BY EMMA SULLIVAN
Sally Whitwell is no stranger to youth music in Australia.
Having started out as a member of the Canberra Youth Orchestra, she returns for the performance of her own work Running-Resting-Reeling. It’s one of two Australian compositions on the program for the CYO’s second concert of the year this 30 June.
Sally has worked extensively with youth choirs and orchestras across the country, having her compositions performed by Gondwana and its Sydney Children’s Choir, Bellingen Youth Orchestra, and VOX (the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ youth ensemble).
A two-time ARIA award-winner, Sally also has a vibrant career as a solo and collaborative pianist; and is active as an educator and conductor, serving as musical director of community chamber choir Coro Innominata.
We speak with Sally about youth orchestras – her passion for working with them, her approach to writing for them, and the impact her own youth orchestra experience had on her life in music.
Hi, Sally! Congratulations on having your work Running-Resting-Reeling selected for the Canberra Youth Orchestra’s upcoming concert. As a CYO alumna, what does the opportunity to return, and share your music with its current performers, mean to you?
I have such fond memories of playing bassoon in the Canberra Youth Orchestra in the early 1990s, but I only just recently realised that I never played a piece of Australian music with them. So it feels really good, not just as an Australian composer, but as a Canberra-born composer, to return to my hometown band and have them bring my little dots and squiggles to life.
I hope it shows them that there are more ways to become a composer than doing a composition degree, as I came to composing by a rather circuitous route.
How did your time in CYO influence your future in the music industry?
Although I didn’t become a bassoonist, playing regularly with the CYO was one of the most valuable things I ever did. The skills you learn about ensemble playing – how to watch, how to listen, knowing your role within a large ensemble – these are things that you can’t learn any way other than some level of immersion. And, of course, these are skills I use on a daily basis, whether I’m playing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, or accompanying a choir, or playing chamber music, or composing new works.
It’s particularly important for student pianists to have a large ensemble playing opportunity, as most of them will do a lot of ensemble playing and accompanying in their careers. Arguably, it’s the hardest to gain that experience as a pianist, as we’re not regularly required in an orchestra, but I recommend all my students get in there if they can. I’ve noticed that as soon as they start with that, the sense of pulse in their playing almost immediately transforms.
You’ve worked with so many youth music organisations in Australia. What drives you to make youth music such a priority?
For me, it’s not about education, although that is a kind of career by-product for me. A children’s choir is just another instrument, like a guitar, or a cello, or a flute, and it’s an instrument I like to work with. I like accompanying children’s and youth choirs and I like writing for them because I enjoy that particular sound.
I particularly love working with Sydney Children’s Choir/Gondwana Choirs because of their emphasis on new Australian music, and the culture of the organisation; i.e. there’s not much ‘top down’ discipline. The kids just know that what we’re doing is important, therefore they give their all.
Running-Resting-Reeling was originally composed for the Bellingen Youth Orchestra. Does your compositional approach change when you write for young musicians?
I don’t change how I structure a piece at all, really. Writing for a youth orchestra, though, it’s particularly important to write idiomatically for each instrument.
It’s interesting, you know: I’ve realised that you learn more writing for less experienced musicians than you do writing for professionals. I find that professional musicians will take on every challenge as a matter of personal pride, whereas a student or amateur musician will just look at you and shake their head and say: ‘Nope. That is seriously uncomfortable to play. Can you change it?’. I am very happy to make such changes, bearing in mind that there is a big difference between something being uncomfortable and something just needing a few hours’ practice!
The work certainly has an evocative title! What was the inspiration behind the music?
Nothing particularly fancy, to be honest. I wrote the music first, and then thought I’d just find titles to describe the texture and movement within them. It ended up having this nice alliteration and rhythm and I ran with that (pardon the pun).
Your career to date has been remarkably diverse, with successes as a performer, recording artist, composer, conductor, and educator. What other new projects are you excited about?
I love mixing it up. Am thrilled to be touring to Tasmania with Sydney Children’s Choir for Festival of Voices in July.
I have recently composed a new work for recorder virtuoso Alicia Crossley and the Acacia Quartet, which will shortly be released on an album of all Australian music for recorders and strings.
Later this year, I’ll be travelling to Port Fairy Festival where I’ll be performing a solo concert, as well as with Ensemble Offspring in a special collaborative multimedia work Seven Stories to which I contributed a piece Fatal Flaw.
Hear Sally Whitwell’s Running-Resting-Reeling performed alongside Natalie Williams’ Sonic Boom among works by Mouquet and Mussorgsky at the Canberra Youth Orchestra.
The concert will feature flautist Serena Ford – winner of the CYO’s annual Concerto Competition – and will be led by young conductor Leonard Weiss. See the concert at 7.30pm in Llewellyn Hall.
We would like to extend a warm welcome to Melbourne’s Emma Sullivan in her first contribution to CutCommon.
Emma is a freelance double bass performer, educator, and writer of all things classical music.
