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Students quiz composer about food, sports, music

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich talks to area school children as part of visit here.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich who will be performing at the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra's American Masters concert at 7:30 p.m. today, March 7, also appeared at a Meet the Composer event on Friday at Miami University Hamilton’s Parrish Auditorium, where she answered questions from students. Zwilich was the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

Staff photo by Greg Lynch Ellen Taaffe Zwilich who will be performing at the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra's American Masters concert at 7:30 p.m. today, March 7, also appeared at a Meet the Composer event on Friday at Miami University Hamilton’s Parrish Auditorium, where she answered questions from students. Zwilich was the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

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By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer 1:44 AM Saturday, March 6, 2010

HAMILTON — Ellen Taaffe Zwilich specializes in music, but the famed composer also had to field questions on food and sports when she came to town.

This is what happens when most of your interviewers are in the fourth through sixth grades.

Zwilich, the first American female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize, answered queries by several students from St. James of the Valley, Queen of Peace and John Scott Academy schools at a forum Friday, March 5, at Miami University Hamilton’s Parrish Auditorium.

Zwilich is in Hamilton, appearing as the featured composer at today’s American Masters concert by the Hamilton-Fairfield Symphony Orchestra.

Asked what her favorite food was, she replied “Oh, that’s hard. I’m the person that goes last in a restaurant. I do love fish and almost anything that swims. I had a piece of chocolate last night that was the best thing I’d ever eaten.”

Asked what sports she played as a child, Zwilich talked about not being such a good softball player, so one time when she actually caught a ball, her teammates applauded. So did the kids asking her questions Friday.

Zwilich answered many questions about music, saying she got her start when, as a child, she “climbed on the piano bench in my house, which nobody did, and I started mashing on the keys. It opened up a new world for me.”

But Zwilich was hard pressed to name her own favorite composition.

“That’s like asking one of the grown-ups ‘Which is your favorite child?’ If I had a favorite, I wouldn’t say,’ ” she said.

Asked where her music came from, Zwilich said, “Boy, that’s a deep question. What happens is the air vibrates and comes to our minds in such a way that it activates us. Music is organized sound,” she said.

Ellie Katenkamp, 12, of St. James school, said after the Q&A, “I think it was really interesting to hear an actual composer. You don’t get to meet them too often.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836 or erobinette@coxohio.com.