BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Music is for everyone.
Isn’t it?
It depends on who you ask. Some might find the cost of a ticket prohibitive. Others might live so far out of the city, their home isn’t always on the radar of big performing arts organisations.
If you ask the Australian Youth Orchestra’s new CEO Kimbali Harding, she will tell you that arts organisations must be proactive to make music for everyone. Because accessibility doesn’t come automatically: it takes visionary arts leadership, and the efforts of a group of musicians like Momentum Ensemble, to ensure everyone gets the chance to play and to listen. Even if it means getting on a plane to host a free concert that’s almost 100km out of the nearest city.
And that’s exactly what they’re going to do. In November, AYO Momentum Ensemble will perform with guest artist Jack Liebeck in Spring Bay Mill — a “sustainable events venue” in rural trayapana/Triabunna. These young artists will journey across the island of lutruwita/Tasmania, taking on the physical and emotional demands of a rural tour, all in the name of “democratising” classical music — making music for everyone.
AYO CEO Kimbali Harding (above) tells CutCommon how events like these could signal a promising future in Australia’s classical music landscape.
Hi Kimbali, it’s great to chat with you about this tour. First up, how are you enjoying your extraordinary new role with AYO this year?
This is the dream job! My passions are music, education, and young people – so you can imagine how excited I am to be working with such an extraordinary organisation.
The young people who are AYO are incredible. They really do represent the very best of Australian creatives, and I love how I get to be a part of building the platform from which they will go forth and conquer the world. The musical standard of these young Australians is incredible, with technical prowess that blows you out of the water – but what they manage to achieve collectively is even more extraordinary.
Another aspect that I am enjoying is learning about how generous this generation of young people is. There is a tangible movement from our young people to make a positive impact, and they are very switched on in terms of using their art to make a difference. It is very humbling.
So tell us how you see Momentum Ensemble fitting in with the AYO’s programs.
Momentum Ensemble is all about looking to our future.
We know that being an artist in 30-40 year future is going to be very different to what we know now. Thinking about orchestra, performing arts, classical music, community – we have the challenge of imagining what skills and mindsets our young people will need to not only flourish professionally but also make a positive contribution.
Momentum Ensemble is designed to address these challenges. The program is for our older musicians. They are ‘veterans’ of the Australian Youth Orchestra, and already have one foot in the professional world. The ensemble pushes the boundaries of skill development and experiences of the classical artists. Our young people work with cutting-edge artists, unusual repertoire, different presentation models, local communities to test what it means to be a creative in the modern world.
What do you think early career musicians can learn from chamber music experiences, compared to being part of a full orchestra?
The chamber experience is really brutal but equally exhilarating: there is nowhere to hide. Each musician has an incredible amount of musical responsibility and agency within the ensemble — much more so than within a symphony orchestra. The connection with the audience is also more intimate and immediate. It’s equally scary and special.
The communication, and thus the co-learning, between musicians in a chamber ensemble is more dynamic. You are much more reliant on and responsive to your fellow musician, and each iteration of your performance will be differently nuanced. That ability to respond, listen, and co-create in the moment is a powerful learning experience for our musicians.
Musicians of Momentum Ensemble are about to head to Tasmania. How does AYO prepare its musicians to perform on tour, and what real-world experience do you think they are most likely to gain in the process?
Being an ensemble musician on tour requires a certain level of personal mental and physical preparation. The intensity and immediacy of working with colleagues in this way is quite unique. The friendships and relationships you form with colleagues are incredibly intense for a short period of time, and then everyone disperses back to their different homes around the country. Because of that intensity, musicians develop a professional short-hand attitude. You have to be open minded, ready to collaborate, physically work hard, and emotionally resilient.
Individuals need to feed a lot of their energy into the performance and the rehearsals, so learning to mentally and physically recharge while also travelling is a skill that most professional musicians don’t get until they are really ‘in it’.
At AYO, we invest explicitly in supporting our musicians with these skills. Dialogue with our young musicians about managing and being aware of their wellbeing is front and centre of all our programs.
AYO describes this Momentum event as a way to “democratise” music. How do you feel about this idea and what does it mean to you?
I feel very strongly about this as both a concept and a practicality. Conceptually, I do not believe that classical music is an ‘elitist’ artform. I have lived and seen the democratising of classical music all my life, from the incredible response of an infants’ class dancing to L’Arlesienne Suite as part of a lesson taught by Richard Gill to my work with Maori students in rural New Zealand where the music of Stravinsky’s Firebird was connected to stories of Tangaroa and others.
We all know that music is a universal language, and there is danger in assuming that ‘high’ art is something that is not accessible to everyone. I challenge anyone to attend Momentum’s performance of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending in this incredible venue of Spring Bay Mill and not feel emotionally connected.
Aside from my music educator rant, in practical terms there is also the democratisation of the ensemble. We have abolished the dictator — kidding: the conductor — and have given the musical autonomy to the ensemble. It is musically more challenging because not only does the [group have the] responsibility of ‘holding’ the program together, the musicians have to be collectively responsible for the musical expression of the art. It is a big call!
Why is it important for artists to go out of their comfort zones — by hundreds of kilometres, in this instance — to perform in areas where there may be smaller audience numbers, but where there are audiences who are in dire need of more live music opportunities?
AYO represents Australia in all its far-flung glory. We are proud of our identity, but in order to connect with this concept of being ‘Australians’, our musicians need to experience our diverse communities.
This is a non-negotiable for us. It is very easy to fall into the trap of only performing to audiences that are immediately — and financially — accessible to us. This would be a steep and fast descent into insular thinking both as a community and as future Australian artists.
These young people that we are working with are the future leaders of our arts ecology. We want to role model that inclusivity, engagement, and building cultural capital on a national scale takes effort, but it is important — and as artists, we play a pivotal part in making this happen.
Also, our musicians need to have a diversity of experiences to nourish their own creativity and artistic development. It’s a no-brainer!
What do you hope Momentum musicians will learn from playing with Jack?
Jack is an awesome role model. He is obviously at the top his game as a violinist and an ensemble musician. But he is also a generous human with an incredible mind.
As a performing artist in this modern world, he balances being an international mainstage soloist with teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, with artistically directing and curating the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, and still has time to be passionate about working with our young artists. Townsville to London to Melbourne to Spring Bay Mill – the conversations and collaborations are vibrant and exciting. I hope that our musicians will take a piece of this magic, and be inspired by the possibilities in their future.
What do you think is special about the works on their program?
Frederick Septimus Kelly’s Elegy for String Orchestra: In Memoriam Rupert Brooke is going to be a very emotional performance for me personally. The moment of reflection and remembrance — November 11 — for lives lost, the potential of beauty gone, and a mourning for a friendship past is even more poignant with the current violent conflicts. There is something that pulls at the gut with this work — the combination of the heavenly harp with the lush string colours. I may be a bit of a wreck by the end of the performance!
Paul Nicolaou is our incredible harpist who has, incredibly, only being playing his instrument for four years. I have had the privilege of attending a number of his performances this year, and he always gets a visceral reaction from me in the audience. I suspect this performance of Elegy for String Orchestra will be equally powerful and moving.
Hear Jack Liebeck with AYO’s Momentum Ensemble at 5pm November 11, Spring Bay Mill, Tasmania. Tickets are free and can be booked on the Australian Youth Orchestra website.
Images supplied.
