Admission time; I’ve been a party to one of those online conversations with a nasty troll type. I know, i know, I shouldn’t give them any energy by responding but… well, we’ve all been there!

This troll fellow insists that symphony orchestras should not be “whoring themselves out” to popular music artists.  There was a time, in my youth, when I thought exactly the same thing.  The 23 year old me insisted that it was all “dumbing down”, a cheap ploy to get bums on seats.  This evil of all evils was perpetrated so that the orchestras could then afford do “real” art.

Then, I started to grow up.

I have met an enormous variety of interesting people in my life.  Lots of them are musicians, great musicians.  They perform in all manner of styles; hardcore classical, experimental jazz, traditional folk, mainstream pop, indie rock.  Some play ancient instruments of various cultures; Mongolian Morin Khuur (a type of bowed lute), Mexican harp, Finnish Kantele.  Others play rather more modern instruments; electric violin, waterphone, slide guitar.  There are folks who play instruments that you have to build yourself (thank you Harry Partch!) and some whose bodies are their instruments.  All of these musicians contribute to the great variety of modes of expression available to us in the world today.  And they are all valid, and when I say that I really mean it!  High brow, low brow, middle brow and all the little incremental brows between, they all have their place.

Now, some people feel that all these different folks should never, ever mix.  Orchestras are meant to perform only major symphonic works, folk music should be outside in a field somewhere, rock music belong in stadiums or Coachella style outdoor festivals and so on and so forth.  Others believe that we can create something interesting by making these worlds collide, that we should share our different modes of expression and foster an understanding of how other artists approach the medium differently to us.

I fully admit to personally struggling with a cross-genre approach.  As a classically trained musician of many years, I find other musicians’ lack of theoretical knowledge frustrating.  Why can’t they just write it down, for f*%$k’s sake??  Notation is so much easier/quicker/clearer.  Except that it’s not.  It’s not easier for someone who has learnt differently from the beginning.  I am the first to admit that I am the one who needs to be adaptive here, a little more flexible.  I am thankful that I have done great deal of playing by ear, improvising and ‘mucking around’ on my instrument/s over the years, which actually does allow me the freedom to engage fairly easily with non-classical musicians.  Lots of my classical musician colleagues struggle much more than I do with that, so I consider myself very lucky.

Is it wrong that I actually enjoy populist music?  This troll fellow insists that “Populism = dumbing down”, therefore is implying that he thinks I am also stupid.  Does he never think to himself that he is the one that has something to learn?  He’s won a university medal (well done, mate!) but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing more for him to learn in life, about life.  I’ve heard all kinds of other things about him, idle gossip (gosh I feel dirty even thinking about gossiping), that he’s homophobic, anti-Muslim, has never had a girlfriend (he’s 40 years old, eek!) and has had several charges of sexual harassment made against him.   This is all hearsay.  I’ve no idea if these things are true.  Neither do I really care, and I am not in the habit of publicly making unsubstantiated accusations of anything against anyone.

The reason I feel compelled to write this is to reassure my fellow musicians (and myself too, perhaps *awkward smile*) that whatever you do, however you choose to express, it is important and completely unique. It is unique because it is yours and yours alone.  Nobody else can express it, because they are not you.  I want to hear your expression.  If your work doesn’t speak to me, I probably will stop paying attention to it, but I will generally attempt to give most things a decent hearing.  Please never be afraid to express because somebody attempts to invalidate your work.

Shout it out loud. I’m listening.