亲爱的听众朋友们大家好！欢迎收听墨尔本大学官方音频节目。
我们的电台节目将为大家带来最新鲜有趣的，关于科学、文化等前沿英文原版节目。欢迎您持续关注！
从“失败音乐家”到“优秀创业者”（下）From "failed musician" to innovative entrepreneur（2）
ANDI HORVATH
That means you can go on YouTube and just watch a concert.
SUSAN DE WEGER
Exactly. So, the notion of concert does not have to mean that the musicalperformance sits at the centre of everybody's attention. It doesn't have tomean it's in a hall at seven o'clock on a Saturday night, doesn't have to meanthe audience have to sit there and be punished for their lack of knowledgeabout sonata format or the recapitulation of the modulation of the key change,and that's a lot of what has gone on and is still going on in a lot of thelarger institutions is we're so smart and we're so clever and we know thisthing that you don't know very much about and you must sit there and beperformed at and be grateful for the opportunity instead of it being much moreloving and immersive.
We are here to curate and createan emotional experience that we're going to share together because asperforming artists that's what we crave is connection with an audience. It'snot always easy to do that in a traditional concert format and audienceappetite for that. If we look at the audience of 2048, it's currently 2018,they want the same kind of experience and perceived value for their dollarspend out of the musical performances they do for Food Truck Festivals andother things they go to.
We need to be curatingexperiences that have an emotional connection through music to people anddelivered in ways that they want to attend, otherwise - that's what live musicis all about. If they want music, they can listen to Spotify for free. Whatthey want to pay for is experience and connection and so that's what I'm reallytrying to help our young artists to understand is that the craft of theirperformance must be amazing, but secondly, that the commerce, the understandingof what audiences want in 2018, must support that, so the two things go hand inhand.
ANDI HORVATH
In some ways it's almost the very early notions of how music functioned incommunities, small villages, tribes. It's the experience of togetherness.
SUSAN DE WEGER
Yeah. Also, I think for our young artists, when they really get in their headthat making an impact means they can make an income, that's a real turningpoint for them. Because they've often only - the only notion of musicianthey've ever seen is a photo of some person in a tuxedo playing an instrumenton a stage and they haven't really had an opportunity to experience the rangeof employment in music and to have a sense of - particularly if they'rehigh-level musicians at high school, most of the structure of theirperformances is organised by other people and their role in that has been tolisten to an instruction and play an instrument.
When they come into,particularly the work that I do at the conservatorium, we're saying to themthat's the kind of - that's the entry point, you must be able to play theinstrument really well but look at all this other stuff you can do to actuallymake a connection to people. So, about our responsibility to the audience,that's something that's maybe been a little bit put to the backburner in highermusic education in the last couple of years.
ANDI HORVATH
Let's talk about music education. There's a lot that's changing in the industryand you've just given us stories about that. What surprised you about how theindustry has evolved?
SUSAN DE WEGER
I think the way that the internet has actually changed live music, becauseeverything is for free and I think the consumers, customers or audience membersof 2018 have an expectation of getting a certain amount of things for free. So,if we don't do a better job of showing them that live music is a very differentthing to streaming something, then that's the real challenge for us is thatyoung audiences, they may not - because music education has been taken out ofprimary schools, a lot of people have not participated in music-making in theirschool journey or they maybe haven't had any incursions from some of the reallygreat music education programs that go into schools, so they just don't knowthat it's different.
It's our job as artists not tosay come to my concert of Shostakovich No. 12 because it's in important pieceof music. Our job should be hey, if you really like the music of video gamesand computer games and that just kills you in that final bus scene and thatmusic amplifies the emotional experience, hey, this is another experience whereyou get to see that happening IRL, in real life, and come and share that withus and let us show you how you can feel this with all of your senses in a liveenvironment. I think that's the way that education is starting to change inhelping our artists to understand, like I said, about curating to an audienceand understanding that the challenge for us is being competitive with Netflixand computer games, because that's the other thing that people are spendingtheir disposable income on in that younger age bracket.
ANDI HORVATH
There's a lot of good music in movie soundtracks and computer games.
SUSAN DE WEGER
Yeah, and especially if you - like with the World Cup's on at the moment, ifyou turn the volume off on the ads, there's no emotional experience, you'rejust watching some dudes kicking a ball around a field, right? So, music is theemotion and the connection to the visuals and so when we can say that - likemake that connection, say the reason that you feel so much when you're watchingFriday night footy or you're watching Formula One or whatever it is you'rewatching that's making you feel something, it's the music that's amplifying andmaking you feel that, so come and have an experience of that in a differentenvironment.
ANDI HORVATH
So, shall I tell my producer Chris Hatzis to put a backing soundtrack to this,and what would you choose?
SUSAN DE WEGER
Oh, Foo Fighters.
ANDI HORVATH
Okay, Chris, noted.
SUSAN DE WEGER
I'm not your typical classical musician.
ANDI HORVATH
Fair enough. Now, part of what you teach, and I know it's called IgniteLABwhere you get students mentored, immersed into the world of entrepreneurialismand business to help them thrive in the future. How do you mentor students?What do you tell them?
SUSAN DE WEGER
I think it's really important to - when they come and see me for mentoring theyhave a pre-meeting questionnaire. I have to understand where they are; that'sthe most important thing. It's not my job to change anybody's mind or convincethem that their ideas aren't valid or realistic, it's not my job to do that.It's my job to get a really well-rounded picture of who they are as a humanbeing, the role that music plays in their life, the role that they see thatmusic may play in the future for them and what impact they can make in theircommunity through their music-making.
Then we talk about okay, how dowe map between here to there, what are the steps to do that, how long is itgoing to take, what are the skills you're going to need, where can you acquirethose. Yeah, so it's working with them on that kind of a basis, is reallymeeting them where they are, helping them to clarify an idea of where theymight want to go and then mapping the here to there.
ANDI HORVATH
You encountered a life full of obstacles and trying to readdress the story inyour head. Who actually inspired you or mentored you or were there momentswhere a particular event made you rethink things?
SUSAN DE WEGER
When I turned 40 I wanted to go to horn camp [laughs]. I didn't want to party,I wanted to go to horn camp in America because there's this incredible artistcalled Jeff Nelsen, who's a horn player.
ANDI HORVATH
A French horn player?
SUSAN DE WEGER
French horn player, yep. He plays with the Canadian Brass, which a lot ofnon-classical music people may know. Just the way that Jeff thinks about ourresponsibility as artists to the world in which we operate and to ourselves isreally unique. So, I went to go to horn camp; it was also to deal with myperformance anxiety which at that point was pretty - dialled up to 11, againnot an uncommon story not only for musicians, this notion of communicatingsomething that's important, being performance, whether that's in - you're alawyer or you're a teacher in the classroom or you're an executive in theboardroom.
ANDI HORVATH
A podcaster.
SUSAN DE WEGER
Podcaster, science communicator, all this stuff. Jeff's thing really is aboutperformance and connection to the audience, and I had lost that and I'd lostmyself in the journey. I just was so - when I stood up to play I was probablydelivering about 20 percent of what I was capable of doing in the practiceroom, and again, we talked about change happening, when the pain is so great, Icouldn't live with standing up in front of people and only being able to givethem 20 percent of what I could do.
So, I went to see Jeff and hadstood up in front of him and played something for him and it went reallyterribly, 20 per cent, and he looked me in the eyes and he said “Susan, thatwas really great”, and I just sprayed back at him, “Oh, you don't knowanything, it was terrible, the E flat was out of tune and I missed this entry”and I just gave - you know, the same thing when people try and praise us forwhat we've done. So, I was just spraying at him this whole self-pity, woe isme, it's all about me story, which all of us do, and Jeff just looked me in theeye and he said, “Why are you here? I don't think you care one single thingabout me” and it was like bam, oh, dude, you've just taken a can opener to myhead.
That precise moment was Irealised I'd just been so caught up in me, me, me, me, me and I'd justcompletely forgotten - he - he genuinely loved what I did. Okay, there weretechnical things to fix but if the starting point for me was that everythingthat I did was so terrible, I was never going to be able to - yeah, I wasself-limiting so badly at that point and so that was the real turning point washim saying actually, you - and you see that in a lot of performers wherethey'll finish their performance and the audience are clapping and they'reshuffling their music or they're halfway off the stage.
As performing artists we're nottaught how to make that connection and accept with humility and gratitude andlove the thanks of an audience because we're so fine-tuned to “it's got to beperfect or I'm going to die”. We're a bit of binary outcome, particularly in aclassical musician, it's perfect compliant copying or it's completely wrong,they're the only two places. Therefore, if it's not perfectly completelycompliant, it's wrong and I've failed.
ANDI HORVATH
If you had a Susan de Weger when you were a French horn student in the musicfaculty mentoring you, what would you say to you?
SUSAN DE WEGER
I think I would say - and I say this to pretty much every student that comes inis that you have everything you need inside you. You have everything you needto dream and to build and to achieve a life that is artistically andfinancially rewarding.
ANDI HORVATH
That's beautiful. Susan, next time we hear some music or see a French horn,what would you like us to think about?
SUSAN DE WEGER
I don't want you to think about anything, I want you to feel. What does it makeyou feel, where does it take you? So, feel something. I think in thisInsta-worthy life we lead of visual gratification, of commerce and objectifyingstuff, we're losing the ability to feel and to connect with each other. So, I'dlike you to, if it's a person making that music, stop and have a moment toconnect with them and let yourself feel something.
ANDI HORVATH
Susan de Weger, thank you.
SUSAN DE WEGER
Thank you, Andi.
CHRIS HATZIS
Thanks to Susan de Weger, associate lecturer in music entrepreneurship at theMelbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne. And thanks to ourreporter Dr Andi Horvath.
Eavesdrop on Experts - stories of inspiration and insights - wasmade possible by the University of Melbourne. This episode was recorded on July3, 2018. You’ll find a full transcript on the Pursuit website. Audioengineering by me, Chris Hatzis. Co-production - Dr Andi Horvath and SilviVann-Wall. Eavesdrop on Experts is licensed under Creative Commons, Copyright2018, The University of Melbourne. If you enjoyed this podcast, drop us areview on iTunes, and check out the rest of the Eavesdrop episodes in ourarchive. I’m Chris Hatzis, producer and editor. Join us again next time foranother Eavesdrop on Experts.
更多英文原版节目，请关注墨尔本大学FM哦！
用户评论