Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) Principal Cellist and upcoming ANAM Artist-In-Residence Timo-Veikko Valve writes about his upcoming concert Starburst on 20 March 2022 3pm at the North Magdalen Laundry, Abbotsford Convent.
Words by: Timo-Veikko Valve
Timo-Veikko Valve. Photo by Jason Copobianco
I was delighted when Paavali invited me to spend a week at ANAM as one of the Artists in Residence for 2022. After a few disrupted years of music-making, I could hardly imagine a more inspiring prospect than being asked to work closely together with the future of Australian music. Music is always a dialogue and an exchange of ideas. It’s a language that does not discriminate. I’m looking forward to learning a lot myself during our week together.
Curating a concert program, in general, is an interesting exercise. Building a meaningful and strong narrative can be a challenge, and it’s not often that one is given a blank canvas to work with. Curating a program with this in mind is a responsibility. It is a multifaceted way of connecting and communicating, a way of conveying an idea or even making a statement. The music also tells the story of the people who are performing it. It offers us, the performers, an opportunity to tell our story.
I strongly feel that our responsibility as performers is to explore and put forward music from our times; music that reflects the world as we live it, rather than only looking back at what has been before us.
Often there are several hurdles to consider when putting forward a program. In the professional world, marketing might be one of these obstacles. What do we need to present so that we get bums on seats, what does the ticket-buying audience want to hear? I strongly feel that our responsibility as performers is to explore and put forward music from our times; music that reflects the world as we live it, rather than only looking back at what has been before us. The challenge for us performers is to learn and study that new music and tirelessly continue to explore it. Claiming that one simply doesn’t have the time to study a new work is, unfortunately, rhetoric that I’m familiar with and guilty of. I hope it’s now time to ignore any notion that only dead white male composers sell tickets and that somehow that is what the concertgoers exclusively want to hear. The fact is that there is a massive imbalance between old and new music, which skews our shared classical music space. I take responsibility for enabling this disproportion myself, and by writing this I’m trying to solidify the change in my thinking. It’s never too late, after all, I’m only 40 years young. Making a change requires effort.
With all of that in mind, I was inspired when Paavali gave me that blank canvas upon which to create a program for our concert at the Abbotsford Convent on Sunday 20th March. I knew that I wanted this concert to be performed with an ensemble similar in size to the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the group that I have been the principal cello of for the past 16 years. Cherry-picking our standard repertoire would have been an easy and obvious path to take.
Timo-Veikko 'Tipi' Valve curates a program for the ANAM Musicians.
Photo by Anthony Browell
The program features three young composers from different corners of the globe. I’m excited to get to know the music of New York native Jessie Montgomery through this project. She is a discovery for me, and this will be the first time that her Duo for Violin and Cello is performed in Australia. Her work Starburst is the perfect piece to be featured in a concert performed by Australia’s up-and-coming stars in music. Jessie writes about her piece as follows:
“This brief one-movement work for string orchestra is a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors. Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape. A common definition of a starburst: “the rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly.”
Meraki by Melbourne-based Melody Eötvös was commissioned and premiered by the ACO at the Tarrawarra Festival in 2021. I believe our concert at the Convent will mark only the second outing for this short and impactful piece. I hope this work finds a prominent footing in concert programs here in Australia, as well as abroad. Melody shares these words about her piece:
“Meraki: This is a word that modern Greeks often use to describe doing something with soul, creativity, or love when you put "something of yourself" into what you're doing, whatever it may be.”
Birds of Paradise, or Paradisfåglar in Swedish, by Andrea Tarrodi, takes inspiration from David Attenborough’s Planet Earth in which he speaks of the strange and beautiful birds of paradise. To me, this work is so completely at home when performed in Australia. Its language truly resonates with its surroundings. Hopefully, we will even inspire participation from the resident birds at the Convent. Sorrow and Joy on the other hand reveals her Scandinavian temperament, which I instinctively relate to. This duo for Viola and Cello explores a poem titled Sorg och glädje by a Finnish priest, educator, and epic poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg.
“for my sorrow is bliss
and my joy melancholy”
- Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1870)
Catch Tipi direct ANAM musicians in a program featuring composers of our time. The first part of this program is bookended by Jessie Montgomery’s Starburst for string orchestra, and the performance will conclude with Boccherini’s spirited Symphony in D Minor, and book your tickets to Timo-Veikko Valve: Starburst.