photo by Colin Savage
Concert info: http://www.tafelmusik.org/concert-calendar/concert/recorder-romp
JAMES STRECKER: If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say?
ALISON MELVILLE: player and teacher of recorders and historical flutes, whose performing career spans music from the 11th to 21st centuries, and includes orchestral work, opera, musicals, operetta, theatre and dance productions, new music, chamber music of all kinds from woodwind quintets to Renaissance consorts, solo recitals and concerto appearances, improvisation, and studio work for radio, television, film soundtracks and CDs, in Canada and abroad.
JS: What important beliefs do you express in or through your work?
AM: Music like all the arts is one of life’s great gifts. It inspires, unifies, heals, and communicates in ways words cannot. It’s also a great gift to be able to spend one’s life as a musician.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
AM: It’s hard to choose just two!
1) Frans Brüggen, the leading figure in the recorder ‘revival’ of the later 20th century. He was an expressive and persuasive musician whose best-suited medium just happened to be the recorder. As a kid I found both his playing and his attitude very inspiring.
2) Rebecca Solnit, for her brilliant mind and her writing. I’m currently reading her ‘Hope in the Dark,’ a timely read these days.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
AM: Creative occupations can be very instructive, especially when pursued in depth over a long period of time. I used to be very concerned about getting things exactly right, and playing well enough, whatever that means; after many years I’m in a more experimental and playful place. My curiosity reaches much further.
I began printmaking about three years ago and it’s been very interesting to experience how that informs and influences my musical work.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
AM: Allowing for quiet/fallow time; considering well without over-thinking; and finding the right balance between artistic and administrative work, something that goes along with being a freelance musician; getting enough sleep.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
AM: My post-graduate study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland was a major turning point of three years duration, and the Canada Council audition I did to get there stands out for me as a significant moment.
I’d been in Basel for a brief time on a Short Term Grant and desperately wanted to go back for further study – it was as though I’d just scratched the surface of something so important that if I couldn’t go back, I didn’t know what I’d do. So, I applied for an Arts Award, which required several steps culminating in a competitive audition round. I made it through and at the audition the jury’s final musical request was the hardest section of a very difficult contemporary solo piece. I remember thinking that if I aced it, it would make the difference, and so I somehow managed to bid fear goodbye, and nailed it. The successful grant notification arrived about three weeks later. I’ll never forget that experience of courage overcoming anxiety, and I’ll always be grateful to the Canada Council!
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
AM: Many people have a hard time understanding why some musicians keep playing the recorder past grade 4. Let’s face it – beginner Suzuki class doesn’t sound so great either, but nobody blames the violin or cello for that. Like every other musical instrument, much depends on who’s playing it, and how.
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
AM: I’m told I wanted to play the recorder when I was told that it was the flute-like thing my Uncle Bill played. Uncle Bill was much loved in our family, he was a great guy, and I think I wanted to be like him. But that aside, from the get-go I just loved to play music, and that feeling has never left me.
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
AM: Many of the Toronto Consort’s programs have been so inspiring to be a part of, particularly our recent Kanatha project with indigenous musicians from Ontario, Québec and New Brunswick.
Other highlights are the mixed media programs I designed as Artistic Director of the Bird Project, for which other colleagues such as Ben Grossman, Linda C. Smith, Debashis Sinha, Malcolm Sutherland and Stephen Dirkes have contributed wonderful audio and/or visual work; and the repertoire created for and with Ensemble Polaris, which is a mix of world/traditional/new/composed/improvised music, played with a bunch of great people.
This Recorder Romp program with Tafelmusik has also provided me with an opportunity to re-vision pieces I’ve known for a long time, even before we rehearse it. Vivaldi’s Concerto RV443 is well known amongst recorder players and the most publically familiar of our concertos, so it’s easy to get into a rut with it. But new ideas and approaches have been popping up in my preparation this time, and I’m looking forward to exploring them!
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
AM: Can you imagine being happy doing anything other than music? If the answer’s ‘No,’ then commit fully to music. Work hard while remaining kind to yourself, listen to lots of players and lots of music, study the scores, manuscripts, primary sources, and if possible spend some time in at least one geographical fishbowl other than your own.
Orchestral jobs don’t exist for recorder players, and the freelance world is quite tough. It requires that you devote some time to administration, promotion, marketing of your self or your group, etc., but make sure to use the majority of your energy and time on your musical work. Always remember why you chose music, and don’t let the grunt work extinguish your light.
Also: GET ENOUGH SLEEP.
And if a few years down the road you find the lifestyle’s not for you, then move on and be glad you gave yourself the chance to find this out.
JS: Of what value are critics?
AM: Useful things can often be learned from a critic who listens, observes, and writes from a knowledgeable and thoughtful standpoint.
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
AM: They’ve already given of themselves in numerous ways by attending. I just try to offer my best and hope they receive what they hope or need.
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world and the arts?
AM: I would love to see a slowing down of the warp speed at which much of our constructed world seems to operate. There’s such an emphasis on hype, speed, glitter. Speed and glitter are fun and definitely a part of the creative package, but making good music, or art of any kind, requires reflection as well as action, contemplation as well as production. It takes time, it does not have to produce immediate results, and that’s often overlooked. Our culture is very ‘yang’ oriented and could really use a greater dose of ‘yin.’
JS: If you could relive one experience from your creative life, what would it be and why would you do so?
AM: At the turn of this century I contributed a piece to 999 Years of Music, a millennium project by my friend, composer Peter Hannan. My piece was partly composed, partly structured improvisation from the performers. It was very touching to hear it performed, and it’d be special to experience that kind of revelation anew.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why.
AM: I spent three weeks in Iceland in the last century and would love to go there again. I was working on that first trip and it’d be great to have more time to explore that fantastic geography.
I’d love to go to northern Scotland, particularly its islands. The landscape, the sea, and the mix of Gaelic and Norse influences there all beckon. Oh, and my roots too.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AM: A previous response partially answers this. I’d also be delighted to see a greater recognition of the time, energy and cost of making recordings, and more willingness to compensate musicians for this from the people who run and use services like Spotify, etc. No musician makes recordings to get rich, but the compensation from these services to their ‘content providers’ is pathetic.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
AM: I’m not sure I’m the right person to ask, but people are often surprised that I earned a diploma in Zen Shiatsu many years ago, at a time when I thought I might step away from music. As it turned out, that didn’t happen, but I learned a lot from that training!