‘Humbled and very pleased,’ are Australian composer Gerard Brophy’s feelings on being selected as the focus of the 2003 Royal Northern College of Music’s (RNCM) composer festival. For while Brophy is an acclaimed talent in both his home country and abroad, he also suffers from what could be described as the ‘who’s that’ syndrome – plaguing many artists outside their own country.
‘Let’s say that one of the greatest things about Australia,’ jokes Brophy, in regard to his country’s geographic isolation, ‘is also one of the worst.’
But Australians are hardly alone in this issue, says RNCM Director of Contemporary Music, Clark Rundell. ‘I did a talk at [New York arts academy] Juilliard a couple of years ago… at which nobody had heard of Mark-Anthony Turnage, and he must be one of the biggest names in Europe. I think we all tend to be just a little bit isolated.’
However, if it is true that a semblance of cultural isolation exists within the world’s musical community, it is one that Manchester’s RNCM is trying to erode. And successfully, too, if the college’s composer festival, now in its fourth year, is any indication. Established as part of an effort to raise the profile of contemporary music at the college, and run in part-collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the annual festival now attracts audiences from around the country, and interest from international composers, come from as far afield… as Australia.
‘The festivals in general are for the benefit of the local people, the students and school kids who may be studying music,’ admits Rundell, who was one of the event’s founders, as well as its current Artistic Director. ‘But they tend to draw a much more “regional” audience than we would normally get.’
‘If we do Don Giovanni, for example, we don’t get a huge amount of press, but if we do something “modern”, everybody comes, because nobody gets a chance to hear it [otherwise]. And it’s a major coup for us to attract people [from London] who think that they are at the centre of the world of contemporary music.’
Perhaps part of the attraction is due to the fact that, in the past, the festival has highlighted the names of those composers who have made it onto the international music scene. ‘We started off with a festival on the German composer Hans Werner Henze, and we followed that with an American festival, which had as its centrepiece the music of John Corigliano,’ comments Rundell. ‘In June last year we did a big festival on the music of Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. These three were all big, established names.’
However, in choosing Australian music as the focus of this year’s event, entitled Australian Resonances, Rundell says that he had been looking for identities who had yet to develop a strong following overseas. Highlighted musicians will include Australian guitarist Craig Ogden, clarinet player Roslyn Dunlop and the Western Australia Youth Orchestra.
‘We thought that it would be interesting to occasionally do a festival on people who perhaps don’t have the airing in Europe that they deserve,’ he comments. ‘And I would characterise that as Australian music in general.’
Brophy agrees. ‘Of course, the cultural flow is very much the other way,’ he says. ‘But I think that we’re starting to make something of an inroad on the scene… and [festivals, such as this] bring Australian music to a broader audience. It’ll bring prominence to what we’re doing.’
While the event is a contributor, then, to the raising of composer profiles, Rundell insists that its primary priority lies in providing exposure for the college’s composition and performance students.
‘I think it’s probably as hard as ever to break into the mainstream of orchestral commissions and performance,’ he comments. ‘In order to get their music played, the young composer almost has to set up their own ensemble with which to do it.’
Some of these ensembles can be heard at the festival. Outside of its primary program, an amount of ‘fringe’ activity has also developed over the course of the festival’s history, in which former students take advantage of somewhat ‘captive’ audiences to stage their own original works. ‘It gives former students and young players an additional platform for exposure and it gives them an opportunity to engage with leading composers,’ Rundell affirms.
Not that all RNCM students are destined for the fringe. Already of international standing, according to Rundell, many of the college’s students are expected to join Britain’s major chamber music groups over the next decades.
‘It’s important for players who are going to take jobs and be part of major chamber music groups to engage with composers,’ he says. ‘The most important goal is to reach the player, so that when they go out into the world they are enthusiastic and knowledgeable.’
‘We make sure that the composers are able to rehearse with the students for a couple of days. It’s not just about the students giving a performance in the presence of the composer – what makes the festival valuable is that these kids are going to have Gerard Brophy in a room with them, saying “this is what I want”.’
Indeed, what Brophy wants is for more musical institutions around the world to take note of the RNCM’s approach to music education.
‘It’s occupied with the simple path of helping these young people realise their musical ambitions,’ he says, also pointing to his own belief that the key to achieving those ambitions is inspiration. ‘Ultimately, you’ve got to pass on the inspiration… If you can do that, you haven’t done too badly.’
The Australian Resonances Festival will run at the RNCM from January 15-19.
For tickets and more information, contact the festival box office, tel 0161 907 5555.
