Last Monday, Guy Mendilow, (OC ’99) returned to campus to give a rather unusual concert at The Cat in the Cream. The 24-year old composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist presented a diverse range of musical styles from Northern India to Southern Africa. The atmosphere in the Cat varied from Brazilian Bossa Nova tunes and intimate Israeli folksongs sung in Hebrew to American blues and music inspired by Indian classical music with overtone singing.
Before Mendilow became an Oberlin College student majoring in Environmental Studies, he attended high school in Princeton, N.J., a town well known for its American Boychoir.
Guy Mendilow describes his “Third Stream Music” as “merg[ing] the idea from one genre to the idea of another. The idea is not to play different styles of music, but to create something in the middle as one unified piece. That is the biggest challenge when you deal with North Indian to Western classical music and overtone singing.”
“The idea of Third Stream Music is deeper than simply playing different styles on one type of instrument. You need to really understand how the different instruments work and apply that to a different context,” Mendilow said.
During an interview after the concert, I asked Mendilow whether he had had difficulties in finding a unity in his music.

Guy Mendilow: That is what I am trying to do right now. Since childhood, I grew up listening to different kinds of music. When I play a concert, I play one piece in Hebrew, one piece in Spanish and another in American. What I’m really trying to do is finding ways to integrate [these different kinds of music styles].
Emma Lundgren: Since you were strictly classically trained, did you have any difficulties in adapting your voice to the different music styles you have become familiar with later on?
GM: Yes, it took a while to get out of that. In 1998 I went to a terrific World Music Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, where I was told that “You’ve got to lose those Boy choir ‘r’s. Just say ‘r’ like an ugly American. That’s what we want.”
EL: How has the audience responded to your “Third Stream Music?”
GM: I’ve gotten a lot of good response. Something that has shocked me is that something as strange as overtone singing has been so well received. I thought people would hate it. So it’s been really surprising how much people have enjoyed it and in Brazil too.

Overtone singing is, in brief, a vocal technique allowing the singer to produce multiple tones at the same time.

EL: You just got back from Brazil. How do you find the difference in performing in Brazil from Oberlin College?
GM: I had a wonderful time in Brazil. It was a smaller crowd but they really liked it. I think that people are interested in music that comes from other parts of the world, and music that isn’t exactly mainstream. It’s a smaller audience, but it’s an appreciative audience. I am not going to play it in front of a MTV crowd — they are not going to like it. But in a college, especially in Oberlin where people are already thinking and are interested in going beyond their [influences], I think it works.
EL: Tonight you sang an emotional song in Hebrew, and on your latest CD, the spoken-and-sung retelling of Ishmael &# Isaac pointedly informs the listener of Israel’s ancient history, inspired by the Book of Genesis. Is this a subject you particularly care about?
GM: Yes I was born in Israel, yes my first seven years were there and yes we speak Hebrew at home. But I cannot say that my family is a typical Israeli family. At the same time I cannot tell you that I am an American. I don’t feel much kinship, honestly, with a lot of mainstream America. So I’m not Israeli, I’m not American and I am certainly not British.
EL: Is this diversity a part of your fascination for “Third Stream Music?”
GM: Yes, because I feel like all my life is like that. I never lived in one country all my life, I never spoke one language nor have I studied only one kind of music. [At Oberlin] I was playing sitar, guitar and piano. I didn’t know what instrument to focus on so I tried to do all three and didn’t really go deeply into any of them.
EL: Why did you not choose to study at the Conservatory?
GM: I honestly felt that I was not good enough.

EL: Did you apply?
GM: No, I didn’t even apply.

EL: You will be moving to Massachusetts in the near future. What do you plan to do?
GM: I plan to focus as much as possible on music, I want to be performing, composing and studying. I would also love to stay in the fields of education, but right now I feel that I want to focus on music first and foremost.