BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Welcome to our series, What the Fact?!
Throughout 2018, we’re teaming up with talent at the Australian National Academy of Music to bring you informed answers to real questions and topics about your music career.
Ever wondered why you feel performance anxiety? What the deal is with tuning to 440Hz – or not? How to lead an orchestra? We’re here to tell you all about it.
Flautist Eliza Shephard is the star of today’s What the Fact?! and she’s here to tell us all about performing with someone who moves their bodies in strange ways. Her recital The Storyteller this October 22 will feature movement artist Brooke Duckworth, along with a host of performers, as they present works by Cage, Takemitsu, Soper, and plenty more.
Eliza studies at ANAM after having received her Bachelor of Music with Honours (First Class) at the Australian National University, taking out a Peter Karmel Honours Scholarship for Music in the process. In 2015, Eliza was the only Australian accepted into American flautist Robert Dick’s exclusive New York studio course, and has since been awarded second place in the Open Competition at the Australian Flute Festival, at Melbourne Youth Orchestra’s Virtuosity competition, and in the Musical Society of Victoria’s Hephzibah Menuhin competition.
Hacking your recital with a movement artist!
Eliza, let’s get straight to it. You’ve recruited a movement artist for your ANAM Recital. What’s with that?
I have indeed! The wonderful Brooke Duckworth from the National Institute of Circus Arts will be joining me on stage for my recital on 22 October. I wanted to explore drawing the audience into the musical realm more deeply than purely playing to them. Therefore, I hope that joining the musical interpretation with a visual element will achieve that in the final performance.
Coming from a theatrical background, I wanted to experiment sharing the stage with another artform whilst performing music.
To what music will the movement artist perform? Did they choreograph moves into a work, or is one work specifically written for movement artists?
Brooke and I will be performing Toru Takemitsu’s Voice. This piece was written in 1971 for Swiss flutist Aurèle Nicolet, and showcases a blend of techniques from Western and Japanese cultures. As a more avant-garde work compared with the other pieces in my recital, I felt I might take some artistic liberties and add another dimension to Takemitsu’s composition.
Brooke and I initially improvised through the work together, sectioning it up along the way. We trialled different movements to go with the vast selection of sounds and colours within Takemitsu’s writing. It has been very much a collaboration and joint effort to make the piece what it is. Brooke has been an absolute pro through the entire process, offering movement after crazy movement to find the perfect gesture for each phrase.
How have you found the rehearsals – and has it been difficult not to get distracted by fellow artists moving their bodies in such intense ways?
Before coming to ANAM, I was more often than not on stage in a variety of music theatre productions. I’m used to seeing people in all sorts of wild positions, depending on what the individual productions call for. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I got distracted through the rehearsals for Voice, but as I’ve told Brooke throughout our rehearsals, I’ve been living vicariously through her this entire process: I trained as a dancer when I was younger, but then had to make the heartbreaking decision between dance and music. I’m constantly drawn to multidisciplinary performances involving dance or circus with music, and feel like I’m taking a trip back through time and getting to relive my joy of dancing.
Part of me has been melancholy while rehearsing the Takemitsu – I wish I could still do the beautiful and energetic moves that Brooke can do! Another part of me is so thrilled that I have the opportunity to share my passion with another artist.
What have you learnt from working with artists of this medium?
I’ve found it to be a very beautiful and intimate experience putting this performance together. Not only do I have to ensure that I’m being respectful to Takemitsu’s writing in my playing, but I also have to make sure that Brooke is comfortable, and that we have a strong connection the entire performance. Her choreography relies on musical cues, eye contact, and my own subtle movements to ensure that we are constantly connected throughout the piece. Getting to react to what she gives me and vice versa has been an intimate and sensitive experience, and has given me the urge to continue creating musical performances with movement.
So, a new piece will be world premiered in your recital, too?
In June and July this year, I headed over to Banff, Canada, to participate in the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Ensemble Evolution program. While I was there, I roomed with New York City composer Lucy Hollier. Across the three weeks of the program, I heard so many new works pouring out of Lucy and the musicians who performed her works, and I loved her musical style so much!
Through my Masters of Music at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University, I’m taking a closer look at the Glissando Headjoint®, and I wanted Lucy to write something specifically for it. She has written this wild little work called Mostly Milk, and I can’t wait to share her music in Australia!
What impact do you hope your recital will make on audiences?
I’m hoping that my recital will be a memorable and exciting experience, and that each person who attends connects to something that they found moving or exciting, or purely enjoyable!
I want to continue creating musical experiences rather than performances. I want to create dynamic and boundary-testing concerts that push the current conceptions of music, and transport the audiences to new spaces, times, and dimensions if I can. Music doesn’t have to take on a purely stand-and-deliver approach; it can be used for so many things in life. So why not explore that while I have the chance?
Why should musicians consider performing with circus performers, contortionists, movement artists, or any other art discipline in their next gig?
I recently went and saw NICA’s showcase Company 18, and I was mindblown at how much talent was there. It got me thinking: in Melbourne, we are extremely lucky to be surrounded by so many incredible institutions, arts programs, organisations, and individuals, so why not try to get involved with as many as possible? The opportunities are endless!
As a person dipping my toe into the pool before plunging in headfirst, I would say to all those musicians considering doing something crazy with their music: there are so many people out there who are offering so many different things. Get out there and experience them, play with them, explore with them! There are performances crying out to be created, not to mention performers crying out to be involved. Collaborate! Take the risks! Dare to be wild!
And invite me to opening night.
Watch Eliza Shephard present her ANAM Recital The Storyteller at 3pm October 22 at Federation Hall in the Victorian College of the Arts.
We’re partnering with ANAM to hook up with some of the strongest talent in the world in our new educational series! Check back in soon for our next What the Fact?! with professionals in the music industry.
