BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Booked your tickets for that concert you were thinking of attending? Great. Now you just need to figure out how you’ll get there on time. Hang around in the foyer until the bell rings. Find your seat then sit still without fidgeting. Don’t get up if you need a break. Don’t make a sound. Only at the end of the work may you clap your hands along with everybody else, and stand for an ovation if the vibe is right.
To many classical music concertgoers, this may sound like a typical live performance experience – and it’s restrictive. It’s so restrictive that artists like Nat Bartsch are taking it upon themselves to design new ways of interacting with audiences in a live performance environment — ways that could be more comfortable or enjoyable, and that prioritise people’s needs over rigid traditions.
The ARIA-nominated composer-pianist has curated two of her own relaxed performances as part of her Forever Changed album launch at the Melbourne Recital Centre this November.
“A relaxed performance is usually a show where the house settings are adjusted to accommodate the different sensory needs of neurodivergent and disabled people,” Nat says ahead of her upcoming events.
Nat is the Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2024 Artist in Residence, and not only has she curated a relaxed album launch – but the album itself was written with the intention to create music she would find soothing, and to potentially share that feeling with neurodivergent listeners.
Created in consultation with neurodivergent people and music therapists, Forever Changed is Nat’s new release that features lullabies for those who find calm in atmospheric music with repetitive rhythms, high-pitched melodies, and ambient effects and textures.
“I hope it just feels good to know that someone took the time to make a project specifically with neurodivergent needs in mind,” Nat says.
“And if it does soothe other people, then that’s a bonus.”
Music is a sensory experience
Nat Bartsch is one of the many neurodivergent women in Australia to receive late diagnoses: “I discovered that I was autistic a few years ago in my late 30s, and ADHD about a year or so after that.”
“I started to learn a little bit about what sensory regulation looks like for neurodivergent people, including others in my life as well,” Nat shares.
“I don’t think we kind of go through life generally knowing much about that, whether it be stimming – so like, repetitive behaviours that people do to calm themselves down – or whether it be adjusting your experience of the environment around you because there are certain things that feel good or feel uncomfortable.”
For an artist who had “never really encountered the word ‘sensory’ before this time”, Nat has since become an advocate for fellow neurodivergent artists, hosting Neurodivergent Artist Meet-Ups designed to accommodate a range of sensory needs.
It was recently announced that Nat would also deliver the annual Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address, sharing how her diagnoses of ADHD and autism have influenced her music making.
When composing Forever Changed, Nat “started to think about what my own sensory profile is as a neurodivergent person”.
Exploring the styles of music that would calm her down during major life transitions, she discovered an appreciation of intricate music with driving and interlocking rhythms, along with layers and walls of sound. Then she branched out, and thought about how her music might be received by listeners other than herself.
“With Forever Changed, I asked some music therapists what kind of parameters they might be working within if they were working with an autistic client,” Nat says. She learnt about the sensory experiences of grounding and repetitive rhythms and synth bass.
“I wanted to see if I could find some common ground between what I wanted to write – or what my gut feeling was telling me I should write and produce – and what others found soothing in music.”
While Nat’s experience of music is her own, her research and musical ideas have seen her generate a suite of lullabies she believes may give others a “feeling of sinking into the music and hearing effects and synths swirl around them”.
Nat’s relaxed performances enhance this musical experience through thoughtful set-ups in a physical space.
Enjoying a relaxed performance
As Nat describes, a relaxed performance accommodates the needs of neurodivergent and disabled audience members. It’s also a space “where people can come and go”.
“Imagine if you left the theatre halfway through the first act of an opera, and had to walk past a whole bunch of people in the audience. It would be viewed by many people in the audience as terrible behaviour.”
It’s okay to move around in Nat’s relaxed performances, and she’ll accept latecomers. Sensory beanbags and fidget tools will be made available to concertgoers, and there will be low lighting with colours designed for comfort.
Anyone is welcome to attend.
“I don’t necessarily think that those types of access needs should only be the domain of someone who believes they are eligible to attend a relaxed performance,” Nat notes.
“There are so many people that have some kind of barrier to enjoying a concert – like maybe you’re pregnant, and you have morning sickness, and you feel nauseous in the concert and you’re trying to keep it together.
“Or maybe you’re running late because you just really struggled to settle your kids to sleep and hand over to the babysitter before the concert started.”
This welcoming environment aligns with Nat’s goal of presenting music in a format that tells her audiences: “This is a place where you can be yourself, irrespective of whether you are neurodivergent or not, and try and think about what your own needs are, and how those needs can be met.”
So where do Nat’s own needs fit into this live performance environment?
Are musicians also relaxed during their performance?
While relaxed performances are designed to provide welcoming and accessible spaces for neurodivergent and disabled audience members, a lot can be said of tailoring a performance environment to the needs of the musician, too.
“I think there’s lots of things that need to change in the music industry to better support the needs of neurodivergent and disabled musicians,” Nat says.
She’s starting with her own shows. During a previous performance, Nat recalls listening to her own ambient music swirling around her, and not playing the piano – accepting that, in the moment, she didn’t need to take any action and could “just kind of be”.
“At first it was like, oh, this feels really awkward. But then I thought about it. I looked around and everybody else was chilling out. And I was like, why can’t I chill out?”
To Nat, relaxed performances help her “cope a little better with the demands of performing”.
These events also “helps musicians in general to develop an awareness of the barriers that some parts of the community have to experiencing live music, and to think about how they communicate on stage, how they play their music, what music they’re playing”.
Social stories can take the weight out of planning
Nat also prioritises “social stories” from her perspective as a performer welcoming listeners into potentially unfamiliar territory. The musician describes a social story “like a document that lays out what the show is going to be like”.
At Melbourne Recital Centre, where she is Artist in Residence, their Relaxed show series uniquely includes information about what the music will sound like. There will also be a social story explaining visual projections that will be presented alongside the music so audiences know what to expect.
Logistics are also explained in advance, such as parking, facilities, available staff, and if there are opportunities to take breaks from the music and enter a quieter space.
Nat says she feels more comfortable when playing in a venue like the Melbourne Recital Centre compared to a space she doesn’t know: in unfamiliar spaces, she would “love a social story about where to park, and what to expect when I get there, and who I’m going to meet, and what it looks like in the green room – all these things that help me feel less anxious”.
Lullabies are for anyone
In the past, Nat has composed music to see listeners through “life’s most vulnerable moments” including Searching for the Map and The End of the Decade. Her music has been used in hospital and palliative care settings, and for Hush Foundation project Seeking Solace she curated and wrote music after hearing the stories of patients, staff, and carers at a Women’s Mental Health Centre.
She composed her album Forever, and No Time at All featuring lullabies for babies and parents in light of her own pregnancy. And in Forever Changed, she makes lullabies to celebrate the new changes and stages of her life – the growth of her child, her divorce, her experience of late-diagnosed autism and ADHD, and welcoming new love and family into her life.
Through instruments such as harp, strings, piano, and electronics, Nat shares her belief that “a lullaby is actually for anyone”.
“This is soothing music for a reason, and it’s not necessarily going to be the smallest children on the planet that might find a lullaby soothing,” Nat says. The goal of Forever Changed is to bring calm to listeners of all ages.
“I could never claim that the end result will be regulating for every autistic person, just the same as I could never say that Forever, and No Time at All is going to send every baby to sleep.
“But the aspiration I have is that at least it feels good for the neurodivergent community to know that this project was kind of created with neurodivergent needs and experiences at the absolute centre of it.”
Experience Nat Bartsch – Forever Changed as part of the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Intimate Salon Experiences 2024. This concert takes place at 8pm November 16 in the Primrose Potter Salon.
Nat Bartsch – Forever Changed Relaxed Performance features in the Melbourne Recital Centre’s Relaxed Performances 2024 series. These two concerts takes place at 2pm and 6pm November 16 the Primrose Potter Salon.
Forever Changed is officially released on 15 November via Nat’s label Amica Records.
Nat Bartsch is the Melbourne Recital Centre’s 2024 Artist-in-Residence! We teamed up with MRC to bring you this interview with the composer-performer. Stay tuned for more supporting our Australian music community!
Images supplied. Featured image by Kristoffer Paulsen.
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