BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Welcome to Con Fuoco, CutCommon’s interview series with emerging musicians in Australia.
Soprano Lana Kains, 19, is studying her Bachelor of Music at the University of Tasmania. She continues her education after spending eight years as a music scholar at St Michael’s Collegiate, having moved to Hobart from the Northern Territory. Lana has been singing in choirs since she was four and performed with Gondwana for nine years, touring to China, America, and Taiwan; and performing as a soloist at the Sydney Government House. The soprano represented Australia singing in dawn services in Europe, and was featured as a Young Artist in the 2016 Canberra International Music Festival alongside The Song Company.
Lana has performed with the Hobart Orpheus Choir, Loose Canon Chamber Ensemble, Derwent Symphony Orchestra, and the Meli-Melo Swiss Choir. She has received the Elizabeth Wade University of Tasmania Scholarship in Music, the 2015 Jessie Wakefield-Luckman Prize for Voice, the 2016 Joshua Cooper Memorial Award and the 2016 Cecil Trowbridge Memorial Award.
Your all-time favourite piece of music?
Out of the hundreds of musical works I know, it might be impossible to pick just one as my all-time favourite, especially as there is so much music I’m yet to hear. So far, some highlights have been Carmina Burana for its sauciness and sheer magnitude, La Courte Paille by Poulenc for its playful music and poetry, My Knight in Shining Armour by Peter and Martin Wesley-Smith for its nonsensical whimsy, A Green Lowland of Pianos by Samuel Barber for its piano cows, Ballad to the Moon by Daniel Elder for its melancholic beauty, and so many more that I won’t say for fear of filling up a page with a list of pieces. I think until I can find a single piece that speaks to me on a deeply personal and musical level like no other before, I will continue to love almost all of the many hundreds that fill my memory.
Biggest fear when performing?
My biggest fear when performing is not giving a good performance. By that, I don’t mean a perfect performance where every rhythm, pitch, emotion, word and dynamic is addressed with complete accuracy. I’m not sure such a thing is possible. A good performance is something the audience has found entertaining and satisfying. Something I can be proud of because I know everyone who attended feels that they have spent their time well.
Most memorable concert experience?
There are a few concert experiences that have stuck with me over the years for many reasons, good and bad – singing Faure’s Pie Jesu in The Madeleine in Paris, the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux where we had to remove our coats and suffer the cold in style because we were representing our school and country; feeling like I was literally floating in the air as I sang Walking In The Air from The Snowman at one of the last eisteddfods held in Darwin because I was incredibly ill with pneumonia; singing with Gondwana Voices in the Guangzhou Opera House which has a ceiling that looks like a starry night from the stage; and most recently, performing as a soloist in the 2017 Festival of Voices performance of Elijah with a number of notable and accomplished soloists. I remember all of these times with fondness but if I’m ever in Belgium and required to be up and performing before dawn in early spring, Heaven help the person that suggests I should remove even a single one of the seven layers I will be wearing.
How do you psych yourself up for practice on a lazy day?
I psych myself up in increments: first, I listen to established singers I admire, preferably singing repertoire I’m learning. This is generally fairly motivational as it not only gives me a goal but also ideas as to how the pieces can be developed. Then, I’ll get out my music and read along, marking up the score. From this state, I can generally move easily into practice as I’ve already put myself partially into the mindframe.
Most embarrassing moment on stage?
I think I am a fairly difficult person to embarrass; my parents have essentially desensitized me over the years. I’ve made a few mistakes on stage, especially in strophic songs. If I don’t pay close attention, the verses sometimes end up in the wrong order. My most recent blunder was a remarkable feat of articulate and intelligent speech when I ended the introduction of a song with ‘…it’s a bit…so yeah…’. I’m afraid my mind and mouth did not manage to agree on how best to phrase the many facets of a particular character analysis.
Best piece of musical advice you’ve received?
‘Don’t be a potato’. It’s not exactly musical advice but surprisingly, it has a drastic effect on the quality of a performance. My current teacher Jane Edwards came up with the label ‘potato’ to describe the times when I don’t manage to physically engage with a piece, and has been a great help overcoming my tendency towards facial passivity. My approach previously was based in intellectual analysis of a piece and as a result of being focused on internal things like my technique I failed to engage. During my time with Jane, I’ve learnt the importance of moving past the intellectual to a point where I know the piece so well that I can simply be in a performance and immerse myself emotionally. This animation and engagement with a piece makes the performance not only more fun for the audience but also for myself. And if you have done the practice, then the technique comes naturally; usually more easy as a result of emotional and physical engagement.
Favourite post-gig ritual?
It isn’t a ritual exactly, nor do I do it after every concert – but I really enjoy making myself a hot chocolate, popcorn, and curling up with my fluffy blanket to watch something entertaining and fairly mindless, or read my current book.
What are you most proud of in your musical career so far?
There are many things I am proud of: my recent engagement as a soloist with the Festival of Voices Elijah, performing as a soloist with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, my increasing number of engagements as a soloist around Hobart, and my small steps interstate as a participant in the young artist program of the Canberra International Music Festival in 2016, and as a recipient of the Joan Arnold and Bettine McCaughan Memorial Encouragement Award at this year’s Liederfest in Melbourne.
I am however most proud of the incremental progress I achieve in practice each day. It is this progress that has allowed me to develop thus far and will continue to allow me to develop as a singer and performer. As long as I feel I am improving musically and technically, I will always have something to be proud of because I am probably my harshest judge.
What do you love most about making music?
Good music attracts all people, and I love seeing the expressions and reactions drawn out by the music I make. The feeling of performing a piece when you are immersed in the music and meaning and everything seems to be working just so, then seeing that the audience is caught up in the experience you are creating is indescribable. Music has an immeasurable capacity to move not only the audience but those performing it.
What’s your ultimate goal?
My ultimate goal is to make a career of singing, be that as a soloist singing operas, oratorios and art songs; or as a member of an ensemble such as The Song Company. I want to continue to live, work, and learn as a singer. As I get older and my voices settles, I may find a niche – but for now my interests are wide open and I will happily pursue whatever opportunities I find.
In the coming years, I’ll enter competitions, continue my studies, probably move to Sydney; I may even find myself overseas. It will be hard work and incredibly competitive, especially as a soprano. But I love music and I want to spend my life making it. It would be an added perk to earn a living from it.
Lana Kain will perform in The Snowman with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in the Federation Concert Hall, 24 August.
Image supplied. Credit: T. Frost.
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