The Bowdoin Orient

March 2 , 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 18

Dashing Jew interviews sexy Frenchman

by AARON ROSEN - SENIOR EDITOR

Orient: How do you feel about generally being known around campus as Francis from France?
Kayali: You intimidate me with your bold American queries. It is kind of a stupid play on words. This clearly never happened in France, so I wasn't expecting it (and despite the fact that I've been here for four years, I haven't come up with anything smart to say).
Orient: Francis, do tell me about your lunchbreak concert?
Kayali: I am playing a piece by a French composer, Francis Poulenc, and I hope I survive it. People like it; it's a fun piece and two-piano pieces are exciting to play. I am playing it with Prof. James McCalla, who is a great fan of French music.
Orient: Francis, tell me another question which you think would be good…
Kayali: Maybe now is the time to mention that I have a piece being performed on Sunday…?!
Orient: Francis, I have heard that this Sunday you have a piece being performed. Could you tell me about that? I have been staying awake nights musing over it.
Kayali: As part of my honors project in music composition, I wrote a piece, a concerto for piano with band accompaniment. We got a really astonishing pianist, Martin Perry who went to Juilliard; he also happens to be a co-owner and a cook at Henry and Marty's, a restaurant on Maine Street. So, the piece has been going well. The reason we got him was that I did not know of anyone within, say, a fifty mile radius who could play this piano part. The piece is really very difficult. But he is doing a really brilliant job with it.
Orient: So, you mentioned the band accompaniment. Could you say a few words about working with the Bowdoin Concert band?
Kayali: They're wonderful to work with. They're a very lively group which is open to playing new pieces. The students were especially cooperative during the initial phases of this project when I was switching parts on them at every rehearsal. The band director, John Morneau was also very helpful, spending many hours with me discussing orchestration and interpretation. There is some real talent in this band [smile, wink, and other assorted expressions of French cheer].
Orient: Francis, apparently there are some highly amusing lyrics in your composition, something about counts, hounds, perhaps even mama counts? Do explain.
Kayali: This was supposed to stay top secret! I suppose the chamber choir leaked; they do that. Those are the lyrics of a song the choir is currently practicing. No comments about the mama count. See you in April for the song. Must keep up the suspense. Who is your informer?
Orient: Dana Kramer.
Kayali: Ahhh. I see she has been taking over Marshall's cartoon.
Orient: Do your post-Bowdoin plans involve musical composition, counts, or something particularly pithy or lascivious you can tell me about?
Kayali: I'm planning to go to grad school. As far as I know no counts in my life; at least that's what I'm counting on, err.
Orient: How do you think attending Bowdoin has influenced your development as a composer?
Kayali: Well, basically before Bowdoin I hadn't written any music. Here, I studied composition with Prof. Elliott Schwartz who has helped me a lot. He definitely expands one's musical horizon, exposing us to the broadest variety of completely wild compositions. It's a very freeing experience, in a way, because whatever you write, you feel you have a place on the map, and what becomes really important is whether you have satisfied your own sense of aesthetics.
Orient: So Francis, is it difficult to be French?
Kayali: On the contrary I find it much easier to French than to be American or Turkish. (I also happen to be Turkish). Being French has definitely helped me to get through life.

Kayali