BY CORRINA BONSHEK
Like many composers, I’m most comfortable quietly toying with the sounds in my head.
Recently, I’ve taken a leap out of my comfort zone and curated a couple of new music concerts in my new locales of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Being fairly new to the area, my music contacts were thin on the ground. And so organising a concert was an exercise in vision, trust and determination. Along the way, I’ve formed a lot of new friendships and learnt five important things.
1. Vision and passion come first
Almost all the composers I know would passionately applaud the idea of a new music concert (especially if it included their music!). But if you want an organisation, venue, festival or funding body to buy into your concert idea, then you need to have a larger vision and be able to communicate it. My vision was to program a concert of recent new music from the Asia-Pacific by composers who share an interest in Asian aesthetics. This is an area I’m passionate about and it’s fueled by friendships with composers across Asia who I’ve got to know through residencies, festivals, and the like.
2. If something isn’t working, be prepared to let it go
You can’t have a great show or a wonderful program if you or someone on your team just isn’t feeling it. So if a performer has to drop out for whatever reason, then it may just be for the best, especially if they can recommend a motivated and interested replacement performer. And the flow and balance of the program? Ditto. If a piece just doesn’t work whatever way you order the program, you might just have to drop it. Which brings us to the next point.
3. Curating a program is more than picking your favourite pieces
My musical tastes are eclectic – or so I thought. Did I get a shock! When I started programming, I just went with my heart and matched pieces that I loved with interested, available performers who I thought would get a kick out of playing them. About half way through, disaster struck. All the pieces I’d chosen sounded very similar to the music I generally write – spacious, modal, with healthy dollop of sound-colour exploration. While that would be fine for a portrait concert of Corrina Bonshek’s music, that’s not what these concerts were about (see vision in point 1). Fortunately, I noticed in time and was able to refocus!
4. My composer-brain and the program order
I confess: one of the most fun things about curating a concert is deciding on the final program order. I spent hours mulling over pacing, tempo, harmonic contrasts and more. In fact, my composer-brain insisted on treating the entire concert as a big composition with individual pieces as movements. I listened to recordings again and again while toying with different placements, until I found that magical moment when the right order dropped into place. Bliss!
5. My inward and outward creative life
It’s taken me a few years to realise that I have two distinct creative modes: an inward mode where I get to frolic in my creative-sonic-dreamworld; and an outward mode where I go to concerts, network and organise events. When I try to switch between them too quickly, it’s a little like driving a manual car badly – crunch, crunch, stall.
Of course, I’d love it if a magic fairy floated in and organised regular performances of my music for me. But back in the real world, I’ve learnt to leave at least four weeks between finishing a new piece and the concert premiere. That means I have time for left-field things like musicians getting sick, technical equipment issues, and extra promotion opportunities that often pop up on top of the planned ones.
I simply write better music when I’m not in full project mode. So if you’re like me (a composer who is basically a bit of an introvert), get your composing done well in advance of the concert you’re curating. That extra breathing space will make the whole process a lot more enjoyable, and you may even find that you want to curate concerts more often.
About Corrina
Corrina Bonshek moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast in 2012 to immerse herself with the sights and sounds of the bush. Her new piece ‘Cicada Song’ for percussionist Angus Wilson will be premiered on March 18, 2016 at 6pm at Amazing Women 5: New Music from the Asia-Pacific Rim, a concert she guest curated for QLD Conservatorium within Griffith University. To find out more about her music and curatorial activities, visit www.bonmusic.com.au, sign up to her newsletter or connect with her on Facebook.
For more resources on curating as a composer, Corrina suggests Sound and Music and New Music Box.
Image supplied.
