Q&A with Laura Cetilia about gorgeous nothings
“I only write what feels true to me.” "I have been working so intimately with my instrument that we really have melded into something else entirely." — Laura Cetilia
Yuko Zama (YZ):Listening to these three pieces, I was deeply impressed by how profoundly rooted your work is in your identity as a composer, and how fascinatingly original it is. I feel your music possesses a unique quality that resonates with people on both a personal and universal level. What is your strongest motivation in composing music?
Laura Cetilia (LC):I only write what feels “true” to me. I didn’t formally study composition until I was well into my forties and had already developed a distinct voice as a performer and improvisor. Because of this particular journey, it’s hard for me to try sound like someone else or to emulate something that hasn’t come from a personal feeling or experience.
Also, many times I am writing for people I am close to. I want the experience to be meaningful, for them to enter my world and feel comfortable there, especially in the moments of my pieces that are not so comfortable — sometimes I ask performers to execute small movements across large spans of time, or to rely on their own sense of timing. They have to find a delicate balance between virtuosity and intuitiveness.There’s also a certain transparency to my work, and that can be a difficult place for some performers to reside - to be vulnerable and imperfect.
I am always surprised when people who are not versed in experimental music enjoy my music. Perhaps they sense sincerity in my work. I’m not trying to prove anything, I’m just attempting to create a moment that I can crawl up into in order to escape the brutality that surrounds us all —and maybe others would like to join me there.
YZ:That's wonderful. I run this label with a similar mindset. Could you tell me a bit about the three pieces on this album: the solo cello and voice work gorgeous nothing, the trio piece six melancholies, and the cello duo piece soil + stone with Hannah Soren?
LC:The solo work is very much rooted in my own personal practice which has continually, but slowly, developed over the past twenty (plus) years. I have cultivated a cello technique unique to my own aesthetic, one that strays from traditional expectations of a full and sonorous tone. Instead, I lightly glide the bow on the surface of the strings to bring out discrete overtones. I experiment with variations in timbre through bow placement and sometimes implement microtonal tunings, quietly adding my singing voice as a pellucid layer to the bowed pitches.
More recently I have been using only harmonics on the cello. Their timbre is so close to that of my own voice and I like to play with their uncanny similarities — sometimes you can’t tell if I am singing and when you do hear my voice, you may not be sure which pitch is coming from me or my cello. I have been working so intimately with my instrument that we really have melded into something else entirely. I spent a lot of time with recording engineer Luke Damrosch in getting just the right mix of the solo piece. I wanted it to sound to the listener as I hear from my position, my left ear almost touching the instrument and my voice embedded within the cello — one is only inches away from the material.
YZ:I too am particularly drawn to harmonics in music. In this solo piece, the resonance of the cello strings and your voice create fascinating, captivating layers of sound. Rather than two distinct sounds, it feels mysterious and incredibly beautiful how they intimately merge and expand into a single musical entity. In the subsequent trio piece, six melancholies, I also sense a natural transition from the intimacy of the solo piece to a more open, expanded space. The contrast in texture between the two works is very nice, too. LC: six melancholies was composed in December 2017 for my ensemble ordinary affects at a time when we were immersed in the music (and company) of Jürg Frey. We were lucky enough to collaborate and tour with Jürg, who was visiting from Switzerland that fall. I admire Jürg’s unabashed approach to beautiful and simple harmonies. A number of the pieces I wrote prior to this moment were centered around slow, long glissandi with lots of timbral affect, like ponticello. I felt the necessity to break away from that momentarily and take advantage of Morgan and James’ unique understanding of my work and aesthetic. The pieces are also maybe an expression of me synthesizing the wonderful experience we all had together playing and traveling with Jürg.
Ordinary Affects (Laura Cetilia, J.P.A. Falzone, Morgan Evans-Weiler, Luke Martin) with Jürg Frey and Christian Wolff after their premiere concert of Jürg Frey's '60 Pieces of Sound' at Rollins Chapel, Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (November 11, 2017)
Laura Cetilia - six melancholies (excerpt)
YZ: That's wonderful. I'm glad you and the musicians of Ordinary Affects were able to share such a special time with Jürg. Although this piece is a trio for cello, violin, and vibraphone, it seems to possess the richness and expansiveness of a much larger ensemble. The vibraphone's sound, reminiscent of the sparkle of life, emerges and recedes from the delicate, discreet layers of strings like rays of light shining through clouds, creating a striking impression. When I first heard this piece, Jürg Fry's music also came to mind, yet I never felt it imitated his style. I strongly sensed it was a truly original work imbued with your own individuality and aesthetic sensibility.
Could you also tell us about soil + stone?
LC: soil + stone came from a desire to play with a new friend, Hannah Soren. Hannah is an incredibly sensitive and curious musician. After getting to meet and spend some time with composer Linda Catlin Smith (during a short residency she did at Cornell, organized by Jack Yarbrough, Hannah’s partner) we discovered her cello duo. I decided to commission three friends Judith Berkson, Teodora Stepancic, and Nomi Epstein to write pieces for Hannah and I to play on the same program as Smith’s cello duo. We were able to perform all of this repertoire in different combinations a number of times this past year. The experience was very rewarding, I hope to write another duo for us — it is rare to find someone like Hannah who is so willing and open to give oneself fully to demanding projects.
n/ether (Laura Cetilia/Hannah Soren) recording session of soil + stone at Community MusicWorks in Providence, RI (August 2, 2025)
YZ: I'm also deeply drawn to your duo, n/ether, with Hannah Soren. I'd love to hear more of your work with this duo someday.
By the way, I love your album title "gorgeous nothings". You said you chose it from Emily Dickinson's poetry book The Gorgeous Nothings (2012). Do you think the book influenced your album?
LC:The actual poetry in that book didn’t have a direct influence on my album (although I am a big fan of Dickinson's work), but the concept behind that book did, and the evocative title, of course. The book consists of photos that document 52 poems that Dickinson had written on envelope scraps. It’s like she had these words burning inside her and had to grab whatever was closest to get those thoughts out. She was also being very practical and frugal. What appear as meaningless scraps of paper to some are instead blank canvases for Dickinson to fill with her concise and singular poetry.
Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems from "The Gorgeous Nothings" (2012)
The album art is supposed to reflect these ideas, too. My partner, Mark Cetilia, built a macro lens to get amazing detail of small objects in photographs. For the cover, I wanted him to capture the beauty of what most people would consider insignificant, in this case a bulbous weed growing under a wooden deck.
YZ: This cover photo by Mark Cetilia is so beautiful. It evokes the intimacy and expansiveness of your cello pieces, as well as a sense of sensitivity and profound depth.
In the meantime, why did you choose the cello as your instrument? When did you start playing the cello? What qualities of the cello (and its sounds) particularly fascinate you?
LC:This is actually a pretty cute story. I was around ten years old and was barely tolerating the piano lessons my mom had “forced” me to sign up for while my brother learned guitar (his choice / true love). My mother comes from a very humble, hard-working Mexican-American family of eight siblings and she desperately wanted to give my brother and I as many enriching experiences we could manage. Fortunately, growing up in a big city like Los Angeles, there were special opportunities in underserved areas that provided low-cost, high quality music education so we were able to take advantage of our situation. Anyway, I wasn’t loving the piano (even though I had some wonderful teachers and experiences) and needed something I chose for myself.
I happened to see this movie “Electric Dreams” about how a personal computer and its owner both fall in love with their neighbor who is a cellist. I listened to that Giorgio Moroder soundtrack loudly and on loop for days on end. When I entered the fifth grade I had the opportunity to join my middle school string orchestra (a rarity these days) and choose my own instrument. I was told my hand was too small for the cello, but I picked it anyway, and fell in love instantly. Learning in school wasn’t enough for me and I was able to get low-cost private lessons through an incredible organization called Saturday Conservatory, which took place on the campus of Cal State L.A. during the weekends when college classes weren’t in session. It was in this program where I was able to flourish and not be bullied for being a nerd. My teacher there (Margaret Asato) encouraged me to improvise/compose and learn as much as I could, we would have these marathon lessons and she would take me out for pizza. Outside of the time with my family, those were the absolute best days of my childhood.
YZ:What a lovely story! Who are your favorite composers, cellists, and cello pieces that have influenced or inspired you to play the cello or write cello pieces?
LC:When I was in high-school in the 90s, I was able to see cellist Frances-Marie Uitti play at Monday Evening Concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I was blown away not only by her virtuosity but her presence on stage and ability to conjure these otherworldly atmospheres. Later in 2002 or so, I met composer Andre Cormier, a graduate from CalArts, and was intrigued by his approach to time and inventive / expansive scores. For a moment there I only performed the music of Andre Cormier. Now he is spending his time making delicious chocolate. He was the person that introduced me to the world of the Wandelweisers. Around the same time I became a fan of local “lowercase” sound artist Steve Roden and met my partner, Mark Cetilia, and we started our duo Mem1 in 2003. In 2005 I had the opportunity to meet Eliane Radigue and hear Charles Curtis play Naldjorlak on a number of occasions. After moving to the east coast I became more aware of Alvin Lucier’s work and finally Jürg Frey. Now I am completely steeped in the Deep Listening philosophy of Pauline Oliveros. Oh and Feldman, I have to mention Feldman.
YZ:That is a wonderful experience! Your rich musical world has a unique appeal, blending elements that are more complex than those of mainstream classical composers. I can see that this quality was cultivated through your encounters with such great contemporary composers and your diverse musical journeys and discovery of the Wanderweiser collective's works.
When listening to your six melancholies, I sometimes feel as if I am hearing the sound of a large orchestral piece. Have you ever composed a piece for a larger ensemble, such as an orchestra? Or, are you interested in composing a large-scale piece like that?
LC:Yes, I have written a number of large-scale pieces. As a student at Cornell, we were required to write twice for the local pick-up sinfonietta (basically one of each instrument) and I made a point in my “spare time” to also write for full orchestra, the Cornell Symphony, in 2023. I played professionally in orchestras for twenty years and I, like many classically trained musicians was traumatized by the entire experience — preparing for auditions, auditioning, losing auditions, finally winning an orchestral contract, being berated by conductors, enduring physical pain and depression, being paid almost nothing for hours and hours of practice and stress — all to perform music that didn’t really interest me. I realized that what I loved about the orchestra was being inside that mass of sound and sharing the intense listening experience with the other musicians — I didn’t love the music we were playing or the inhumane aspects that kind of institution can bring on.
When I wrote for the Cornell Symphony, I decided to do some Deep Listening exercises with the students to acclimate them to the slow, delicate nature of my work and to try to connect with them in a more meaningful way than just putting a score in front of their faces. (This was a huge deal and only possible because of the open-mindedness of their conductor at the time, Guillaume Pirard, who was very trusting of me.) I don’t think any of the students had ever heard of Pauline Oliveros and certainly not of Jürg Frey, or “lowercase” music, so it was a very challenging situation, to try to find some common ground — and it will continue to be challenging with any other orchestra because I’m far from being a “typical” composer let alone orchestral composer. But this doesn’t mean I’m not interested in pursuing it more. This past year, I was fortunate to be the winner of the Artzenter completion grant and was able to work over an extended amount of time with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and I gained a lot of knowledge and some hope from that experience. Also, I am currently working on a piece for the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Guillaume Pirard who again has complete faith in me and is willing to follow wherever my artistic vision leads us. I am very grateful for these large-scale opportunities, I treat each one as if it will be my last.
YZ:Having experienced the allure of magnificent layers of sound as a professional orchestra member yourself, and now composing for orchestras and chamber ensembles—it seems you've had truly remarkable experiences. This is a somewhat vague question, but as a composer, what kind of music are you aiming for?
LC:This is from my Artist Statement: In my compositions and performances I design a space for attentive presence and quiet discovery through patient explorations of finite musical materials. These kinds of intimate listening moments, inclusive of both audience and performers, beckon toward a collective composure and open curiosity. I aim to create immersive experiences that engender in listeners a sense of being a part of something that holds beauty and wonder at its core.
YZ:Thank you for your concise explanation. When I listen to your work, I sense that the core tranquility and intensity within it truly create an immersive experience. Beyond music, what inspires your compositions?
LC:I can only aspire to capture the awe that comes over me when appreciating our natural world and the phenomena that happens within it. I love hiking in the woods and noticing all the tiny forms of life amidst the huge trees and rocks, going to the beach and watching birds, being hypnotized by the undulating ocean, or even just sitting on my front stoop in the city to take in the surrounding sounds of insects, airplanes, motorcycles, sirens, humanity. I also try to see a lot of visual art, and share that art with my kid. My tastes span a huge range but some long time favorites are Anne Truitt, James Turrell, Yayoi Kusama, Nick Cave, Steve Roden and a newer one is Christine Sun Kim.
(Interview conducted in September - October 2025)
Hannah Soren, Laura Cetilia, Luke Damrosch (engineer) after the recording session of soil + stone
Laura Cetilia's cello works evoke the sense of crossing the threshold between traditional classical music and experimental soundscapes. Within an acoustic resonance that respects the natural reverberations of a space, rippling waves of subtle disturbances conjure a mixed sensation of classical roots and a refreshing encounter with the unknown. This offers a glimpse into a vast and profound world that is uniquely Cetilia's own.
'gorgeous nothings' is an album of three pieces composed by Cetilia, a US-based composer and cellist who won the ARTZenter's Emerging Composer Completion Grant in September 2024. This is her second appearance on elsewhere music, following Jürg Frey's 2018 release, '120 Pieces of Sound', for which she performed a pivotal cello part as a member of Ordinary Affects. The album 'gorgeous nothings' contains Cetilia's solo piece for cello and voice, which she performed herself; her trio piece for violin, cello, and vibraphone, performed by Ordinary Affects; and a piece for cello duo, performed by n/ether, a duo she formed with cellist Hannah Soren.
The trio piece 'six melancholies' was recorded at Memorial Chapel, Wesleyan University in 2017; the solo piece 'gorgeous nothing' and duo piece 'soil + stone' were recorded at Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island in August 2025.
