BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Musicians, how would you feel if you could feel your audiences eyes on you — so closely that you could watch their expressions, and feel their movements around you from a range of nearby spaces?
Affinity Quartet’s founding violinist Nicholas Waters admits this close proximity to his audience can be a little confronting — but it’s worth every moment for this group as they perform together in Kennedy Nolan Architects.
Affinity has forged a friendship with the architects in this Melbourne form, and it’s one of a mutual respect for each others’ artforms. The group has been making music that bounces across the unusual space, and invites listeners to hear them from their unusual set-up. It’s certainly not like listening in a concert hall — for you or the musicians.
(To hear about this relationship from architect Patrick Kennedy, you can read our companion interview here.)
Nick, how did the collaboration with architects Kennedy Nolan come about?
Our association came about through dog walking. Mee Na and I lived for several years in Fitzroy where Kennedy Nolan’s office is. Out walking Lola, our landlady’s Golden Retriever, we would often run into Kennedy Nolan’s resident Field Spaniel, Bruno, on his daily walks.
I guess Lola met Bruno, we met Patrick Kennedy and Rachel Nolan, and the rest is history!
But really, the collaboration has developed because Patrick and Rachel love music — and the exchange between our two disciplines is rewarding for us both.
What has the process been like for you and your group Affinity?
Turning an office space into a performance venue has been interesting. The Kennedy Nolan space is really a blank canvas, but its proportions don’t conform to traditional stage versus audience areas.
We’ve experimented during three years with different set-ups. People easily choose places to sit — on the stairs, upstairs looking down, on the couches. It’s more informal, but also more challenging for us as performers. We have people encroaching on our space much more than we would have normally — say, at the Melbourne Recital Centre or in Hamer Hall. It can make us feel more exposed performing — we see our audience’s expressions, we feel their movements — and visa versa, they hear and see the quartet up-close in a less acoustically designed setting.
Kennedy Nolan has also become a work space for Affinity. We go in there on the weekends, late at night; film and record ourselves there, re-arrange furniture. It does feel like our creative base, due entirely to Kennedy Nolan’s generosity towards us.
Affinity Quartet is performing a series of works in the space. How does the venue’s architecture lend itself to the acoustics of a live music performance?
Concrete and carpet are not traditional materials for creating a classical acoustic. It’s a weird sound mix of incredibly dry, clear, and even. I think it’s going to be great for the Bartók String Quartet in our next program, but I’m not so sure about the Beethoven. That’s definitely going to be a challenge for us. You can’t hide or rely on sound keeping on resonating. It keeps us honest!
Our audiences often say they can easily hear the four individual instruments in the quartet in a way that is sometimes lost in a concert hall setting. For our next program, I think we’re going to place ourselves in the narrowest part of the room, seated, with the audience facing us from one side. I think this has the most interesting sound.
We can also play with lighting against the wall behind us, which we use to warm the space and define the ‘stage’, without actually having one.
This will be your fifth concert project at Kennedy Nolan. How do you find audiences respond to you performing in such a space?
It’s a real mix. We’ve met a lot of new people through our performances at Kennedy Nolan, some of whom haven’t listened to a string quartet before. I think it’s a great space to introduce people to chamber music. Some people are sort of overwhelmed by the intensity and the physicality. They can see up-close our fingers, bows, our expressions, the sweat!
We also play a range of music in our programs, so people discover different periods and styles of music. Some people love the classics, but more and more we hear that people love contemporary and eclectic works too.
The space itself is kind of intriguing for people, too. If you’re expecting the lushness of a symphony orchestra, it’s definitely not that. You can’t clearly see into the building from the exterior, creating an element of surprise once inside. It’s a setting for conversations to unfold, both musical and social, and I think that’s part of the enjoyment for our audiences as well as us. Audiences pick up a glass of wine during the show and afterwards, and we often get to talk to people, which is nice.
Similarly, how do you as musicians respond to performance in this studio environment — how does it stimulate you?
With an audience sitting sometime less than a few feet away, our focus is heightened. We’re aware of our sound reaching people quite directly. I’ve sometimes worried during a performance: ‘That person’s getting a lot of my E string’!
In the studio, it’s like we’re performing with a close camera; it’s a different kind of playing. We can try things more spontaneously and be more subtle with our sound. Performing at Kennedy Nolan takes us out of our comfort zone, and of course that’s stimulating. It’s a mixture of intimacy, adrenaline, and realness.
Affinity Quartet has a very impressive history of collaborations, from performing in support of refugees to making music in an underground carpark. Why do you like to make music outside the box?
We think it’s important to develop as an ensemble in these times. Chamber music is more a grassroots venture here in Australia than part of the establishment. Because of this, being aware of our surroundings, our community, connecting with people is really important to our livelihood.
There are so many gigs to go to in Melbourne that we can never take for granted we will have a good turn-out. It takes a lot of work, and we find partnering with different venues is a rewarding way to make music.
The string quartet medium also lends itself to being outside the box. It’s a portable band; one that has proven itself adaptable to all different periods of music and styles. I think it’s a wonderful way to bring music to people.
Affinity Quartet will next perform at Kennedy Nolan in Fitzroy this September 22 and 23. The program is called Nexus: Purcell, Beethoven, Bartók — and you can book your tickets online.
You can also support the Affinity’s Australian Cultural Fund campaign.
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