I know a truly wonderful plumber. I would not call anyone else but lately I found myself wishing that his admin, diary, planning, communication, customer care, and timekeeping skills were on a par with his plumbing. He has probably never had any training in how to do those things, so it is no wonder they are lacking.
Anyone who has worked with outstanding young musicians might find that complaint familiar. Talent, hard work, and intense training often produce amazing players who lack the basic business skills they will need as professional musicians: how to present and promote yourself both personally and through available media; learning and understanding your market; making the best of opportunities; building relationships with other musicians and promoters; how to plan your diary; learning how to say no; making funding applications; how to say thank you; and the importance of communication. That training can also narrow horizons and overly-focus musical ambitions at an early stage in their careers. If you are going for gold as a soloist by the age of 18, what aspects of musical life might you miss out on?
It is in the early years of a young musician's career that organisations such as chamber music clubs and festivals might make valuable contributions. As the professional music world goes, we are often small in scale and friendly, somewhere safe to take your first steps as a professional. But we also have skills and experience and it costs us nothing to share them. By interacting with us, perhaps young musicians start to learn best practice when dealing with promoters.
At the East Neuk Festival (ENF), the annual summer music festival I run in Scotland's coastal beauty spot of the East Neuk of Fife, I have tried to do this in different ways over the past 16 years. I continue to revise and improve on how we do it. The easiest thing I have done since year one is book them for concerts at the festival – young musicians need to perform to a paying audience of utter strangers in order to test and stretch themselves, to develop and mature. It is the only way to build a reputation, secure quotable reviews and more dates.
Svend McEwan-Brown
Small steps
The next easiest thing is to give constructive feedback. I am a programmer, producer, and audience member (not a musician or a teacher) so this is rarely feedback on actual musical performance but rather on handling promoters, programme planning, platform manner, and engaging the audience. These seem to be woefully under-taught at our conservatoires and academies. Time after time, while sitting on student competition juries, I have watched a young player shamble on stage avoiding eye contact, scratch their nose/ear/head, fidget with the stand or instrument, and mumble before launching into a wonderful performance. By then, they have already lost the prize. Music teachers cannot do too much to drum into young players’ heads that giving a performance is not just about the music: stagecraft needs to be practiced just as assiduously as the notes. It is too often the lowest priority and we have done our bit to correct that over the years by offering advice or dummy runs focussed on presentation.
Practical help is the best thing a festival like ours can offer. Like all other festivals we have connections with promoters, agents, trusts, foundations, prize-givers, and publicists. We have limited resources and need to focus our efforts prudently but it costs us little to help, and for the small number of musicians who connect with us we can offer a great deal. Our small team knows a lot about production, PR, promotion, and marketing. We make hundreds of funding applications and we research where funding opportunities lie – few young artists have any experience in this. Many cannot draft even 300 words requesting support so completing a 10-page form, marketing plans, operational budgets, and the like is daunting. When it comes to purely musical matters I tread very carefully. Should a young artist come with an excellent idea I will support them in any way I can. Guitarist Sean Shibe came with his softLOUD project (combining acoustic and electric guitars in one programme for the first time) and I was able to help develop his ideas, connect him with some composers, and support his fund. He has since taken softLOUD far and wide and released it as an acclaimed CD. Nothing could be more satisfying.
Testimonials‘Musically it was an incredible experience. One of the most productive and interesting weeks I have ever had.’‘It opened my ears, brain, and heart! It was also great to play with so many different musicians, it's a great challenge!’‘It was a wonderful experience. Meeting so many amazing and at the same time different players was very interesting. I could learn a little bit from everybody and also getting to know different approaches on how to rehearse and work on pieces was very helpful.’‘One of the most inspiring weeks in my musical career.’
Diyang Mei at the 2016 ENF retreat
Core ambitions
Chamber music lies at the heart of what we do as a festival. In the drive to produce soloists or orchestral players, I strongly feel that many educational institutions undervalue chamber music as an exceptional developmental tool for any player. So, together with violinist Alexander Janiczek, I created the ENF Retreat. Annually, we invite a small group of outstanding young players to turn their back on the world for a week of ensemble playing with their peers side-by-side with respected professionals. It mostly happens behind closed doors – the only ‘targets’ are a couple of ENF concerts. The real goal is to learn skills from each other and senior musicians such as musicianship, style, interpretation, rehearsal technique, collegial behaviour and shared responsibility, and so on. It is demanding but the feedback we have from the young artists is astounding.
Something like this is very expensive for a festival like ours to create (the young artists are asked only to pay a nominal £100 and cover their travel costs) but the feedback we get convinces me that it is worth all the fundraising efforts. It has now been running since 2015 and in 2019 we create the first of our ‘next step’ years in which a pair of outstanding musicians from previous ENF Retreats are invited back for more intensive sessions and to give concerts in the main festival programme. Violinist Benjamin Baker took part in the very first ENF Retreat in 2015, and violist Diyang Mei participated in 2016. This year they return for a duo recital, to join new participants in chamber music and to play Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – as prestigious an ensemble as you could hope to hear and an opportunity few young players could secure otherwise.
When I ask Baker about his time with us, he says: ‘I have very warm memories of being a young artist at my first ENF Retreat and feel very lucky to have had the chance to get to know this beautiful part of the world through such an enriching musical experience. The ENF Retreat is a unique musical melting-pot with distinguished artists willing to guide younger artists, while also rehearsing chamber music as equals. This creates an extraordinary environment which enables authentic creativity, exciting musicianship, and exploration. It was a completely unique experience for me and I came away feeling both invigorated and inspired to keep forging ahead along my own musical path.’
Learning how to work with young artists is always work in progress, not least now when so many aspects of music education are threatened and the landscape changes so fast. I will continue to interest myself in their work and seek opportunities to continue ENF's support. In this way I hope to do my bit for their sake – and for the festival's. Who knows what musical adventures may lie in store?
The East Neuk Festival runs from 26–30 June. The fifth annual ENF Retreat will take place 23–28 June.
