Hamish Keen is a contemporary film composer based in Melbourne, Australia. His deeply rooted musical background sparked a journey that has taken him through cathedral choirs, orchestras, jazz, classical theory, vintage gear and every instrument family he could get his hands on.
Having scored a feature film, several short films, stage productions, installation, sound design, animations and independent work of his own, Hamish is a versatile producer and engineer skilled working with or without picture.
A specialist working from unique and improvised recorded samples, Hamish’s workflow allows him to produce everything from heart warming concerto’s to slick pop music in commercial time frames without the cost usually associated with large scale live recordings. He will soon be a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts specialist Interactive Composition program.
Alex Olijnyk is a contemporary classical composer based in Melbourne, Australia. With a background in orchestral and chamber music, Alex is frequently commissioned by organisations such as Arts Centre Melbourne, New Stage, Leicester University and the University of Melbourne.
Alex specialises in multimedia/sensory works and has collaborated with extraordinary creators such as visual artist Roman Schöni and head chef of Matilda 159, Tim Young. Alex is also an experienced short film and documentary composer – films she has composed for have gone on to win prizes at festivals.
Outside of composition, Alex is a professional cellist, having played with multiple orchestras and ensembles around the world. As a cellist, she is an expert in writing for strings; however, her work is versatile, and includes everything from classical to pop, folk, and electronica.
Apollo Music Society is a music society at the University of Melbourne. We have a diverse range of ensembles open for anyone of all levels of experience to join!
From our humble beginnings as a small string orchestra, Apollo has flourished to become a well-established member of the cultural life at the University of Melbourne. Our membership includes students from all faculties as well as students from other tertiary institutions.
Since our inception in 2002, we have also seen the birth and growth of several ensembles such as our acapella choir Acapollo, a fusion band, choir, and a snazzy jazz band! Why not try us out?
What do we do?
We at Apollo strive to pursue two main goals, as embodied in the namesake of our society: Apollo, the ancient Greek deity of Health and Music:
Music: Yes, as a music society we do indeed make music! We aim to unite students together in their musical interests, enhancing your university experience while also making good friends!
Health: Playing music is healthy, and using our musical talent we promote health through music, by means of (but not limited to) holding concerts and donating to health-related causes, and performing at hospitals and nursing homes.
As a society, we have a variety of social events through the year whether it’s going out for a meal or drinks after rehearsal, excursions to chocolate factories or our biannual camps!
I had the chance to speak to Ciara Walsh, president of Apollo Music Society at Melbourne University. The Apollo Music Society is a music club with a health and charity focus. Their last event in February was a fundraising concert, with proceeds going to the Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund in the wake of the devastating Victorian bushfires.
While there are no physical events scheduled for the foreseeable future, the Apollo Music Society will be having a virtual open mic night, where members and friends can contribute pre-filmed or live-streamed videos of their musical performances. The event will be taking place via Zoom on April 17th, and submissions are due by April 15th. Event is linked here. You can learn more about the work of Apollo Music Society through their Facebook page, YouTube channel, and website.
What are you studying at Melbourne University?
I’m currently completing an arts degree, I’m a politics major. So nothing to do with music!
What prompted you to join the Apollo Music society?
The main thing I did back in high school as an extra-curricular was music. I learnt French horn from year seven, and I got a French horn for my eighteenth… It’s like, instead of a car, my parents bought me a French horn! They’re quite expensive, and I’d never had my own, only rented ones from the school. I really wanted to make use of it, and the first thing people say to do when you start uni is to join clubs. So I thought, the best thing for me to do is to join a music club, so I can do the thing I love and meet new people.
I chose Apollo Music society because of the health and charity side of it, which sets it apart from other music clubs. Also, they had a broader range of ensembles. The French horn is a bit of a niche instrument, and I didn’t just want to play in an orchestra, but other straight stage bands don’t accommodate French horns.
At the moment the society has eight ensembles running. A choir, an acapella group, two rock bands, a ‘fusion’ band, which is an adapted concert band where any instrument can join, and was the first ensemble I joined. (I’m in four now.) And rounding out the list is the jazz ensemble and strings ensemble.
I’m currently president of the committee. During my second year in the club I was voted in to the committee as performance officer. I was in charge of organising the events. At the start of semester two last year I was elected president.
So how do you manage all of your commitments at once?
I study part time. I wouldn’t be able to do this if I was studying full time. It’s a lot of work. And I have a part time job.
If I didn’t have the passion for the club, it would be a lot harder. It is a lot of work, but because I’m happy to do it, it makes it a lot easier to not put things off, and just stick to it and do it! Last semester, I was doing twelve hours of rehearsal a week, as well as committee meetings, and all of the organisational stuff that goes into it. It was taking up more of my time than study or work.
But having the balance of everything helps. I have work at a specific time, I have rehearsals at a specific time. I know there are certain tasks for the club I have to get done on a daily basis… I deal with the assessments as they come. That’s probably the worst part! Just keeping up with the university assessments. I guess I’m extremely busy, but it’s manageable.
[At the time of interviewing, Apollo Music society had recently had their end of semester POPS concert]
It’s only performance event which includes all of our ensembles. It’s the opportunity each semester for everyone to perform together, and you can invite all your family and friends and showcase what you’ve been preparing all semester. With each concert we hold, we pick a charity to dedicate all our proceeds to. We try to make it a charity that’s relevant to us, whether that’s because someone in the club has had personal experience with it, or because we think it would be relevant to a lot of our members. We’ve picked a lot of mental health charities in the past. Another example is JDRF, a charity focusing on helping young people with Type 1 diabetes, because some of our members have had experiences with that.
We also have a big bake sale. Because we need to cover the costs of holding the event, we make sure all of the proceeds from the bake sale solely go to the charity.
Are the members of the club predominantly non-music students?
Yep, the vast majority are not music students. Obviously because when you study music full time, you don’t tend to need music performance as a release in your spare time as well!
The Apollo Music society is a very inclusive club. The ensembles are only auditioned when there’s room for only one instrument of the type, like keyboard. Otherwise the groups are open to whoever wants to join. But the standard is really impressive actually.
What have been some of the most rewarding moments during your time as president of the Apollo Music society?
It has been really nice watching the other committee members grow into their roles. Before I joined this round of the committee, there was a high turnover, so a lot of people were elected who had never been part of a committee before. And a lot of those people were people I encouraged to join because I thought they would be good for it.
The choir performing at the Apollo Music Society POPS concert, October 25th 2019.
And of course, pulling off events… it feels different when you’re in charge of things, a lot of responsibility falls on you. But it’s a really nice payoff when things when work out. Not that everything has been perfect, everything’s a learning experience. And my executive team is all fresh, none of them had ever been in an executive position before. Usually there would be one or two people on the committee who had served before.
You gain a lot of leadership skills you wouldn’t get elsewhere. And it’s such a learning experience liaising with external parties, venues, etc…
How did you begin playing French horn?
In year seven, we had a music club where you could try different instruments out, and for some reason I picked French horn! Not only did it look really cool, but the teacher was really lovely. I learnt from her during my first three years of the instrument. I owe a lot to her. It is a difficult instrument, and it does sound terrible for a while! It’s not like piano, where even if you hit the wrong notes, it’s still going to sound pretty because the tone is good. With the French horn it’s a struggle to get anywhere with sounding good and it’s hard to stay motivated…
But she was so encouraging, one of those teachers who end up really inspiring you, and you never forget them. She took her music students to see the MSO, stuff like that. Even though she left after those three years, it was enough to ground my love for the French horn and push me to continue playing throughout high school.
Apollo Music Society POPS concert, October 25th 2019.
What kind of music do you like playing on the French horn?
I love jazz. When played well, the French horn has a lovely, warm sound. Gershwin’s style of jazz is a great fit for French horn. With my ensembles, they are all student arrangements, and no one knows how to arrange for French horn, which is totally understandable, I don’t expect them to… I end up playing parts that would not normally be given to a French horn, and don’t necessarily suit the instrument. But it’s also kind of fun to do things that you wouldn’t normally do. I’ve played bass parts or guitar parts on the French horn.
But when I play at home or by music, I have a big book of Gershwin tunes which I love.
What makes Apollo Music Society unique?
The club was started by medical students. The idea was to promote health through music and utilise the healing potential of music, for both physical and mental health. We try make sure we’re always incorporating a charity element to our events. Aside from our concerts, we also have a camp every year, where we do a trip to a nursing home and perform for the residents there.
We try to actively help other societies or groups with charity gigs, often other clubs will approach us to help them hold a charity gig. They may be a not-for-profit society but without the musical element, so we might perform at their event or help raise additional funds through a bake sale. It’s really rewarding to see music bring so much enjoyment to other people.
Most of the other music clubs on campus, don’t have the breadth of ensembles that we do. We really offer something for all kinds of music performance. Even if you can’t be in an ensemble because of other commitments, we have so many social events which all members can be a part of.
Apollo Music Society semester two POPS concert, October 25th 2019.
The ensembles are super collaborative. The fusion band, which is the bigger band, is probably the most challenging, because there are so many instruments to arrange for, and we don’t have a conductor when we perform as a concert band. Everyone is very supportive and collaborative, people jump in during rehearsals to direct different parts of the pieces. Every ensemble has its own culture. Being in a lot of them, it’s really interesting to experience the different vibes!
I had the chance to speak to Leah Phillips, a multi-talented creative who currently works full time for Australian Music Education Board in marketing and communications. She is also an emerging soprano who has taken part in youth artist programs such as Opera Scholars Australia and performed in productions staged by Babirra Music Theatre. Leah’s career path is a great example of the advantages of versatility in the arts industry.
When did you realize you wanted to pursue music more seriously?
Throughout high school I was part of a choir which was really well run. I’m still friends with the choral director, a lovely woman named Beryl. We hang out from time to time! The choir was more classical and provided amazing choral training. During my year eleven and twelve music subjects, I sang more contemporary repertoire, so jazz, music theatre…
When I finished year twelve, I applied for a few different degrees (not including a music degree). I began an arts degree at Monash, and started taking subjects from a whole bunch of different disciplines to see what I liked the best: Japanese, theatre studies, music electives, business subjects and marketing subjects.
After about six months I realised that music was the subject that excited and motivated me the most. So I started having one-on-one lessons with the head of vocal studies at the time, Loris Synan. And after about six months of lessons with Loris I auditioned for the Bachelor of Music degree. After finishing the undergraduate degree at Monash, I completed my Honours year at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
So tell me a little bit about where you’re working now, and the role that you’re currently in.
I currently work for AMEB, Australian Music Education Board, in their federal office. The federal office handles the publishing of all the syllabuses, and the requirements for the exams that the state offices then run. I’m the Marketing and Communications Officer. I started in more of an administration role and moved my way into this. I’ve been there about two years now.
I work underneath the Marketing and Sales Manager who’s based in Sydney, so we work together by correspondence. Which is an interesting relationship but it works really well for us… we’re constantly doing zoom meetings or emailing each other or on the phone.
So it’s just us, but a few months ago we hired someone to help us out two days a week with social media scheduling and that side of things. I take care of all the email communications, website communications.
Leah transporting a harp during her time at Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp 2018. Leah took part in the orchestral management program.
AMEB has been a really good place to start working, my first role at AMEB was my first official role in arts management. I also had a really positive interview experience. AMEB recognized that I had lots of different skills, because I had done a range of marketing things, admin things, sales stuff through my retail job… Of course, as an artist you’re often forced to be resourceful and pick up lots of different employable skills.
They saw that and said, let’s just see where this goes, and it naturally evolved into the position that I am in today.
What would you say is the most rewarding aspect of your current job?
I would say it’s rewarding to see music affect people. We do events and launches and things like that, and we recently launched a theory book.
It’s a ‘how to do theory’ book, it’s not that amazing or glamorous, but the launch was attended by a big group of teachers and students. It was lovely to see how engaged the students were. They were so interested, coming up to our theory expert after the presentation, asking questions like, ‘I’m learning violin now, I’m currently at grade five, should I start learning this particular kind of theory?’ Some of them even had the theory book signed by the presenter, it was really sweet.
We run other engagement projects such as the online orchestra, where students can submit videos of themselves playing a particular song, and we combine them all. It has been really cool seeing entries come in of musicians playing their instruments in amazing locations. The human interaction side of it is really rewarding.
This is the 101st year of AMEB. So we’ve been working at modernising the reputation, slowly but surely. Getting up with the times, seeing it evolve and people taking notice of that.
Leah performing at Opera Scholars Australia Aria concert in 2018.
How did you end up in this position? Were you casting your eye over management jobs during your Honours year, or did the opportunity suddenly pop up?
The second half of 2017, my Honours year in Music Performance, was pretty hectic! I had all my assessments, and I took part in a university show outside my subject load, along with my final Honours recital.
I did keep my eye out for jobs in the industry, and applied for a few things at that time, positions at places like the Arts Centre. I had a few volunteer projects under my belt at the time, but not so much actual experience in the industry. So it wasn’t quite enough.
Then I applied for the Arts Management program at Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp. [National Music Camp is a two-week program run by AYO, involving multiple student orchestras, and programs in composition, music journalism, sound production, and orchestral management]
It’s a fantastic program, and was the biggest launching pad ever. Everyone has gone on to do the most insane things only a few months out from the program. I applied for it at the end of 2017, did another season of retail over the Christmas period, and then went on camp at the start of 2018. It was the most intense, hot, crazy, amazing, rewarding, fun time ever.
After the camp I applied for a fellowship role at Opera Australia. As part of National Music Camp, you could apply for a handful of fellowship programs in the arts management industry. There was one offered at Musica Viva, Opera Australia, and somewhere else I believe…
So I applied for the Opera Australia one. At the same time, I was applying for jobs at other organisations, which was when I applied for the job at AMEB. I went through two rounds of interviews and then I got offered the job!
As soon as I got the job at AMEB, I found out that I had gotten the fellowship at Opera Australia as well… I ended up being able to take it, because AMEB was so flexible. Six months into my brand new job, I left for the six week fellowship at the Opera Australia office in Melbourne. I left AMEB tentatively, they had said that I was welcome to come back, and I didn’t know what the fellowship would lead to.
During the fellowship, I worked with the philanthropy and fundraising team, as well as the commercial team who work on staging the musicals. They were planning Evita when I was working there, as well as the production of West Side Story which happened a few months ago. After the fellowship ended, I was able to return to AMEB, and my role merged into more of the marketing area that I am in now!
How do you see yourself potentially combining a management-based career with elements of a performance career?
That’s the endless question isn’t it! I see it as a sliding scale. The percentages will differ throughout my life. Right now I’m obviously I’m working a lot more than I’m performing. But I need to find that happy medium for where I am.
I suppose money-wise, it’s definitely at the point where my skill set for performing is not making money. So at the moment I have to give more weight to the job.
What does an average day look like for you as part of your role at AMEB?
It varies from day to day. There’s more of an average week than an average day. I have certain EDMs (electronic direct media) that I prepare on certain days, and I’m in charge of monitoring social media.
But things come up last minute all the time. So suddenly, there are five things that are urgently needing to be done that day! We also have a particular publishing schedule so things fluctuate with that.
What excites you about opera, and what’s your favourite part of the experience of performing in shows?
I think I love opera because it combines all the art forms. You’re not only singing amazingly, but you’re acting, and there’s an orchestra under you!
It’s rewarding peeling away all the different layers and developing your character. In opera there is always something more to learn, or try differently this time, or do from a different perspective… that’s why I love it. I feel like opera is something no one can ever master, there will always be something you can improve on.
Another favourite moment is the applause moment. Especially when you can tell it’s genuine! Last year in May I did a production of Sound of Music with Babirra Music Theatre company. The audience was filled with grandmas, little kids, parents… and every night the applause went for so long, and we did a sing-a-long at the end… Everyone was crying, on stage and off. It was such a pure moment. And we had fifteen shows of that, every night!
Leah performing in Opera Scholars Australia performance of Handel’s Messiah, 2018.
Meaty question- as someone working in marketing who is also a singer, do you think anything needs to change, for opera in Australia to have a lively future and engage audiences widely?
That’s a massive question! I think there is a lot of merit in collaboration. Collaborating more with ballet or with circus, having big companies and small companies working together… getting that funding spread across different places. Pulling in audiences from those specific areas of interest.
I think there have been some good examples of that recently, with the concerts held by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I think the opera industry could really learn from that. It’s about breaking down all the barriers that people perceive opera to be. Let people take a photo if they want to, within reason! Have more relaxed and accessible performances… Let’s not do the same productions in period costume, with the same directions from fifty years ago, all at the same time.
I think it’s interesting when things are done a bit differently, and that’s what brings in audiences. It also gives marketers, and PR people, a different angle on the same old story! It brings people in, if they hear there’s going to be a Mozart opera performed with a children’s circus company, for example! That will help bring opera to the people.
Leah Phillips is a soprano who enjoys exploring opera, musical theatre and art song repertoire both new and old. She holds a Bachelor of Music (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Music from Monash University. Leah is currently a second year scholar with Opera Scholars Australia and is the recipient of the John Dorrington scholarship.
This year, she was cast as Sister Bernadette and ensemble in Babirra Musical Theatre’s June production of The Sound of Music. She then went onto play various ensemble roles as a Featured Singer in The Wizard of Oz with Nova Musical Theatre.
As a member of the chorus, Leah has performed in Der Fliegende Holländer (Melbourne Opera), Lohengrin (Melbourne Opera) and Un ballo in maschera (XL Arts). Cover credits include Olive Hargrave in Fly (Lyric Opera of Melbourne), Euridice in Orfeo (MCM) and Yum Yum in The Mikado (Savoy Opera).
In 2018 Leah was chosen to participate in the AYO National Music Camp’s Orchestral Management program. Shortly after, Leah successfully applied for the AYO Fellowship position at Opera Australia. Leah is currently the Marketing and Communications Officer at the Australian Music Examinations Board.
A note from the editor: Ben and I met during the first year of our Bachelor of Music degree. He has written an insightful article for Fever Pitch Magazine on his experiences completely rethinking his approach to music performance. Ben is currently editing the manuscript of his first novel, ‘The Cellist’. If you enjoy Ben’s writing, you can keep up to date with his work through his website, Twitter, and Instagram. – Stella Joseph-Jarecki (Enquiries: stellamusicwriter.wordpress.com)
My name is Ben, and I dropped out of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music after less than a year. I started in 2013 and it didn’t take me long to realise I was in over my head.
Growing up, my Slavic parents pushed me to practice my cello every day. I had wanted to play in the beginning, but the novelty quickly wore off and by my teenage years I was totally over it. I would occasionally go through periods of intense motivation, usually after a stint in a youth orchestra, but mostly I spent my time mindlessly repeating pieces I already knew.
Around the age of 16, I suddenly decided that I would become a professional musician and no one could stop me. I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly set me off on this path, but it was probably a combination of Jaqueline Du Pre YouTube videos and a general reluctance to apply myself to anything else.
I worked hard to prepare myself for the audition — hours of practice each day, fending off naysayers who reminded me that there was no money in music, and finally, sweating through the audition. I never quite managed to convince my dad that I wouldn’t be out on the streets starving to death.
When I got my acceptance letter, I cried and thought all my dreams had come true. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I shouldn’t be so dramatic. My story is really about a naïve, over-ambitious 18 year-old who crumpled when the reality of a music education washed away his idyllic vision of being David Popper’s protégé.
I began studying, enjoying the first few weeks of theory and performance despite the intensity, but again, the novelty wore off. I had come from being the best cellist in my country-town school to the bottom of an exceptional class of first year cellists.
I very quickly realised that most of the other cellists were much better than me, and to say I felt inferior is an understatement. I struggled to come to terms with my newly discovered mediocrity and spent many hours agonising over the fact that I wasn’t good enough, when I should have spent those hours practicing.
My cello teacher questioned basic things like my left hand-position — something so utterly ingrained in a string player’s muscles that redeveloping it is like unlearning how to walk. I failed to get into the university orchestra the first semester and butchered eight-bar compositions in Music Language 1.
I was quickly losing hope in becoming a ‘successful musician’. I told myself I wasn’t a quitter, that becoming a soloist is tantamount to landing on the moon using only a pogo-stick, and that I should get used to hardship if I wanted to achieve my goal.
And I wasn’t wrong. Becoming a soloist is incredibly difficult, even for the best of us. There are plenty of virtuosic musicians out there who struggle to make a living out of nothing but solo performances. In reality, very few musicians do nothing but soloist work. The You-Tube videos we watch of Yo Yo Ma or Joshua Bell playing to sold out concert halls are small snippets of their otherwise (I’m assuming) well rounded careers. Chamber music, collaborations, and teaching are all part of the things they do.
At the time, forging a successful music career was my all-consuming goal. I was determined to become a soloist and didn’t consider any other pathway.
In hindsight, I can see that I was a perfectly capable cellist but had a completely destructive mindset. When I finally pulled the plug, I consoled myself by saying I didn’t want a musician’s lifestyle.
I transferred into a science degree and the $6,000 cello my parents had brought back from Europe gathered dust in the basement.
My fatal flaw was that I had no patience or respect for the long and slow process of development that is required to become a truly great musician. Soloists are formed after years of dedicated practice and a vast array of experience in the music industry. My assumption that I would be handed a soloist’s career on a silver platter when I finished my undergrad was pure, juvenile delusion.
Many of the world’s successful musician’s have never studied music formally because music is the type of discipline where you don’t need a qualification to take part in it. If I had really wanted to be a soloist, I would have been better served by the right cello teacher and enough stamina to practice eight hours a day.
The real value in a formal musical education is the context and breadth it covers. You learn about the history, theory and technique of music so that at the end of it you have a clearer idea of what specifically interests you about music, and where to point your attention from there.
You may simply enjoy having a deeper knowledge of the music you play, and decide to enter a career completely unrelated to music.
But what we shouldn’t do, and something that is all too common among young musicians (exhibit A = Benjamin Peska), is to entertain the idea that music school is all you need to be ‘successful’ musician. Music school is the beginning of a musical career, the bare minimum in a thoughtful approach to music. Even if you stumble to finish line, feeling like you’ve achieved nothing, the knowledge and experience you have acquired is invaluable. Since leaving the Conservatorium, I have uncovered my passion for ethnomusicology, which coincidentally is one of the Majors available at the Con. Had I started my music degree with a healthier mindset, and stuck through the inevitable hardships, I would have most likely discovered my love for ethnomusicology and turned my attentions in that direction. My delusions prevented me from extracting the true value from my musical education.
Here’s a pretty cool story from my New Zealand trip: I was staying at an Airbnb in Christchurch with a lady who happened to be a musician and choir leader. We got talking and I told her about the music I do and the Slovak community in Melbourne. The next day she knocked on my door and asked if there are any Slovak songs which would sound nice sung by a 4 part choir. I racked my brain and settled on very well known song called “Na Kráľovej holi” which is perfect for multiple harmonies. She asked if I had the music, which I didn’t, so here’s a picture of me writing it out for her. She promised to send me a video of her choir singing it once they had rehearsed it. The thought of a community choir singing a Slovak song in Christchurch, New Zealand blows my mind!
A few years on from abandoning my music school and I have (mostly) cured myself of my sickness. I rediscovered my love for music, after years of resenting it, and pinpointed exactly what it is about it that excites me: playing with other musicians. With this knowledge, I realise why it was so painful to lock myself in a room to practice for hours on end.
Today, I play more music than I ever have before. I play accordion in a folk band with some friends, teach cello and guitar to a handful of students, and help organise productions and performances at the Slovak Social Club. But one of my all-time favourite things to do is to play Slovak music with my brother at parties. This intimate setting, where people yell out their favourite songs and my brother and I try and catch the key that the tipsy singer has started in, is where I feel music most speaks to me.
I feel connected to my ancestors through the lyrics which hint at what they struggled and triumphed with, and playing without sheet music allows me to immerse myself more deeply in the music and the magic of improvising with another musician. All the while, I get to experience this while in the company of my closest friends and family.
My reasons for playing music have changed vastly over the past five years. Where it used to be a source of intense anxiety and stress, it is now one of my life’s serene pleasures. It took a lot of pain and a major mindset shift, but being clear about why I play music is undoubtedly the most important question I ever answered for myself.
Benjamin is a musician and writer from Melbourne. He loves to perform, improvise and write stories on the side. He enjoys teaches cello and guitar to young musicians, and loves to perform the music and dances of his ancestors to eager audiences. He plays and dances in a folk group and travels to Europe to perform at events and festivals. He also loves to write, and is working on his debut novel, a story based on his time studying at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.
A note from the editor:The piece you will be reading below has been written by James Hodson, guitarist and composer. James contacted me after seeing Fever Pitch Magazine mentioned in a Facebook group for Melbourne University music graduates and current students.
James is the creator and director of a successful YouTube channel, The Stringdom. Through his channel, James has interviewed masters and inventors of string instruments from all over the world, and had the chance to learn about the stories behind these unique instruments. Currently The Stringdom has over six thousand subscribers, and some videos have amassed over 180,000 views. You can keep up to date with James’ work through The Stringdom Facebook page and YouTube channel. Please enjoy this engaging taster of his work.
It’s not every day that you get to meet the person who invented a musical instrument. I found myself driving through sloping snow-covered hills outside Baltimore in the United States to meet Tim Meeks, the inventor of the Harpejji. It’s an instrument that looks like an elongated chess board, covered with strings running away from the player over a matrix of frets. The instrument benefited from having a sleek design, being instantly appealing to youtube-savvy music makers, and also had the endorsement of the incomparable Stevie Wonder. It was only eighteen months earlier that I’d started interviewing musicians who played interesting string instruments, and I was quickly amazed at the variety, enthusiasm, mastery and generosity that my guests provided.
I was able to travel widely for work, and I wanted to have something to show for the places I’d been, something more tangible and documentary. Growing up in the Western Classical musical tradition, I had only a passing appreciation of folk music and how it worked. The backdrop of suburbia compounded the lack of knowledge of this way of making music: the organic, flexible and dynamic nature of ‘folk music’: the music of the ‘people’. And honestly, it didn’t much interest me. I listened to a lot of different (Western) music, and I was also excited by language, culture, history, and travel. Looking back, it was inevitable that music and international cultures would intersect at some point.
My first interview for The Stringdom was prompted purely by my own curiosity. I was in Italy, and I managed to get the number of a mandolin player. The mandolin is a familiar instrument, but I wanted to know more: about the history, about what kinds of music are played on the mandolin in Tuscany, and about the musicians themselves, and their relationship with the instrument and its culture. I reasoned that other people might be interested in the same kinds of interviews, so I set up a camera and microphone to record as I sat down with Mauro Redini, who would be the first interviewee for the then-untitled interview series The Stringdom.
Finland was next on my itinerary. Having been there multiple times and even at some point torturing myself with attempting to learn the language, it’s probably fair to say I learnt more about Finland than most Australians care to know. However, I had no idea about the Finnish national instrument, the kantele. Asking other Finnish friends, it was clear they knew little about it as well. When I sought out Pauliina Syrjälä, one of the modern masters of the instrument, I was truly astounded by her passion and energy for promoting her overlooked instrument.
James (right) interviewing Johannes Geworkian Hellman, pictured with his hurdy-gurdy. Stockholm, 2017. Video interview can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEk_DbLMbLI
This openness, generosity and evangelical enthusiasm for these instruments was present in every interview I recorded, from Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden, to Sri Lanka, India and South America. Most of the musicians were very aware of their inheritance of a tradition, and an identity, such as the saz player Ulaş Özdemir in Turkey. Others were buoyed by the excitement of reinventing the tradition with their own style and their own music, such as cigar box guitarist Joe Jung in New York.
Posting anything on the internet to do with culture and national identity is always inviting a flame war. I quickly realised it was best to find passionate players of interesting string instruments and let them share their own story of their music, their instrument, and how their musical environment works. I’m sure you’ll agree that their energy, and music, is contagious.
James studied guitar with Lucas Michaelidis, and composition at the University of Melbourne under Dr Stuart Greenbaum and Dr Elliott Gyger. He won the Trio Anima Mundi International Composition Competition in 2010 with his piece Ardipithecus.
Under the direction of Professor Stephen Lias, James participated in the inaugural program Composing in the Wilderness in Fairbanks, Alaska. While living in Edinburgh, Scotland, James completed a quartet for steel-string guitars.
In addition to his composition work, James runs the online interview series The Stringdom, featuring interviews with musicians from all around the world who play interesting or unusual string instruments. The Stringdom has now covered four continents, featured thirty interviews, and clocked up almost one million minutes of viewing time on YouTube.
Currently, James is working on trio arrangements featuring 10-string mandolin, as well as exploring pieces involving live looping and electronic manipulation.
Fever Pitch Magazine 