Radio and Web Shows
"Word Weaver" Radio Show About "Harlem Voices" - 12/21/17
Clovice was featured on the Word Weavers show on the local public station KPFZ (88.1) on December 31, 2017. Carolyn Hawley conducted the interview, which covered a broad range of topics about Harlem Voices and the historical events that it addresses. Clovice described the inspiration that caused him to create the musical. Musical selections from the piece were also played during the interview. |
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"Word Weaver" Radio Show - 12/20/14
On December 20, 2014, Clovice was interviewed by Carolyn Hawley on her "Word Weavers" radio show. The show featured a discussion with Clovice along with recordings of works representative of his creative development. Click here to listen to the entire show on YouTube.
On December 20, 2014, Clovice was interviewed by Carolyn Hawley on her "Word Weavers" radio show. The show featured a discussion with Clovice along with recordings of works representative of his creative development. Click here to listen to the entire show on YouTube.
Creativity Cafe Web Show- 12/10/14
Clovice was interviewed at the Creativity Cafe by Katie Curtin and Denise Rushing about his views on creativity and how he stays so happy all the time. Katie Curtain, the moderator wrote the day before:
"He describes his daily state of being as anything from happy to ecstatic. I am so curious about how he maintains his good spirits despite all the daily challenges of modern life. And that's just one of the topics we'll be delving into. I can't wait!"
Sign up on the Creative Cafe site to hear a replay of the interview.
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Meet Me in St. Louis
by Carol Brodsky http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/article/NP/20160219/NEWS/160219846 The Ukiah Daily Journal ran this front page full-length article about Clovice Lewis on Saturday, February 20, 2016. |
Clovice Lewis, first chair cellist for the Ukiah Symphony, is packing his bags- and his cello.
The celebrated musician, music teacher, inventor and engineer has been invited to perform his four-movement symphony titled “The Score” on March 6 with St. Louis’ University City Symphony Orchestra.
Though Lewis is known locally for his years as a performer with the Ukiah Symphony, he is known in business and technological circles as a “think outside the box” inventor and entrepreneur whose company, Advanced Housing Technologies, is creating models for housing and supporting infrastructure – water, sewer and electricity – that can be transported anywhere in the world.
Recently, health concerns became the center of Lewis’ attention. This provided an embedded opportunity to focus more exclusively on his musical career.
“I had a bad reaction to blood pressure medication. I was in such pain. Nothing worked. Nothing helped. I found that when I was composing, I’d get up, work into the wee hours, and the music really helped me get through the pain. I was so focused, it just unlocked something.”
“For many years, I was working on my business and not composing at all,” said Lewis, who has been performing with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra for 14 years. “In a little over five weeks, I composed ‘The Score.’”
The piece has never been performed in its entirety, but one movement was performed in 2014 with the Lake County Symphony, conducted by John Parkinson.
As the title implies, “The Score” is a musical piece that is an imaginary score for a film that doesn’t exist. “I was tickled by the idea of writing a big movie score. The piece is a story. I see my own version of the ‘movie,’ but I want people to see their own movie, for themselves.
“The listener is invited to actively imagine a movie or story to go with the music. The ‘epic’ tonal nature of the piece resonates with listeners of all ages,” he continues. The four movements are titled “The Hero’s Journey,” “The King’s Court,” “Going Home” and “Love’s Embrace.”
Lewis was introduced to the orchestra’s conductor, Leon Burke, by Janet Riehl, former Ukiah resident. Riehl helped facilitate his trip to St. Louis.
“Leon Burke has written this about his intention for this symphonic season in a piece entitled ‘Black Art Matters: A Celebration of Diversity.’
“Leon Burke’s plan for this season is to present concerts that will feature the creations and recreations of arts rooted in Africa. He said, ‘Most importantly this is great art, worthy of the world stage, which happens to have been created by people of African descent.’ When he told me about his intentions for the concert series, I was delighted and said, ‘Count me in!’”
School children in the greater St. Louis area are now listening to ‘The Score’ on Lewis’ website. They are making drawings and paintings of their impressions of the piece. Those artworks will be projected behind the orchestra during the performance.
“An amazing local artist based here in Ukiah, Adrianna Oberg, has contributed two fantastic drawings which will also be displayed,” Lewis continues.
In addition to performing his symphony, Lewis will be visiting schools in the Ferguson area. “I’m going to be talking to inner city school kids. As a mature African-American musician, I was of course affected by the continuing troubles in Ferguson, Baltimore, Cleveland, and other cities throughout the country.
“When chants of ‘Black Lives Matter’ began to echo in St. Louis, it set me to thinking. Music is one of the few things that is universally seen as positive and not negative, creative and not destructive – something that can unite our communities.”
“I’m going to discuss the importance of art and education, and how music has had such a profound effect on my life. I grew up as an Air Force brat. I didn’t understand what was going on outside the base during the ’60’s, but somehow I knew something had to change.
“When I was young, I was torn between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. I was in that generation that knew we were not going to live the way our parents did, but should we take up arms or the olive branch? That’s what I want to talk about.
“My best advice to kids: count to 10. My message to students is to get your education, use the system, understand how things work and really excel,” he notes.
“There is hope. There’s this feeling of hopelessness because of the dire circumstances that many young people live in. Sometimes my brother and I have discussed the fact that two of us survived, and unlike our cousins, we were never incarcerated.”
Along with his compositions, Lewis renewed his commitment to get his music out to the world. He revamped his “Jazzical” website and made a decision to give away all his music, free of charge. “I had the website up since 1995. In fact, it was one of the first sites listed on the Internet,” he smiles. “I wanted to sell music, but in all those years I sold maybe one piece.
“Since I made the decision to give the music away, I’ve had hits from everywhere in the world. People have been downloading the music. The average visitor spends 6.5 minutes on the site.”
Visitors to his site span the globe. “People from Brazil, Ghana, Italy, Mauritius – places I’ve never heard of, are visiting the site, all without any marketing.”
The website offers visitors about 130 pieces of music. It has been viewed over 6,000 times, with ‘The Score’ leading the number of page views.
Lewis has big plans for the future. “I have a dream of performing ‘The Score’ on six continents in what I call the ‘Global Embrace’ concert tour. In keeping with the piece’s theme of ‘A Hero’s Journey,’ I want to travel to small communities with orchestras, not only to perform ‘The Score’ with them, but to discuss community-specific strategies to sustain them, and create opportunities for modern composers.
“I envision a crowd funding campaign to fund the tour and to pay each orchestra to perform the piece. It will also fund the production of a book and a movie documenting the journey, and create a template for revitalizing struggling symphonies all over the world. I want to go to other communities to help failing orchestras.”
Right after Lewis finished ‘The Score,’ he started writing jazz. “All I hear is jazz,” he smiles. His CD, “Summer,” is available on his website, iTunes and Spotify.
Along with improved health, Lewis’ rededication to his music has revived other aspects of his life. “Working on this music helped me with other aspects of AHT. Last summer I started flying airplanes again. I’ve created a new, smaller design for my company. This is the power of creativity and music.”
The icing on the cake is awaiting Lewis when he touches down in Missouri. “I have a niece – Erica Johnson. She is a well-known jazz singer. We’ve never met. We’re going to get together and I’m going to sit on some sets with her,” he says.
“The upcoming concert in St. Louis is the first, best step in my quest. I hope it can serve as a reminder of how important the arts are, and of how blessed we musicians are to have the support of our communities,” Lewis concludes.
Visit Clovice Lewis’ site at www.jazzicalmusic.com.
The celebrated musician, music teacher, inventor and engineer has been invited to perform his four-movement symphony titled “The Score” on March 6 with St. Louis’ University City Symphony Orchestra.
Though Lewis is known locally for his years as a performer with the Ukiah Symphony, he is known in business and technological circles as a “think outside the box” inventor and entrepreneur whose company, Advanced Housing Technologies, is creating models for housing and supporting infrastructure – water, sewer and electricity – that can be transported anywhere in the world.
Recently, health concerns became the center of Lewis’ attention. This provided an embedded opportunity to focus more exclusively on his musical career.
“I had a bad reaction to blood pressure medication. I was in such pain. Nothing worked. Nothing helped. I found that when I was composing, I’d get up, work into the wee hours, and the music really helped me get through the pain. I was so focused, it just unlocked something.”
“For many years, I was working on my business and not composing at all,” said Lewis, who has been performing with the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra for 14 years. “In a little over five weeks, I composed ‘The Score.’”
The piece has never been performed in its entirety, but one movement was performed in 2014 with the Lake County Symphony, conducted by John Parkinson.
As the title implies, “The Score” is a musical piece that is an imaginary score for a film that doesn’t exist. “I was tickled by the idea of writing a big movie score. The piece is a story. I see my own version of the ‘movie,’ but I want people to see their own movie, for themselves.
“The listener is invited to actively imagine a movie or story to go with the music. The ‘epic’ tonal nature of the piece resonates with listeners of all ages,” he continues. The four movements are titled “The Hero’s Journey,” “The King’s Court,” “Going Home” and “Love’s Embrace.”
Lewis was introduced to the orchestra’s conductor, Leon Burke, by Janet Riehl, former Ukiah resident. Riehl helped facilitate his trip to St. Louis.
“Leon Burke has written this about his intention for this symphonic season in a piece entitled ‘Black Art Matters: A Celebration of Diversity.’
“Leon Burke’s plan for this season is to present concerts that will feature the creations and recreations of arts rooted in Africa. He said, ‘Most importantly this is great art, worthy of the world stage, which happens to have been created by people of African descent.’ When he told me about his intentions for the concert series, I was delighted and said, ‘Count me in!’”
School children in the greater St. Louis area are now listening to ‘The Score’ on Lewis’ website. They are making drawings and paintings of their impressions of the piece. Those artworks will be projected behind the orchestra during the performance.
“An amazing local artist based here in Ukiah, Adrianna Oberg, has contributed two fantastic drawings which will also be displayed,” Lewis continues.
In addition to performing his symphony, Lewis will be visiting schools in the Ferguson area. “I’m going to be talking to inner city school kids. As a mature African-American musician, I was of course affected by the continuing troubles in Ferguson, Baltimore, Cleveland, and other cities throughout the country.
“When chants of ‘Black Lives Matter’ began to echo in St. Louis, it set me to thinking. Music is one of the few things that is universally seen as positive and not negative, creative and not destructive – something that can unite our communities.”
“I’m going to discuss the importance of art and education, and how music has had such a profound effect on my life. I grew up as an Air Force brat. I didn’t understand what was going on outside the base during the ’60’s, but somehow I knew something had to change.
“When I was young, I was torn between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. I was in that generation that knew we were not going to live the way our parents did, but should we take up arms or the olive branch? That’s what I want to talk about.
“My best advice to kids: count to 10. My message to students is to get your education, use the system, understand how things work and really excel,” he notes.
“There is hope. There’s this feeling of hopelessness because of the dire circumstances that many young people live in. Sometimes my brother and I have discussed the fact that two of us survived, and unlike our cousins, we were never incarcerated.”
Along with his compositions, Lewis renewed his commitment to get his music out to the world. He revamped his “Jazzical” website and made a decision to give away all his music, free of charge. “I had the website up since 1995. In fact, it was one of the first sites listed on the Internet,” he smiles. “I wanted to sell music, but in all those years I sold maybe one piece.
“Since I made the decision to give the music away, I’ve had hits from everywhere in the world. People have been downloading the music. The average visitor spends 6.5 minutes on the site.”
Visitors to his site span the globe. “People from Brazil, Ghana, Italy, Mauritius – places I’ve never heard of, are visiting the site, all without any marketing.”
The website offers visitors about 130 pieces of music. It has been viewed over 6,000 times, with ‘The Score’ leading the number of page views.
Lewis has big plans for the future. “I have a dream of performing ‘The Score’ on six continents in what I call the ‘Global Embrace’ concert tour. In keeping with the piece’s theme of ‘A Hero’s Journey,’ I want to travel to small communities with orchestras, not only to perform ‘The Score’ with them, but to discuss community-specific strategies to sustain them, and create opportunities for modern composers.
“I envision a crowd funding campaign to fund the tour and to pay each orchestra to perform the piece. It will also fund the production of a book and a movie documenting the journey, and create a template for revitalizing struggling symphonies all over the world. I want to go to other communities to help failing orchestras.”
Right after Lewis finished ‘The Score,’ he started writing jazz. “All I hear is jazz,” he smiles. His CD, “Summer,” is available on his website, iTunes and Spotify.
Along with improved health, Lewis’ rededication to his music has revived other aspects of his life. “Working on this music helped me with other aspects of AHT. Last summer I started flying airplanes again. I’ve created a new, smaller design for my company. This is the power of creativity and music.”
The icing on the cake is awaiting Lewis when he touches down in Missouri. “I have a niece – Erica Johnson. She is a well-known jazz singer. We’ve never met. We’re going to get together and I’m going to sit on some sets with her,” he says.
“The upcoming concert in St. Louis is the first, best step in my quest. I hope it can serve as a reminder of how important the arts are, and of how blessed we musicians are to have the support of our communities,” Lewis concludes.
Visit Clovice Lewis’ site at www.jazzicalmusic.com.
Chatting... with Clovice Lewis
by Carol Brodsky http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/Opinion/Columnists/ci_27299831/Chatting--with-Clovice-Lewis The Ukiah Daily Journal ran this full-length article about Clovice Lewis on Sunday, January 11, 2015. |
For those wise enough to take the time to enjoy the dedication and the talent displayed by the musicians who comprise the Ukiah Symphony, first-chair cellist Clovice Lewis is no stranger. A musician's musician, composer and instructor, Lewis has more than just a gift for music - he has passion. But few people know about the other side of Lewis - the entrepreneur, inventor and futurist who is set to change the way we respond to disasters and by doing so, save and improve the lives of the most afflicted- here and around the world.
Q. Tell us a little about how you got into music.
A. My father had a beautiful voice. There were 11 kids in his family and all were musicians. We were surrounded by music of all kinds. I remember hearing Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., Vivaldi and Gershwin as a kid. In the summer of 1968, my parents dropped us off with my grandmother. I had cousins who played instruments. Something happened to me on that trip. I came back to Texas after that summer, went into the school orchestra room and asked if I could play the bass. Dennis Bell, the strings teacher said, "You're too small to play the bass. But there's this little bass called a cello. That's about your size. When you get bigger you can play the bass." Mr. Bell asked me to play the C Major scale, saying he'd be back in 10 minutes.
I asked another student to help me. He showed me where to put my fingers and how to hold the bow, and I did it.
Q. I take it that it was love at first sight - or sound.
A. I touched the cello and it was what I was born to do. Six months later I was winning solo competitions in Texas. I started composing about three weeks after that. It would baffle people, but for me it was so natural. I remember thinking; you read and write, how can you not write music that's in your head? Of course it turns out that very few musicians compose, especially out of their heads and onto paper. But I didn't know that at the time.
Q. So you continued with music?
A. I accessed some kind of fountain of creativity that I found at that time - about the eighth grade. It was like a switch going off in my head. Things came together in a lot of fascinating ways. That's when I discovered I could compose, play cello, write, win speech contests and debates. I thought I was going to become an attorney, but I became a composer. My first symphony was composed at the age of 17.
Q. Where has music taken you?
A. I've been playing with the Ukiah Symphony for about 12 years, and I've been first chair for the past six years. People see me around town and in the orchestra, but most people don't know that I'm a composer. I call myself a cellist/composer, because composing is what I really do, and playing cello is the other thing.
Q. Can you describe the difference between being a musician and a composer?
I was composing a cello piece for Larry Granger, 4th cellist for the San Francisco Symphony, but he died before the piece was performed. Now, I had to play it. I had to learn the piece I had composed. The truth was. I couldn't play it. The technique was a lot more challenging than the music I normally played. The cellist-me, had to play what the composer-me, had composed and I was not happy about that! I'd be practicing and I'd hear the devil on one shoulder saying, dude, no one's heard this before, make it simple! The angel on the other shoulder said, do this the best you can possibly do. I took lessons from Marcia Sloan and got coaching from other great cellists to attain the confidence I needed to do the piece. I practiced it and finally performed it with the Lake County Symphony. I grew so much as a cellist, and that was when I really fell in love with the cello. I'd been playing it for 30 years, and people considered me a good cellist. It had served for me the purpose of performing with other people. I loved the cello, but I wasn't in love with it. When I finally played that piece, I found the voice of the cello. The instrument opened up for me.
Q. You've been interested in merging music and technology for some time. Can you talk about that?
A. A piece of music entitled "The Score" is a good example. The concept was that I would write a score to a movie that didn't exist. The four movements are entitled, The Hero's Journey, The King's Court, Love's Embrace and Going Home. It premiered last November with John Parkinson conducting. The cadenza, Love's Embrace is for cello and orchestra. During the performance, I used a looping device so the cello was accompanying itself- something that classical musicians wouldn't usually do. I was improvising while I was performing. No one knew. The people playing with me didn't know what I was doing and the people in the audience were scratching their heads, looking for the other cellists.
Q. What makes a good piece of music?
A. Pain makes art. My earlier compositions were good, clever, intellectual. But they weren't really deep until I went through a divorce. Prior to the divorce, I reported. After the divorce I had access to all these dark colors to place on my musical palate. The influences on me were so vast that I felt like I couldn't not compose.
Q. What is your process when you compose a piece?
A. I very rarely edit. The idea is to be as accurate as I can be for the download- even arranging my life in a way so that I don't have distractions, so that I can take five days and just compose. With the large pieces, I've often had dreams associated with writing the piece. Usually, right before or after the composition, I have the same dream. I'm walking someplace and I hear music. I go behind the bassists in the back of the auditorium and I see my name on the music. I walk into the audience, I hear the piece, and I wake up. And I hear what the piece sounds like. It's finding the thing that's already there.
Q. Do the same creative processes apply when you are inventing?
A. When I'm inventing, it's the same thing as composing- seeing something that doesn't exist and bringing it into the world. The process of creating is uncovering what's already there- being the perfect vessel. At the bottom of each one of his manuscripts, Bach wrote two words- Grüß Gott. The message? Bach didn't create this. It's that aspect of getting out of the way of the creative process itself. It doesn't matter whether I'm flying an airplane, programming or inventing. Usually, when I'm inventing, it's almost like the dream. I see what a thing is going to be like 50 years from now. Then I work backwards- what is the thing like now, and what do I have to do to get it to that future place. It's like play. I wasn't squashed as a child. I didn't have that experience growing up. Programming computers is easy compared to composing symphonies. You're using the same part of the brain. I write code and it's like a symphony. That's how I approach business and everything else I do. I don't try to do things the way other people do. I see things in a different way. I like to say that I only do one thing- but I do it a lot of different ways.
Q. On that note, let's talk about your other life - your life as an inventor and entrepreneur. I would imagine that most Ukiahans have no clue about this part of your life.
A. I don't even remember when I started inventing, but from the beginning, I never invented little things. My dad was an electronics technician the Air Force. I grew up reading his technical manuals stored on a high shelf the closet. They were marked "top secret," so of course I had to read them! There were descriptions of how Air Force bombers communicated to the ground- that kind of thing, so as a kid, I was crazy about aircraft. One of my first inventions was a hydrofoil. As I got older, the inventions were more tech-based- software or firmware related. I started a multi-media company in 1984, worked at Apple and Lockheed building software and created technical manuals. For my technical writing company, I bought a JVC video camera. I'd walk into my clients' offices with this huge camera and ask the engineers, what are you doing? I'd videotape everything we were talking about. The novel approach coupled with my programming skills enabled me to do very unusual technical manuals utilizing 3-D modeling and animation- something no one had done previously. That background got me into building and inventing things. I became a serial entrepreneur - always approaching things from a creative perspective.
Q. What's one of your first inventions you are really proud of?
A. I created the first computer-based training for pilots, called Wilbur's Flight School. It was for the Mac. I was studying for my pilot's exam in 1987 and used animations to create an interactive guide to reading the aircraft buttons and control panels. It consisted of an interactive guide for pilots- long before either the Internet or hyperlinks existed. At the same time, I went to San Jose to purchase the latest flight simulator product. I wanted to see it before I bought it. I told the staff about what I was doing. They're showing me the flight simulator and I'm showing them my product. Next thing I knew, engineers are crowding around me. There was one engineer, young guy, asking me questions. It was Ron Weiner, the president of the company. We became great friends. We did the marketing and everything else, and produced the product in 1991. It came with 5 floppy disks that you loaded it into your 20-Megabyte hard drive!
Q. Let's move forward and discuss your biggest project to date - Advanced Housing Technologies.
A. AHT happened because of Hurricane Katrina. I sat with everyone else watching television, literally crying, because I had friends and family on the Gulf Coast. I wanted to do something to help. I had a good high school friend- Julie, who lost everything- her business, her house, everything. I was walking with my wife, Carol. One of my good friends was Jay Schafer, the pioneer of the Tiny House movement. Carol said, "Why don't you get her one of Jay's houses? The next thing I knew I was towing a tiny house to New Orleans that Jay built for Julie.
Q. What happened next?
A. When I got to New Orleans, the devastation was everywhere, everywhere. People were living in FEMA trailers. They saw Julie's beautiful tiny house and were asking, why can't we live in one of those? I came back and wanted to start this company. I envisioned small, emergency housing units made of renewable materials that were both smart and transportable, with the infrastructure for water, sewer and electricity under computer control. We took off from there.
Q. Describe AHT, in a nutshell.
A. We are talking about the production of small, green, sustainable, disaster-relief housing that can be transported anywhere in the world and comes with the infrastructure- water, sewer and electricity, with computer systems embedded in the houses themselves, that can be put in place indefinitely. From there, you can take that technology and build entire sustainable neighborhoods, villages and towns. We build the distributed power piece, make it rugged enough to survive earthquakes and disasters, and retrofit existing structures with that technology. It will certainly change the disaster relief world and change the economies where the units and subsidiary companies are located.
Q. How is this different from traditional disaster relief housing efforts?
A. The fundamental change is allowing people to do things- to live better- right away, without having to create a complex infrastructure. A little village is set up with technologies that will be used 50 years from now. Literally, I asked myself, what will my house look like in 50 years? My company will build and maintain refrigerator-size units that will maintain your entire house. The unit collates and collects all that free energy. I'm going to be the guy that builds that thing. Everything from now to that time is already planned out- a series of interrelated inventions that have developed out of this original impulse. This is not smart housing- it's brilliant housing! As my wife likes to say, this project will change the world.
Q. What has happened since your trip to New Orleans?
A. The company exists completely. Every aspect, from a 90-day plan to ten years out. AHT is ready to go. Just before the financial crisis hit in 2008, we were in line for $9 million dollars. The hedge fund's underwriting ink was still wet, and the next day we got the call saying the fund had disappeared. Ever since, we've been working on start-up schemes and acquiring more funding for the company. In the meantime, I keep refining the inventions and refining what I started nine years ago. I go back and revisit my inventions regularly, because of the development of new technologies and materials. The inventions are like the music. Within the first few days I had a picture of AHT- I had the houses and the technology sketched out. Now, nine years later we're starting to see how it's coming into the world. The functionality is there and the technology is changing about every six months.
Q. What's the most exciting aspect of this project?
A. It's taken some time, but we're building the prototype, right now. We're working with brilliant engineers. We're doing wiring diagrams and have all the money to complete our prototype. I'm expecting it to be completed by the end of March. There will be wind turbines and solar panels working. You'll be able to sit in the house and heat up your coffee.
Q. With that hurdle almost cleared, what is your next challenge?
A. A real impediment to this kind of business is doing the patents. It's costly and time consuming. Then you have to defend your patent because someone will steal your designs, which is why I must be very careful how much I say in public. But another unexpected side benefit of a project of this scope is the development of technologies that can utilize a niche market. That's exciting.
Q. You've also made some big decisions about your body of musical work.
A. I've decided to give away my music. If you think about Beethoven, sitting down with a pen and writing music without a piano, that's what I do. I can have a blank piece of paper and can compose some beautiful music—in cantata format, with strings, whatever. With regards to archives, I needed to store them somewhere. Since the mid-1980's I've composed everything on computer. There aren't manuscripts. The music needed to be put into a format that could be shared. I can't even open up certain programs because the computer or the format is obsolete. I needed to put my library into a format that will survive. Now I've created a new website. You can download the music, listen to it and even download the score. Anyone can go to that website and hear 45 years worth of music- from my earliest compositions to the latest performance with the symphony.
Q. What kind of response are you getting to the website?
A. The music is being downloaded and listened to all over the world- Indonesia, India, Dubai, Sweden, Spain. The thrill for me is that the music is being listened to. The new software is so sophisticated I can compose the music and hear the London Symphony play it. Unless you are a trained musician you can't tell that you are listening to a computer.
Q. When you're not busy improving the lives of disaster victims, what music are you composing?
A. I have been working on some jazz pieces, and a larger piece- a 15-to-20-movement secular cantata. It will use the Interlingua language, and I hope that Margie Rice and I will have the opportunity to perform it. My intention is that it, like AHT will be around for many years to come.
Visit Clovice's musical website at www.jazzicalmusic.com
Q. Tell us a little about how you got into music.
A. My father had a beautiful voice. There were 11 kids in his family and all were musicians. We were surrounded by music of all kinds. I remember hearing Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis Jr., Vivaldi and Gershwin as a kid. In the summer of 1968, my parents dropped us off with my grandmother. I had cousins who played instruments. Something happened to me on that trip. I came back to Texas after that summer, went into the school orchestra room and asked if I could play the bass. Dennis Bell, the strings teacher said, "You're too small to play the bass. But there's this little bass called a cello. That's about your size. When you get bigger you can play the bass." Mr. Bell asked me to play the C Major scale, saying he'd be back in 10 minutes.
I asked another student to help me. He showed me where to put my fingers and how to hold the bow, and I did it.
Q. I take it that it was love at first sight - or sound.
A. I touched the cello and it was what I was born to do. Six months later I was winning solo competitions in Texas. I started composing about three weeks after that. It would baffle people, but for me it was so natural. I remember thinking; you read and write, how can you not write music that's in your head? Of course it turns out that very few musicians compose, especially out of their heads and onto paper. But I didn't know that at the time.
Q. So you continued with music?
A. I accessed some kind of fountain of creativity that I found at that time - about the eighth grade. It was like a switch going off in my head. Things came together in a lot of fascinating ways. That's when I discovered I could compose, play cello, write, win speech contests and debates. I thought I was going to become an attorney, but I became a composer. My first symphony was composed at the age of 17.
Q. Where has music taken you?
A. I've been playing with the Ukiah Symphony for about 12 years, and I've been first chair for the past six years. People see me around town and in the orchestra, but most people don't know that I'm a composer. I call myself a cellist/composer, because composing is what I really do, and playing cello is the other thing.
Q. Can you describe the difference between being a musician and a composer?
I was composing a cello piece for Larry Granger, 4th cellist for the San Francisco Symphony, but he died before the piece was performed. Now, I had to play it. I had to learn the piece I had composed. The truth was. I couldn't play it. The technique was a lot more challenging than the music I normally played. The cellist-me, had to play what the composer-me, had composed and I was not happy about that! I'd be practicing and I'd hear the devil on one shoulder saying, dude, no one's heard this before, make it simple! The angel on the other shoulder said, do this the best you can possibly do. I took lessons from Marcia Sloan and got coaching from other great cellists to attain the confidence I needed to do the piece. I practiced it and finally performed it with the Lake County Symphony. I grew so much as a cellist, and that was when I really fell in love with the cello. I'd been playing it for 30 years, and people considered me a good cellist. It had served for me the purpose of performing with other people. I loved the cello, but I wasn't in love with it. When I finally played that piece, I found the voice of the cello. The instrument opened up for me.
Q. You've been interested in merging music and technology for some time. Can you talk about that?
A. A piece of music entitled "The Score" is a good example. The concept was that I would write a score to a movie that didn't exist. The four movements are entitled, The Hero's Journey, The King's Court, Love's Embrace and Going Home. It premiered last November with John Parkinson conducting. The cadenza, Love's Embrace is for cello and orchestra. During the performance, I used a looping device so the cello was accompanying itself- something that classical musicians wouldn't usually do. I was improvising while I was performing. No one knew. The people playing with me didn't know what I was doing and the people in the audience were scratching their heads, looking for the other cellists.
Q. What makes a good piece of music?
A. Pain makes art. My earlier compositions were good, clever, intellectual. But they weren't really deep until I went through a divorce. Prior to the divorce, I reported. After the divorce I had access to all these dark colors to place on my musical palate. The influences on me were so vast that I felt like I couldn't not compose.
Q. What is your process when you compose a piece?
A. I very rarely edit. The idea is to be as accurate as I can be for the download- even arranging my life in a way so that I don't have distractions, so that I can take five days and just compose. With the large pieces, I've often had dreams associated with writing the piece. Usually, right before or after the composition, I have the same dream. I'm walking someplace and I hear music. I go behind the bassists in the back of the auditorium and I see my name on the music. I walk into the audience, I hear the piece, and I wake up. And I hear what the piece sounds like. It's finding the thing that's already there.
Q. Do the same creative processes apply when you are inventing?
A. When I'm inventing, it's the same thing as composing- seeing something that doesn't exist and bringing it into the world. The process of creating is uncovering what's already there- being the perfect vessel. At the bottom of each one of his manuscripts, Bach wrote two words- Grüß Gott. The message? Bach didn't create this. It's that aspect of getting out of the way of the creative process itself. It doesn't matter whether I'm flying an airplane, programming or inventing. Usually, when I'm inventing, it's almost like the dream. I see what a thing is going to be like 50 years from now. Then I work backwards- what is the thing like now, and what do I have to do to get it to that future place. It's like play. I wasn't squashed as a child. I didn't have that experience growing up. Programming computers is easy compared to composing symphonies. You're using the same part of the brain. I write code and it's like a symphony. That's how I approach business and everything else I do. I don't try to do things the way other people do. I see things in a different way. I like to say that I only do one thing- but I do it a lot of different ways.
Q. On that note, let's talk about your other life - your life as an inventor and entrepreneur. I would imagine that most Ukiahans have no clue about this part of your life.
A. I don't even remember when I started inventing, but from the beginning, I never invented little things. My dad was an electronics technician the Air Force. I grew up reading his technical manuals stored on a high shelf the closet. They were marked "top secret," so of course I had to read them! There were descriptions of how Air Force bombers communicated to the ground- that kind of thing, so as a kid, I was crazy about aircraft. One of my first inventions was a hydrofoil. As I got older, the inventions were more tech-based- software or firmware related. I started a multi-media company in 1984, worked at Apple and Lockheed building software and created technical manuals. For my technical writing company, I bought a JVC video camera. I'd walk into my clients' offices with this huge camera and ask the engineers, what are you doing? I'd videotape everything we were talking about. The novel approach coupled with my programming skills enabled me to do very unusual technical manuals utilizing 3-D modeling and animation- something no one had done previously. That background got me into building and inventing things. I became a serial entrepreneur - always approaching things from a creative perspective.
Q. What's one of your first inventions you are really proud of?
A. I created the first computer-based training for pilots, called Wilbur's Flight School. It was for the Mac. I was studying for my pilot's exam in 1987 and used animations to create an interactive guide to reading the aircraft buttons and control panels. It consisted of an interactive guide for pilots- long before either the Internet or hyperlinks existed. At the same time, I went to San Jose to purchase the latest flight simulator product. I wanted to see it before I bought it. I told the staff about what I was doing. They're showing me the flight simulator and I'm showing them my product. Next thing I knew, engineers are crowding around me. There was one engineer, young guy, asking me questions. It was Ron Weiner, the president of the company. We became great friends. We did the marketing and everything else, and produced the product in 1991. It came with 5 floppy disks that you loaded it into your 20-Megabyte hard drive!
Q. Let's move forward and discuss your biggest project to date - Advanced Housing Technologies.
A. AHT happened because of Hurricane Katrina. I sat with everyone else watching television, literally crying, because I had friends and family on the Gulf Coast. I wanted to do something to help. I had a good high school friend- Julie, who lost everything- her business, her house, everything. I was walking with my wife, Carol. One of my good friends was Jay Schafer, the pioneer of the Tiny House movement. Carol said, "Why don't you get her one of Jay's houses? The next thing I knew I was towing a tiny house to New Orleans that Jay built for Julie.
Q. What happened next?
A. When I got to New Orleans, the devastation was everywhere, everywhere. People were living in FEMA trailers. They saw Julie's beautiful tiny house and were asking, why can't we live in one of those? I came back and wanted to start this company. I envisioned small, emergency housing units made of renewable materials that were both smart and transportable, with the infrastructure for water, sewer and electricity under computer control. We took off from there.
Q. Describe AHT, in a nutshell.
A. We are talking about the production of small, green, sustainable, disaster-relief housing that can be transported anywhere in the world and comes with the infrastructure- water, sewer and electricity, with computer systems embedded in the houses themselves, that can be put in place indefinitely. From there, you can take that technology and build entire sustainable neighborhoods, villages and towns. We build the distributed power piece, make it rugged enough to survive earthquakes and disasters, and retrofit existing structures with that technology. It will certainly change the disaster relief world and change the economies where the units and subsidiary companies are located.
Q. How is this different from traditional disaster relief housing efforts?
A. The fundamental change is allowing people to do things- to live better- right away, without having to create a complex infrastructure. A little village is set up with technologies that will be used 50 years from now. Literally, I asked myself, what will my house look like in 50 years? My company will build and maintain refrigerator-size units that will maintain your entire house. The unit collates and collects all that free energy. I'm going to be the guy that builds that thing. Everything from now to that time is already planned out- a series of interrelated inventions that have developed out of this original impulse. This is not smart housing- it's brilliant housing! As my wife likes to say, this project will change the world.
Q. What has happened since your trip to New Orleans?
A. The company exists completely. Every aspect, from a 90-day plan to ten years out. AHT is ready to go. Just before the financial crisis hit in 2008, we were in line for $9 million dollars. The hedge fund's underwriting ink was still wet, and the next day we got the call saying the fund had disappeared. Ever since, we've been working on start-up schemes and acquiring more funding for the company. In the meantime, I keep refining the inventions and refining what I started nine years ago. I go back and revisit my inventions regularly, because of the development of new technologies and materials. The inventions are like the music. Within the first few days I had a picture of AHT- I had the houses and the technology sketched out. Now, nine years later we're starting to see how it's coming into the world. The functionality is there and the technology is changing about every six months.
Q. What's the most exciting aspect of this project?
A. It's taken some time, but we're building the prototype, right now. We're working with brilliant engineers. We're doing wiring diagrams and have all the money to complete our prototype. I'm expecting it to be completed by the end of March. There will be wind turbines and solar panels working. You'll be able to sit in the house and heat up your coffee.
Q. With that hurdle almost cleared, what is your next challenge?
A. A real impediment to this kind of business is doing the patents. It's costly and time consuming. Then you have to defend your patent because someone will steal your designs, which is why I must be very careful how much I say in public. But another unexpected side benefit of a project of this scope is the development of technologies that can utilize a niche market. That's exciting.
Q. You've also made some big decisions about your body of musical work.
A. I've decided to give away my music. If you think about Beethoven, sitting down with a pen and writing music without a piano, that's what I do. I can have a blank piece of paper and can compose some beautiful music—in cantata format, with strings, whatever. With regards to archives, I needed to store them somewhere. Since the mid-1980's I've composed everything on computer. There aren't manuscripts. The music needed to be put into a format that could be shared. I can't even open up certain programs because the computer or the format is obsolete. I needed to put my library into a format that will survive. Now I've created a new website. You can download the music, listen to it and even download the score. Anyone can go to that website and hear 45 years worth of music- from my earliest compositions to the latest performance with the symphony.
Q. What kind of response are you getting to the website?
A. The music is being downloaded and listened to all over the world- Indonesia, India, Dubai, Sweden, Spain. The thrill for me is that the music is being listened to. The new software is so sophisticated I can compose the music and hear the London Symphony play it. Unless you are a trained musician you can't tell that you are listening to a computer.
Q. When you're not busy improving the lives of disaster victims, what music are you composing?
A. I have been working on some jazz pieces, and a larger piece- a 15-to-20-movement secular cantata. It will use the Interlingua language, and I hope that Margie Rice and I will have the opportunity to perform it. My intention is that it, like AHT will be around for many years to come.
Visit Clovice's musical website at www.jazzicalmusic.com
Small community symphony attracts large numbers
By Jennifer Gruenke
jgruenke@record-bee.com @rbjgruenke on Twitter
Updated: 11/28/2014 09:22:29 AM PST
"One performance, titled "Love's Embrace" featured a solo by cellist Clovice A Lewis, Jr., who also composed the piece. Standing up to address the room before the performance, Lewis informed the audience that his parents, who hadn't seen him perform in years, were in the room that night. Lewis said that he composed "Love's Embrace" after finding inspiration in his parent's enduring relationship.
Not the typical classical musician, Lewis's solo was a musical experience that diverged from the night's performances. While Lewis performed, he recorded his cello, looping it back over himself as he continued to play. It made for an exciting change of pace, contributing to the overall impressive concert. "
By Jennifer Gruenke
jgruenke@record-bee.com @rbjgruenke on Twitter
Updated: 11/28/2014 09:22:29 AM PST
"One performance, titled "Love's Embrace" featured a solo by cellist Clovice A Lewis, Jr., who also composed the piece. Standing up to address the room before the performance, Lewis informed the audience that his parents, who hadn't seen him perform in years, were in the room that night. Lewis said that he composed "Love's Embrace" after finding inspiration in his parent's enduring relationship.
Not the typical classical musician, Lewis's solo was a musical experience that diverged from the night's performances. While Lewis performed, he recorded his cello, looping it back over himself as he continued to play. It made for an exciting change of pace, contributing to the overall impressive concert. "
OMNI Magazine - 11/1985
Clovice's pioneering work in the field of electronic music and composition led him to be noted as the most outstanding composer produced by the College of Creative Studies in the November 1985 issue of OMNI magazine in an article entitled "How To Build A Creative Scientist", which highlighted the achievements of the school and its graduates.
Clovice's pioneering work in the field of electronic music and composition led him to be noted as the most outstanding composer produced by the College of Creative Studies in the November 1985 issue of OMNI magazine in an article entitled "How To Build A Creative Scientist", which highlighted the achievements of the school and its graduates.