BY CHANTAL NGUYEN
Adelaide violinist Jacqui Carías had returned to Australia in 2018 from a whirlwind European music trip. A globe-trotting musician, she was trying to find her feet again in the unfamiliar Sydney scene when she was asked to play a gig at St Peter’s Catholic Church in Surry Hills.
Jacqui had never been there. She knew Surry Hills was a historic suburb with bustling street life, located right on the edge of Sydney’s CBD. And she’d heard St Peter’s was home to a dynamic community of young classical musicians. (Disclaimer: yours truly is a St Peter’s musician and can confirm we’re dynamic, young, all the things.)
Violin slung over one shoulder, Jacqui made her way onto the St Peter’s grounds. Built in the late 1800s for Irish settlers when Surry Hills was still a slum, the buildings radiated over a century of community warmth. Jacqui was struck by the walled courtyard, which seemed like a tree-lined haven in frenetic Sydney. On one side, the church rose like a medieval castle, and on the other stood the original church hall, covered in climbing vines. It was named The 1880 Hall after the year it was built. Its large bricks had softened with age, and its long timber floorboards had become uneven with the memory of thousands of footsteps. Beams held up a vaulted ceiling, and sunlight streamed through tall arched windows.
Jacqui was smitten. She loved architecture, and playing on different stages around the world had made her passionate about unique performance spaces. The 1880 Hall, she saw, was big enough to be spacious; small enough to be intimate. It had a resonant acoustic and (more importantly) character and warmth.
Perfect for chamber music, she thought.
Jacqui didn’t know it, but The 1880 Hall’s community warmth was so palpable, it had been immortalised by author Ruth Park in her then-controversial, now-legendary 1940s literary classic The Harp in the South trilogy. As she wrote of the church, “it was the commonplace of life, like a well-loved old coat, worn, ordinary, sometimes a little drab but essential to living”.
Like Park, Jacqui recognised that The 1880 Hall brought people together. She joined the St Peter’s crowd and now, in 2021, is harnessing the hall’s community energy to make chamber music accessible.
We caught up at a bustling restaurant on the Surry Hills main strip to chat about her latest adventure, a Mother’s Day High Tea concert at The 1880 Hall.
Hi Jacqui! What is it about The 1880 Hall and Surry Hills that inspires you?
I like to play in buildings that have unique architectural features, and I see the venue’s potential! It’s a versatile performance space, a hidden gem, and I’d like to create awareness of it.
It’s so cosy and quaint even though it’s almost in the middle of the city. It’s not as intimidating as places like the Sydney Opera House for newcomers to classical music, and to me that’s really important. Spaces like that are beautiful, but for people not familiar with the arts they can sometimes seem overwhelming or exclusive. And I want to get out of this erroneous mentality that classical music should only be played at concert halls, with people that smell like mothballs!
Surry Hills is a very artistic place, and so cosmopolitan and diverse. I’d had great experiences at the Adelaide Fringe Festival where music is brought to everyday life – just seeing Adelaide come alive, and how the festival created learning experiences for audiences in a non-confronting way. Or in Europe, ‘encounters’ by groups like guerillaclassics. You’re sitting in a fancy cafe in Vienna and suddenly, there’s a flash mob of classical musicians and everyone is so thrilled at that exposure. It’s like ‘Wow! I’m at a coffee shop and there’s a quartet playing!’. I’d love to bring that mentality to Surry Hills at The 1880, especially when there’s already an active classical music community attending St Peter’s.
Bringing music to the community rather than the other way round!
Yeah! I have a lot of wonderful memories created through music. Especially chamber music – my friends and I would have these Friday night rehearsals with a few drinks – and it just feeds the soul, it lifts you! You feel elevated emotions. And it saddens me to know many people like me, my age, have never had opportunities to experience this. As a musician, I feel we should take responsibility to create friendly opportunities where people can learn about classical music and not feel alienated and overwhelmed by its complexity.
So I wanted to create a chance for audiences to have this exposure in a non-threatening way. I thought pairing a concert with something non-music-related but enjoyable, like a high tea, would make it accessible. It creates a new experience. You usually get your recitals, and that in itself is one experience, but having a high tea straight after – it’s like a double whammy!
Plus, the concert is on Mother’s Day.
Many of us wouldn’t be where we are today without our mums’ love and dedication to looking after us. I wouldn’t be a musician if it weren’t for my mum! I pestered my mum at age 3 for violin lessons, and then started playing aged 4, and Mum saw I loved it. So she would actually go online to look for orchestral opportunities for me. And then dropping me off at recitals, waiting in the car for rehearsals, driving me to auditions, being my number one fan!
Motherhood is a massive sacrifice. Our mums come from their own lives and put things on hold to give us opportunities. I’d like people to bring their mums to this to thank them for who they are as a person, or to celebrate mums who have passed and thank them with love.
Your mum is a migrant too, just like the Irish that first used The 1880 Hall.
Yes, my parents came from El Salvador in 1991. They were adventurous; up for the challenge of building a better life in Australia. That Latino background is really important to my music.
Let’s talk about that international influence. You’ve performed on almost every continent, studied tango violin in Buenos Aires, played embassy concerts, and you’re the only person to ever receive a Recognition Diploma from the El Salvadorian and Mexican embassies in Australia for Outstanding Talent!
I wouldn’t be the musician I am today if it weren’t for all my travel experiences. I’ve learnt the common thing between all cultures is that music is the language of souls. You can sit next to someone who doesn’t speak English, but you can communicate with them just by playing violin. You get to know someone despite not knowing their language by playing chamber music with them. Music is such a powerful tool. And growing up in a Latino household, I was surrounded by salsa, mambo, bossa nova, and I’d see how people responded. It would transform their moods. That’s the universal power of music. That’s what I want to bring to this concert to people who might not normally experience it.
The musicians you’re performing with are so diverse too!
Yes! Elizaveta Laskova is joining me on violin. I love playing with her because she’s got such a different world view to me – she’s Russian, studied in Spain, now lives in Australia, and she brings all that to her playing.
Neil Thompson is the violist. We actually went to the same high school! He’s someone I really respect as a musician, his musicality and artistry. He’s so diverse – he conducts, he plays electronic music with The Nano Symphony, he plays for Omega Ensemble – he’s a person I always feel happy to be around.
Rubén Palma is our cellist and has this amazing award-winning international career, and I love playing with him because he’s half El Salvadorian; there’s this really strong Latino bond there.
We all had gigs cancelled last year because of COVID, and we are very excited to be performing after a tough year.
What are you playing?
Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Those pieces are a great way to introduce people to classical music because they were written for bringing artistic ideas to the people. With the Water Music, they were performing on – a boat! And all these Londoners came to the river to listen!
And the other piece, it’s in the name, music for fireworks! Both pieces were written to create life-changing experiences, and I want people in the community to have that opportunity, too!
Want to treat Mum to some chamber music and high tea with Jacqui and friends? Facebook here or tickets here.
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