BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
The Modest Orchestra doesn’t care if you’re not studying to complete a performance major. It doesn’t care if you don’t want to spend your life as an orchestral musician.
And it’s all the better for it.
Founded by emerging conductor Panagiotis Karamanos in 2016, this collection of University of Sydney students wants simply to “make good music” without the stresses of hierarchy and assessments. (Can we join up, too?)
In Journey to Bohemia, its first concert of 2018, the orchestra has programmed works by Smetana, Dvorak, and Bosch. Bosch, of course, being Mark Bosch – the 1996-born Australian composer who has written a concerto for orchestra fittingly titled 300 Hours (read on and you’ll learn why).
Here, we have a chat with both of these talented artists. Panagiotis talks us through the philosophies of the orchestra; and Mark discusses the ambition of programming his new Australian work alongside centuries-old classics. That’s something we’d certainly like to see more of.
Panagiotis, you founded the Modest Orchestra in 2016. How come?
PANAGIOTIS KARAMANOS: The Modest Orchestra project was founded by myself in 2016 as something of a nostalgia trip following the wonderful experiences both Mark and I had at the Conservatorium High School, particularly through House Concerts there. These were the musical equivalent of your high school sports carnival: a term spent in intensive, student-run rehearsals; culminating in a set of exhilarating performances, after which a house would be crowned the winner.
Our aim with Modest, however, was to foster the growth of ‘the whole musician’ in similarly project-based, student-centred learning, albeit with slightly less of a competitive edge. So this is where we usually explain the two-fold meaning of the name ‘Modest’.
What started out as an homage to Modest Mussorgsky — whose Pictures at an Exhibition we performed at our debut concert — came to encapsulate the core values of the group. We are made up of earnest, sincere, genuine musicians who just want to make good music and enjoy doing so in a non-hierarchical and highly collaborative environment. We prioritise the educational and social experience of playing within a large ensemble, without delegating the administrative or artistic decision-making to any one individual.
In other words, we try to ensure that we all stay modest!
Interestingly, Modest respects its musicians and not only provides opportunities to orchestral majors, but to music education majors and others outside the performance career trajectory.
PK: As a music education major at the Sydney Conservatorium, I have found that there are generally less opportunities for non-performance majors to work within high-quality ensembles due to an emphasis on music pedagogy. This is especially evident in the latter years of the music education degree, when room for performance-based elective units are few and far between. That is not to say that we want to snatch any much-needed opportunities away from performance majors, but simply that we want more for everyone! Modest is our contribution to providing that equity of performance experience, free from the usual stresses of assessed performance.
There’s certainly a culture of competition surrounding orchestral careers. How would you describe the Modest Orchestra’s culture in light of its collaborative nature?
MARK BOSCH: As a player in the ensemble and someone who just wants to make music for the joy of it, I think that the culture of the Modest Orchestra hits the nail on the head where fostering pure positivity is concerned. As obvious as that sounds, I have never felt that the ‘music for the joy of it’ maxim can ever be taken for granted or as self-evident. Playing in an orchestra can make one cynical, fatigued, even demoralised. Keeping things positive between musicians, between oneself and the music, takes work. This work can be done much more easily if we first dissolve some of the competitive or even elitist preconceptions about what it is to play in an orchestra. Let’s play with, not against, each other! Let’s produce the sort of sound only the best of comrades can produce. That’s what orchestras are supposed to be all about, right?
Panagiotis, you’ve also chosen to program works by contemporary and emerging composers such as Mark Bosch, alongside classics from Smetana and Dvorak. Talk us through your choices.
PK: I’ve had so many discussions with my peers about the works they’re most passionate about; the masterpieces they really yearn to play. We’ve all got our musical bucket lists. On mine was Scheherazade, which we performed in December 2017; and for our upcoming concert, we’ve sourced two Czech masterpieces from the bucket lists of our musicians.
At the same time, however, there are always great new works being written, and these too deserve exposure. As much as we love our Beethovens and Tchaikovskys, I think we can reap much more unique rewards from shining the spotlight on the unfamiliar. From an educational standpoint alone, it’s thrilling to be able to place the old and the new alongside each other like this (not to mention that it draws a wider crowd)!
Mark, how do you feel about being programmed into a concert with these classical composers? Is the combination important?
MB: I am really thrilled to have been programmed alongside these masterpieces, not least because it takes the pressure off me a little bit. 300 Hours is not a masterpiece, and I never set out for it to be, nor would I ever have had the perspiration in me for such an undertaking.
By the same token, I didn’t compose the piece with any genuine investment in creating a continuity between Die Moldau and Dvorak’s eighth. Honestly, I’m not sure I can ever be convinced that the program ‘works’, as such. I can only take other people by their word in an attempt to catch a glimpse of that external standing position — that of the audience member — outside of the hundreds of hours I’ve spent poring over the Sibelius score, listening ad nauseam to those digital sound sets we all love to hate.
The sad truth is that my experience of our upcoming concert and of 300 Hours can never be divorced from my (generally slow and gruelling) experience of composing it. Any claim I make to its inclusion in the program working, then, will be well and truly skew-whiff. If others think it works, well, then it works! If they don’t, that is also totally fine.
So what’s this laborious 300 Hours all about, then?
MB: 300 Hours derives its title from the approximate number of hours I put into it. Those hours of labour are represented by, but not reducible to, a finished product which lasts a tiny fraction of that timespan.
If anyone finds this idea self-serving, I would ask that they give some thought to their relationship with labour. We all have every right to be proud of the work we do. Whether that work is moral is another question. One of the things that confounds me the most about Australia (and the world) is that we allocate huge sums of money to institutions and individuals who torture and abuse Indigenous peoples, refugees, and asylum seekers – to those who make their living off the backs of others, while letting those who just want to do a little bit of good in the world languish in relative poverty and obscurity.
On a macro level, 300 Hours is a call to recognise the work of all those whose labour is left un(der)appreciated and un(der)paid. Fighting the good fight is always just so.
Panagiotis, we’ve discussed a lot about Mark’s music and the opportunities you bring to others. But what do you get out of Modest Orchestra?
PK: The honest truth is that I really just love giving fellow students the opportunity to play parts that they normally wouldn’t get to elsewhere. One of our oboists, Hamish, for example, who specialises in Baroque period performance, played first oboe in Scheherazade last year. Giving people the chance to start building a broad range of experiences with different repertoire is something I think is really important for crafting that ‘whole musician’.
On a related note, I’ve observed that other orchestras tend to prioritise the musical product rather than the development of the musicians themselves. As a music educator, however, I think it’s important that we put process before product; or that we worry about the journey rather than the destination, to use a cliché.
When it all comes down to it, why do you two love working together?
MB/PK: We’ve known each other since 2009 when we were just wee little Year 7s! We like to reminisce about catching the train home from school in those days; when we used to chat, play games, listen to music, or share homework. We’ve been very close friends ever since, and like all great chemistry, our friendship can’t be quite chalked up to any one aspect of our personalities. All we know is that, well after having graduated from the Con High, we continue to create great memories together.
The Modest Orchestra will present Journey to Bohemia, including the world premiere of Bosch’s 300 Hours, at Verbrugghen Hall, The Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 7pm July 25.
Shout the writer a coffee?
We volunteer our time here at CutCommon to support new music in Australia. Shout Stephanie a coffee for publishing this story, if you like.
Images supplied. Pay what you like through PayPal. (You don’t *actually* have to take the writer out.) We protect your personal information.
