BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Jennifer Hankin is a flautist, composer, singer, photographer, artist, videographer, fashion designer, and all-round creative.
And when you see her in action, in this world premiere of her flute quartet Follow the Light, it’ll all start to make sense.
Read the interview, then watch the premiere.
Who is Jennifer, anyway?
Jennifer has been let loose on the internet to create content across a variety of channels. Originally aiming to be a classical musician, Jen completed her AMusA in 2010. She then attended Newcastle University where she studied under Colin Spiers (composition) and Sally Walker (flute. Did you read our interview with Sally on CutCommon?).
In 2015, Jen completed a Bachelor of Music with Honours and during her time at uni she received two scholarships – one for an outstanding university audition, and the other (Maurice and Betsy Sendak Scholarship) for highest third year performance mark.
Jen founded experimental folk band Vanishing Shapes alongside Timothy Merrikin, Jake Kennedy and Joshua Rea in 2012. With Vanishing Shapes, she has composed and independently released an EP, album, and has toured on the road. In 2015, she joined folk band The Button Collective, and they’ve together released two EPs and and an album.
Jen, it is just lovely to meet you. Tell us a little about yourself – you’re a flautist and composer, among many other talents including fashion design, photography, and video! Why do you embrace a creative life and venture into so many areas?
I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in a household where creativity was greatly encouraged. Both my parents are avid lovers of classical music, particularly my mum. [As I was] growing up, she was always learning some kind of instrument. I personally watched her learn piano, cello and viola.
On the non-musical side, my dad was an art teacher as well as an artist, and an amazing dressmaker. You should have seen some of the tiny garments he had to make for my ballet recitals as a 5-year-old! Both my parents encouraged me to be as creative as possible. On the flip side, this pursuit of creativity from a young age was never forced upon me. If I didn’t want to paint or draw or practice, I didn’t have to. (All of my past piano teachers can confirm this!)
Another major influence for leading a ‘general creative’ lifestyle rather than specialising was my university flute teacher. Throughout my music degree at Newcastle Conservatorium, she was always encouraging me to pursue my other creative outlets. She also always encouraged experimentation and exploration of other types of music.
You are officially releasing your debut flute quartet. When and why did you start working on this composition?
I started working on this piece after the National Folk Festival last year, after I purchased a wooden tin whistle. Originally, I wrote it for a man I’d been seeing at the time. He had been incredibly toxic and controlling during the festival, and I was feeling pretty miserable about it. A few months later, I bought a ukulele, started writing songs and put some words with the tune.
The last stage in the writing process was arranging the piece for flute quartet. My students love it when I give them pieces I’ve written, which was the original intent behind the flute arrangement.
Saying that, one major thing I’ve taken away from folk music is the belief that a tune doesn’t have to belong to one piece of music. There are so many brilliant folk tunes that have multiple names, or have been used in other pieces of music. Some would say that this quartet is just an arrangement of a song I wrote, but I now see it more as a separate piece that shares the tune of a piece I wrote.
You’ve chosen to record yourself playing all four parts. What was behind this decision, and did you compose the work specifically for yourself as a player?
As someone who has immersed themselves in YouTube culture, I find this question very interesting! For those of you who don’t watch very much YouTube, the content creators that I watch are very into DIY and using what you have on hand to make the best art possible. When I started the flute quartet arrangement of Follow the Light, I had intended for it to be a piece for my students, and maybe send it out to a few friends who also conduct flute ensembles. When I finished the score and listened back to the awful Sibelius rendition, I realised that 1. I really liked the end result; and 2. I had all the instruments equipment I needed to film, record, and release the piece legitimately.
Access to money also comes into play regarding the decision. I am completely self-funded as a creative. This means if I make something I have three choices: I can call in favours and find myself in a messy scheduling nightmare as I try to line up the free time and energy of multiple people; I can get rid of the scheduling nightmare and pay everyone with money I don’t have; or I can do everything myself. This time, I chose to do everything myself, although for future releases I love the idea of bringing in other musicians for the recording and video making process.
What did you learn about your own flute practice by playing through your composition so intimately?
Performing a quartet is much harder when you have to record each part individually. Part of the joy of chamber music is connecting with the other musicians. Obviously, I’ve missed that connection in the performance of this work.
We are about to be the first listeners in the country to hear the world premiere of your release. Before we tune in, how would you describe your work – especially the musical choices and their effect on the listener?
I would describe this piece as riding a fine line between folk music and chamber music. The compositional features I play with – most notably, the ornamentation – really brings the feeling of folk music to an instrumentation that hails back to chamber music. I hope that any audience who hears this work is transported to the woods with the fairies.
With such a range of skills under your belt – not to mention your academic success, being awarded two scholarships during your musical studies – what are your biggest goals or dreams for the future?
I suppose I have two solid creative dreams.
1. Like most artists, I would love to be in the position where I can live off my art. At the moment, I spend a lot of time teaching, which I love, but it doesn’t quench my thirst the same way making things does. Preferably, performance will always be my main focus, but I’m working on mastering many other creative skills, such as production, photography and videography so I can be diverse as possible.
2. My other dream is to remain within Australia. Throughout my life, I’ve always felt an underlying pressure to move my artistic pursuits to Europe long term. (My definition of long term is longer than a year.) While I admire anyone who does this, and think it’s a great option for many creatives, I know it’s not the right path for me.
Anything else you’d like to add before we give your new music a listen?
Yes! If you like the track, you can pay what you want for it here, and you can buy the sheet music here!
Now WATCH! This is the world premiere of Jennifer’s original flute quartet Follow the Light.
Images supplied.
This is awesome. What a great piece and brilliantly done.