BY KIYA VAN DER LINDEN-KIAN
New music is a broad category, and one that redefines itself every few years.
The genre has come to represent the wide range of works and styles linked by the use or consideration of the ‘Classical’ composition style. As a result of this ambiguity, the genre is constantly having its boundaries pushed.
One ensemble that is championing new music and striving to leave its mark is the Forest Collective. As a multi-instrumentalist and new music group, it has a diverse range of programming and compositional initiatives (such as Call for Scores) it uses to help push the envelope. This, coupled with the strong influence of contemporary social themes, has helped Forest Collective find its own niche in the Australian and new music scene.
We chat with the collective’s artistic director Evan Lawson about their successful end of 2018 Gala concert, and ask him about the ensemble’s direction and hopes for the future.
Hi Evan! Tell us a little about what inspired the creation of Forest Collective and some of the goals your organisation hopes to achieve.
Forest Collective was formed in 2009 as a collective of sound and visual artists wanting to explore the cracks in between artforms. Over time, we’ve come to focus more on ‘new music’, but still collaborate with arts across all forms to create meaningful, new, and unexpected collaborations.
We’re interested in presenting works of our time in an accessible and unexpected way.
Your Gala brought us to the end of 2018 with a number of premiere works, world and Australian, including some from Call for Scores. Why is it important for you to support the creation of new music?
For me, new music is essential. I am not interested in performing the music of the dead white men that have been the main contributors to Western art music. I’m far more interested in perspectives and opinions of contemporary life, especially opinions less heard in art music.
As a composer, my ear is generally pulled toward less traditional approaches to harmony and musical structure. There are works from the canon that I love, and I certainly have a penchant for lesser known music before the time of Bach, but the works and composers I am really drawn to are usually musicians of our time.
Tell us about your Call for Scores campaign. How have you found the response?
Our Call for Scores campaign arose for the need to find repertoire that included the wide range of instruments within the ensemble. We have instruments that are rare to the Australian new music practice, like accordion and recorder, but are more common in the European scene. I wanted to see what was out there for our instrumentation, and to introduce more unknown compositional voices to Melbourne.
We selected two works from Europe, one from the United States, and one from Australia. All the composers performed were under 30 and ‘emerging’, though that wasn’t a focus of the application process, it was just the way the cookie crumbled.
The works by Samantha Wolf and others you have premiered are strongly influenced by social themes. What do you think is the role of artists in engaging and responding to social themes present in society?
Integral. Music for music’s sake is fine, but I’m far more interested in seeing responses and reactions to society and the times we live in. I feel this is something that is at the core of all art making. It is at play in the work of the great masters, and it is still at work today.
How do you find the Australian music scene responds to new music, and would you like to see anything change?
I think we have a very healthy and robust scene in Australia, and we are certainly on par with the rest of the world in championing a diverse range of styles and composers from home and overseas. My concerns fall mainly with the AMPAG organisations where Australian and contemporary programming is low and doesn’t seem to be made a priority. The few times new works are commissioned or programmed, the resourcing, marketing and educational outreach associated with them is weak. Within art music, I believe all musicians and institutions have an obligation to perform new music and especially Australian music; it should be integrated and not tokenistic. More often than not we see the same names commissioned, the same styles championed, and the same works programmed. This leads to a watering down of audience expectations, and appreciation, for a specialised area of music that already suffers from a bad reputation.
Secondary to this is the question around why art music, orchestras, chamber music, and new music is relevant to the 21st Century and a changing entertainment landscape. If anything, music of our time should and could be galvanising audiences to live music. But generally, we seem to see programming aimed at appeasing an aging subscription audience, rather than looking at new ways to program and present music in an engaging and exciting way.
For me, that’s at the core of Forest Collective’s aims – how to perform this music for everyone, and make is as inclusive as possible.
What’s next for Forest Collective?
We’re thrilled to announce that our next show will be my new ballet-opera Orpheus. This new work will be performed by Forest Collective, as part of Midsumma Festival and Abbotsford Convent’s Convent Live program, and will focus on the lesser-known queer aspect to the Orpheus myth. The work will be choreographed and danced by Ashley Dougan and is a co-commission with Prismatx Ensemble in Austin, Texas, where they will perform it in June, 2019.
Learn more about Forest Collective’s 2019 works and collaborations on the website.
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Image supplied. Credit: Meghan Scerri.
