BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Jacinda Jaensch and her daughter Lianah are two creators who are breaking new ground in the Australian arts scene.
You may have read about Jacinda as the founder of Cadenza Apparel: she designs her own line of quality concert blacks for orchestral musicians.
Lianah is one of the musicians who performs in these outfits, and she is also a highly dedicated young artist in her own right. At just 13 years old, she won a prize at the Macquarie Philharmonia Concerto Competition and has achieved her AmusA with distinction. Jacinda drives her from Sydney to Canberra and back for cello lessons.
While their pathways into the arts may be vastly different, both mother and daughter are facing an environmental crisis that casts danger and difficulty over their ability to work.
In this interview, we chat with Jacinda about what arts life looks like during a natural disaster — and the perseverance that sees her family through.
Jacinda, how have you been affected by the bushfires?
In my ‘other job’ as an acupuncturist, we see and treat all members of the community with a whole array of different complaints. The smoke has meant that we are seeing a lot more patients with asthmatic flare-ups, and patients who normally don’t get sick are complaining of chronic sore throats and irritated sinuses. They keep thinking that they’re getting sick, but it’s really just the constant smoke irritating their mucous membranes causes inflammation and irritation.
There was one particularly smoky day when we kept Lianah home from school. […] I figured she could just practise anyway. That day was particularly bad, and I remember it because I had about five essential oil diffusers set up all around my house trying to ‘mask the smell’ of the smoke that was creeping in.
It’s just devastating all round for everyone.
Your daughter Lianah is a burgeoning cellist who takes lessons with the esteemed David Pereira in Canberra. So far this year, you’ve travelled from Sydney to Canberra twice for lessons. What was it like on the road?
Both trips were through a haze of smoke. There is a section that we drive through as we head to Yass where the wind turbines are on a huge hill. They are massive and you can’t miss them. Both times, those turbines were camouflaged by the thick smoke. That’s really saying something.
One of the trips, a small grass fire had started quite near the side of the highway, and I remember being absolutely petrified by the site of the smoke as we approached, not knowing if we’d be asked to turn around or stop, or what.
Turned out, by the time we got to it, it had been put out. But it made me stop and reflect: if that is what I felt with a small, relatively insignificant fire, I really can’t imagine what all those people in other major affected areas must have felt like and still feel like. I can’t fathom being told the only option for people would be to ‘go to the beach and get in the water because that is the safest place for you’.
On the first trip to Canberra this year, I had booked to stay in a motel because of its pool. Unfortunately however, even though it was scorching hot, the smoke was so thick it was uncomfortable to stay outside, so that meant no cooling down in the swimming pool. We didn’t even walk 500m down the road to eat; we drove instead. I can’t believe that this could be our ‘new normal’. It’s not right!
Why do you and Lianah feel it’s so essential to brave the drive into a hazardous and smoky area in order to continue music lessons?
Lianah doesn’t like having too long a break in between lessons. She feels she loses momentum, so we try to plan regular lessons as much as we can, especially during holidays.
David has managed to secure a teaching space here in Sydney every fortnight, so for a lot of the year we won’t have to make the big Canberra trips. But we knew that by having him as her teacher, trips to Canberra would be part of the deal.
Lianah is focused and works incredibly hard. She practises four hours every day — and prepares such huge extensive repertoire for her lessons — that the drive, time, expense (and danger!) are worth it. For as long as Lianah works hard and is dedicated, both my husband and I are willing to drive her wherever she needs to go.
Although, it will be nice when she gets her license!
David [who has spoken of his appreciation for our travel] is a phenomenal teacher, and he is definitely worth the time. Lianah always looks forward to her lessons. How he teaches and what he says to Lianah resonates with her in such a way that Lianah progresses with each and every lesson.
What are your plans for if things become worse? That is, at what point would you decide it’s no longer a safe idea to travel to lessons, or even to live events at which Lianah will perform or attend?
This is a great question, and I actually haven’t thought about that. Both lessons did involve being in close contact with David, even up until the morning of travel, in case the roads were closed and we couldn’t get there.
If it got to a situation where the highway was closed, or Canberra was being evacuated, we wouldn’t travel, and neither would he. I guess we would have to do lessons via Skype or a video link-up.
Outside Lianah’s performance career, you also have a career in the arts industry that depends upon travel to different states and cities. What are your thoughts about showing up to represent Cadenza Apparel at live events this year, as you have in the past?
If this situation continues it will be tricky, as I do want to keep getting out there and meeting with parents who don’t know about me, or who do know about me, but really want to see and try my Cadenza Apparel clothes on in person.
A creative solution would be seeing if organisations would be willing for me to send some samples of clothing via mail so that parents can look at them.
In Canberra, the post office recently closed for a while due to smoke; and live events in other cities have been cancelled. How dependent is the success of your business on a healthily functioning arts/Australian community?
I’m an online business, so all my packages are sent via post. When packages are delayed due to the fires – road closures, post office closures — this impacts my business because people aren’t getting packages in a timely manner.
Whilst this is out of my control, it could reflect badly on my service. If there are no performance venues because they’re all closed due to the fires, then there is no need for musicians; then there is no need for black clothes. So my business basically dies before it even really got started.
That’s a sad thought, particularly because I’ve just finished finalising a shipment of boys pants!
Also, with the government taking it upon themselves to decide that the arts really has no value — so they can lump the whole department within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications — then why should parents feel confident in investing the time and money on music education and youth orchestral ensembles for their children? If the government doesn’t ‘see the point’, then it just reinforces this misconception that ‘learning an instrument and learning music is really cute, but it’s not really a profession, is it?’. My business relies on children of all ages participating in music and performing — in concert blacks!
How would you like to see the arts community come together during this time?
I think the arts community has come together in an extraordinary way so far. Together, the whole arts community has banded together to help those in need and it makes my heart swell. Lianah was so distraught when she heard of the koalas dying and losing their home, that she donated all her hard-earned money she had left — $250! — to help save them. We were so touched by her thoughtfulness and kind gesture that we said we would match whatever she put in.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I believe that the arts make humans human. My husband and I send Lianah to a Steiner school, because we believe in the value that creativity brings to the human experience. Her school allows her the time and flexibility to focus on her cello.
I think another person who sums up the importance of the arts, and why it is so essential for children and people in general, is Sir Ken Robinson. He does this fantastic TED talk where he speaks about education, and ‘Do schools kill creativity?’.
I wish our government had the foresight to see and value the arts for its ability to bring people together, especially in times of sorrow and devastation, and the resourcefulness that all artists have in raising a sh*t tonne of money.
If you would like to support the bushfire efforts, you can band together with Australian artists by attending their fundraising concerts. See our calendar of events.
Images supplied.
