloween benefit concert this coming October. MRyanTaylor.com has links to most of my projects, news, and sound files. These days, though, all I have time for is the upcoming opera. Producing an opera is a major undertaking, even when it is on a small-scale. There are venues to be booked, sets to design, costumes to oversee, people to coordinate . . .

RT: What kinds of projects would you like to undertake, but for whatever reason you've not tackled yet?

MRT: I have several stories on the cue that I think would make great operas. There is a delightful comedic piece by Longfellow called "The Courtship of Miles Standish." I'm also interested in doing an opera on 1920, the year women got the vote. Another, very dramatic, story I'd like to do is that of Anne Hutchinson - the puritan rebel. Of course, another opera from the Book of Mormon on Alma the younger would be great as well. Always more ideas than time to implement. That is the nature of the world.

You can sample M. Ryan's  music at his website, M. Ryan Taylor.com.