- Alma
What exactly is our project? It's such a simple question. We're musicians, good musicians even. We play together, but honestly, what is it that we do together?
- Speaker
Help We're starting an ensemble An audio guide for emerging early music artists.
- Alma
My name is Alma. I'm 25 years old. I play violin in an early music ensemble. There are six of us. We've known each other since conservatoire and we decided to keep going. It all happened quite naturally, but now we're stuck. What exactly is our artistic project? When I brought it up last week at rehearsal, there was a blank silence. Tom would love for us to tackle a very specific repertoire, something you never hear. Colleen suggests we only play French music, and Esteban says we should think about live performance first, before thinking about repertoire. I'm sure others before us have been through this. So I decided to go and meet the people who might be able to answer my questions. I reached out on Instagram to two groups I love, the Ministers of Pastime and Coloquio 6. They are playing at a festival nearby. We arranged to meet at a cafe.
- Speaker
Episode 1. Finding my artistic identity.
- Alma
Ah, there they are. Hi
- Carolina Guiducci
Hi, Alma. Nice to meet you.
- Alberto Jara
Hey, Alma. How are you? Two cups of coffee, please.
- Carolina Guiducci
Could I get a green tea, please?
- Alma
We talk about their music, their past and upcoming concerts, and then I take the plunge. Did you have a clear idea, the two of you, of what your ensemble was going to be when you started out?
- Carolina Guiducci
No, I think in general I feel like with groups it works because you meet at a period where you match your ideas and where you have time to rehearse and time to be together and you have this one group idea.
- Alma
Carolina Guiducci is the clarinetist of Coloquio 6.
- Carolina Guiducci
So at the beginning I think it's the easiest stage because you're all in and excited about it. And then to keep it for a longer time, that's when the problems start appearing. But that thing at the beginning was very straightforward.
- Alma
Well, yes, that's exactly where we are. Alberto, what's the question you wish someone had asked you at that point?
- Alberto Jara
I think a question that we should ask ourselves more honestly is what do we want?
- Alma
Alberto Jara is the violinist of the ministers of pastime.
- Alberto Jara
What do we really want? It's a thing of understanding our own desires. This sounds a little bit psychological, but I don't know if you get my point, but I think being very honest on what you can do and understanding how can you put the best of your abilities in service for... Let's call it a greater good, maybe it's something of this group, but actually something that is going to help me and other people to have a project that grows. and develops through time. And so make that, to have that marriage between what you want and what you can do, I think is very important.
- Alma
Okay, we can listen to everyone. But in concrete terms, how do we bring everyone's ideas together? How did you manage it?
- Alberto Jara
Well, it's a big group, so of course there is a musical director, there is people, sometimes there is... Learning to understand what someone wants to say, you know, the ways of communicating. It's not always easy to communicate musically because you want to also inspire people. And there's a difference between giving orders and inspiring someone to do something together, you know, with the idea that you want to do something together.
- Alma
Carolina, what advice would you give to someone just starting out like me?
- Carolina Guiducci
I would say my advice To someone that's starting is to play with people that you like, because you're going to spend a lot of time together. So it's very important that you're friends and that you get along well, and that you're going to travel also, and you never know how it is to be 24-7 with someone. And also play music that you like, because in the end, if you don't love what you're doing, it's a lot of effort that you have to put, a lot of free work that you have to put at the beginning also to make it work. You really have to love it. We keep in touch. If you need to know anything, you can text me, call me. Thank you. Bye-bye.
- Alberto Jara
Ciao.
- Alma
Hey, everyone. Just walked out of the cafe with Coloquio 6 and the Ministers of Pastime. I have so much to tell you. I'm leaving you a quick voice note while it's all fresh, and we can talk about it. So, basically, we need to define what makes us unique. But where I was looking for a clear-cut definition, there might actually be something more flexible to find. An ensemble's identity is a conversation that is constantly kept going and refined. So there we go, let's start that conversation very soon. Ciao
- Speaker
hEEElp! We're starting an ensemble - An audio guide for emerging early music artists. A podcast produced by the Collective Reset, as part of the European Project Sustainable Emerging, co-founded by the European Union and coordinated by the Cultural Encounter Centre Embronet.
