BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
There is always time for chamber music — even in the most exceptional of circumstances (see: global pandemic). Despite the changing industry landscape, Musica Viva is forging ahead and has launched a new educational initiative for Australia’s chamber musicians and teachers.
Strike a Chord – the National Chamber Music Championship supports and promotes music-making among school students across the country. Young players enter for the chance to win prizes and coaching at the Australian National Academy of Music.
But outside the competition itself, there is also a major educational opportunity for the music teachers of this country. Through online workshops, coaching sessions, and panel discussions, the Strike a Chord Teachers’ Conference Weekend is designed to boost the knowledge of anyone who works in secondary schools, bringing chamber music into the lives of young people.
One of the big-name artists featuring in this conference is Monica Curro, who will host her own Open Coaching (strings) session this September 5. Monica has performed with almost every Australian orchestra (including 22 years with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra). She also founded PLEXUS back in 2014, through which she has commissioned and premiered more than 100 new pieces of music.
So it’s safe to say this violinist knows what she’s talking about when she states: “Strike a Chord is one of the best initiatives I’ve seen over the past few decades.” In this interview, Monica tells us exactly why Strike a Chord is so valuable for music education in Australia.
Monica! Let’s talk about the Teachers’ Conference. This is a valuable part of Strike a Chord, which extends beyond the players alone and into the realm of music education. First of all, I’d like to know what you’ll be getting up to in your Open Coaching (strings) session.
Hello, and thanks for talking to me about this excellent Musica Viva Teachers’ Conference. I have no plan. I’ve been coaching chamber music for many years, and my experience has taught me that just as every person is different, every group is totally different — and so it’s much better to approach each session on a case-by-case basis.
I like to get the group to play at least an entire movement through before I stop them to say anything, so that they can settle in a bit and play through the nerves. It can be really intimidating at [a childhood] age to play for a stranger: even though I know I’ll be really nice to them, they don’t necessarily know that!
Then, I usually just help them formulate a unified and cohesive idea of the music by clarifying voice leading, identifying harmonically driven phrasing, recognising thematic material, galvanising a common approach to articulation, and solving rhythmic issues within the group. Intonation is a tough one, because it can take hours and hours, so ideally it’s best to cover as many aspects of ensemble playing as possible in one session.
That sounds like a full-on session. What opportunities do the Strike a Chord sessions offer you as a music educator, which you wouldn’t ordinarily inject into your lessons?
Most musicians face the same challenges and need solutions for the same things — rhythm, intonation, phrasing, a broad palette of sounds. So this is an opportunity to offer those solutions to more than one person at a time, so I love how it’s a more efficient educational forum.
I think the Strike a Chord groups may be different in that the entrants had to really commit to enter the competition, so I will be seeing them at a more advanced stage of preparation, where our conversations around the music may become more nuanced and philosophical rather than just technical.
Let’s talk about teaching itself. What do you think are some of the most difficult areas when it comes to teaching chamber music? After all, it’s just as much about interaction between players as it is about the music.
I enjoy teaching chamber music more than individual violin lessons. As single-line players, we spend hours in the practice room playing only our part, out of context, and it can be a real struggle to play with other people when the time comes.
One challenge is to get the players listening away from themselves as individuals. I tell them to imagine that they are listening from the most far-away corner in the room, and conceptually that really shifts their thinking and listening, and the sonic results are always stunning — like a choir of angels or a huge church organ, rather than a free-for-all rabble.
The most important thing that needs to be identified at the outset is voice leading — who has the main line, who has the next most important line, who has the bass line, how to bring out exquisite counter melodies, how to bring out that unbearably beautiful harmony note. This exercise always forms a more homogenous group philosophy.
Another issue is dispute resolution, and this is when a tutor can really come in handy. If there are two or more strongly opposed opinions in the group, I always get them to try each version, and then I can objectively say which aspects of each were convincing or not, and why. Not better, or worse, but what clearly spoke to me as the listener.
Thinking beyond the scope of an individual lesson, how do you feel teachers can use chamber music to help foster a child’s education?
Music was discovered and developed independently by every culture on this earth. Therefore, it is innate in all of us. Music celebrates and commemorates lives, comforts lives, and changes lives — I know I’m preaching to that choir of angels up there, but we all know it.
When a child is engaged in this ancient ritual of learning, experiencing, and performing music at any level, this gives them insight to the deepest and most indefinable aspects of what it is to be human. When they play together in groups, this is magnified exponentially.
I’ve read the studies, you’ve read the studies; the stats are off the charts. High school retention rates greatly increase. NAPLAN results go through the stratosphere in a school where an excellent music program is introduced into the curriculum. Behaviour improves as concentration and focus improve, and with these achievements morale improves, therefore mental health and wellbeing improve.
My father dedicated 53 years of his life to the Queensland Youth Orchestra, which he founded, and if you asked him to give you one reason why he did that, he would say: “To make sure they had something meaningful to strive for in the dangerous years.”
During COVID-19, school and music rehearsals have been disrupted. But whether people are gathering in person, or going it digitally, there has been a great amount of effort to keep making music. What do you feel are the benefits of chamber music during the pandemic?
Anything that brings people together in an extended period of isolation and uncertainty is a great thing.
While ensemble playing and choral singing were the first to be shut down and will be the last to go back, I’ve been amazed to see so many examples of how music has been such a binding force.
And how about you? How has Strike a Chord, and its celebration of chamber music, made an impact on you and your work during COVID-19?
Strike a Chord had already booked me in for their September Teachers’ Conference before the lockdown. So, when I had at least five months of work cancelled, it was a shining beacon of light in the darkness of my diary!
I have attended all the Strike a Chord webinars now that I have had time to do that kind of thing, and have really enjoyed hearing my colleagues present them, and seeing their other non-playing talents on full display.
Beyond Strike a Chord, how have you been filling your time? Are you keeping up with students of your own? Have you been doing digital lessons, and chamber music events?
Nature abhors a vacuum so, much to my surprise, I have been as busy as ever! We have had every public performance cancelled or postponed indefinitely, so the only performances I have done since April have been with my trio PLEXUS at Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. MDCH has been a lifeline for so many of us in Melbourne. I’m not sure how we would have survived without their support.
I have taught a few lessons online […] I’ve been working on the virtual version of the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival in October with my co-artistic director Stefan Cassomenos, and that has been huge. We have had to design multiple models, so we are ready to go with whatever situation we find ourselves in.
But the really new thing in my life is webinars. I just can’t get enough of them, and I’m learning so much about politics, journalism, mental health, visual arts, accessibility, fundraising, Indigenous Culture, economics, resilience in a pandemic; my diary is chockers with webinars!
Also, The West Wing and Stephen Colbert have been getting us through. Hope and laughter.
We all need hope and laughter! We have one more question for you. Strike a Chord provides young people with a platform to practice their industry skills and celebrate their passions. So what do you hope for the future generation of chamber players in Australia? How can positive events like Strike a Chord contribute to a positive future?
Strike a Chord is one of the best initiatives I’ve seen over the past few decades. It’s a great chance for school students to have something to aspire to on a national level. I’m sure the participants will not only benefit musically, but will also develop some high-level performance skills, which are impossible to learn in a practice room or a rehearsal space.
It’s also a great opportunity to have access to industry professionals as mentors, and to connect with like-minded peers, and I’m confident there will be many lifelong bonds of friendship formed as a result.
The Strike a Chord Music Teachers’ Conference takes place online from 5-6 September.
Images supplied.
