BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
I’d like to preface this interview with a quote from its subject, opera singer and educator Daniel Szesiong Todd 鄭時雄:
There is a danger that we will look at a map of Europe and say: ‘Here is a map of the entire musical world.’
It’s a poignant statement, and one that underpins the program Daniel will soon share with Australian audiences. In the Forest Collective concert Shifting, this tenor will join a group of performers who are expanding this map to encompass music from the broader Asia-Pacific region. Works from Australian composers will be performed alongside Chinese, Japanese, and Indian works, bringing together a program that shows us the beauty — and necessity — of musical diversity.
Daniel (pictured below, credit Simone Ruggiero) brings to this conversation his global experiences, having studied music and law in Melbourne before joining the Victorian Opera, and eventually travelling across Germany and China to gain deep insight into musical cultures.
Hi Daniel, it’s great to chat about Shifting. This program is bittersweet: it’s a combination of two COVID-cancelled concerts. How do you feel about being part of their live performance as we enter a challenging 2022?
A renewed sense of optimism, for sure! After two years of postponements and disappointments, we are finally able to perform this amazing music. It is repertoire that we strongly believe in, and have been keeping ‘under our fingers’ for 24 months!
Forest Collective originally planned two separate events — one featuring music by Asian composers, and the other by composers from Australia and New Zealand. I’m so happy that we are now able to bring those perspectives together into Shifting – a concert that showcases some of the most exciting and original composers in the Asia-Pacific region.
As for the experience of live performance, I’m sure we all agree that we have missed it enormously. Performance is so much more than just sound. In live performance, we experience the physical vibrations of the instruments through the air, the adrenaline and energy of the performers, the reactions of the audience around us, and even the simple ritual of going out to an event. Nothing can ever replace that.
So, talk us through the approach you and Forest Collective are taking in your Asia-Pacific program.
So much of the repertoire in Shifting tells the stories of our history in the Asia-Pacific. We see the interaction of centuries-old, highly developed Indigenous classical traditions with European classical music often introduced by colonialism or conflict. Composers of the Asia-Pacific must negotiate these diverse influences in their creative practice, including the inevitable questions of identity, politics, and culture.
For example, after the Second World War, Toru Takemitsu rejected the influence of the Japanese classical tradition in his compositions, only to be brought back to it later through the writings of John Cage. Ravi Shankar, on the other hand, was a prodigy in the North Indian classical tradition, and constantly sought to bring that to the Western world.
The living composers of the Asia-Pacific are currently writing their stories, too. Singaporean composer Emily Koh is in the midst of a remarkable career, yet her works are rarely heard in Australia. Pieces commissioned by Forest Collective will also feature in this concert, including works by young Kiwi composer Micah Thompson and Australian Alex Turley.
Fundamentally, we are seeking to give oxygen to the creative voices of our region. There is a wealth of amazing music and incredible stories here, yet often our instinct as lovers of classical music is to turn towards Europe. While this is natural, considering that Europe is where Western classical music began, we must remember that it has grown beyond those boundaries now. Western classical music has embraced and absorbed new ideas, influences and frames of reference. What could be more exciting than this sonic adventure?!
Some of this music you’ve programmed is in Mandarin; you lived in China until two years ago, and have researched the language and culture. How has this life experience entered your music-making?
As Chinese-Australian of mixed heritage, it has become incredibly important to me to live both of my cultures – and that includes in my creative practice.
China has a beautiful and ancient musical, artistic, and literary heritage. I was lucky enough to scratch the surface of this while living in Suzhou – an ancient centre of culture that has grown into a modern city. I was introduced to Mandarin-language art song through an outstanding summer program called iSing, where some of the world’s best coaches revealed to us the music of HUANG Zi, DING Shande and LU Zaiyi. They showed us the way that composers wrote melodic lines that reflect the tones of the Chinese language, and pointed out the musical gestures from Kunqu opera or Ping Tan folksong.
Needless to say, I was hooked, and have been deep-diving into this repertoire ever since.
In Shifting, pianist Danaë Killian and I will perform several songs by LUO Zhongrong – a composer whose work was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution, yet who continued to work in secret. His Autumn Songs – a setting three famous Tang Dynasty poems – reveal an exquisite interplay between Chinese classical music and German lieder. His Crossing the River to Pick Hibiscus was the first piece to feature an adaptation of 12-tone serialism into a Chinese idiom, sending shockwaves through Chinese musical circles of the late-’70s.
Forest Collective’s director Evan Lawson has also arranged young Beijing composer LUO Maishuo’s heart-breaking setting of XI Zhimo’s poem On That Mountain Road for the full Forest Collective ensemble. This gorgeous song is quite operatic in its scope, and is full of longing and regret. It is one of my favourite songs in the whole world, and I’m so excited to finally be able to perform it!
Many of the works on this program are rarely performed in Australia; there’ll also be a few Australian premieres and works commissioned for the season. How do you feel about the balance of this program, and what can audiences and event curators learn from including such a diverse range of music?
I think our programming seeks to address certain dangers and shortcomings in the musical landscape. There is a danger that classical music will become a museum art form, where the same 30 works are played on repeat by our orchestras and ensembles until the end of time. Likewise, there is a danger that we will look at a map of Europe and say: ‘Here is a map of the entire musical world.’ To misquote Shakespeare, we may be encased completely within a nutshell and count ourselves kings of infinite musical space.
If we can break out of the ‘nutshell’ of the accepted canon, and explore music’s wild and fabulous garden, we broaden our minds and enrich our lives. Forest Collective’s goal is to open the garden gate, and invite you in to explore with us!
I’d like to wrap up with a final question about music education. You have extensive training and experience in classical music — specifically Western classical music, which you’ve studied and performed across Australia and Germany. How have your recent experiences shaped your approach to music education, and the way voice is taught in a Western context in Australia? For example, would you like to see Australia foster a broader education that encompasses more diversity in vocal techniques and repertoire? Or is it about encouraging students to travel globally as you have, and gain cultural experiences?
I think it is fundamental that we expose kids to a really broad and eclectic variety of music from a young age.
This has never been easier, with the advent of YouTube and Spotify. If we raise children in a narrow tradition of music, they become acculturated and biased towards it. It becomes the music that sounds ‘right’ and ‘good’ to them, as their brains quickly learn to dismiss things that are new or different.
We have the opportunity to give our children a fuller, broader range of musical experience in their life. They don’t have to be limited to high-rotation pop songs or the standard classical canon. There is a wild garden of ‘musics’ out there, waiting to be explored!
I remember the children’s concerts at the Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, where the kids were utterly rapt in the otherworldly, weird, and raw sounds of atonal music and extended techniques. They didn’t perceive the music as ‘unpleasant’ or ‘bad’ – just interesting and evocative! Imagine if they also had the chance to fall in love with the haunting sonorities of Vietnamese Ca trù, or the swirling rhythms of Indian ragas! Imagine the richness of the world we could offer them.
See Daniel perform with the Forest Collective in Shifting, February 24-26 in the Industrial School, Abbotsford Convent.
Images supplied.
