BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
If you watched the 2017 season of The Voice Australia, you’d have seen one young performer working hard to make her way to the Grand Final round. This talented singer in question also happened to become the Young Canberra Citizen of the Year for Arts and Multimedia, and signed to Universal Music Australia – all in that same year.
At 17 years old, Lucy Sugerman’s achievements are something worthy of our awe. But we wanted to find out what she was up to beyond the realm of singing and songwriting, because this month, her music will be heard in the concert hall among an orchestra of classically trained musicians.
We chat with Lucy about her upcoming Canberra Youth Orchestra concert, which will see the premiere of her orchestrations (and you’ll also get to hear some classic film music by John Williams at the same show, too).
Lucy, great to chat with you! This event sees you perform your own orchestrated compositions for the very first time. That’s a pretty big deal. How are you feeling about it?
Thank you! It’s been a bucket list dream of mine since I was about 4 – to get to sing or perform with an orchestra – and to have that become a reality is so crazy.
I’m quite nervous, but equally as excited. I’ve always loved orchestras – being a violinist before I got into songwriting and singing – and the emotion and character they bring to contemporary music. A lot of songs I’ve written, I’ve deep down had an orchestra in mind, for as well!
However, again, it is quite nerve-wracking as I’ve never played with an orchestra before, and these are brand new versions of songs I wrote simply with vocals and piano/guitar.
So tell us…why now?
I suppose the stars have just happened to align for this one! The amazing Leonard Weiss reached out late last year, as we had both won a Young Canberra Citizen award in separate years. And we met over coffee just to chat about music, life, and he said if anything ever comes up he’d love to get me in to collaborate with the Canberra Youth Orchestra.
A couple of months later, this opportunity came up, and Lenny called me about it and off we went! I suppose it’s lucky that by that point, I had written a lot of different songs that we could potentially explore orchestrally, as well.
Leonard Weiss will lead the CYO concert featuring Lucy Sugerman.
You’ve achieved a ridiculous amount of success in your career so far. How have you found the experience of fame?
Thank you for saying that! The whole journey over these past few years has been such a big roller-coaster and I still can’t quite believe it’s happened. It’s been really special getting to connect with a wider audience and to be given opportunities such as this one.
Obviously, the journey has had its ups and downs. But at the end of the day, it has enabled me to get to do what I love more so than ever before; and laid out the groundwork for further musical development, and meant that I’ve gotten to meet some incredible people and create long-lasting memories whilst doing music.
Through these experiences, what are some of the techniques you’ve learnt with regards to managing stage fright or performance anxiety?
It sounds crazy, but I always try to remember that I am going to come off stage alive, and life goes on. I think performance nerves will always be a part of what I do. But that’s natural, and the best thing to do is simply prepare for the performance as best as you can, and walk on knowing you’ve given it your all.
You’ve achieved plenty of impressive external success from your awards to your participation in The Voice, but you’ve also maintained a strong presence across your own YouTube channel to share your music with thousands of viewers. How important is it for an emerging artist to spend time investing in self-promotion?
I think if you love what you’re doing and want to reach people with your art, you will most definitely want to be doing everything you can. For me, that may be recording videos to upload for people to listen – and also to document my progress all the way – to simply engaging in social media to get to chat with like-minded music lovers or people who like what you do.
It’s important to put yourself out there as best as you can in all avenues, as it’s a way to practice your craft, keep track of your development, and to also strengthen that relationship between the artist, listener, and everything in between.
How do you hope people will approach you and your music after you perform in an orchestral context with the CYO?
This is a brand-new-never-been-done-before thing for me, so it’s super exciting getting to show off this new side of my music whilst working with some of Canberra’s most talented young musicians and the amazing Leonard Weiss.
I’m hoping that this will inspire more contemporary-classical crossovers, as I believe it’s just as important to have modern-progression music as much as it’s important to be explore more traditional aspects as well.
As for me personally, I simply hope people will enjoy the concert, take something away from it, and continue to support young musicians like myself.
See the Canberra Youth Orchestra Concert 3 featuring Lucy Sugerman presented by Music For Canberra, 7.30pm September 29 in Llewellyn Hall.
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If you like, you can give thanks to Stephanie for volunteering her time for Australian arts journalism. No amount too much or little.
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