20 - Liza Lim (b. 1966)

Summary

Unlike so many Australian composers whose names may be familiar in Europe but whose music has failed to penetrate through the geographical distance (I am thinking of Peter Sculthorpe and Richard Meale in particular), Liza Lim has achieved a remarkable presence in Europe and the United States, while also remaining active in the musical life of her native country.

Lim's initial contact with Europe might have come about thanks to her studies in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw. In any case, invitations have followed for her to write works for major European ensembles and festivals, also to compose an opera for Berlin, where she was artist-in-residence of the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD in 2007–8. Liza Lim has also accepted major commissions from orchestras in the United States such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has lectured at several universities. In 2008, she was appointed professor of composition at the University of Huddersfield.

Her contribution to this book mirrors her devotion to her art, her striving for authenticity, and, perhaps most important, her sensitivity to even minute stirrings in the outside world. Similarly to Robert Morris and Luca Lombardi, she values artistic freedom, which enables her to produce works no one else is capable of giving as a giftto lovers of music.

May 2, 2015

Dear Bálint,

Thanks for the invitation to contribute something to the conversation about “courage.” For me, the word in relation to artistic practice, could perhaps be substituted with “authenticity”—to be true to one's inner spirit without being swayed by pressures to conform to external voices as to what constitutes success in art. This pressure might be about being accessible and commercially productive or in equal measure about being “cool” and reflecting the latest intellectual and technological trends. These kinds of pressures are often about meeting expectations about some kind of image or branding. I’m amazed at how many ways there are of creating zones of inclusion and exclusion in the politics of art.

I’m not saying that an artist shouldn't be in dialogue with the world and all its trends—not at all since I feel that I am rather transparent to my environment and often very much influenced by some subtle thing occurring in my field of consciousness that registers on my antenna.