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 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 Timothy Young, ANAM Head of Piano (Margaret Johnson Chair of Piano).
As well as his role at ANAM, Timothy is a highly successful performing artist and has toured, played solo, and won awards all over the world (before COVID-19 lockdowns, of course). Closer to home, he’s also a founding member of Ensemble Liaison, has an impressive discography across multiple recording labels, and has guest lectured at the University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, and Griffith University.
If you’re a musician too, you might’ve had Timothy as your juror for a piano or chamber music competition.
Thank you so much for taking part in our interview series during COVID-19. Aside from answering our questions, what have you been getting up to today?
Today was pretty much a normal working day, albeit online: teaching, meetings, reading, and emails. I’d hoped for some outdoor time, but somehow my day evaporated, which happens quite a bit these days.
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?
It seems that, as a musician, every year just gets busier. So when everything came to an abrupt halt, I was well and truly in the thick of a long list of concert activity with considerable momentum, and every moment being taken up with my job, family, and personal preparation.
It’s a state of mind where your gaze is constantly forward looking, disciplined, and energised. I found myself at the Adelaide Festival, performing, and very focused on completing a composition, arranging another work, preparing for a recording, teaching, practising, and excited as my 5-year-old daughter began primary school and my 2-year-old daughter discovered how fast she could run without falling over her own enthusiasm.
Suddenly, the reality of a lockdown.
It was a flurry of email correspondence and phone calls where everything just started being wiped off the diary — initially only a month ahead, and then the whole year looked vulnerable.
I had to be rational. Was it possible to salvage some concerts? What could be tentatively postponed? What was lost? …What can we do now?
The only solution was to move over to a digital world, and do what was possible.
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!
Indeed, this crisis has required an immediate reassessment of our world, and immediate adoption of an ‘online’ reality. Along with my colleagues, we are noting the peculiar extra demands on time. Everything seems more intense. Staring at a screen all day whilst sustaining engaging and meaningful interaction with our students is not without its challenges.
Initially, I had many questions around what technology was available to me to enable my work to continue and provide an immersive experience with as much ‘reality’ as possible. Practical considerations were around the quality of my internet connection. What hardware do I need? What platform serves my purpose best?
So what did you find?
As a musician, sound is everything, and my first consideration was microphones. Whatever I wish to convey over the net is only going to be as good as the signal I’m making in the first instance. The same is true of video quality.
Unfortunately, as amazing as computers are these days, these two elements of their onboard hardware are pretty average. When your profession requires an aesthetic appraisal of sound and movement, our demands on technology are pretty ruthless. So began a somewhat frustrating few weeks delving into the possible tech hardware and software scenarios to create my online studio.
Luckily, from many years of recording concerts, I had quite a lot of the hardware necessary, but also outdated gear that needed replacing. Like many of us, I’m predominantly using Zoom as a platform to deliver online content. Multiple cameras enable me to demonstrate and provide a more ‘3-dimensional’ and immersive perspective of the body in relationship to the instrument, and in the absence of physical presence this has been invaluable.
In a live streaming, ‘teaching from home’ scenario, the video has been an essential ingredient. It permits me to link the movement back to the sound
Sound, ironically in a live streaming scenario, is still somewhat of a compromise because it is very dependent on the upload speeds of the internet from both sides. This, we have to accept. In a live streaming, ‘teaching from home’ scenario, the video has been an essential ingredient. It permits me to link the movement back to the sound. I think this is an extraordinary process, in which the brain pulls together all the information available to recreate this capacity to ‘hear’ sound in the movement. Much valuable work can be done in this context — at least, I have found this with regard to piano playing!
Lessons and classes have continued ‘online’ throughout the lockdown and performance classes are a mix of pre-recorded and live performances. I have particularly enjoyed the ease with which demonstration to a class is made easy with multiple camera angles, and sharing scores with real-time annotation — both very useful tools that I intend to adopt post COVID-19. There also appears in my experience to be a positive shift in attention to articulate and express ourselves with greater clarity.
How has your practice routine changed? Are you navigating around the needs of the people also with you in lockdown?
Previously, I would squeeze in an hour or two, here and there, throughout the day. Now, other than demonstration for my students, it has been reduced to next to nothing — and I’m so looking forward to playing again.
This has been the longest ‘break’ I have had from daily practice in my professional life. Initially, my endeavour to get things up and running for the online scenario took up all my head space. But with two young children at home, it’s also been challenging to keep up with the demands of school work and simply keeping the youngest one occupied. My wife is also a musician, and fortunately we had already created a dedicated space to work in, which we have made as functional as possible. Outside of this room, it is Mummy and Daddy land.
So how connected do you still feel to your “grown-up” community — from your ANAM community through to your friends in the industry? And how are you maintaining or even enriching these connections?
I still feel very connected to my community and, if anything, I find a stronger sense of solidarity as we all have to work through the challenges together.
As this unprecedented situation necessitates that we connect online, when time permits it’s always great to catch up either simply on the phone, via email or video chat. We all find ourselves in very different circumstances, but the longer this period of isolation continues the more I am missing what I love most, which is making music with my friends! Checking in on or being contacted by a friend is always a welcome event in your day.
I’m also fortunate that ANAM has maintained a very strong sense of community, and keeping an active online program has been so beneficial. Keeping momentum and approaching the challenges with a positive spirit has led to some fantastic results, and maintaining contact with colleagues and the students has been so nourishing for the spirit.
On a personal level, every spare moment I then have I spend with my family, and even my neighbours are always happy to have a chat across the road or over the fence.
Catch up on our UNSTOPPABLE ARTISTS interview with ANAM Musician Jared Yapp.
Images supplied, captured by Pia Johnson.
