BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Meg Cohen is a self-proclaimed “HIPster”. Though, not the type you might think. Her interests lie in Historically Informed Performance (HIP), and in 2013 she founded the Sydney Baroque Festival to celebrate live early music.
The festival, which runs until tomorrow, is dedicated to informed performance of baroque music and this year features tutors from tutors from the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Pinchgut Opera, Ironwood Ensemble, and the Australian Haydn Ensemble. On the program are works by Handel, Rebel, Telemann and more. With a free venue, no ticket cost, and volunteer tutors, Meg says “we only had people passionate about HIP education sharing their knowledge – and so the festival continues to grow”.
It started for Meg when she’d participated in the annual Ironwood Developing Artists baroque music retreat. “It was, as far as I could see, the only chance the student HIPsters of Australia had to come together and do what we do best,” Meg says. “So I decided to create another opportunity for this hub of baroque energy and hold my own version in Sydney.”
The first festival was well received, though started small with a few tutors from Salut! Baroque and a group of students from the Conservatorium’s Early Music Ensemble. But partnering with the Con’s now-graduate Liane Sadler for the 2014 festival, the pair brought musicians in from Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and the event has since expanded and flourished.
So what are the challenges of keeping a festival up and running for three years? According to Meg, the biggest issue is time and balancing her busy schedule of full-time student, part-time employee, and festival co-ordinator.
“Having a partner in crime definitely got me through – Liane and I work really well together, which is a rare blessing! We split up jobs according to our specialities: Liane, repertoire; me, emails and nagging.”
Meg says the participants in each festival have been diverse, from performers to tutors. “We are always picking up different skills and learning to play with different people.”
While it helps that there are devoted HIPsters scattered across the country, Liane says the musical community “is quite small and opportunities to play together and gain orchestral experience are fairly limited. The festival is our small contribution towards remedying that”.
Specialist tutors in the festival share knowledge accumulated by musicians and musicologists over decades in order to present what is understood to be the most accurate interpretations of music from the time.
“On top of the demands of learning your instrument and all that comes with being a musician, there’s a lot of research involved and understanding how to apply knowledge of historical practices to our music-making today,” Liane says. “Our tutors are all experts who’ve done many years of this already, and are at the forefront of new HIP research that is being done today.”
“Baroque orchestras also work quite differently from modern orchestras. We rarely have conductors – normally, the leading is taken on by the concert master or harpsichordist, and the orchestra becomes almost like a large chamber group where it’s less about hierarchy and following the conductor, and more of a collaborative process.
“But collaborating with so many people is, of course, yet another challenge!”
Is it even possible to reproduce the sounds as they originally happened?
“One of the beautiful things about learning and performing baroque music is knowing that we can never know exactly how it sounded back in the 18th Century,” Meg says. “This allows for a lot of freedom and creativity when making musical decisions, while, of course, referring to historical texts for guidance.”
“Every time we collaborate with students and tutors, everyone has something new and different to bring to the table, which makes rehearsals constantly engaging and informative. This is what I have enjoyed most about the festival rehearsal process.”
One of the musicians on board is Venezuelan-born violinist Rafael Font, who is based in Sydney and has worked with with groups including Pinchgut Opera, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Academy of Ancient Music, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – participating in the latter’s 2013 Experience Scheme.
Rafael’s favourite music of the moment is by Bach. After performing a concerto by the composer, Rafael was told by his tutor: ‘Remember to sing!’.
“It made me realise that everything is superfluous if there is no beauty and emotion in the playing,” he says about his baroque performance. “I try remember that line every time I walk on stage.”
Working with others in the festival, Rafael says he most enjoys the “collaborative aspect” of making music.
“I particularly enjoy when something funny or amazing happens while on stage and you look across to the player responsible and share a cheeky smile,” he says.
Rafael Font will perform as part of the festival tomorrow night, 7pm in the Sydney Conservatorium. For more information and free tickets click here, or follow the facebook page at www.facebook.com/SydneyBaroqueMusicFestival/.
Image supplied. Credit: Theo Small.
