BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Guitarist Daniel Nistico doesn’t like to stay in one place.
Starting out in Melbourne, he’s now based in New York and is touring across the world with his wife Marla, a flautist. Together, the couple is known as Duo Vela and will perform in Melbourne with a program transcending cultural borders. Expect works by Phillip Houghton, Mario Castlenuovo-Tedesco, Debussy, Piazzolla and more.
Having landed in Australia from the China leg of the tour, Daniel chats with us about why he loves making music across the globe.
So you’re fresh in Australia from a tour to China! Tell us all about your experience.
It was our first time in China and it was an unforgettable experience. We were based in Shanghai but travelled to five neighbouring cities for the concerts by bullet train or plane. Each city was completely different, from Nanning – the hot and bustling city of motorbikes – to the sleepy mountain city of Yichun. The halls we performed in seated around 1000 people, so it was a real challenge and joy to adapt to each large hall and make sure our playing was being projected to the back of each hall. The scenery, food, and culture were quite different to anything we had ever experienced before, so it was a delight to be immersed in China for two weeks!
Why did you decide to base your duo in New York?
I grew up in Melbourne, attended uni there for six years, and moved to Rochester, New York three years ago to pursue a Doctor of Music at the Eastman School of Music. It was there at Eastman where I met my wife and Duo Vela started. Our 2015 tour took us to cities and states close-by to Upstate New York, including the picturesque Christmas town of Skaneateles, Washington D.C. and Virginia. Now that we’ve both finished our studies at Eastman, we are planning to relocate to Asheville, North Carolina when we return to the US.
Like your duo, your program choices also contain a mixture of music from different cultures. Why is it important for you to connect with and share music from all cultures? How do you fit this all in one program?
We enjoy programming music from different cultures in one concert as doing so can vividly reveal the contrasts and characteristics of each style. Our current program contains repertoire from Italy, Australia, France, Argentina, China, as well as one of my own compositions, hence our tour being titled ‘Across the Seas’. There are many reasons why we feel it’s important to share music from various cultures. Probably one of the most important is that music has the potential to unite people, regardless of background, age, class etc. In this current time of global tension regarding such issues, we hope our performances can serve as a way for people to appreciate, cherish and learn about the variety of cultures and demographics around the world.
What are the challenges of jumping from Australian to Argentinian style in one concert?
In some ways, jumping from one style to another can be less challenging than, for example, playing an entire suite by Bach, or an entire program of works of one genre. The changes in musical energy and style take us as performers along for the ride, as well as – we hope – the audience. Music of different cultures often shares certain features, much like different languages do. A brief analysis of the music can often reveal these common features between styles; things like expressive intervals and harmonies, rhythmic groove or flexibility and extended techniques like slides, key slaps, glissando, etc. This is a very general list, but things like this provide us as performers a chance to create a vivid musical gesture that will hopefully clearly communicate the style of music to the audience. We do this through our own lens, sound and technique. We also love to listen to music of other cultures, which helps us to shape our gestures more “authentically”, but there is always a plethora of sounds and gestures from other cultures, musics and instruments to learn, explore and experiment with.
Do your musical choices reflect who you are at heart? Are you a traveller? Do you see yourself ever staying in one place, like New York?
I definitely believe our musical choices reflect who we are! I don’t think this applies just to performers, but also to composers. Learning about the life and influences of a composer can often reveal a lot about why they wrote down the particular notes and rhythms they chose to write. Personally, I like taking risks in a performance, whether it be going for a bit of extra dynamic force or changing a fingering or ornament spontaneously. I’m not exactly sure how this translates into life, but I do think I’m pretty spontaneous most of the time!
I don’t think we envision staying in once place for too long. Even if we were based somewhere, we hope to travel around frequently. I find travelling to be very rewarding and valuable, both personally and musically.
What can we expect from your upcoming Australia concerts?
So far, it’s been a truly wonderful experience. We’ve played around 15 concerts in Australia in total, in places including Hobart, Perth, Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney. You can expect our upcoming Melbourne concerts to take the listener on a journey through music of different lands and cultures. What we hope is that the listener is on the edge of their seat, captivated, transported, engaged and ultimately transformed in some way by the music. We are humbled and privileged to say that we are ourselves transformed each time we play our program and are very lucky and blessed to be on this journey.
What’s on the horizon after this?
At the end of July, we’ll be heading off to New Zealand to give five concerts for various guitar societies around the country. After that, we will be performing at the National Flute Association (NFA) Convention in San Diego. This is a huge event, with around 5,000 flautists in attendance, so we’re very excited to be performing there! Here, I will also be premiering a work for flute, guitar and voice by U.S. composer Katherine Hoover called The Word In Flower. We have also commissioned another U.S. composer John Anthony Lennon to composer a work for flute and guitar, which will be complete in 2017/18.
After our tour, we will be moving to Asheville, North Carolina. It’s a beautiful town nestled in rolling hills and is full of music, art, festivals, tourists – a great demographic for us to be based amongst. Oh, and it’s well known for chocolate and beer, too!
Duo Vela will perform at St. Mary’s Church North Melbourne, 7pm July 23 (presented by the Melbourne Guitar Foundation); Camberwell Uniting Church, 2.30pm July 24; and Melba Hall Lunch Hour Concert, 1.10pm July 25. For tickets and more info visit melbourneguitarfoundation.com.
