Interview with Shreya Jha
Shreya Jha is a Toronto-based composer, lyricist, playwright, and medical student with a keen interest in the intersections between music and science. Shreya has worked with ensembles including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gryphon Trio. Her first musical Statistics debuted in 2019 and will run again at the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival. Shreya has since written two other musicals, Connections (2019) and 18 Palace Road (2021). Shreya’s research interests include the impact of music on dementia, the psychophysiology of piano performance and the impact of music education on developing brains.
Q: I know that you wear many hats in the artistic world; you’ve dabbled with embroidery, created several musicals and you’re listed as a composer, playwright, educator, and medical student… Can you tell us a little bit more about your creative roles and your journey through the arts?
I would say that my primary role career-wise is composition. I've done [composition] pretty much since I can remember—quite young. I started piano lessons at five and right away I showed an interest in composition. I always knew that in some capacity, I wanted to be a composer. That eventually led to playing strings when I was a little older. Eventually this path led to me doing a dual bachelor's degree in music and neuroscience in my undergrad. I knew I wanted to have a mixed career of music and science. It took me a while to reach the realization that medicine was the best next step for me, which is a whole other conversation.
Compositionally, my training is in contemporary classical music. I do a lot of piano work, small ensemble, and I did some larger ensemble orchestral work as well. I really love vocal work. And then in the middle of my undergrad, I discovered musical theatre composition, which I fell in love with, and—I don't like to say it’s my main interest compositionally because I kind of do half [musicals and half other compositions]—but it's definitely a big part of my compositional passion currently. I've now written three musicals entirely by myself, and two in collaboration with other people. The first musical, Statistics, was actually about science and the pre-medical journey. Statistics is actually going up again this summer—shameless plug! Musicals and composition have been an interesting way to not only explore what I love so much about music—storytelling and bringing people together and making them feel something—but [also] a way to highlight the stories in the science world. I feel like that's something I was definitely able to explore with Statistics, and I have so many other ideas for how the stories of medicine can be put onstage in that capacity. And that's something that I'm really looking forward to doing for the rest of my music/medical career.
Q: What goes into making a musical? What components are entirely your own creation?
Musical theater has three components: the book or the story, the music, and the lyrics. For the three musicals that I refer to as entirely my own, I don't usually do the direction. Usually, I pass that off to someone else to take on, but I'm still pretty involved in [direction] too. Especially with my most recent show that premiered in October, because there were so many logistical issues with COVID-19, I was quite involved in the direction and the logistics of getting it up. But usually, the direction goes to someone who has more of a drama theatre background, which I do not.
Q: It sounds like quite the collaborative process. What do you find new directors bring to the production?
Definitely, I really love [the collaborative component] of musical theatre and seeing what different directors bring to the story. For example, Statistics is now going up for the second time, with a different director this time. I'm really interested to see how everything changes from the first iteration. [Directors] can modify what the actors do on stage and what the message they want to show is. The same stories can look really different depending on the director.
Q: How do you find a director to work with?
Before, all my work was in student theatre—U of T undergrads working in the extracurricular realm. [The process] involved asking who [was] available and who wanted to direct. Usually, I'm looking for someone who has the background that I would be interested in. Particularly for Statistics, the first director was a fellow science student, which I really loved. She got it. This new director actually isn't [in science], but I think that's good for this iteration of the show, because I'd like it to be relatable to a larger audience. And for my [other works], a lot of the time it's a student leader, it's people who I've enjoyed working with in the past in any capacity, who I’m friendly with… I think it'll be an interesting process as I transition into more semi-professional or professional stuff. I'm not sure what that process looks like.
Q: Would you mind telling us more about your double major in neuroscience and composition?
The way I enrolled was kind of illegal, but it's all done now (laughs). I didn't really know what I was getting into. I really wanted to do both! But if I did both within one faculty, say neuroscience, then my music degree wouldn't really be to the fullest extent—it wouldn't be a true music education in the way that I was looking for it. So, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Music within the Faculty of Music, and then I was manually enrolled in a Bachelor of Science at the same time. And I did the Bachelor of Science part-time while doing the music full-time. Taking advantage of summer school over the [following] few years, I managed to finish both. It was definitely not allowed. But the Faculty of Music was still very supportive, so I was able to make it work.
Q: Good for you! That sounds hectic and exciting. Did you notice any similarities between your majors? Did they share a common path?
The relationship between music and science is very much what made me pick neuroscience, because of this budding field of music in the brain. My research interests are music and science together. I did some work on music and psychophysiology performance and now I'm doing some work on music and dementia. I did some stuff on music, psychology, and kids… So I think [the subject matter itself] involved a big overlap. But in terms of actually studying both majors, I really liked that they were quite different. It was just an entirely different experience. The music faculty is tiny, like the size of a high school. You know everybody. You're, in a way, more defined by your instrument and your specialization than your actual year. The science faculty, on the other hand, is huge, obviously. The classes were really big and were a lot more knowledge-based. So, I actually found that when I was getting fed up with one it was nice to switch to the other in my undergrad. And it was nice to discover those connections between the two [aspects] of myself. I think [music and science] have connections that served me well in paving the rest of my career but they’re both different, which is still something I continue to enjoy. For example, I finished a full day of Monday class and CBL, and then ended my day with going to teach a class at my old high school [for which] I'm writing a musical piece. I like that kind of balance. I like being able to switch between the two. It feels very rewarding in that way.
Q: Do you think that your science background has changed how you approach composition, music or your creative process?
That’s an interesting question. I think my science background has definitely made for really interesting material. In my instrumental work, I have looked at trying to pick out scientific processes and the scientific stories that I like to put on stage. I think I was so set on compartmentalizing the work that I did in [the sciences and music] that I didn't think too much about the similarities.
When I first started my composition, I approached it thinking that it needed to be entirely driven by inspiration, which was fine because I was passionate about it. But like science—which demands systematic thinking and effort—ultimately, composition is still work that you need to sit down and grind out at times. There have been times that I've thought I really don't want to finish this piece, but felt the responsibility of [others] counting on me. Sometimes I'm like, I really don't want to finish this piece, but I'm getting paid, so I'm not going to complain about it. That’s the kind of methodological thinking I went through, where I need to sit down and get the piece out.
Q: Could you walk us through your creative process?
It's definitely changed over time. My process right now tends to be something that I’ll describe based on a song in a musical [I’m writing right now], because that's something that I've been sitting on and having a bit of trouble with. For lyrics, I usually have a melody in mind. So, I'll think about what I want the song to showcase, and I'll have a “word-vomit” document. I think my “word-vomit” documents are usually longer than the actual shows themselves. And then after all that, it’s a snowball effect—it just kind of keeps going. After a while it feels like the song takes on a life of its own, with its own direction that I just need to discover. And with that comes the melody. That's the inspiration-driven part. There’s a little bit more systematic stuff where I'm thinking, okay, this rhyme doesn't work. I have to fix it. Or, what have I not talked about yet? Let's figure out what the audience needs to know. The rest of it is more methodological. For example, this is the harmony that I want to use here. These are the chords to the chord progression. And then I'll usually just sit down and crank it out, either on the piano or I'll put it on sheet music. Eventually, when I am forced to, I will orchestrate it for whatever instrumentation I need.
So, it really does turn into more of a systematic process after the initial “life” of the song is created. But there's still definitely a lot of creativity in it. There's a lot of joy and discovery. I think maybe a shortcoming that I have is… [sometimes] I feel like the song takes on a life of its own [and] I feel like I can't change it. I think [the song is] supposed to be [a particular] way, which is definitely not the case. You can always improve things. So sometimes I really have to go back after a long time and think. [Later], I look at the piece with fresh eyes and think, okay, maybe this is where I'll go. That's my song-writing journey.
Q: What is your creative style?
I'm very melody-driven. I think there are composers who really like structure and harmony and the journey of a piece, which I think are so important, but for me, sometimes I will just hear the melody, and I'll know that's where it is. I think that melody-writing is probably one of my strengths as a composer, and it really aligns with my sort of outlook on composition: the melody is what sticks with you; that's what gives a song its life.
Q: What’s it like working on the orchestra for Daffydil [U of T’s musical theatre production]?
It's been really interesting. I think I wasn't quite sure what to expect. There are so many really great and really talented people on [the Daffy team]—which I did expect—but it’s on a whole other level. It's been unfortunate that because of the pandemic, the show was committed to an online format again this year. I think I would definitely like to see Daffy in its full glory [on stage] at some point. In terms of my own work, my main contribution was an original song. I finished the vocals about two months ago. I was wondering how I would feel doing a musical piece for a medical musical, but in the end it's simply a musical, and it felt like writing any other song. It’s been fun, hanging out with other musically-driven medical students. It's really interesting to see what everyone else does and how dedicated everyone is. I'll have to see what's in the cards for my own compositional [work], to see whether or not I do Daffy next year, because it was a struggle to fit Daffy [within other compositional commitments] this year. But if I don't [join next year’s Daffy team], then I will definitely be in the audience cheering the entire time.
Q: With your extensive musical background, why medicine?
I think there's a lot of people who have known from the very beginning that medicine was exactly what they wanted. I find that so admirable because that was not [the case for] me. It took me pretty much all of fourth year to understand that my perception of medicine was not right. Medicine actually serves my goals really well, because my hope has always been to have some kind of career where I can use music in a scientific capacity to make an impact on people's lives, as well as do my compositional work. I eventually realized that a full-time freelance composition or classical composition career was not what I wanted, just from what I had seen from working in the industry. I wanted music to be part of my career, but not all of it. I also thought, if I liked this trinity of composition, research, and clinical work, then in order to do that, medicine was probably the best way to go. So, it was a very convoluted way to come to the realization to pursue medicine. But I do think that I will definitely be going into a field of medicine that is directly connected to music. Some of my interests include dementia where I do a lot of my research. There's been a lot of discussion of music therapy in dementia. A lot of the research suggests that musical memory might be largely preserved in dementia or be protective for dementia, which would be huge. I’m also interested in pediatrics – especially in undergrad, I was involved with music education for low-income neighborhoods. Neurology was also something that I was interested in, but I don't know how I feel about it now because I don't like imaging. Overall, it's definitely been a weird, non-traditional path to medicine and it was definitely a late and slow realization. I don't fully know to what capacity music and medicine are going to combine in my future career, but I'm excited to discover it along the way.
Q: You mentioned your interests in pediatrics. I read that you’re involved in volunteering at Sistema Toronto and created a composition program for children. Could you tell me more about this?
Sistema Toronto offers an entirely free music program to kids. At the time I started my involvement, which was 2013, it was all in one neighborhood, but now I think they've expanded to up to five neighborhoods. The program is four days a week for two and a half hours. The kids do choir, percussion, strings… The really little kids do music movement and discover music in that way. It's a really great, tight-knit community with a lot of really awesome teachers who genuinely care about the program. I was involved with them all through high school; then, I did a couple of things here and there in my first two years of undergrad. I thought it'd be really cool for these kids to be able to explore composition and writing music, and thankfully at the time, [Sistema Toronto] were also looking to start something like this, so we were able to work together and develop the program in 2018. A donor generously agreed to fund it. I planned lessons and helped organize the sessions. Volunteering really taught me about the impact of music education and education in general on pediatric populations, and really reaffirmed my interests. 2021 was my last year of teaching there, and I have since passed it on to two colleagues from the Faculty of Music. It's really awesome for me to see that it's still going and that this is something we've been able to establish. And even now, I'm still somewhat involved with [Sistema Toronto], writing pieces here and there. It was really a defining experience for me.
