BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
The Australian National Academy of Music finds itself in the middle of a unique COVID-19 situation: not only has it needed to cancel its concerts due to COVID-19 lockdowns, but it’s also closed its doors to musicians who are training at the educational institution.
That is, closed its physical doors.
Musicians, faculty, and arts administrators of the ANAM team are working hard behind the scenes to deliver an online training program — and they show no signs of stopping. That’s why we’ve launched an interview series about the unstoppable artists of Australia — established and emerging — so we can facilitate an honest discussion about how musicians are continuing to engage in their music education during COVID-19.
In this series, you’ll hear from musicians in training — and musicians who are providing that training! We hope you’ll be inspired to continue your own engagement in music education, whatever form that may take.
Here, we chat with David Elton — principal trumpet of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.
In the world of education, David also empowers young artists, sharing his talent as a member of the Australian National Academy of Music Faculty, and as a professor at the Royal College of Music.
Oh, and he’s performed as principal trumpet with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, too — not to mention as a guest principal player with many others. Nice!
Thank you so much for taking part in our interview series. Aside from answering our questions, what have you been getting up to today?
I began the day with a dawn surf on Sydney’s Freshwater Beach, and returned to practise at home before taking my son to the pool and then over to my parents’ place for dinner. Then for some late admin and completion of some overdue tasks.
The pandemic is unlike anything our industry has seen before. Where were you in your life, and career, when it all came to a halt due to the lockdowns?
I was fortunate to have just returned to Sydney for Sydney Symphony Orchestra concerts, having finished an extended period of work and tour with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle. There were only a few weeks of concerts in Sydney before performances were unfortunately cancelled or postponed.
The beginning of the pandemic actually proved to provide a welcome moment of rest after months of constant working, travelling, and touring. It began with rest, exercise, and time with close family, before a period of regeneration and rethinking/reworking ways of preparing and practising.
The reason we’ve used the word ‘unstoppable’ is because, despite the restrictions placed on artists in our community, practitioners like you are still spending their time working hard to keep things afloat. What have you done to continue connecting with your students?
Things literally changed overnight – I remember many music retailers had sold out of microphones, as teachers and students alike explored ways of transmitting their ideas across the internet. The ANAM Faculty and administration were exceptional in their rapid transition to this new medium of working, and I found myself inspired by the many programs and guests that joined us through online webinars and classes.
With this inspiration, I found a way to work with, listen to, and mentor younger players online, as well as participating in some of the excellent online education programs and recording projects which the LSO quickly created for families with younger children in the United Kingdom. At times, it became surprisingly busy working in different timezones, albeit all from my living room.
As soon as it was allowable to meet in person for teaching, I have tried to teach that way. I’m fortunate to be able work in a large church hall at times when it’s not in use. We were even able to rehearse a socially distanced trumpet ensemble recently with some of the fine younger Sydney players. This proved to be a nice relaxing time to play together, and to remember why we love doing what we do.
Music education has shifted to the digital world almost seamlessly, hasn’t it? As a teacher, what have you found to be some of the best techniques to communicate in this new way, in the absence of physical presence? After all, music is indeed a physical practice!
Music education has indeed shifted to the digital world, and this has actually produced some positives. All of a sudden, wonderful musicians have found themselves with significantly lighter performance schedules. This has made many inspirational artists and performers more available and ‘approachable’ — for example, the musicians at ANAM have recently been involved in webinar discussions with Barbara Hannigan and Wynton Marsalis, to name a few.
It seems that working on Zoom or Skype with a good microphone and proper settings is proving to be most effective. While this isn’t quite as ideal as being in the same room as someone, it has opened many doors and made us all more connected.
With the continuing situation, it increasingly seems that concerts and musical connections to audiences will be online, so it’s actually great to be able to work on this ‘on screen’ presence during lessons.
How connected do you still feel to your community — from your ANAM community through to your friends in the industry? And how are you maintaining or even enriching these connections?
Regular Zoom meetings with SSO and LSO have meant that the connection to colleagues is still there, just in a different way.
The fact that everyone is freer actually means there’s more time to spend contacting old friends and colleagues too. It’s been nice to ‘guest teach’ at other international institutions, and even catch up with colleagues around the country and the world. I think the time to contemplate work/life balance has also provided the opportunity to re-establish and deepen old friendships.
Of course, outside community, there’s a lot of time spent in solitude. How are you filling it?
Remembering how to cook, practising, watching Marvel movies, shooting hoops, going surfing and swimming in ocean pools are just some of the ways I’ve spent this time.
How has your practice routine changed?
It’s been a transformative time, a time to build and expand rather than just to protect. Instead of just going through the usual routines and preparing many programs for concerts, this time without performance deadlines has allowed space to evaluate the process of practising, the whys and hows, and to find ways to be more efficient and focused.
It’s given a ‘risk-free’ time to try new things, experiment with different techniques and perspectives, as well as learn new repertoire that a busy schedule didn’t always leave time for.
What are you most looking forward to doing when it’s all over?
More than anything, I can’t wait to play a large-scale orchestral work again like Mahler 2. I just regret that such a program still feels a long way off at this stage, but hopefully things might change for the better soon.
Music is a universal joy to be shared among friends and that helps bind communities. I’m actually really looking forward to audiences being able to come back, to experience the overwhelming joy music can offer, and share that with their families and friends.
Catch up on our UNSTOPPABLE ARTISTS interview with ANAM Musician Jared Yapp.
Images supplied.
