Q&A with Nahre Sol ’27MM
For its summer 2026 season, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival embarked on a new collaboration with the American brand Bode and Nahre Sol ’27MM, a pianist, YouTuber, and current composition student at the Yale School of Music. Their joint presentation is the latest installment of Musical Bridges, a multiyear initiative in which the Festival commissions new works that place classical chamber music within a broader musical and cultural context.
In this Q&A, Nahre discusses her composition process, finding an “American sound,” and her new piece, Dust and Clover, commissioned by the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
What does your composition process look like? Where do you find your inspiration?
When I’m asked to write a piece, especially when there’s a prompt or theme involved, I first try to find a personal connection to the material. For this commission, themes like American history, cowboy culture, Bode’s designs, and barrel racing were all on the table. I spent weeks immersing myself in the research shared by the Bode team, while also exploring the history of American cowboy music on my own.
One of the biggest discoveries for me was realizing that there isn’t a single “American sound.” American music is constantly evolving, shaped by the many cultures that intersect across different regions and generations. That realization became the starting point for the piece.
During my research, I listened to cowboy songs collected by John A. Lomax, frontier ballads performed by Jules Verne Allen, Appalachian fiddle tunes, Celtic and Irish dance music, Mexican vaquero traditions and corridos, Indigenous music, Black cowboy work songs, spirituals, and early blues. Rather than trying to imitate any one tradition, I asked myself what kind of American sound I could honestly contribute as a composer today. I also spent time browsing through Bode’s catalog, which features many garments that have a unique blend of modern cuts and rodeo-inspired attire. There is also a “fantasy” element to many of the designs, which I absorbed as creative influence.
Once I started writing, I stopped listening to music altogether and focused on building the piece movement by movement. During those writing days, I jokingly referred to the sound I was chasing as “whistlegrass” or “tumbleweedcore.” My piece, Dust and Clover, reflects my own interpretation of the “American sound,” filtered through my musical experiences and cultural perspective.
You’re joining an incredible legacy of other Musical Bridges composers — Vijay Ayer, Juhi Bansal, Angel Lam, Daniel Bernard Roumain. How does it feel?
As a composer, I don’t think about joining a legacy so much as joining a conversation. I love the name Musical Bridges because it suggests connecting different people, cultures, and ways of listening through music. Every composer leaves behind a different way of hearing the world, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute my own perspective to this ongoing conversation.
When you’re working on a commission like this, how much are you thinking about it as being site-specific (e.g. thinking about an outdoor venue) vs thinking about its longevity and life beyond the premiere performance?
While writing, I found myself imagining the festival’s concert hall, the Music Shed, where the musicians would sit, how the sound might bloom in the space, and how the audience would experience it. That visualization helped me shape the pacing and texture of the piece. At the same time, I try not to write music that only belongs to one place or one moment. I think of a premiere as the beginning of a piece’s life rather than its destination. My hope is that Dust and Clover can continue to evolve through future performances, with different performers, audiences, and spaces each bringing out something new in the music.
How does your background as a pianist and chamber musician inform your approach to composition?
My background as a pianist and chamber musician helps me experience the music from the performer’s perspective. That influences many of my decisions as a composer, especially when balancing technical, practical, and expressive considerations. I also often ask myself, “Would I want to play this piece?” If the answer is yes, I know I’m moving in the right direction.
You’ve been in so many other musical settings before — as a creator-in-residence at the Elbphilharmonie, as a host of PBS’s Sound Field, and, of course, as a prolific YouTuber — what’s been unique about your time at Yale so far?
Being at Yale has given me permission to turn down the volume of the outside world. As a freelancer working across many different fields, it’s easy to become consumed by deadlines, administrative work, and external expectations. Returning to school has given me the space to focus more deeply on composing while bringing better balance to the rest of my creative life. It’s also been incredibly rewarding to build meaningful relationships with so many brilliant and generous people in this community.
