BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the entire nature of our industry has shifted — seemingly overnight — with artists forced to abandon their live events and projects.
But despite such mass cancellations, musicians are proving they have the power to take some control over what can only be described as a horrendous situation — and adapt with ingenuity, determination, and creativity.
In this interview series, we document the COVID-19 impact on the Australian arts industry while facilitating a candid discussion about what it is like to work during this difficult time. We hope this series will bring hope and solidarity to our creative community – things we need now more than ever.
Here, we chat with flautist-composer Leah Blankendaal about her recent success with the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund — and how she fulfils her grant obligations while under lockdown.
Leah (who is also a former contributor to CutCommon, because she’s just that multitalented), received her Art Music Fund to produce a new piece of music to be premiered by the United States’ Quince Ensemble in 2022. In the past, she’s worked with Duo Alterity and Connecticut Summerfest — also from the US — and closer to home, the Australian Art Orchestra, Tura New Music, and Soundstream.
Leah, we meet again! Firstly, a huge congratulations on your Art Music Fund — it seems to come as a light at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel. What does it mean to you to achieve this success in your career during such an unstable time for the arts in Australia?
Hi Steph! It’s always a pleasure to speak to you. It’s an immense privilege to receive this grant at this time where so many of us have seen our lives and practices change fundamentally.
It’s not just financial security that COVID-19 has upended, although that is undoubtably a pressing factor for many of us, but also the psychological impact of having your art stripped away from you. I miss performing, I miss creating new works. There is grief in losing such a fundamental part of your identity.
I hope that those with the power to do so are considering what a comprehensive stimulus for this sector, which does so much for so many others in times of need, will look like.
Your Art Music Fund project is a new composition for a United States ensemble. When you were first designing this project, COVID-19 hadn’t yet hit full force — particularly in the US. How has the pandemic changed your plans?
Plans are still very much in the early phase, so not drastically just yet. I had planned on working on most of this project remotely until at least 2022, so in a way it is a project well suited to the times that we live in. I think a lot of this project, like so many other things at the moment, will be about the wait-and-see game.
So your workflow hasn’t changed too much? I’d assume you’re already working by distance and therefore relying on these methods of online communication that many in lockdown have started to embrace.
Honestly, the project hasn’t changed that much. I am in the truly fortunate position of having pitched a remote project in February, before we were all aware of just how much our lives were about to change. It couldn’t have been more fortuitous.
Having said that, my workflow overall has definitely slowed. I can’t get mammoth amounts done in a day and, if I try, I end up being even less productive. So I’m setting myself very small, achievable targets. Sometimes, that’s just a task per day.
Where the Art Music Fund differs from many other grants is that it has the benefit of a five-year time frame, so there is space to allow yourself to breathe.
On a more personal level, how would you describe the relationship you’ve been building with Quince since receiving your grant?
The grant is for a five-year project — we’re only at the very beginning of it. We’ve had a little contact, but these are such turbulent times, and doubly so in the US, that things have been understandably slow.
As a whole, I’m trying to give everyone some grace and space just to survive. I hope people are also doing that for me!
Your project was always scheduled to be premiered in 2022, which hopefully gives the world time to heal and arts audiences to return “as normal”. But you must surely have had other plans in mind for the years before this. How has COVID-19 altered your path as an artist outside this grant?
Probably the project that I’m most missing this year is a solo set of flute and effect pedals. I began working on it last year, and in a way it was a means for me to connect traditional composition with the soundscape, performance-making world I’ve always been more comfortable in. That project was beginning to take its stride, and it’s heartbreaking to see it take such a pause.
Very fortunately, however, I’ve also received some grant funding from the South Australian Music Development Office to record the set at Wizard Tone studios in Adelaide, which I’m very grateful for. Without COVID-19, I might’ve spent a few more years touring it before I felt comfortable making studio recordings, so it’s been a good push to take that step.
Do you have any parting words you’d like to share with your arts community, surrounding how to achieve a grant, or even how to just keep going when it feels like the world is shutting down?
So, I’ll answer this in two parts. Firstly, achieving a grant: the best piece of advice I can offer is to speak to someone involved with the grant round. Grant criteria can be difficult to understand, and knowing whether your project is a good fit before you commit to writing a grant is a valuable use of your time.
Also, carve your practice into the direction that you want to take, then seek the grants that are a good fit for you, rather than applying for everything and letting those opportunities govern who you are as a creative.
If there’s one thing that parenting has necessitated for me, it’s that I no longer have the luxury of time to write dozens of applications, so I let my art dictate who I approach. I suspect many freelancing creatives who are also parents feel this.
With regards to keeping going, I’m going to offer an alternative: feel free to pause, if you need it. Treat yourself with kindness and do what you need to do to survive. Work a day job, start a (remote? Zoom?) hair metal band, read, binge watch, do whatever you need to do to feel OK and secure.
These are unprecedented times. Somewhere along the line, we decided that busyness was currency in this industry. And whilst I understand how that happens — and I’ve absolutely been a part of that race — I’ve really begun challenging why I do that and what it means for the creative work I make.
Personally, I think it’s had a huge and lasting impact on how I say what I want to say.
Learn more about the APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund 2020 and its recipients online, and visit Leah’s Soundcloud to listen to her music.
What does this story mean to you?
If you like, you can shout us a coffee as we volunteer our time for Australian arts journalism during the COVID-19 crisis. No amount too much or little, and any amount appreciated.
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Featured image by Emma Luker. Headshot by Jade Philip.
