European Chamber Music Academy
Musethica in GrafeneggPublished: 30/05/2023
Musethica is an innovative concept that has spread across the globe since its inception in 2012. The organisation describes its method as music education with a social impact. In recent years Musethica has found a new partner in the European Chamber Music Academy and makes its first visit to Grafenegg to run a session. We spoke with the director of Musethica International, Juliette Dufau, to get to the essence of the idea.
Hospitals instead of concert halls
Ushered into a magnificently ornate concert hall or stunning venue while the musicians warm up on a large stage, we take our seats and eagerly await the start of the evening. This is how most concerts unfold for us, whether in Grafenegg, Vienna, or elsewhere. At Musethica, however, things are different. Though 'just' an educational method, it has widened the boundaries of classical music awareness and allowed young musicians in training to play regularly in front of an audience. But in place of stages and concert halls are venues far more familiar and modest. One would not expect to find chamber music at hospitals, prisons, women's shelters, and schools, but these are exactly where Musethica operates. Juliette Dufau explains that at least 85% of their concerts take place in social and educational institutions and are always free.
«These concerts are accessible to all segments of society and are especially aimed at those who, due to their circumstances, lack the opportunity to experience live music.»
Musethica on the rise
What initially began out of necessity has developed into an international organisation active in Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Israel, among other countries. Since 2017, Musethica has been integrated into courses at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The Musethica method helps musicians to make the best possible impact with their instrument and thus bring high-quality concerts to public spaces. Essential to the musicians' learning process is the atypical audience, which differs from the standard audience that behaves in line with concert etiquette. People with physical and mental disabilities, the homeless, refugees, prisoners, and senior citizens, unspoiled by convention, react in an unfiltered manner, good or bad.
Musicians need practice
It is this very unusualness in the everyday that makes the concept a success. Listeners experience the pleasure of live classical music that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. The musicians, in turn, receive crucial experience and, above all, unfiltered and direct feedback from the audience.
«The immediate response of the audience can help them develop their inspiration, their listening and their musical skills, and can give them a new perspective on their role as musicians and their important social function.»
The experiences young musicians receive through Musethica inspires them to «experience music and music-making in a different way.» It reveals alternative ways in which music can give meaning and is a starting point for the participants themselves to develop a new vision. It is through experiencing first-hand the positive impact they make on others that they learn valuable lessons. It is a symbiotic relationship of an absolute singular nature. For the artists, witnessing how their listeners access their feelings through music or how music helps them to concentrate better is motivating and meaningful.
Musik is a fundamental need
Musethica's ambition is to become an integral part of the curriculum in music colleges, orchestra academies, and universities; for musicians cannot learn in a rehearsal room alone to be a bridge between a musical composition and the listener. Avri Levitan, who founded the organisation 11 years ago, emphasises the idea that music is a basic human need: «I don't see our performances as entertainment, but as a response the humanistic need of everyone to experience music live.» Musethica combines daily performances, mentoring and feedback in its programme. In a typical session, musicians spend a week with their tutor. Following two days of intensive rehearsal, they perform 12 to 14 concerts, later discussing their experiences and master class performances with the tutor. This is followed by a final public concert with free admission. In a short interview, cellist and Musethica tutor Eckart Runge speaks after a session in Berlin about his experiences:
Musethica in Grafenegg
In this year's cooperation between the European Chamber Music Academy and Musethica in Grafenegg, Eckart Runge will take on the role of tutor, coaching the Doré Quartet. Over the course of the session the Doré Quartet will perform at social institutions around Grafenegg, including the PsychoSoziale Tagesstätte and Wohnhaus Paudorf. The highlight of Musethica's activities in Grafenegg this year is a chamber music concert on June 3rd in Old Barn, featuring works by Haydn, Brahms, and Mahler.