BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances this event has been cancelled.
Back in 2021, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra announced its new Cybec Young Composer in Residence: Alex Turley.
The Melbourne artist would spend 2022 delving behind the scenes of the orchestra, gaining knowledge from its musicians and conductors, librarians and administrators — and everything he learnt, he put into a new piece of music: River.
The MSO will present the world premiere of Alex’s composition River as part of its Imaginations Ignited program. Conductor Ingrid Martin will lead the players through this new Australian work, which hints at a bubbling spring, booming waterfall, and subterranean caves.
Alex tells CutCommon why this upcoming concert is going to be a special one — and why audiences can look forward to a 9pm show that’s designed to be a little different.
Alex, how are you feeling ahead of your world premiere of River?
I really can’t wait for this premiere. River is the culmination of my residency with the MSO and in a way, it represents everything I’ve learnt about orchestral writing in my time working with them.
It’s always going to be a butterfly-inducing experience walking into a room where 50+ people are playing through your music for the first time, but I feel good about this piece. I’ve put some of my favourite musical ideas into it, and can’t wait to share it with the musicians and, of course, the audience.
As the MSO’s Cybec Young Composer in Residence, what did you learn through this program, and how did that knowledge enrich your new work?
I was pretty stoked to be offered this residency in 2022, and am very grateful for the ongoing support of the Cybec Foundation. It’s been a career-defining experience. No matter how many books you read, the only way to master orchestral writing is to get in a room with real musicians and try stuff out. Each time I hear something I’ve written played through by the MSO, there are hundreds of little tidbits of wisdom that I can keep in my bag of tricks for next time.
It’s a bit of a cliche, but with music, you really don’t ever stop learning.
It’s been fascinating to get a first-hand behind-the-scenes look into the workings of a major arts organisation, working not only with musicians and conductors but also producers, librarians, administrators, and operations staff who work behind the scenes to make everything happen as smoothly as it does.
My residency is officially winding up with the premiere of River, but it’s also spiralled off into several other collaborations along the way, including projects with Sangam, Electric Fields, Paul Grabowsky, Emma Donovan, and Ali McGregor — so I’m happy it won’t be the end of my time working with the MSO.
What is the value of having your work performed by the MSO?
I think that it’s the collective responsibility of Australia’s major arts organisations to invest in the creators of the future.
The next generation of Australian composers aren’t just going to appear out of nowhere; they need to be supported from the ground up, and I think that the MSO is leading the way on this.
In my case, I feel very honoured to have been able to work with this group of expert musicians in such a sustained capacity over the past few years. This is now my 10th engagement with the MSO, which is pretty mind-blowing, so I don’t doubt their commitment to emerging voices. They’ve set me up really well.
So what’s River about, anyway?
Ultimately, I wanted to write an expansive, lush piece of orchestral music that leaves an impact.
I’d like to think that the meaning of this piece becomes clear to those who listen to it. I certainly have very vivid pictures in my head when I go through it, but I’ll let listeners come to their own conclusions.
The whole idea of Up Late seems to be to offer something a little different — a new experience to new audiences, and a late timeslot of 9pm. How do you feel about the way the orchestra is mixing things up a bit?
I’m a big fan of anything orchestras can do to allow people to attend who otherwise couldn’t. I think the late timeslot of this concert is a cool idea, and am interested to see what kind of crowd turns up!
I’ve worked on a few cross-genre projects recently that have been designed to bring new audiences into the concert hall, and have found that people have overwhelmingly positive reactions. There’s a lot of love and reverence for orchestral music out there. We’re lucky in the classical music world that we get to partake in an incredible tradition of art that spans back centuries, and I think it’s our collective responsibility to share that tradition as widely as we can.
Those who rock up are encouraged to “clap whenever you want”. As a composer, when do you want audiences to clap?
Clap if it feels right to clap, and if the people around you are too. It’s not a big deal. I’d hate for someone to feel excluded from a classical concert because they feel that the music is being gatekept behind a bunch of rules.
My only thing as a composer is that sometimes a concert is being recorded, and that can become the definitive recording of our piece. I got a recording back with a massive sneeze in the middle of a very delicate and quiet section once.
Then again, not all audience noise is undesirable. One of my earlier MSO commissions was a suite of animal pieces designed for an audience of kids, and the recording is full of laughter and gasps. I’m not mad about that at all — it’s just so full of joy.
I have one final question for you. This concert is called Imaginations Ignited, and I’d like to know, what sparked your imagination while writing River?
Usually while writing, I just go into a passive flow state and come to my senses with dots and squiggles staring back at me. For me, it’s a very intuitive process and sometimes overthinking things can get in the way of the music itself. [A quote from Philip Glass] stuck with me while I was writing River, as I found that I was uncovering music that was waiting to be discovered rather than inventing it myself. As the music began to take shape, so too did an image in my head of a river, beginning at first from a quietly bubbling spring, then winding its way down a mountain, gathering speed, crashing down a waterfall, weaving through a system of underground caves, and finally flowing out into the ocean.
Hear Alex Turley’s River in Up Late with the MSO — Imaginations Ignited at 9pm April 5 in Hamer Hall.
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Images supplied.
