Live webchat with award-winning conductor, Charles Hazlewood - Wednesday 15th February 12 - 1pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Charles Hazlewood is an award-winning conductor who works regularly with great orchestras around the globe. Alongside the great traditional classical orchestras, Charles has also conducted over 50 orchestral world premieres from the cutting edge of contemporary music. Charles is committed to giving young people from all backgrounds the possibility of experiencing classical music, he appears regularly on BBCTV, Radio 3 and also periodically hosts his own show on BBC Radio 2. Charles is currently working to establish the UK's first ever national orchestra for musicians with disability; The British Paraorchestra.

This weekend (Saturday 18th February) sees Charles conducting at London's South Bank Centre for part of their Imagine Festival for children. Charles will be joined by The Southwark Youth Orchestra and the David Idowu Choir who are teaming up with the Philharmonia Orchestra to perform Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (From The New World). The concert will be a brilliant introduction to kids of all ages to classical music and the orchestra.

Join Charles on Wednesday 15th Feb at 12 midday or send in a question in advance to this thread.

@NatashaBee

I wish I was in the UK, the concert this weekend sounds awesome. I have such happy memories of going to the Ernest Read concerts at the Festival Hall when I was young.

What do you think of the current music provision in state schools, and what would you change/improve about it?

Teachers in the state system are heroes. Chronically over-worked, under-resourced. I would like to see more support for them (and training where necessary), so that every school in the land is overflowing with ensembles, bands, choirs, orchestras. The new National Music Plan is determined to give every child the chance to learn an instrument; that's great but playing an instrument on your own is never going to be an end in itself. Music-making is communication: it's about engaging with others!: you build fellowship, team spirit, trust, and you achieve collective goals. These are Lessons for Life!!

@MendaciousSmears

What's the best way to persuade/bribe/coerce your children into practising their instruments regularly? And should you even try, or just back off and leave it to their teacher to motivate them? (Or actively discourage them: apparently the fathers of both Handel and Telemann were adamant that their sons were to study the law and eschew all musical endeavours.)

Am hopeful that someone else will ask what we can do about the deplorably patchy state of musical education in state schools so I won't have to break the 1 question rule. But really, what can we do?

The issue of practice is very hard, and so often a real cause of strife in a household. It's difficult because (of course) you want music making to be a joyous thing for your kids. BUT, you also know that if they put some graft in, they'll get even more pleasure from it. Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? A: Practise, practise, practise
But really the best thing is to create opportunities for your kid to make music with other people. That will raise their game, remind them what an absolutely amazing thing music is, and cause them to learn stuff from the others...If the group music making goes well, your kid will be determined to up their own game before the next group session!

for the state of music ed, please see my response to natashabee

@champagnesupernova

Hello What do you think of Tiger Mothers?

I think I am actually a bit scared of Tiger Mothers. But if it works for them...

@mousymouseafraidofdogs

I have a question about adult musicians. I play the trumpet and was quite good as a teenager/young adult, played in youth orchestras and brass ensembled. but now that I am older, not living near where I grew up I find it very difficult to keep it up. playing by myself is not much fun. adult groups are either very advanced or the opposite, orchestras often don't play anything that involves brass. some groups want a lot of committment that I cannot give. where can adults find groups of different levels/mediocre committment?

That's a difficult question, and depends I guess on where you live, and who you know. I say that last part cos I know a fair number of people in your situation who have simply teamed up with other mates, to make music together of an evening for the sheer fun of it. If that doesnt work for you, why not have a go at finding others around you with the same need?

@NotYetEverything

What type of music do you relax to? Or are you unable to concentrate on anything else if there is music in the background?

Actually music sometimes meets my mood when I'm relaxing, but often not. It might be Radiohead, it might be Brian Eno, it might be William Byrd. But I have an issue about it being 'background'..if music's on I wanna listen to it, so find conversation difficult..Personally I often get grumpy about music in public spaces, like restaurants...it's used like air conditioning, smoothes out all the silences..what is wrong with silence?? Music in this context is often too much needless information. Plus the fact that some restauranteurs use music wilfully, for their own ends: it is proven that if you play up tempo music in a restaurant, people eat faster and you get higher turnover...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

@HaveYouTakenLeaveOfYourCervix

Oh god. I know nothing of music or conducting, except that gleaned from Jilly Cooper. Are you able to control entire orchestras with one eyebrow? Do people call you Maestro?

Sorry

Maestro is a ridiculous term which only makes sense if you're in Italy, where a doctor is a maestro, a lawyer, a ....
I try and encourage first name terms with orchestras. Only in the US do orchestras invariably use it. If a British orchestral musician uses it, they're probably being ironic.
Conducting shouldn't be about control in my view, it's about enabling. An orchestra is an INCREDIBLE organism in which upwards of 100 people have a huge individual as well as collective contribution. The conductor needs a cast-iron sense of the outer architecture of a piece of music, within which there is then enormous freedom for every member of the orchestra. If you're interested, look up my talk on TED.com. It's only 18 minutes!!!

@Bramshott

Charles - do you think classical music is doing enough to increase access and break down the perception that it's elitist? Can anything that's being achieved today through education and outreach schemes really do more than was possible when every child could learn an instrument at school for free in the 1970s and 1980s?

Of course every musician should be doing much more to broaden out the form so every person everywhere with every kind of background and education/lack of education can drink from this life-giving well. Access to - and deep-vein engagement with - great live music is the right of all human beings. Where did the idea that it's the property of the privileged few?? And the idea that it's so divorced from the main current of music, which people are a lot less precious about?
Every classical artist who walks onto a stage anywhere in the world should have at the front of their mind: how do I tell this musical narrative in such a way that it resonates clearly with every member of the audience, and that it changes every member of the audience, just a little every time. A lot of artists think the audience are a necessary evil. (!!!)
There is also a clubby atmosphere amongst some audiences, this music is our music: you outsiders don't even know how to behave/where to clap. In my view anyone who radiates smugness in a concert hall should be thrown out

Ps With the National Music Plan it is the government's intention that every child has free music lessons. It's just not clear how this rolls out cos the funding is projected to diminish year on year

Hi Charles. I was originally classically trained as a musician to approx grade 5. I started on recorder in a saturday morning music school when I was 5, then progressed to violin briefly before clarinet... I have since taught myself soprano and alto saxophone.

I was put off playing classical as it was so hard to be introduced to current (contemporary) music and new composers, or any that had a melody and weren't orchestral abstract art! Also, my love of rock music rarely featured a clarinet, so my practice waned as I couldn't play the music I enjoyed listening to. I love some of the old greats, but wonder what composers do you find inspire young people today, and are any of them still alive and how do we find them out if they haven't composed a blockbuster film score?

@CuppaTeaJanice

Do you think the image of classical music has improved over the last few years in young people's eyes? Has the rise in popularity of mainstream classical acts such as Russell Watson, Myleene Klass, Vanessa Mae, Bond etc. and the accessibility of classical music on radio, tv and online filtered through into increased interest in orchestral performances?

Oh, and do you know my cousin James Judd?

I don't think the immense popularity of Katharine Jenkins, Vanessa Mae et al has actually had much impact on the popularity of orchestral music, ie it hasn't necessarily translated into more people going to orchestral gigs. Nor has Classic FM. This doesnt mean (by the way) that I am dissing any of this. But I think more people would get into love orchestral music if it felt more open to them. Sitting in an arid concert hall staring at a full page in the programme which tells you all the things youre not allowed to do, like cough, eat sweets, talk (and by extension, DON'T EVEN THING ABOUT BRINGING SMALL CHILDREN etc etc), surrounded by mildly smug people who 'know' how to be, this is their world, not yours..I hate all that. Music is for everyone, not just the chosen few! which is why I have throughout my career tried to create different kind of models...so the gig at the Festival Hall this saturday is a great big hootenanny: a bloody amazing orchestra, some amazing young performers from Southwark, lots of chat, demonstrations, getting under the surface of what makes a great piece of music great...
And more than that, I have a whole big open-hearted weekend festival in the epic grounds of Glastonbury Abbey this Summer: Glastonbury vibe meets Glyndebourne production values...you should come!
orchestrainafield.com

@roisin

Do you think excellent musicianship is a product of nature or nurture? Do you think it is more important to have 'a natural musical ear' or a personality and disposition towards hard work and disciplined study?

Excellent musicianship comes about for a multitude of reasons. Some people just have the right genetic mix, and find music naturally easy. Others achieve brilliance through sheer hard graft, and many others are probably somewhere in between!

It's very important though not to treat music like alchemy, or a kind of deep magic which only anointed people can access. We ALL have music in us, it's just that most of us are unconfident about it.

The only important thing is to have extreme hunger for music. If you have that 'burn', you'll become a great musician come what may

Interestingly I have often found that musicians with 'God-given' natural talent often have the least to say as artists. If you haven't fought the devil, dragged yourself to the peaks, flown and sank, lived your music - like your life - in all its joy and misery, then your voice will not resonate so well with the rest of us!! Music is least interesting when it is just a succession of shining sounds

@down2earthwithabump

Hi Charles. I was originally classically trained as a musician to approx grade 5. I started on recorder in a saturday morning music school when I was 5, then progressed to violin briefly before clarinet... I have since taught myself soprano and alto saxophone. I was put off playing classical as it was so hard to be introduced to current (contemporary) music and new composers, or any that had a melody and weren't orchestral abstract art! Also, my love of rock music rarely featured a clarinet, so my practice waned as I couldn't play the music I enjoyed listening to. I love some of the old greats, but wonder what composers do you find inspire young people today, and are any of them still alive and how do we find them out if they haven't composed a blockbuster film score?

OK I heartily recommend you try a bit of James MacMillan, heartstoppingly brilliant Scottish composer who writes music staggeringly violent and meltingly beautiful by turns, Arvo Part, music of almost unbearable spatial purity, the amazing pulse-driven morphing of Steve Reich (like climbing inside a giant lava lamp) and on the subject of film music, David Arnold and George Fenton are unbeatable. Or just listen VERY hard to any Radiohead album, every bit as complex and rewarding as a piece by JS Bach!

@SydneyS

Charles, are you regularly confused with fellow maestro, the late Ronnie Hazlehurst like I just did ?

Sensible question: how can we work to get music into the education of children with additional or complex special needs? My own daughter has a brain injury - sustained at age 5 - and we have seen the beneficial effects of live music of all kinds on her recovery. All too often though educational or therapeutic sessions are based on a midi recording and a joyless drama school rendition of nursery rhymes. It seems there are many efforts to get children singing again - Sing up! and Singing Playgrounds for example - but I am not convinced that they are reaching into non mainstream settings. What are you thoughts? Thanks!

I share your concern. Much much more thought is needed about how music can be used therapeutically, and how it might be delivered. Special Schools could do with far more support, and expertise in delivering music that can make a difference, not the insipid midi or rather saccarined drama-school choir, but music making which has imagination and integrity as its touchstones. The difficulty is that we live in a society which often forgets music's huge importance to our general well-being. Mandela said once that if the cultural life of a country is strong, then its soul is strong. Yes we absolutely need the NHS. But we need the equivalent for music! It improves cognitive function, it increases concentration, just as it lifts us up and makes life more bearable. We overlook our absolute need for music, especially as a healing force, to our great loss.

@Slubberdegullion

Whenever you conduct Strauss' Radetzky March how do you resist the urge to jump up and down? (it's the musical bumps music of choice in this house)

Are there any other pieces of music that you find it difficult to restrain yourself from dancing/leaping about to?

Aw man that piece is a jolly workout!!As is West Side Story, or pretty much anything from Mexico or Brazil or Argentina...I bounce around quite a lot in any case...when you conduct an orchestra you are 'playing' the orchestra, but actually just moving air around. At worst I guess it's a bit like air-guitar

Hi Charles,
What's your favourite experience or memory of conducting?

That brings us to the end of the hour. Thanks for all the questions and thanks so much to Charles for joining us. If you're interested in going along on Saturday, The South Bank are currently offering Mumsnetters tickets at a reduced rate. Quote MN1 for £5 offer when you book.

Thanks so much for your questions.
I really hope if you're near London you'll come join us this saturday at 4pm at the festival hall at the southbank centre for a big dive into the delicious depths of the orchestra

AND JUNE 30 - JULY 1, 2012 orchestrainafield.com Glastonbury!!
A whole weekend of fantastic musicmaking, improvisation, learn to bell ring, clog dance, huge amounts for kids to do (build a scrap orchestra, giant kazoo chorus, Hip Hop Shakespeare Co), camp on Michael Eavis's farm, go large in the stunning Somerset countryside!!

Just from experience my 11 year old son started off learning the piano. It has been hard work for me (I play the piano well) practicing with him. He didn't take to it like a 'fish to water'. We really persevered. It's paid off as now he's playing the Clarinet and Oboe and being asked to play in orchestras. He keeps saying that reading one line of music is a breeze compared to the 2 lines that you have to with the piano. He also has a musical ear so enjoys improvising. So I would say even if the piano has been hard work (he still plays it), he's now thanking us for setting the challenge

whoops - wasn't sure how this questions and answers was working - only just signed up to Mumsnet. Hope I didn't speak out of turn

Thanks very much - very interesting!

What a fascinating chat that was and what a guy

Hmm, sorry to have missed this as I lead an "any ks2 child, any instrument or don't worry if you haven't got one come anyway" school orchestra/band"

There are so many barriers to break down it leaves me reeling - or alternatively in battle mode. Provision of instruments and teachers is just the tip of the iceberg.

I think we need to get behind/beyond/away from:
(i) an idea that a child should be inducted into a particular genre with matching "fixed" learning style, so that musical children who don't catch on to ultra-specialised styles end up feeling they aren't good at music
(ii) a horrible focus on solo exams.

There is no other subject taught at school in which this would be permitted, let alone encouraged.
until we do this, our guest's aspirations won't become reality.

There has to be a place for solo exams though, lingle, surely? They provide a very good basis for the kind of technical training you need to perform at a higher level. They (arguably) might not be appropriate for all kids, but for those who end up taking their instrument seriously they are pretty useful.

I understand that in other countries, such as Germany (so a pretty impressive musical nation) there is no such culture.

So no, I don't think they are necessary at all. They distort the UK experience of music.