Gillian Wills confronts the “predatory behaviour, lack of funds” in Australia’s classical music industry

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE

Gillian Wills’ Big Music is her debut novel — but it’s not entirely a work of fiction. It’s a book that confronts the “fascinating, exhilarating, political, privileged” environment that can be found in conservatoriums, which the author has experienced first-hand.

Having graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, Gillian pursued an impressive career in leadership and lecturing positions inside Australia’s biggest educational institutions. She then went on to explore Australia’s classical music industry from an observational perspective — writing and reviewing for publications such as The Australian, ArtsHub, 4MBS, and CutCommon.

So when Gillian writes a novel that navigates everything from the tension between classical and contemporary streams to the pressures a woman may face in a leadership role, she is weaving a story from real-world industry cultures.

We caught up with Gillian to learn more about Big Music, which was released this year through Hawkeye Publishing.

Gillian, you’re a classical music critic but you recently moved into fiction writing with your book Big Music. What made you realise you had a story to share in your own way — influenced by, but not a direct retelling of, the music industry that surrounds you?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer, it’s in my DNA. My father was a Fleet Street journalist and my grandfather wrote around 30 books. I’ve always viewed situations I find myself in as potential narrative fodder.

There are novels with musical themes, but I haven’t come across a story which is set in a music college in which all the characters are engaged in music performance. The staff are maintaining concert careers while working within an academic structure as teachers, and the students are preparing to be professional instrumentalists or singers.

How did you navigate that area between fact and fiction when you have real-world experience in the industry?

I think all writers plunder their own life experiences for material. Music has been massively important to me. It has given me purpose, structure, pleasure; I love playing it on the piano, analysing, or listening to it.

Music colleges are fascinating, exhilarating, political, privileged, and at times exasperating and intense places. The environment is a rich one through which to explore the human condition.

I’ve woven some loose threads gleaned from reality and embroidered these with stranded cotton from my own imagination.

So tell us, what’s it all about?

Beatrice (Beat) is a 35-year-old Julliard-trained pianist with no experience as a manager except she has stepped in for the director, a cellist, whenever he is away on a concert tour.

She is surprised to be suddenly hoisted into the role when he resigns. With enthusiasm and energy, she dedicates herself to improving the reputation of the school. Except, at every turn, she seems to upset someone or aggravate her superiors especially when she has successes.

There are major hurdles, predatory behaviour, lack of funds, and squabbling classical and rock musicians. There’s a darker undertow as well, which is gradually revealed.

You explore some of the unhealthy relationships and cultures that can be found in music, and which are often glanced over when the outcome of musicians’ training — being the performance, or recording — shines so beautifully in the spotlight. Why did you want to delve into these uncomfortable topics, and bring them out into the open for discussion?

Music is so readily available at a press of a button. I wanted to reveal the long and difficult journeys musicians undertake to become top performers.

There’s still a mystique, an exclusivity about classical music and how instrumentalists and singers are trained. Music is easily available on TV, online, and on the radio, and I wanted to draw back the curtain and show some of the tensions and the hard, hard slog involved for musicians to become top professionals.

Big Music is a bittersweet romance, mystery, and a triumph-over-adversity tale, but it also explores several contentious issues which are relevant to today’s climate — for instance, the pressures on women in senior management roles. While positive change is happening, the opportunities for women are still restricted.

Another issue is the hierarchy of musical genres with opera perhaps coming first, classical music second, jazz somewhere in the middle, and rock and contemporary music at the bottom. This isn’t a trivial issue for there are resource implications. In music colleges, the more ‘important traditions’ [may be] given more funding.

Within university structures, the arts are low down in the pecking order. This is reflected in the number of universities that are axing music and the arts. For instance, Southern Cross University recently announced their intention to close art and music, which were once considered this university’s jewel in the crown.

Musicians are artists who paint in sound. Silence is the blank canvas, and yet concert halls and practice spaces across the country and in conservatoria are often unsuitable acoustically and without adequate sound-proofing.

There’s currently friction between the Tasmanian Government and the [Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra]. This is because the government wants to build an AFL stadium within [40] metres of the Federation Concert Hall.

Now that your book has been released, how have you found the reception to the ideas and themes you’ve explored, particularly among the music community?

I wrote the novel to appeal to the general reader. I’ve been surprised and delighted that professional musicians are enjoying it as well as non-specialists.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about writing your novel?

Yes. Music flows through every page. Sometimes it’s integral to a dramatic scene as in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Sometimes it stokes a mood or atmosphere. At other times, a work gives the heroine courage.

A broad range of music has crept onto the pages from Miles Davis to The Cat Empire and Shostakovich. There’s a playlist called Big Music on Spotify if readers want to listen to it at some point.