BY JOHN KEENE
John Keene is a Sydney double bassist, who has participated in conducting masterclasses with major orchestras across Australia and New Zealand as part of the Symphony Services International Conductor Training Program. He has taken part in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellowship and is this year’s Australian Chamber Orchestra Double Bass Emerging Artist.
But perhaps most importantly, John is sharing his training and knowledge with other young musicians and founded ensemble nouveau to provide orchestral opportunities. The group will perform a Tribute to Schoenberg at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on April 26, along with concerts in May and July. Ahead of the events, John tells us the three reasons he established ensemble nouveau and how it’s his mission to work these into group’s concert series.
Reason 1: To create opportunities for emerging soloists to play with an orchestra
There are two parts to this. Firstly, any school or university student will probably at one point have aspired to perform their dream concerto or solo piece with an orchestra, however the opportunity to do so is extremely rare. It seems in today’s musical culture, the primary way to break through onto the solo scene is to win a competition, but this may never happen for many young, hopeful, and talented musicians. So I established ensemble nouveau with the intention of finding and engaging musicians who I feel are at the stage in their development where they would benefit from the opportunity to perform a solo work with an orchestra, even though they may not be at the stage where they might be winning competitions. Not only does this inspire them immensely to perfect their craft through the performance of the solo work, it also provides them with the rare opportunity to practice and experience performing a solo work in public with an ensemble, which will inevitably enhance their performance in any future competitions or auditions they participate in.
As I am a student at the Conservatorium of Music, I have been afforded the opportunity to get to know many of these aspiring young musicians. Thus, ensemble nouveau is a platform for these emerging soloists where they are allowed an opportunity to extend themselves. Without this, and not by choice, they may have to wait a few more years, or possibly never have the opportunity, to perform a solo work with an orchestra.
Secondly, I also think it’s important to highlight established musicians, so I have asked soloists who have had prior concerti experience, but are not yet considered completely professional or strictly a ‘soloist’, to perform with ensemble nouveau. This allows them further opportunities to extend their playing, but is also inspiring to the ensemble musicians, as they hear these outstanding musicians perform challenging concert works.
Reason 2: To perform challenging works that will expand the knowledge of our musicians
With any new ensemble or orchestra project, there has to be some element that will be attractive to young performing musicians, something that they feel is worth investing the time in. ensemble nouveau was formed with the mindset that the repertoire we rehearse and perform is going to provide an immensely fun but demandingly educational experience for the musicians. We will cover repertoire this year from the late Baroque era all the way through to the mid 20th Century, as well as the premieres of new works.
The repertoire is not necessarily popular, but also not unheard of, which bridges the musicians’ gap of knowledge between the ‘classics’, and the great works in Classical music literature. The choice of repertoire is also decided based on other music projects around Sydney, as well as university concerts. We aim not to double up on repertoire being performed elsewhere, so as to provide a unique opportunity for the musicians and audience alike. And one final bonus – as we are completely non-profit (only sheet music costs are involved) we don’t need to perform repertoire that will ‘sell tickets’, because our concerts are free, and it’s more about the musicians’ experience and learning than the audience attendance (though our high attendance numbers suggest that the public is very interested in observing and supporting this kind of project!).
The rehearsal time allocated to each program is intentionally slim (this becomes obviously apparent to the musicians when I ask them to play and show them the schedule!) and this means that the musicians very much are required to learn their parts technically before the first rehearsal. This leaves us with the opportunity to create some wonderful music in the rehearsal, but also to refine their ensemble skills. Establishing the orchestra as its conductor allows me to also improve my own conducting knowledge and skills, and time in front of an orchestra to do that is a rare but valuable opportunity.
Another facet of this reason is actually to do with whom I ask to play. ensemble nouveau is made up of student musicians primarily, but also professional musicians: school music and private teachers, Australian Chamber Orchestra Emerging Artists, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows, and casual musicians who have played with professional symphony and opera and ballet orchestras in Australia and New Zealand. The pairing of professional musicians with student musicians is highly beneficial: the student musicians can be inspired to improve their playing by sitting next to and listening to these remarkable players, hopefully aspiring to enter the orchestral industry further. In addition, the professional musicians help streamline the rehearsal process as they provide good leadership and support within the orchestra. And likewise, the professional musicians very much enjoy playing in this ensemble because there is even more opportunity for them to hone their orchestral and ensemble skills, and to broaden their repertoire.
Reason 3: To premiere new music by young Australian composers
The composition of new music is one of the most important pursuits for the continual thriving of music in this world. Music is art, and art must be continually developing as we humans are continually developing. In particular, Australian music is important because it allows for the possibility of codifying a musical paradigm of composition in this country. As a consequence, it also enhances the education of Australian composers and performers alike as they learn more about Australian music, its history and where it might be headed.
That being said, many composers have the opportunity to compose for smaller ensembles (trios, quartets, quintets) because it is relatively easy to put together a small ensemble – however, the opportunity to compose for a large ensemble, or even an orchestra, is extremely rare. There is a very simple reason why this is: it is very impractical to put together from scratch a large ensemble or orchestra for this purpose. There are many fantastic Australian organisations and ensembles that do commission new works, like the Australian capital city symphony orchestras, university and conservatorium orchestras, Australian Youth Orchestras and the Australian city youth orchestras and community orchestras. However, just as with soloists, a composer seems only to ever be afforded this kind of opportunity if they have won a competition or have a long list of achievements and have been through many stages of higher education.
The aim of ensemble nouveau is therefore to invite young, student composers who possess a great degree of skill and compositional prowess, but are not necessarily established, to write a new work for orchestra. The student composer will have shown that they have the potential to execute this and possess a great degree of skill through their current body of work written for smaller ensembles. This is a highly rewarding experience for the composer as they learn how to organise their ideas into a large orchestral setting, but it is also rewarding for the musicians, as they discover new Australian music and where it fits into their understanding of music. This kind of opportunity becomes practical because ensemble nouveau was put together for three reasons; these three reasons combine to provide performers, soloists, and composers, with a holistic and rewarding musical and educational opportunity.
Follow ensemble nouveau on Facebook, and learn more about John in our Con Fuoco interview.
Image supplied. Credit: Keith Saunders.
