BY MIRANDA ILCHEF
Last month, we had a chat with composer Luke Howard about the very first ZoneOut International Music Festival. As the festival ambassador, he talked us through this Carriageworks event dedicated to music and mindfulness — and how these two themes connect.
Now, we speak with two other artists who will be part of this program.
Cellist Peter Gregson will use electronic music and a small ensemble of cellists to present his own individual twist on the famous Bach cello suites. With a long and diverse career, classically trained Peter has also composed soundtracks for video game and film.
Pianist Kristian Chong will also perform in the ZoneOut festival, with a carefully selected program of relaxing piano music by the likes of Debussy, Chopin, Glass and more.
Kristian’s concert may just provide a moment of escape from the pressures and strains of the modern world. For this event, Kristian rejects the stereotypical rigidity of the concert hall, instead encouraging young children to attend by providing comfortable seating on the floor.
Here’s what Peter and Kristian have to say about it all — and their views aren’t always aligned.
By integrating music and wellbeing practices, events like ZoneOut are bringing the arts into people’s lives where it might not have gone otherwise. Throughout the course of your career, Peter, you have done exactly this — and I am thinking particularly in your work with video game music. How important is it that we bring classical music into the lives of those who might not describe themselves as ‘classical-music lovers’? Are we helping them to discover a new world, or pushing our art on them?
PETER: I think it’s the role of music to be relevant to the audience, not the audience be relevant to me and my work. But with that said, I wouldn’t describe my score to PS4’s Boundless as classical. It’s very heavily electronic for the most part, but it does use some classical instruments.
I think the worst thing we can do is suggest that people should love classical music. Yes, I love it, but my job is to be more compelling than that.
Popularity isn’t the only measurement of impact and meaning, and I think we could spend more time making meaningful, connected work; it will speak more to our audiences, wherever they are.
Kristian, you’ve performed all over the world throughout your career. Are there parts of the world that have already started integrating music and mindfulness, in the way ZoneOut is doing?
KRISTIAN: I think the ZoneOut Festival is a wonderful initiative. It certainly is new to my knowledge, and whilst I am sure the concept has been discussed on a worldwide scale, I’m not aware of a festival dedicated to this.
The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music has an excellent Music Therapy department, which is making ground-breaking strides in the area, and it is a field which certainly is growing massively.
Can music be both a profession and a pastime? Do you find you listen to music to relax in your spare time, or do you prefer to have silence to separate your leisure time and career?
P: Music can absolutely be a profession and a pastime.
I love going to concerts, listening to records, reading biographies. But I also love Netflix, golf, playing with my daughter.
K: As a classical musician, classical music is definitively not a pastime.
It is not something I am ‘sort of’ interested in: it is what I love and what I do passionately for a living, and have worked tirelessly to maintain a career in. The notion that it is a hobby or something I do for fun is insulting! If we widen the scope to include all types of music, music can be both a profession in one type of music and a pastime in other sorts.
With classical music, there is definitely a limit as to how much one can meaningfully take in during a day. Occasionally, I will practice or rehearse all day and attend a concert in the evening. But I do like to have silence or non-classical music when I have finished for the day.
I often listen to Detroit house as a way to enjoy myself; when I wasn’t playing piano in my later teenage years, I dabbled in composing house tracks, and often listen to jazz as well.
What kind of wellbeing issues arise for professional musicians? What measures do you personally take to counteract them?
P: I think it’s easy to forget the physical strains brought about by performance. It’s physically very demanding, so I do quite a lot of muscle conditioning and physio stuff around longer stretches of performance.
K: Musicians operate in an industry where they are constantly judged. Whilst one’s own self is the most important evaluator, one still is mindful of outside influences, particularly where they are potentially career-related, or come from a source that one respects. This often has an effect on self-confidence. Even the pressure of maintaining one’s own standards is demanding.
It can be an uncertain industry, and there are long and undefined hours at times, which can take its toll. For me, social interaction is a big help, as I spend hours alone at the piano, and I always make sure that I get away every now and again to completely step away from the musical world to ensure I am recharged for the next period.
Whilst I love food and wine, it is important to keep healthy and fit too.
Experiences such as performance anxiety can be stigmatised, or seen as a shortcoming. Do you think classical musicians are opening willing to talk about the wellbeing issues that they face?
P: In my experience, people are open about these things, but it’s a very personal situation. I personally think it’s best to be open and honest and surround yourself with people who are open and honest, but possibly not everyone does.
K: Performance anxiety is faced by every single performer; I don’t know one individual who is not affected somewhat by elements of it. The more prepared you are, the less likely that it will take hold in a negative manner — but at times, one has no control over it. In general, the more experience one has, it is easier to deal with.
My solution is to try to ensure I am as prepared as possible for each performance, although that is hard on occasion when you have only had time to prepare quickly, or get one rehearsal before a concert with another artist.
Whilst I know performers are willing to talk about it, I don’t think that any amount of discussion will help much. There is no substitute for proper preparation, but as one becomes more experienced, we find ways to deal with each situation.
The ZoneOut International Music Festival is on 28 September in Carriageworks.
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Luke Howard image supplied. Credit: Jeff Andersen Junior. Featured image by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash.
