2020 Interviews - Ryan Williams, Rodney Waterman and Anna Stegmann

Ryan Williams

We had a chat to Ryan Williams (Melbourne) about how his life as a recorder player has been affected during Covid-19. This interview was published in Oct, 2020. 

Firstly, how have you been?
Hello to the Orpheus Music community! I hope everyone is going well, and lots of well wishes to you all. 2020 has been a very challenging year for so many people, especially members of the performing arts and music communities around the world. I have been very fortunate as I’m currently staying financially afloat thanks to my PhD funding through the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Emotionally it has been a very draining year, watching colleagues, friends & organisations stop making art and music as they can’t afford to continue. I would urge readers that if you are in a position to financially support independent musicians, artists and small organisations in Australia, through purchasing their art or through direct donations, now is the time. 

How has Covid-19 affected your year? Your musical output? 

90% of my work, mostly performance, has been cancelled this year, with hardly any definite bookings for 2021. However, on a more positive note, many small arts and music organisations have adapted to produce new online works, and I have been lucky enough to be part of those with exploratory new music ensemble ELISION , contemporary classical music ensemble FOREST COLLECTIVE  and multicultural music organisation THE BOÎTE. 

What projects have you been doing over isolation? Have you been able to play the recorder? 

To be honest, my practise routine has been largely disrupted this year. It’s been a challenge to be motivated through the long lockdown periods in Melbourne over the last seven months. One major project that has kept me going is my work with Tokyo based koto (Japanese zither) player Miyama McQueen-Tokita . We’ve been creating our second album through an online collaboration process, and it has been incredibly exciting to work in this way. It’s enabled us to continue our duo in a creative way, even though we’re geographically very far apart.  

What are you looking forward to in a post Covid-19 world? 

I haven’t played live with another musician since 11 March 2020. I reckon that first time playing live, face-to-face with another musician is going to be a very special experience.   

What's some music that you have listened to or repertoire that you have explored during covid that has kept you sane?  

I’ve been teaching online quite a bit, and via my students’ interests, I have been exploring the Telemann fantasias again after not having played much baroque music for a long time. It has been interesting coming back to them after playing so much contemporary music and my own music for the past few years. I’ve also been listening to so much music too! Including lots of different styles, I’ll list a few from different genres that readers might enjoy exploring: Pop/folk music: catchy songs with upbeat folk-rock accompaniment by Liam Finn – I’ll Be Lightning (2007), string accompaniments to beautiful songs by Ben Harper – Both Sides of the Gun (2006). New traditional music: incredible Tibetan singer-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal – Heart Strings, great groove-based U.S folk music by Hawktail – Formations (2020). Western contemporary art music: an incredibly soft and beautiful solo koto recording by Miyama McQueen-Tokita – Sonobe (2020), crazy awesome sounds with solo bassoon, voice, field recordings & electronics by Clifton Joey Guidry III – Darkness is a Myth (2020).  

How have you found teaching online?  

I was already teaching partially online before the virus hit, however, now every student I teach is fully online and it’s been an excellent experience from my perspective. It’s been a way to keep students motivated and connected to music, especially through difficult lockdown periods. It also suits my career as I’m usually on the road touring and performing a lot during a normal year, so the more that students get used to online education, the easier it is for me to continue to teach and have an active performance career.

 

What new teaching techniques have you had to explore/create through online teaching? Any tips for teaching online with Zoom/skype?  

I haven’t had to develop many new online teaching techniques as I was already teaching online, however, I have been playing online with other musicians with not much delay using jacktrip and OBS.Ninja. Both of these online interfaces work incredibly well for music, and would be a great asset to online music teachers.  

Any musicians/artists you feel need to be heard at the moment?  

I’ve been reading a lot of books by fantastic Indigenous authors, including Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman and The Yield by Tara June Winch. There are some incredible First Nations artists out there, and I think now is a great time to read their stories and support their arts practices. 

Are there any projects you’ve been working on during covid that you are looking forward to sharing next year?  

I’m very much looking forward to recording a second album with Miyama McQueen-Tokita next year. We’ve been creating some exciting new music, and I’m looking forward to sharing that with everyone. If you’d like to hear us live & pre-recorded, we have an online concert coming up on Sunday 18 October at 3:30PM (AEST) through THE BOÎTE for $5. You can join us live, or watch it at any time after the live performance date.  

I currently co-run two interdisciplinary-performance ensembles, and seven music ensembles performing across improvisatory & exploratory music, site-specific/installation contexts, traditional music from Eastern Europe, Japan, Ireland, and the U.S, western art music & jazz, and popular folk music. These projects have all been bubbling along this year, and I’m looking forward to presenting two big events next year, including a site-specific interdisciplinary performance called sit with the creek, and the creek will speak with visual artist Amy Prcevich in Melbourne, and the release of the third album by my free-improvisation trio Rogue Three, recorded in the amazing acoustics of the Greenslopes drains in Brisbane. If you’d like to explore Rogue Three’s music please see our website. 

For more information and videos of all my projects, album sales, and performance updates please see my website here. 

Anna Stegmann

We last saw Anna Stegmann (Germany) at our annual recorder workshop in January 2020, before the global pandemic. We wanted to check in and see how she's feeling during this upheaval in the arts. This interview was published in Oct, 2020.

Firstly, how have you been?
It’s been a challenging and frightening time, but this will be true for most of us. I’m in a phase of my career where I want to move forward, develop, explore, and challenge myself. Well, the challenging part worked quite well I think? Luckily, I’ve been healthy and felt supported by my family and friends. I shouldn’t forget that this is a huge luxury. 

How has Covid-19 affected your year? Your musical output?
Nothing went according to plan. After a wonderful time in Australia in January at the Orpheus Recorder Boutique and a busy few weeks back home in Europe, starting from March all my projects were cancelled. Besides that I wasn’t able to travel to my teaching in the UK, where I teach a recorder class at the Royal Academy of Music and go for regular visits to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester to teach at Junior’s Department. My usual routine of traveling from Amsterdam to the UK stopped entirely and isn’t quite back to what it used to be. Neither have I seen my colleagues or friends from Ensemble Odyssee and The Royal Wind Music.

If you are usually active performing and teaching as a freelancer, an empty calendar isn’t quite a reason to rejoice. So I tried to stay distracted by practising and anticipating on the chances and possibilities of this new situation.

What projects have you been doing over isolation? Have you been able to play the recorder?
I started off practising pieces I always wanted to polish and kept myself busy preparing for concerts which, at the time, I thought still might happen later in 2020. Despite being quite good at just practising for the sake of it, at some point I needed a real motivation in the form of a project. Many of my colleagues have worked on live-streams or online concerts from their living rooms, often without charging fees through their YouTube Channels. That format didn’t quite feel like my medium and while I had lots of time to observe the do’s and don’ts during the first few weeks of lockdown, I eventually came up with my own digital recital series ‘Fantasy & Design’. 

It is, in fact, another online concert, but suited to an all-online audience which consumes from home and therefore might have other needs than the typical live-audience: Sitting in a concert hall, listening to a recital scheduled at a fixed time, has become a sanctuary in times where we are otherwise constantly available. Watching performances from home doesn’t necessarily find us listening with the same mindset.

I felt my own recitals needed to be shorter, filmed in a special way that brings me, the performer, closer to the audience, and I wanted to charge a small financial contribution for making it accessible to listeners that take the time to really watch and listen to my work. I had to investigate about a suitable online platform, ways of charging for it (you would be surprised, this wasn’t very straight forward!), thinking about the aesthetics and choice of repertoire, and finally recording and producing both the audio and video material together with a colleague.

It’s been a real journey in which I learned about different ways to promote these recitals, how to bring my the ideas in my head to a tangible result, and last but not least what it takes to put myself out there in an all-Anna-solo project. I would have never considered embarking on such a solo project if it wasn’t for the pandemic. Looking back now, I’m very happy to have presented myself in this format after all. And since this pandemic isn’t quite over yet, I have decided to record a second season with two friends and colleagues playing dulcian and organ featuring seventeenth-century music from Italy for this setting. 

The premier is on October 15 on my website: www.anna-stegmann.com

What are you looking forward to in a post Covid-19 world?
Despite the success and artistic fulfilment my online recitals have given me in the past five months, I feel I don’t want to play for a video camera and microphone for a while. Real concerts with my colleagues and friends, performing for an audience in the same room, seeing my students, meeting new recorder players and catching up with the ones I know already during masterclasses and workshops… those are some of the activities I cannot wait to return to. We surely can implement some of the positive side effects of this time in our practices, too. Despite longing for some on-site teaching again, I was surprised how well online teaching can work. However, for me it is only a supplement for a short period of time.

How have you found teaching online? 
I was surprised how well it works, even for the younger pupils I teach. They all have become really independent and responsible. Online teaching also opened new possibilities for me: I do have two private online students in Australia now and hugely enjoy teaching them. 

I must add that I was very lucky only teaching small numbers of students online and none of them had the pressure of needing to take exams this year. This has been, and still is, quite different for some of my colleagues.

Any musicians/artists you feel need to be heard at the moment? 
I’d rather put it this way: It feels we all need the support of our audience right now. If you see or hear someone you like and appreciate, do write to them! I have received lovely messages from strangers that listened to my recitals and voiced their appreciation. Whereas one can’t pay rent from that, knowing to be connected and bringing joy through music has given me a reason to continue being creative. 

Have there been any positives from this current climate for you musically? 
I’d love to say yes… but it’s hard to see the silver lining beyond what I have already described about my online recitals and some positive experiences teaching online. For me, music is happening through the interaction with my colleagues and the audience while performing on stage. The lesson learned is, that this cannot be replaced. 

Rodney Waterman

The last time we saw Rodney Waterman (Vic) was at our annual Orpheus Music Boutique in January. The world has since dramatically changed in that time, so we thought we'd give him a call and talk about his new album "12 Fantasias for Recorder".  This interview was published in Dec, 2020.

Firstly, how have you been? 

Well, thanks. We Victorians are a pretty resilient lot and have generally worked together in a spirit of positivity and goodwill to transcend the challenges and difficulties of 2020.

How has Covid-19 affected your year? How it did affect your music making? 

I became a very skilled landscape gardener; very good at moving soil, rocks and planting hundreds of native plants and grasses. I’m especially gifted at weeding oxalis. Installing wicking beds and growing vegetables has been rewarding. My part time school teaching continued, albeit remotely and I continued to take a few private recorder students online. Sadly, our regular Wednesday evening community choir held at our house has been postponed since March. I practised recorder in the bathroom for good acoustics and planned my solo recorder project.

What projects have you been up to during isolation? Have you been able to play the recorder?

In late February, just before the first ‘lockdown’, Ryan Williams and I spent a day in our duo windborne group improvising in various locations in Kangaroo Ground (Melb). (Click here to hear it.)  

In July I did a remote recording project with jazz double bass player, Ben Robertson: (Click here to hear it)

In October I recorded my twelve fantasias. 

How did the twelve fantasias for solo recorder come about?

I’ve always loved the experience of playing solo recorder in a beautiful and responsive acoustic. I’ve enjoyed playing the solo ricercars of Virgiliano, Bassano, and like many, the wonderful 12 fantasias by Telemann for unaccompanied flute/recorder. Van Eyck’s music has long been a passion. And I love to improvise. I discovered Keith Jarrett’s improvisations (many using recorders) on his classic Spirits album many years ago

More recently I was inspired by Genevieve Lacey's Soliloquy recitals in 2019 where she performed all 12 Telemann unaccompanied flute/recorder fantasias (from memory) on a single Voice Flute (Tenor Recorder in d').

My main recording to this point had been of Brazilian folk/jazz, Água e Vinho, Carmo/ECM (2000) I felt there were many facets of my recorder playing that I hadn’t yet documented; thus the idea for the twelve fantasias project.

How was the recording process?

Isolation gave me the time to finally learn enough about recording to confidently navigate my way through the process. I used a high-quality stereo pair of condenser mics and Logic Pro software. I received help and advice from my sons Finn and Cian, who are experienced sound recordists and who had both just completed and released their own solo, self-produced albums. I was unusually disciplined. The fantasias were recorded between October 13-23, 2020. I essentially recorded one new fantasia each day for 12 consecutive days, using 12 different instruments. Fortunately, the recording process never got in the way of my music making.

What inspired your improvisations?

My ultimate inspiration was the intrinsic natural beauty of each individual instrument. Then came the imagined/channelled venue space. With each performance, and the appropriate reverb setting, I really did imagine that I was actually improvising in that space. It was a joyful thing to experience, despite Covid-19 ‘lockdown’. At times, I consciously, and unconsciously, refer musically to themes and textures of music I have performed in these spaces over the years, predominantly my own compositions. I feel there is a subtle and profound relationship between player, instrument and performance space – and of course audience, when there is one. When this all feels right, perfectly and effortlessly connected, the best improvisation prevails.

What's some music that you have listened to or repertoire that you have explored during Covid-19 that has kept you sane?

I’m falling in love with the lute again (I play lute) and have been listening to an amazing 14-CD collection; Awake Sweet Love, An Anthology of Lute Music (Brilliant Classics 94710). I love Dowland, Kapsberger and Bach on lute (theorbo, archlute etc.). Also, my son Finn’s beautiful recording, Only Breathing lifts my spirits. 

Any musicians/artists you feel need to be heard at the moment?

I’ve just revisited the compositions of composer and recorder player, Rachael Cogan (born in Australia, now living in Canada). She is a wonderful player and sound sculptor. Her works are diverse and fascinating:

And Australian contemporary composer, Lisa Lim has written some amazing works, some of which include recorder. My favourite is The Guest, Concerto for Orchestra with Solo Recorder.
 

During the Melbourne lockdown, you were still teaching, how did you find teaching online?

In the classroom situation, wonderful to be able to mute the noise! Actually, hasn’t been too bad. I’ve enjoyed online individual recorder lessons, but found it really disappointing not being able effectively accompany my students. Can’t wait for face-to-face lessons to resume.

Are there any projects you’ve been working on during covid that you are looking forward to sharing next year? What are you looking forward to after Covid-19?

I’m cutting back my school teaching and exploring composition and performance opportunities. If border restrictions are relaxed, I have a few teaching and performance gigs lined up in Northern NSW and North Queensland in June/July 2021.

I’ve had a busy and eclectic life with my work as an environmentalist activist, gardener, native plant photographer, teacher and performer. I’m now relishing the opportunity to embrace music making and music creation more fully than I have been able to for some time.