An Interview with Psyche Composer Jake Landau
This summer, Clear Space Theatre Company is partnering with LHW Productions on a three week workshop of a new musical, Psyche. The musical examines the story of the ancient Greek myth of Psyche, a mortal whose beauty outshone even that of the goddess of love Aphrodite. Adored by all, but never able to love another herself, she feels all but cursed. But when love finally comes, is that the true curse?
Performances are August 23 at 10:30pm, August 24 at 2pm, and August 25 at 2pm.
![[Purchase Button]](https://www.clearspacetheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Buy-Today-Button.png)
![[Jake Landau headshot]](https://www.clearspacetheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/jakelandau-200x300.jpg)
Psyche Composer Jake Landau
Jake Landau is the composer of the new musical Psyche. His works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Houston Grand Opera, and Premiere Division Ballet in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Birdland Jazz Club, and the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. At age 16, he was accepted to Oscar-, Grammy-, and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano’s studio at The Juilliard School. At Juilliard and as a Composition Fellow at summer institutions including the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, Landau created his core body of work in chamber and vocal music.
At the same time, he worked in premiere pop music studios, experimental queer nightclubs, and as a pianist for both opera and Broadway productions. This unique background led him to a sound that at turns explores and ignores genre, in which hit-factory hooks interact with the concept-driven architectures of classical music—all in service of a theatrical worldbuilding lifted, in abstract, from fantasy novels. A graduate of Oxford University and The Juilliard School, Landau has been published by G. Schirmer (Ayres, for SA and piano) and Edition Peters (Hardware Love, for orchestra). Landau is the youngest-ever winner of the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and one of NYFOS’S (New York Festival of Song) “9 under 34” composers. A graduate of both Julliard and Oxford, he is now on faculty at Julliard.
Clear Space chatted with Jake about his new musical, which blends musical theater, pop, and operatic styles in a rich and beautiful score.
How do you identify within the LBGTQIA+ spectrum?
Certainly B and hopping along the gray A spectrum, but I find the general Q the most relevant descriptor. The more you spend time with the differences between the letters, the less relevant those differences feel.
How has your lived experience as a member of the queer community impact or influence your work as an artist across your career?
Music, as the most inherently abstract artform, reaches deeper than any other. In musical theater and opera, it can universalize highly-specific stories, welcoming all into a shared emotion. Music’s ability to allow others into the humanity of someone they’d never otherwise understand is a magic I cherish.
Why does the story of the myth of Psyche appeal to you? Why do you think it is particularly resonant in our culture today?
Queerness isn’t just about who you love, but also how. While writing Psyche, Emily and I would joke that every character in the show was “bi until proven guilty” – gender wasn’t relevant to attraction here. This is because the show is most about how the characters love. In a contemporary world so focused on whom, and not the many kinds of how and why we love, we hope a show like Psyche will bring joy and nuance to one’s understanding of the love in one’s life.
Why do you think representation for asexual members of the queer community is important?
When people don’t see themselves represented in media, they think they aren’t supposed to exist.
How do you work together as a writing team?
We’re like if Gilbert & Sullivan liked each other.
What are you most looking forward to about the workshop in Rehoboth Beach?
Clear Space is a beautiful venue with fantastic people, and to share the project in such a queer space is a joy and honor. And the proximity to the beach doesn’t hurt.
What are you hoping that audiences in Rehoboth Beach will take away from seeing the concert readings?
It’s gonna be a fun, extraordinary, unique night. Broadway stars, opera, Ancient Greek—I truly just hope it’s a beautiful experience and believe it will be.
What do you hope to learn from the experience of Rehoboth Beach audiences at the concert readings?
We’re looking forward to seeing what parts of the show folks respond most to!
clear space theatre company