BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
As an industry, we’ve grown familiar with a situation no musician or concertgoer ever wants to face: the cancellation. In the past 12 months, the challenges of COVID-19 in limiting audience numbers, rescheduling concerts, and rearranging artist travel have become part of the job.
For a large-scale arts organisation like Musica Viva, which hosts multiple concerts across the cities of Australia, this part of the job is about adaptability — and it enables an enormous number of listeners to keep enjoying live music, and musicians to keep playing it.
Musica Viva has launched its 2021 program, and it reflects the absence of fear in the face of a pandemic. With concerts across seven major cities, the organisation is confronting the hardships of COVID-19 with a clear message: the show must go on.
Some of the greatest benefits of this continuation of concerts throughout 2021 can be applied to those inside the music industry. Beyond the work it’s supplying to musicians, the organisation offers subscriptions to music workers and young people who may be struggling to afford to see live music – especially after they’ve taken a recent hit to their income. While lockdowns may have afforded musicians extra time in the practice room, it’s another thing entirely for them to witness live music – active listening being an essential ingredient in the shaping of an artist.
In this interview, we talk with Paul Kildea – the artistic director of Musica Viva who has worked with the team to launch an ambitious 2021 program. We ask him about how this major Australian institution has coped so far, and how it’s helping industry workers to keep experiencing live music.
Paul, this is the first season you’ve programmed as artistic director of Musica Viva. How would you describe the overall ‘theme’ or ‘feel’ of this year’s season, and how is that influenced by the experiences of 2020?
I suppose the overriding feeling is celebration – of Australian artists and musicians, of being able to perform in concert halls and smaller quirky venues once more, of great music.
When we were working with the design team on the digital brochure and the whole look of the season, the head designer said something like, ‘Every other organisation in the world would love a strapline like “Viva 2021”, and you have it already in your name’. And there really is a sense of ‘live’ or ‘alive’ in the season after the year we’ve had.
Using exquisite images of Australian native plants seemed a no-brainer; the whole season is a celebration of Australian natives.
In your official statement, you remarked on how enjoyable it was to work with the Musica Viva team in putting together this season. Reflecting on that behind-the-scenes process, what has it meant to you to be part of this community, and have these positive and productive conversations after such a challenging COVID-19 year?
All the positive and productive conversations took place quite early in the COVID-19 year. As soon as we let go of a big project intended for July 2021 – which we did back in April – it was a psychological green light to recast the entire season. And this we did! And because it was so early, we got to have those conversations amongst ourselves and with artists before many other organisations. So it was an energising process; all the while, we were so aware of the distress, lost income, and uncertainty experienced by the artists we were talking to.
It’s really interesting how our thinking has changed now, probably forever. [I’ve been in] rehearsals of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Adelaide Festival and we’ve been hit by some late and unfortunate cast withdrawals. Whereas once there would be panic, now there’s just a quick conversation along the lines of: ‘Oh, X could do it.’ Thence the Zoom audition and booked flights, followed by the arrival two days later of the new singer.
It’s so often the case that early and mid-career artists are stuck in the practice room for hours and hours. After COVID-19 lockdowns, this experience might’ve become even more solitary. But why is it essential for musicians to get out of the practice room where it’s safe to do so, and listen to others performing live music, too?
Surely the year has taught us never to take live music for granted. Not that we necessarily did, but if one is out listening to music four or five times a week, it’s easy to become slightly blasé about the experience. I’ve attended thousands upon thousands of performances in my life, and it is vital that I remember what a privilege it is to do so, and not think of them as work or research or supporting a friend. It can be all of these things, but it’s also an amazing ritual; a communication with something much bigger than ourselves.
One of the great things Musica Viva does is put together Australian and international musicians, edging us just that bit closer to that side of the world or the other. I love it when a great string quartet comes to town and the auditorium is full of young string players, very much out of their practice rooms, soaking up everything they can.
One of the skills musicians embrace is “active listening”. How would you guide a musician to engage in active listening at a chamber music concert?
Recently, I saw a young pianist Josh Hooke introduce the first Chopin Ballade, which he was about to play. He gently suggested that whatever imagery came to mind in such a dramatic and impassioned work was ours to keep; that there was no ‘one’ narrative. […] I liked Josh’s way of saying that everyone is going to have a different relationship with the piece they’re listening to, based on experience, knowledge, imagination, the sort of day they’ve had. Nineteenth-century German musicological teachings no longer govern our relationship with a score.
So how can a musician expand their own practice by incorporating listening experiences?
When I was a student, we were given listening tests to make sure we were absorbing the canon. The idea was that if you don’t know what you don’t know, you’ll never learn. But now, it’s so different from merely absorbing the canon; I want to know what person X is thinking about the canon.
We are moving ever so slightly away from repertory to experience: ‘What is the effect of an evening in the company of these musicians?’, rather than ‘Let’s hear the last three Schubert sonatas’. And I’m okay with this. I will go out of my way to hear the last three Schubert sonatas, but I’m just as interested in seeing them placed in an unusual context.
One of the things I’d wanted to ask you about is the Industry Subscription model. Why does it exist, and in what way can industry practitioners benefit from being exposed to a broad range of creative activity? In particular, I’m thinking about the benefits of embracing art outside the artist’s own practice – a cellist listening to a pianist, or a flautist listening to a poet.
Single tickets exist for audience members who really want that one-off concert – a particular pianist, a great violinist – but the subscription exposes audiences to musicians or genres they may not have thought would interest them, only to find out that they’re hooked. I love going to something only to have my expectations completely thwarted!
The subscription model is a pact between audiences, the organisation, and the musicians. It shows an understood commitment from all sides. It gives security to the organisation – budgets have to be passed by boards long before subscriptions go on sale, so it’s nice to know from the previous season what we can expect – and a sense of belonging to audiences. All parties take the relationship seriously, which leads to something more than a one-off concert.
Musica Viva has a few such models. You also have one for Under 40s, which overlaps with the industry subscription for some musicians. I’m going to ask a blunt question: why does Musica Viva need to help young people out with regards to attending concerts?
Young people are busy! And if we were the only bar in town, we wouldn’t need enticements. But we’re not, so we have to say: ‘You know what? This is an unrepeatable experience that you can’t afford to miss. And we’re so sure that you can’t afford to miss it that we’ll make it affordable. And of course we want you to keep coming back.’
I had a mate text me a couple of days ago with the six concerts he’s coming to this year on the Under 40s scheme. He could have easily asked to come to them on my tickets, but liked the idea of having the dates planted in his diary throughout the year.
Oh, and the cheap price!
Beyond industry as audience, Musica Viva has also commissioned composers to create new works for the season. I feel this is a great way to support the industry, starting from the inside. But why do you think it’s important to Musica Viva to commission Australian composers, rather than simply program existing works?
Commission or die. It’s that simple.
We’re a heritage art form with cutting-edge aspirations. We can’t do the latter without commissioning new works. My greatest aspiration for Musica Viva and for the Australian musicians and composers we work with is that we proudly walk the world stage.
Paul, before letting you go, I want to ask you something personal. You were announced successor to Carl Vine as AD in June of 2019. It must have been unimaginable to step into your new role only to be hit with the wave of COVID-19 industry changes. What have you learnt about expectation, adaptation, and keeping an open mind?
I started in June 2019, and worked pretty hard and fast to curate a season I loved in time to present it to the board in November or December that year. By April, the whole thing was gone.
If we worked fast to get that original season, it was nothing compared to what we had to do to get this one up. I loved that original season so much. But I love this one more!
Thanks Paul. Do you have any parting words for Australia in light of the 2021 Concert Season?
It’s all in the plants. Come celebrate a year of rare, exquisite Australian natives.
Visit the Musica Viva website to learn about the 2021 season, and find concerts in your city.
Images supplied. Artwork courtesy Musica Viva, Paul Kildea credit Keith Saunders.
