BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Grace Clifford was just 16 when she scored first place in the 2014 ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year awards.
The muso played Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra as her winning piece, and she returns to perform with the group once again under conductor Nicholas Carter. They’ll present Sibelius’ Violin Concerto this December 2 and 3 in the Adelaide Town Hall.
In the couple of years since her win, Grace moved to the United States where she studied at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She’s performed with orchestras across the world, and has also won prizes in the Kendall National Violin Competition and was a finalist and laureate in the Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Beijing.
We chat with Grace about her success so far in music ahead of her ASO performance.
You return to play with the ASO after winning the ABC Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year Award in 2014 with the orchestra. How does it feel to come back?
It is such a privilege to be able to work with the musicians of ASO again, this time with Sibelius. Playing the Beethoven Concerto with them in 2014 as part of the competition will always be one of the most special and memorable experiences I have had. I am so lucky that my first time working with a professional orchestra was with such a supportive and invested group of musicians; it felt much more like large-scale chamber music than concerto for violin and orchestra – as I believe it should be. It was completely humbling and I know will be again in December.
You’ve won some incredible awards so far – how do you use your success to push yourself further, and to learn about what it means to perform?
Competitions provide an immovable deadline to work towards – one that can’t be procrastinated and one that is unforgiving to a last-minute increase in self-doubt or feelings of not being as prepared as one would like. This, together with the demands to have a varied range of repertoire prepared, makes competitions very valuable learning experiences. I am lucky that I have never been pushed to approach competitions with an ‘outcome’ mentality; if positive, the results became absolutely insignificant to me immediately after the competition. I feel no sense of accomplishment or boost from results – only from the learning process to prepare and perform. I think it is wonderful to be a part of something that is never completed or learnt; music is inherently a lifelong lesson.
What was the biggest challenge you’ve faced in competition?
Often, I find it is almost a relief to be backstage preparing to walk on stage during a competition or concert. One somehow has to accept where their playing is at that moment and remember what a gift it is to be immersed in the world of music. I find it very challenging to spend hours alone in a practice room with a hyper-critical ear, and to then be forgiving and uninhibited when performing. I think it is important to remember that the ideals we hold, as to the phrasing of a particular line, are only known to us – the audience has no means to compare how you sound to how you wish you sounded or have been trying to sound. This can be liberating in performance and allows you to focus not on trying (unsuccessfully) to enjoy your interpretation of the music, but on the music itself.
How do you prepare yourself for auditions or competitive events?
In preparing musically, I believe in spending time just with the score – to try to understand the structure of the work without being influenced and jaded by all of the traditions that have developed in the interpretation of the core violin repertoire. This is very artistically affirming and enables one to genuinely interpret, rather than to re-interpret. Psychologically, competitions can potentially place you into a negative place of comparison. I try to think of competitions as music festivals, or just as concerts. At the time I was participating in competitions in Australia, I was very fortunate to have an extraordinarily committed teacher in Dr Robin Wilson. His generosity with time and planning made invaluable learning experiences out of preparing for competitions.
What advice would you give to other young string players looking to chase a similar dream?
The great Joey Silverstein often mentioned that, each and every time before taking his violin out of its case, he would ask himself: ‘What…and why?’. What he wanted to achieve in that practise, and why he wanted to achieve it. I think the ‘why’ is particularly important to always keep in mind, both in solitary practice and in our approach to music within life as a whole.
For more information about Grace’s performance with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, visit the website.
Image supplied. Credit: Anthony Browell.
