BY DYLAN HENDERSON
2015 was a turbulent year for classical music in Australia. A decision which received widespread condemnation from many in the arts industry was the reallocation in the federal budget of $104.7 million of the Australia Council’s funding toward a new National Program for Excellence in the Arts. In December, it was announced that the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer Awards would be discontinued with immediate effect. As the cultural dismantlement continues, sustaining a career in the arts is becoming more and more precarious.
One artist who has consistently traversed an unconventional career trajectory through innovative collaborations and projects is Genevieve Lacey. I caught up with the virtuoso recorder player for this exclusive interview ahead of her performance with the Smalley Chamber Orchestra at the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp.
As we begin 2016, how can young musicians remain optimistic?
We must remain optimistic. It is our job to be optimistic. I actually believe that really passionately. Because if we’re not, then no one will be. We must be resilient and resourceful and unbelievably creative. And I think it’s a really important thing for musicians to understand that what we do is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility. It’s really dangerous for musicians to think that if they play well, their lives will just unfold in front of them and that there’s some kind of entitlement about a certain level of skill that just means that everything will then work out. I don’t think that’s true, I don’t think that’s useful. I think it’s really important for us to be courageous and constantly imaginative about what our very active role is in keeping this music alive.
I deeply regret the fact that in our current milieu, things that I think are of profound importance are not being valued. I find that not just distressing, but disturbing. The sorts of cuts that we have been experiencing are literally devastating and mean that there are opportunities that have existed in the past that will not exist anymore. There are companies, there are ensembles, there are individual artists; many of whom were already living on the breadline, now will be pushed further into obscurity and poverty, and a society that treats some of its most sensitive and gifted individuals in that way is, I think, fundamentally lacking.
But at the same time, it is our job to become advocates for those values and those sounds and those works that we love. I guess I’m very fortunate in that I’m wired as an optimist and an idealist – I think it is a time of great possibility, and generally a time of great optimism. It’s really important to acknowledge what’s happening, but it’s also important to think really strategically and creatively about where the little gaps are – how can we move forward, how can we take as many people into this conversation as possible, and how can we create more and more space for music and the art form that we love.
The ABC Young Performer Awards were a well established platform for launching so many wonderful careers. What other alternatives are available for musicians to gain a similar kind of exposure?
Well, it’s a really interesting question because I’m someone who’s always fallen between the cracks. I was never eligible for that award, I was never eligible for the Australian National Academy of Music, I was never eligible for the Australian Youth Orchestra. As a recorder player, a lot of the infrastructure that’s been set up to support young musicians (which is a magnificent thing) was never possible to me. When I look at my colleagues around the country who are doing amazing things, many of them also fell through the cracks.
I did know from an early age that if ever I was going to make a life out of playing the instrument I loved that I would have to find my own way. And that’s quite a brutal reality. But it’s also incredibly liberating. If you don’t expect certain things to be in place for you, you have to find them, and make them, and then sustain them. It really is possible. It’s an awful lot of work, and it takes a very particular skill set and a really particular blend of personality traits but there are quite a lot of people around the country who’ve done that, and have done that really magnificently. So I think there is always a way, and just because one avenue is closed to you, doesn’t mean there won’t be another one.
One answer is to just talk to people. There are so many people in our community who’ve made their own paths in really interesting ways, and any great musician is by definition a really generous person. So one piece of advice I would always give to a musician is to get in touch with people. Just always, request a chat. The first thing we want to do is help someone else who wants to make their way through a constantly morphing life of music. There is always a way, it just might not be immediately apparent.
Was there ever a moment when you seriously considered not being a musician?
Sure. Yeah, I’ve had many moments like that. I love music, I’ve never fallen out of love with music and the thing of being surrounded by sound. Whether it’s just the rhythm of your own practice or in a much more visceral, enlivening sense, playing with other people just brings me such joy and I honestly cannot remember a single time when I haven’t been exhilarated by that. Even in the most stressful of rehearsals, there’s something for me that’s really powerful about that.
Sometimes there’s a huge gap between that, and the reality of trying to make your way through the world. That is, and I think always will remain, precarious. I have been unbelievably fortunate so I have a rich and a beautiful life and I feel so incredibly privileged. And yet, trying to make your way through life as a freelance musician who plays an instrument that’s way outside any kind of conventional path…it’s not at all straightforward, and there are times when the enormity of the amount of work that you need to do to keep creating those opportunities and projects can just be exhausting.
So I think the times that I’ve come closest to wondering whether I can continue to do it have been about exhaustion and burn out, rather than falling out of love with the thing itself. And I think that’s quite an important distinction to make.
What kind of role do you foresee classical music having in future generations?
I hope it has a really vibrant, constantly morphing, responsive life. I don’t see why it couldn’t. I think really exquisite music played extraordinarily well has a place in any culture, in any context, and I think it’s our job to make sure that it has a place. For me, that’s very much about understanding and revering and honouring the history of this music. But it’s also understanding what its present is and imagining what its future might be, and what our role is in creating that. I think that’s a really active thing that we all need to do. And if we do that, in order that it remains a living, breathing thing, then all will be well, I hope.
This piece was produced while Dylan participated in the AYO National Camp’s Words About Music program.
Genevieve Lacey has just released her new album Pleasure Garden via ABC Music.
Image supplied.
