Festival wrap!

Last week I returned from ten sun-drenched days Townsville. Why Townsville, I hear you ask. Well, every year, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music is held there; international and Australian artists convene to make music together for a dedicated audience of those who have travelled from all around Australia to enjoy the intense nature of a festival. How I came to be at the festival is a long, but exciting story, so bear with me (or skip ahead a paragraph or two...)

On Good Friday, I received an email from Piers Lane, who is the Artistic Director of AFCM, and a wonderful Australian pianist who is based in London. I first met Piers two years ago when I went as a trio member as part of the AFCM Advanced Winterschool (an education arm of the AFCM offering students masterclasses and the like). I was introduced to him again last year by my former piano teacher from university, when we were both at the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival, where I was a member of a piano+wind quintet (lead by Paul Dean, our esteemd ANAM Artistic Director). At that time, I'm pretty sure I was sitting with my former teacher's two children, watching some DVD and being snuggled up to. Irrelevant, though fun, facts! In time, Piers had talked to Paul about the possibility of one of the pianists from ANAM coming to the festival to page-turn for artists (as sometimes Winterschool students, who have done so in previous years, are inexperienced and make artists a bit nervy, particularly as most of the concerts are live broadcast), and to also play for the Winterschool students who come as instrumental soloists. Paul had mentioned me and that was all good. Earlier this year, the first of ANAM's Australian Voices series at the Melbourne Recital Centre featured the music of Nigel Westlake. This programme was curated by Matthew Hoy, a member of staff at ANAM and also a fine cellist himself; Michael Kieran Harvey also played the piano sonata of Westlake, which was astonishing (for many reasons, including that it is very difficult!). I played in an ensemble piece called 'Rare Sugar', scored for clarinet solo, string quartet, double bass and piano. This was a highly enjoyable experience, and a lot of work went into its preparation as it is quite a tightly written score, and rhythmically very groovy and interlocking. Only a day before the performance did I manage to start letting go and enjoying myself, instead of only concentrating on counting to five, or seven, or feeling the two-and-a-half. I usually do not care much for reviews, though nice ones are always pleasant, and in a few days, there was a review in The Age of the Westlake concert, which was fairly complimentary. I was referred to by name, and as "sprightly" which I think is quite a positive term. Incidentally, the day that this review came out was the day that Piers Lane was in Melbourne, launching the AFCM. The featured composer for AFCM 2012 was actually Nigel Westlake himself, and some of his works had been programmed for the festival. Upon the recommendation of Festival artists Cathy McCorkill (clarinet) and the Goldner String Quartet, for whom the piece was written, 'Rare Sugar' was programmed for the festival. However, it was only when the programme notes were being written was it noted that the piece also required a double bass and piano. That's ok, the double bass part could be covered by another artist at the festival this year, Max McBride. However, the pianists at the festival had heaps of stuff and repertoire to do and Piers couldn't think of who might be able to play this part. Until he saw the review in the paper. And it all clicked. The person to come to the festival to do these things was me.

And so it was, all the processes were set in motion: the business of checking with my teacher (a resounding 'of course you should go'), getting leave from ANAM (as it involved missing the first week of term 3), liaising with the administration team of the Festival and organising flights, a contract, publicity material and much more business-y things. After a jam-packed 'mid-year holiday' from ANAM filled with concerts, baking days, rehearsals, and competition, I was all set to go to Townsville for AFCM 2012!

Let me tell you, waking up at 4am is not pleasant; I don't even remember why I agreed to a 7.30am flight - remind me not to ever again! Bleary-eyed and yawning, I made it to Sydney for the half-hour layover, which was of course, not even that long as the flight was slightly delayed. I really did step off one plane, walked into the terminal building for a grand total of maybe four minutes, only to step onto another plane en route to Townsville. I was thankful to finally arrive in Queensland - too many hours sitting in a plane seat with not much else to go! Plus, it was warm, like 24 degrees warm. Which, when one comes from a fairly bleak and grey Melbourne winter, is pretty much like pure bliss. One of the lovely volunteers from the festival was waiting to pick me up from the airport. Bronwyn was the first of the many amazing volunteers who helped to make the Festival such a smooth-running operation. As I was to find out through the week, there were volunteers to drive us around to the rehearsal and concert venues, to and from our hotel, and even to the shops or The Brewery, should it be not too inconvenient! There were volunteers to staff the lunch room (where I spent many hours...on account of not too many pratice/rehearsal rooms! Oh ok, yes, I admit I love eating..!), there were volunteers at the concerts, ushering, and doing all sorts of wonderfully often neglected and overlooked, yet important jobs of all kinds. We stopped by the shops for me to get some supplies, feed my famished gob, and restock on milk for the rehearsal venue (important ingredient in morning coffee, an essential Festival drink). On our way, we drove along The Strand (which is a beautiful beach front strip), and Bronwyn told me all about the places to go (and to not go!), with some recommendations for dining out. I was greeted at Quest Apartments, my home base for the next ten days, by Deb, Artistic Administrator. It was great to be able to meet her finally, as she was the person I'd mostly been communicating with about the festival and all the arrangements. What a wonder woman! As a fairly young, still-student, from a family who doesn't often go on holidays where we splash out on hotels and the like, this was pretty exciting. I will probably make the worst diva ever, which I consider to be a fairly good quality, as I always think, "Wow, I get THIS?!?!". I shared a lift with one of the music interns, who was helping to bring up a brand new Yamaha digital piano for my room so that I could practise in my hotel room. (All the pianists got this deal, so good!) Deb handed over an Artist's Welcome Pack, full of information, schedules (the only criticisms here was that the font was so tiny, and that everything was labelled with only the date, not the day of the week!), some freebies (yay!), programmes and a bottle of red wine (Yeah, I could be an artist every day, I think!). The sun was shining, I had a whole room to myself, and I was having a day off to myself! Blissful indeed. While we're talking about the hotel, yes, my bed was huge. Like, two single beds put together-huge, where I can't reach the corners when I do the starfish. And to celebrate my bed being nicely made for me every day (because I'm not diligent enough to make it quite so tightly or neatly myself), and its size, I slept on one side, then rolled over, then could keep rolling over; and yes, I also slept in the centre too (crack and all), just for fun. I went for a little explore into town that afternoon - I must have walked to to not so exciting part of the mall as many of the shop fronts were bare. However, I did visit the Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, which was the venue for the Winterschool Public Masterclasses, and also the gallery where Di Bresciani's 'Rhythms of Light' is currently on exhibition. I also visited Mary Who? Bookshop, one of the stores supporting AFCM and its events and artists.

The next day I met with the amazing Michele Walsh, legendary for qualities which include (though not limited to) having time for everybody and everything, tireless and enthusiastic leadership, violin and teacher extraordinaire, everybody's proxy mother and general awesomeness. I have to note here that I had not met her until this day, but had heard so much about her, in part because I have many friends who have learnt with her. Michele was an artist at the Festival in her own right, as well as Director of the Winterschool at AFCM 2012. She carried out both roles (and particularly the latter) with great dedication, patience, generosity and sensibility, and was an utter joy to work with. Her role as Winterschool Director involved organising lessons and masterclasses for the students with the artists, and deciding on the public concert at the end of the week, as well as leading the Winterschool Young String Ensemble Workshop during the first weekend, among other things. It was wonderful to meet her for the first time on Friday, and to feel like we already knew a lot of each other, as we had exchanged emails in the week prior, and knowing so many mutual people. The first half of our coffee date was dedicated to business and organising the Winterschool schedules and stuff, and the second half turned into a very pleasant exchange of all sorts of ideas, recountings and getting-to-know-yous!

My role as Winterschool accompanist was a fairly late addition to the mix of the Festival, all things considered in festival timelines (which I imagine to start a good year or several in advance). Some students come to the Winterschool as soloists, and obviously bring repertoire that sometimes needs a piano. Thus, my role was very immediate and full of surprises! It was lovely to meet a new bunch of students who were keen to learn; some of them were people who I had mutual friends with, so that was very lovely! My job here was to play for their classes with the artists, and also on one occasion, to play for the public masterclass. This was a great way to learn some repertoire very quickly and to also sit in on some fascinating lessons (that I otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to do so). The thing that struck me about the artists giving lessons was the different ways they approached things - some were more technique-specific, some talked about specific details of the music, some made broad comments about using eg. the left hand (string player), some talked about the solo line's relation to the piano part. But the thing that was overwhelmingly constant and fascinating was their musicality and love of music, they ability to convey concepts to students and their generosity of time and energy. David Harding, one of the violists at the Festival, remarked on the enthusiasm of the students to learn and that for him, he would rather give many lessons for free to those who are enthusiastic and hungry to learn, than to those who pay and have no interest whatsoever.

One of the other things I did was page-turn for many of the pianists in many of the concerts, providing I was not otherwise busy with rehearsals of my own. Many people don't enjoy this job at all, and I can understand why - so much pressure to make sure it's right, and if you screw up the pianist might screw up! There are many intricacies (or not!) of page-turning. Helpful hints include making sure you don't have an overwhelming scent (or odour..!), not wearing a jacket or item of clothing that may get in the way, making sure not to eat garlic or onion prior to page-turning gig, making sure you don't get in the way if the pianist has low notes, using the left hand (usually) so that your arm doesn't get in the way of the pianist reading the notes, whether you wait for the nod or anticipate, and standing up early enough to not make the pianist feel stressed. And what not. Easy....! This proves to be an interesting and invaluable job - I sat on stage almost every night with a most interesting seat. One gets to see the pianists' hands close up, gets to read the music (especially cool for listening to works that are new to me!) and to feel the energy between the players on stage. I've recently been developing a theory that one gets to know others very well when we play music with them, because it's such a personal thing to do and it - rehearsing and playing - reveals a lot about one's personality and working style, very quickly. One gets some sort of sense of the pianist's style when sitting at such close proximity! And each of the pianists I turned for was different and equally fascinating. They each had their different preferences and at some times, required me to do slightly different things (turn late, turn early, don't turn back, turn back, wait....). The funny thing is that the audience noticed, "Oh, you are doing a great job with the page-turning, I don't know how you get it right all the time!" and other things like that. It was fantastic to meet the pianists of AFCM 2012 and to be able to observe them so closely. Even more wonderful was having Kathy Stott come to teach us at ANAM in Melbourne after the Festival!

Of course, I went to as many concerts as I physically and mentally could - just for the record, there were almost 25 concerts in nine days. There were so many excellent performances, how can one list them all? But try as I may.....
The Storioni Trio (with Natsuko Yoshimoto replacing their regular violinist, who was injured) from Holland were very impressive in all of their performances. Their Ravel and Archduke trios were magnificent, and full of colour.
Piers Lane's performance of Malcolm Williamson's second piano concerto was a riot, as this is a piece I don't know, and it is utterly nuts! It's jazzy, it's fun, it's offbeat and just crazy.
The Debussy concert: an account of Debussy's messy and crazy life, interspersed with some of his chamber works. Debussy's music constantly makes me fall in love with music again and again!
Goldner Quartet's Beethoven Op. 18 No. 3 They're just amazing. The quartet, that is (more about them later..)
A fabulous tango concert, largely led by Atle Sponberg, the coolest Norwegian around - this guy went roller-skiing (?!?! But we found out they don't have brakes!) and plays the violin like a boss, and he does tangos amazingly!
Caroline Almonte playing the Goldberg Variations - just, wow!
The best Brandenburg #3 I have ever witnessed - the most energetic, fun and spirited strings I have seen.
The Families' Concert with Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals (made my glockenspiel debut..!), best rendition of 'Pianists' (by best I mean 'hilarious'), amazing narration (text by Ogden Nash) and just all-round fun
and a most memorable Festival Farewell concert, the funnest concert of the entire festival.

....and that's just some of the highlights! (Don't worry, emphasis on 'some'.)


But the real highlight of the week was surely playing in one of the evening concerts with such fine musicians as the Goldner Quartet, Cathy and Max. Here I entered into the world of being a Festival Artist. Let me tell you, festivals run at breakneck speed. You often get chucked together with other people in a quick hurry and you don't get a lot of rehearsal time! We had three scheduled rehearsals, a dress rehearsal and then the performance; however, due to schedules being tight and several changes during the week, I think we had a total of maybe two or so hours to put this piece together. Thank goodness all (but one) of us had played this work before! It's a tricky work, with changing time signatures, offbeats and things that lock together, but maybe not how you expect it to. It's got a cool groove, so once you get into it, it's great, but getting into it in the first place is hard. Had I not been at ANAM, firstly, I would not have had this amazing opportunity to even be at the Festival. Secondly, I would not be so well prepared, or happy with the idea of short turnaround times, or be used to working at such a fast pace. Of course, the other members of the ensemble were very kind and helpful (I'm just little me!!). But I'm glad that I was paranoid enough to prepare well! Working with these musicians was an utter joy and exciting ride. The performance itself went quite well, with a few slips on the way (as to be expected in live performance, and with new people!), and I had lots of fun. Apparently I grooved big time, as many people pointed out later! What was crazy about this experience was that I was playing alongside these musicians who are people I respect greatly, and are the sorts of people I myself would go to, to seek musicial training! They have taught and tutored my friends and colleagues - it's a crazy thought to conceive that I was an equal member of the ensemble as them. Part of me was proud to have been performing and to be able to prove that I am a capable pianist, and the other part of me was completely humbled to be part of it. I don't think I even have the words to adequately experess how amazing this experience was.


This was truly one of the most exciting musicial experiences in my life so far. I learnt so much from being there, doing stuff and being around so many amazing artists. There are many stories from this trip which I have not even recounted - many are hilarious and fun (like watching the Olympics coverage in the green room prior to going on stage, true story!). I met so many amazing people - both professional artists and fellow students (my future colleagues!) and had a lot of fun. Should anything further come from this, fantastic; if not, I have had a wonderful experience. Words fail to really capture it all!