BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Earlier this year, we’d teamed up with the Australian National Academy of Music with big plans to put together some exciting articles for you. We were going to interview locally and globally renowned musicians about their live performances. But now, ANAM 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’re launching a new 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 talk with ANAM tuba player Sean Burke.
Sean grew up in South-East Queensland, raised by a family of folk musicians. He has performed with major symphony orchestras, and even took out the 2019 ANAM Chamber Music Competition with brass group Bank Street Brass.
Thank you so much for taking part in our UNSTOPPABLE ARTISTS interview series. Aside from answering our questions, what have you been getting up to today?
It’s my absolute pleasure! Today, I’ve gotten up to similar things to what I normally get up to most days – having some quiet time and meditation in the morning, followed by some reading and listening to a podcast or music for about an hour or so. Then, I got into practising, working on my fundamentals before moving onto some solo repertoire or excerpts, and then making sure I’ve got time to go for a walk or bike ride in the afternoon!
That sounds like a well-balanced day, to me! Sean, this pandemic is unlike anything our industry has seen. Where were you in your life, and career, when it all came to a halt due to the lockdowns?
The day that ANAM made the call to cancel all classes until term 2, the brass cohort was rehearsing for a low-key, in-house performance that was to be held later that week for ANAM Faculty, staff and musicians. So it was pretty insane – going from having a few hours of rehearsal every day to all of a sudden having nothing on the calendar for a month.
I was planning on being in Europe for the majority of May to participate in a tuba competition in Germany, as well as taking lessons and doing a couple of auditions for schools. However, that came to a crashing halt as well in the early stages of March.
On one side, I was relieved to not have the stress of learning the almost two hours of solo music that I had to prepare. But on the other side, I was quite disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to participate in such a great competition and catch up with a few friends I’d made on previous trips, as well as what everyone is missing in seeing concerts and other travel-related activities.
My ANAM recital, which was originally scheduled in June, has also been postponed/rescheduled. This one is a little bit nicer, as it means that I have an extra few months to have a think about repertoire I really am passionate about playing, and do as polished a performance as possible.
Originally, I would have returned from my Europe trip with a lot of tired solo music that I knew, but had played to death, leaving me to decide whether I wanted to take these pieces for ‘one last ride’ or panic-learn another program. I’m really excited to spend a bit more time thinking about and planning my recital for later this year.
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. How are you continuing to further your music education during this time — whether it’s online lessons or time spent reading?
I’m incredibly fortunate to have the mentors I do, who are embracing the online lessons and making them work almost as if they’ve been doing it for years.
My primary tuba teacher Steve Rossé has been so inspiring over the past month with all of his activity. He’s launched a YouTube series of exercises and tuba tips along with a few pieces of advice from his life coaching and training, and has been so positive and helpful through all of this. It has made it feel like a seamless transition from face-to-face contact to online lessons.
I also have had quite a few phone calls and conversations with my other main tuba teacher Karina Filipi, who has been such an amazing source of support during this transition.
I’ve also felt like I have a lot more space to listen to new music, which has been really cool. I’ve discovered some new albums and recordings and rediscovered some old ones, and it has just been an extremely exciting and enriching journey.
One of the most drastic changes I’ve had to make is to how I structure my mornings. When I was going to ANAM every day, it was a straightforward routine – I got out of bed, had a shower, ate breakfast, then jumped on my bike and rode in and started my day. Being at home, I’ve found it much easier to just lay in bed when I wake up and watch YouTube videos or browse Instagram for the latest upload from @WeRateDogs — one of my favourite pages — for sometimes hours, because I didn’t have to go anywhere. This often would lead to a very unproductive day of watching Netflix, playing games on the Switch, and just generally feeling like I was wasting a lot of time.
I think it was important for me to do that for a little while to almost mourn my previous morning routine, but it really wasn’t helping with any progress or general mood. Giving myself a more strict schedule has helped me actually get out of bed and start my day, which has in turn led to a much more productive day and allowed me to be in a mental space to positively reflect on it in the evening.
Music education has shifted to the digital world almost seamlessly, hasn’t it? As a student, 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!
Similar to face-to-face education, I’ve found that clear communication will do you wonders! My principal teacher lives interstate, so I wouldn’t normally see him as regularly as students who live in the same city as their teachers do — even when physical presence was still allowed!
Sending as many recordings as your teacher will listen to is a good goal. This also means that if there are any issues with a call during your lesson, your teacher will have a good fall-back option, as well as just tracking your own progress for yourself.
If nothing else, this situation is teaching students how to be great independent learners, which is a must for when we get into a job and we’re very much solely responsible for our own further development.
The other activity which I’ve found useful is just being adventurous with my listening, and finding inspiration in approaches to music and other art that I may not have thought about accessing if I wasn’t looking for things to keep myself busy all the time.
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?
I’ve tried as much as possible to keep communication lines open with my friends and colleagues. It’s always so nice to send someone a Zoom meeting link and see their face show up on the screen, or call someone and hear their voice when they answer.
The staff at ANAM have also been fantastic at keeping communication lines open; from calling students to check in every few weeks to the humour-filled and positive emails from general manager Nick Bailey keeping us updated on the goings on around the organisation.
I’ve definitely felt that the strong sense of community that I normally have is being maintained through all of this – which does a world of good for morale!
Of course, outside community, there’s a lot of time spent in solitude. How are you filling it?
So much time spent in solitude! I’ve been enjoying exploring different parts of Melbourne on my bike: it’s refreshing to just be speeding along with the wind in your face, and not having to compete with too much traffic!
I’ve been lucky enough to have both of my housemates stay in Melbourne too, and we’ve enjoyed playing video games together, watching TV shows, and recording our daily entries into ANAM bass trombonist James Littlewood’s Your Tune A Day series. That in particular has left us with a bunch of fun memories, with more to come, too!
How has your practice routine changed?
In some ways, my practice has been a little less efficient, given that there are so many distractions in my house and so many excuses to avoid it. But it’s been a great challenge of willpower to try to overcome that and be stern with myself in those moments.
Like I said earlier, I’ve been giving myself a lot more time and space for mindfulness, which has done a world of good for productivity. I’ve also tried to embrace the mentality of ‘the best teacher in the world is the one sitting inside your own brain’, and approach my practice as if I’m giving myself a lesson. That’s been a good exercise in patience and thought process development over the past few weeks.
So with your housemates, how are you navigating around your different needs while in lockdown?
I live with two other lovely people – Tim and Sam – who are both studying a Master of Music (Orchestral Performance) at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Fortunately, we have a relatively large space — I even have a small shipping container area that I all but live in — and we can spread ourselves out with very little difficulty.
Often, there’s noise bleed from our respective practice spaces, but most of the time it inspires us to keep working harder!
We always make an effort to respect each other’s sleep schedules and not be practising too early or late, and eat meals together and check in. We also have been giving each other informal mock auditions here and there, which have been a lot of fun!
When things feel like they’re getting too hard, due to cancellations or uncertainty, what do you like to do to feel better?
Honestly, the best thing for me is always to just go for a walk, watch a TV show, listen to some relaxing music, or call someone. Most of the time when I’m feeling overwhelmed or anxious, it is because I’ve let my thoughts swim around in my head for far too long and not released them or given myself some mental downtime. Getting in a good night’s sleep also does wonders for general outlook on life.
I often have to remind myself that this situation is only temporary, and while it may be a while before things go back to ‘normal’, they will eventually.
What are you most looking forward to doing when it’s all over?
There are so many things that I’m really looking forward to – most notably playing music with and for people in the same room as me. That’s got to be the biggest one.
I’m also very excited to resume the fierce lawn bowls competition that myself, my housemates, and another friend began earlier this year before everything shut down.
I’m just so excited to go outside and see all of my friends again, really.
Catch up on our UNSTOPPABLE ARTISTS interview with ANAM Musician Jared Yapp.
Images supplied. Jared and Sean captured by Pia Johnson.
