BY SYLVIE WOODS, LEAD WRITER (NSW)
Ever scrolled through someone’s Instagram – particularly someone doing really cool and interesting things overseas – and thought, please explain?
Well, this is the question we pose to Kirsten Milenko – the Aussie-born composer who, since graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has commenced a Masters of Composition at the Royal Danish Conservatorium of Music.
Kirsten, true or false: Copenhagen is an awesome place to live and study music.
True! Copenhagen is such a wonderful place to live. It has a great and varied arts scene, from galleries and theatres to dance and music in all forms. There is really something for everyone in this city, which brings an open mind to audiences and makes it such a great place to study in.
There is a great work/life balance in Copenhagen, which means people interact with a lot of different parts of the city on a regular basis.
They say it’s pretty cold over there. How are you coping?
In winter, it’s freezing and dark. This took a little adjusting to. There is a saying (which I find super annoying because it’s so accurate) that there is no bad weather, only the wrong clothing.
I have found the best way to get through the cold is just to create a rhythm and get outside, even when it seems like the last thing you want to do. A lot of people still ride their bikes in the dead of winter, through the rain, strong wind, and snow.
I think in general, people live really differently when the seasons are so extreme. In the summer, you see that people are always outside and there is so much to do! In the winter time, the concert scene is amazing, everything gets cosy: candles are lit, and the city takes on a different vibe altogether. There are decorations that go up all over Copenhagen and keep the long nights lit up.
One of the best ways of coping with the cold and darkness is just to keep doing stuff. The whole city runs on bikes, and even on a terrible day, people ride to work. It means that you actually see people dealing with the freezing cold, biking in the snow, etc. – and it seems less daunting to get through it all.
And, of course, summer is absolute bliss. Knowing that these warm and light months are on the way keeps everything in perspective.
You’ve been ducking over to Poland a fair bit. Why do you keep going, and is it cool?
Poland is great, and I would strongly recommend a visit to everyone! I first went for a summer school in 2016 at the Pałac Radziejowice, and made some really wonderful friends during that time. We’ve kept in contact and work together when we can. The photos here are from a premiere with pianist Andrzej Karałow and saxophonist Pablo Sánchez-Escariche Gasch at the Pałac Łazienki in Warsaw. It was a really lovely mid-afternoon concert in a palace that is now a museum.
Asides from a lot of concerts, there are a lot of festivals that go on in Poland throughout the year – it’s definitely worth checking these out. Warsaw Autumn is one of the most well-known examples. In May this year, I have some work being performed in Nowa Muzyka 2019 – which is taking place in Bydgoszcz (a city near Gdańsk) – including an existing work for solo percussionist Bartłomiej Sutt, and a premiere for trio with two percussionists and violin.
Every time I go to Poland, I have the best time and discover something new about the country, its history, and all the cool stuff going on right now. Go to Poland!
Tell me about the Pulsar Festival in March 2018.
Each year, the Royal Danish Academy of Music puts on Pulsar Festival – a free event in Copenhagen that brings together all faculties of the academy. [I conducted] the premiere of Sleepless, which I wrote for the festival in 2018.
Pulsar showcases a really wonderful series of concerts over one week that brings together the whole academy in a different way each year. Everyone experiences such a big variety of new music written by Bachelor, Master and soloist students.
For the composers, it’s a really great way to experience first-hand what it takes to get a festival organised. We are each assigned a professional ensemble outside of the academy to work with. This year, I have written for DR VokalEnsemblet. We also propose additional works depending on the theme of the year, and these works can either be premieres or existing pieces.
We work with the conductors and performers to bring the works to life during rehearsals. Then, they are performed in a series of concerts, also organised largely by the composers and recorded by the sound engineer student.
We of course have guidance and a team of experienced teachers and supervisors to answer to – but the students are really involved. This festival is always such a wonderful week, and I think every music academy should have an equivalent.
In Copenhagen, we present two or three concerts a day for the week, which showcases a huge variety of new music composed by every composition student (approximately 20 people over the three degrees) and also includes some existing work by established composers. If you’re ever in Copenhagen during March, check it out!
You come back to Australia with some regularity. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were here on holiday. Something tells me, however, that there have been some projects humming Down Under as well, though.
Yes, there’s always something happening. I have some works coming up in the near future with an album releasing this April, which follows on from the premiere of Ex Aere at City Recital Hall in July 2017, and also some other exciting work lining up with a few ensembles.
On my last trip, I also met with performers based throughout Australia, one being Jacqui Carías, who will perform the violin part in my Symphony d’aere with Adelaide Wind Orchestra conducted by Bryan Griffiths this coming November.
John Lynch will also be conducting the same work in July during the SCM Wind Symphony tour to Spain for the WASBE Conference 2019 in Buñol. This is such an exciting period of time, and it’s wonderful that this particular work has a whole life. John premiered the work in Sydney, and I’m so happy that he has chosen to program Symphony d’aere again for the tour. It was also recorded in Berlin late last year with Opus XX Orchestra.
So much of the music that I write directly responds to the experiences and life I had in Australia – the regular interactions with nature, crazy storms, etc. Every time I visit, the memories become so much sharper, and all I want to do is write. As well as keeping contact with friends and family, I try to keep in touch with as much as possible – from the environment to art, science, and politics. Australia will always be my home.
Listen to Kirsten Milenko’s Exe Aere (also featuring our very own Sylvie Woods) on Spotify. Kirsten’s album Caeli is slated for an April release.
Shout Sylvie a coffee for putting together this photoblog?
If you like, you can say thanks to Sylvie for volunteering her time to share this visual story. No amount too much or little 🙂
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Images supplied. Pictures of Copenhagen and travels from August 2017 to August 2018.
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