Cello Suite No. 6
Alex would never get used to interviews. Even as a kid when he watched his mother speak to audiences, he wondered how she was able to become another person and yet stay exactly the same.
He thought the same about Gwen.
Alex watched Gwen shake Mark’s hand—which reminded him to do the same—and then reach for his own to lace their fingers together.
“Thanks for sitting down with the Times again. It’s great to see you two,” Mark said with a grin as he settled into the chair across from Gwen and Alex on the patio. “It’s been about a year since we last talked, right?”
“Yeah,” Gwen said. “Almost.”
“And how would you say things have changed for you in the past year?” Mark flipped open his notepad and sipped his cappuccino.
Alex started, “Well, I made a decision last winter to leave Thorne and Roses. I wanted to focus on family and my composing career, and I found that difficult to do in my existing lifestyle.”
Gwen smiled, encouraging him. They had practiced the right phrasing together so as not to anger Lorenz’s lawyers.
“And that’s been huge for you,” Mark prompted. “You have a whole new name!”
“Old name,” Alex corrected with a smile. “New perspective on it.”
“And leaving Thorne and Roses was a huge change, not only for you, but for Calvin Lorenz. He’s bleeding clients left and right now.”
“Is he?” Alex asked innocently. “I don’t know anything about that.”
Mark winked at him and scribbled. “Do you still talk to your old bandmates? Are they upset with you for leaving?”
“I don’t think they are. I worked with a lawyer friend to clarify my contracts with Lorenz. He can continue to use my original arrangements for Thorne and Roses performances as long as the royalties are properly distributed. I designated my royalties to my old bandmates, including Forrest Miles, who is currently playing ‘Xander Thorne.’ The boys and I are also re-recording the tracks from our first two albums.”
“‘Alex’s Version,’” Gwen hummed under her breath. Alex shoved his elbow into her ribs, and she smiled into her latte.
“That’s all I’m allowed to say on that,” he clarified for Mark.
“What was it like resurfacing after all those years of being buried? I mean, I admit that I knew you were the long-lost Fitzgerald child, but not many others did.”
Alex tried not to grimace. “It was strange, for sure. But I couldn’t have done it without Gwen and my mother, Ava Fitzgerald.”
“How is your relationship with your mother? I know she recently divorced.”
“We’ve never been closer,” Alex said truthfully. “We’re both on new paths. She’s focusing her energy on the Manhattan Pops, but she is still extremely supportive of Gwen and me pushing forward on our own. Nathan Andrews is doing wonderfully in Berlin, and that’s all I know.”
“And, Gwen”—Mark turned to her—“you’ve been doing well. You left the Pops in January, but your mainstream career is off to an incredible start.”
“Yes.” Gwen started to fill in the blanks for him. “I loved my time at the Pops, but I was really more interested in expanding my horizons a bit. Alex and I have been partnering on new compositions and touring as a duet. We kick off our East Coast tour tomorrow, here at Carnegie Hall.”
“Home turf,” Mark said with a grin. “Tell me about the duo tour for the two of you. Tell me about the music.”
Gwen looked to Alex. He gestured for her to continue.
“Alex is…of course, a music prodigy. He’s as good a violinist as he is a cellist, and now he’s mastering piano,” Gwen said. “I’m dabbling more in cello myself, so we really do all sorts of things together. We’re not limiting ourselves.”
He squeezed her hand under the table.
Mark pressed on, “And let me say that the most stunning thing about this partnership is the original compositions that you are creating. I love the new piece that we heard Gwen play a bit of at the Pops’ Christmas concert. But the Fugue Series is still my favorite. You have three compositions in the series now, and they have such depth of storytelling. I was so honored to hear them completed now.”
“Thanks,” Alex said. “The Fugue Series has a special place in my heart as well. That first one—Fugue Number One—is the first piece Gwen and I worked on together.”
“What does Fugue Number One, Accompanied truly mean to you, Alex? What is it about?”
Alex took a deep breath. He’d never told her what it really was. Even as they wrote parts two and three, they never talked about it. He thought back to last year, the melody that wouldn’t leave him alone every time they ran into each other. The need to write it down immediately after playing with her for the first time as cherry blossoms fell over their skin. Weeks later, the way he’d spent all morning trying to think of the string accompaniment to his cello part and decided to take a walk, get some air, get some tacos. And how all the accompaniment flooded into him when he saw her at his taco place. How hearing her play the cello part filled in all the gaps inside himself he’d been missing.
The way she’d brought him back to life in so many ways.
Alex felt Gwen’s eyes on him as he rubbed her knuckles with his thumb.
“It’s simple, really,” he said. “It’s about a cello who fell in love with a violin.”