Classically (Un)Trained

No time to read academic essays? Well, have no fear, we'll read this one together. "Another Art World" by David Graeber and Nika Dubrovsky talks about how we might re-imagine the art world. In part one, they introduce the idea of the art world creating artificial scarcity and talk about how this has roots in Romanticism. They also touch on the Proletkult in early 20th century Russia, which was founded on the (Romantic?) idea that "everyone is an artist" and was one of the few real-life attempts to create art communism.

Link to text of "Another Art World Pt. 1" in eFlux journal: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/102/284624/another-art-world-part-1-art-communism-and-artificial-scarcity/

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

In this conversation with director Vivian Säde and producer Eve Tisler we talk about a short film we’ve been working on (named Echo and created around the monodrama Sentiment by Juliana Hall and Caitlin Vincent) in order to talk openly about all the work that goes into any creative project, even when things never actually "click" to make the project to happen. We also talk about "women filmmakers," budgets, artists and mental health and how opera on film is gatekept, among other things.

YouTube version (with supplementary images): https://youtu.be/7nKWWPi-pWg

Contents (add 30 seconds to accommodate intro):

00:00:00 Intro

00:16:27 A Detour with a Czech Producer

00:18:48 Women in the Film Industry

00:27:11 What IS a producer, anyway?

00:34:53 Our Estonian Experimental Film Fund Application

00:36:15 The Realities of Short Film Budgets and Paying Your Crew

00:41:21 Women Aging IN to the Film Industry

00:45:48 Artists and Mental Health

01:02:52 Reinventing Opera, the Voice, and the point of making Echo

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

Nika Dubrovsky is an artist who believes everyone is an artist.

Originally from Russia, where, after an education in visual arts, she was involved with the cultural underground of the 80s, she immigrated to the United States in 1989, right after the communist regime fell. Interestingly, once in the US, Nika seemed to take up the same position she had under totalitarianism, in circles of cultural critics and activist.

One of Nika’s recent projects is the Museum of Care, the concept of which comes from an essay of the same name which she wrote with her late husband, David Graeber, during the pandemic of 2020. The essay imagines a world in which the office buildings left empty by lockdowns are turned into communal spaces, or Museums of Care, after the pandemic, the way royal palaces were turned into state museums after the French and Russian revolutions. The idea of art, and the place of art and the artist, are important to Nika Dubrovsky’s, and for that matter David Graeber’s, cultural critique, which is why I wanted to interview Nika for this podcast.

Nika and I talk about the underground art scene in Soviet Russia, the Proletkult, in which everyone is an artist, the idea of direct vs. indirect action, the creation of autonomous zones, like the Zapatista communities or Rozhava, and at the end I ask Nika three questions about her article, co-written with David Graeber, “Another Art World” which critiques art institutions as they exist today – among other things.

❤️ Time stamps (please add 30 seconds to account for the intro): 

03:14 – Nika’s origins and Samizdat

06:27 – The Museum of Care

10:50 – “The Government is the Government, the State is the State” (and meeting David Graeber)

13:29 – Visual Assembly, the Role of the Artist, Proletkult and how Everyone is an Artist

20:02 – The War Against the Imagination

23:20 – Storytelling, Creative Refusal, Schizmogenesis

24:44 – Technology

26:39 – Extinction Rebellion and Direct vs. Indirect  Action

30:50 – Taking direct action and autonomous zones

40:15 – The Mona Lisa and Its Value

42:09 – Three Questions About Another Art World

42:47 – A Summary of “Another Art World”

44:17 – Question 1: Isn’t the internet a social experiment in what happens when everyone can be a creator and, if so, why are there still winners and losers?

01:00:40 – Question 2: Even if everyone should have the access to the means of producing art, isn’t art also an act of service which requires expertise?

01:12:29 – Question 3: Why use the word “communism”?

👁 Links: 

The Museum of Care website: https://museum.care/

The Museum of Care (article): https://davidgraeber.org/articles/the-museum-of-care-reimagining-the-world-after-pandemic/

David Graeber Institute: https://davidgraeber.org/

Another Art World (essay): https://www.e-flux.com/journal/102/284624/another-art-world-part-1-art-communism-and-artificial-scarcity/

Music:
Dieter van der Westen: The Balkan Night Train

💋👂🏼👁 Podcast website: onthevergetrilogy.com 

In this Snippet, I debate myself-from-a-little-over-a-year-ago about the internet as it pertains to artists by re-reading and reacting to an article I wrote on Medium called “5 Ways The Internet is Failing You As An Artists – And 5 Things You Can Do About It.” I recorded this in the context of having done some interesting interviews lately but not having time to edit them just yet – so this is me feeding the beast of an online platform whilst complaining about the very mechanism that compels me to do so. The irony does not escape me.

Here is the original article:

https://medium.com/@ema.katrovas/5-ways-the-internet-is-failing-you-as-an-artist-1eec8b6e3bbb

💋👁👂🏼 Website: https://onthevergetrilogy.com/ 

👀 Instagram: @soprano_on_the_verge  

 💌Newsletter (best way to stay in touch): https://mailchi.mp/45b402876641/artistsontheverge 

😇 Become a patron and gain access to "backstage" videos: https://steadyhq.com/en/opera-on-the-verge

This is my reading an article I wrote for a newly-launched publication called Theorema Review (https://theorem-a.org/). I'm mainly reading it to draw attention to the idea behind the publication, launched a couple months ago by a friend, that of artists reviewing other artists (though I also used my review as an excuse to ponder experimental vocal music history and experimentation vs. communication in art.) Lots of John Cage and Cathy Berberian in the this one! 

Link to the article (including footnotes and sources): https://theorem-a.org/2022/12/08/anaphora-by-michael-edward-edgerton/

During my reading I play Felicita Brusoni’s rendition of Michael Edward Edgerton’s Anaphora available in full here: https://youtu.be/dgkiWUgNEdA

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

This is the audio from the anniversary livestream I did on January 13th, 2023. I fixed some of the audio issues from the livestream so it's a bit easier to listen to. 

You can also watch the original livestream here: https://youtu.be/gGUW5q1IIDI

Livestream schedule: 

Vivian Säde (director and screenwriter, co-host) - 19:00 - 20:30 CET (1pm-2:30pm EST)  1

9:20 - 19:40 CET (1:20-1:40pm EST) - Jason Cady  (composer, co-founder of Experiments in Opera) and Christoph Ogiermann (composer, improvisor)  

19:50 - 20:10 CET (1:50-2:10pm EST): Elena Floris (violinist, actress at Odin Teatret)  and Felicita Brusoni (vocal experimenter)  

20:10 - 20:30 CET (2:10-2:30pm EST): Darja Lukjanenko (visual artist and communicator) and Helena Mamich (psychiatrist and singer)   

Omar Shahryar (composer of music for and by children, co-host) - 20:30 - 21:20 CET (2:30-3:20pm EST)

20:40-21:00 CET (2:40-3pm EST): Kate Gale (writer, founder of Red Hen Press) and Richard Katrovas (writer, ex-poet, father of the host)  

21:00 - 21:20 CET (3-3:20pm EST): Cassandra Kaczor (classical-composer-turned-pop-music-artist) and Deyiş Görgülü (singer of Ottoman music)

💋👁👂🏼 Website: https://onthevergetrilogy.com/ 

👀 Instagram: @soprano_on_the_verge   

💌Newsletter (best way to stay in touch): https://mailchi.mp/79f46429dcce/operaontheverge

😇 Become a patron and gain access to "backstage" videos: https://steadyhq.com/en/opera-on-the-verge

This is a Snippet in which I ask myself why it seems so hard to be original in the field of contemporary art/theater/music and possibly introduce you to the term “flameout,” coined by anthropologist David Graeber.

The snippet is also available with images/video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/h0eBr6l0BsM

Link to David Graeber’s lecture (very recommended): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCF-8OQj0RE

David Graeber’s website: https://davidgraeber.org/

The Institute for Experimental Art (co-founded by Graeber): https://theinstitute.info/

Full Artists on the Verge episode with composer Jason Cady (the one I quote at the end): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNOaqOmRl1w

❤️More about this podcast: onthevergetrilogy.com 

❤️Instragram: @Soprano_on_the_verge

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

Deyiş Görgülü was 9 years old when she swore off music. She was 30 when she decided to take it up again. So, what makes someone refuse music for 20 years?

Deyiş grew up in Turkey as part of the Alevi Bektashi community. In fact, her name, Deyiş, is the name for a type of Alevi spiritual music. But, in the mid-90s, as a child, she lived through one of the flareups of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. The tension surrounding this conflict, which started way back in the early 70s, meant that her father, a trumpetist for the Turkish army, forbid her from singing Alevi songs, since Alevi culture is fundamentally pacifist and therefore anti-military. It wasn’t until she moved to France, as an adult, that she felt she could sing again and, eventually, founded an ensemble called Evden with viola d’amore player Isabelle Eder and flautist Marie Ploquin. They perform a kind of fusion between European classical music and Ottoman music – and just to give you an idea of the vastness of Ottoman music, Deyiş sings in Ladino, Turkish, Greek, Assyrian, Armenian, and Arabic among other languages.

Deyiş and I talk about Alevi culture and the cem gathering, which Deyiş likens a to jam session, about the vast world of Ottoman music, about the meaning of the word Evden, the name of her ensemble, about a song Deyiş is writing for the women of Iran, and about one problem shared by music and baklava, among other things.

Evden’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/evdenmusique/

Musique:

Evden Musique - Yeniliğe Doğru (text by Rumi) (live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0TnNth-1tM

Erdal Erzincan - Bugün Bize Pir Geldi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24Yfvj6e0t0

Evden Musique - Evden Musique - Στο ’πα και στο ξαναλέω (Sto 'pa Kai Sto Ksanaleo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTriUPjSQQk

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

Madness. It’s a popular literary and operatic themes, but seldom would you get to talk to an artist who is trained to cure madness.

Helena Mamich leads a double life: she is both a doctor at a psychiatric ward in Berlin and a soprano spatializing in classical contemporary music. As a singer, Helena has achieved enough even for someone who doesn’t have a parallel life as a doctor– she has premiered numerous works by contemporary composers, recently debuted in a new opera at the Bethanien Theater in Berlin, collaborated with the German band Black Needle noise on a crossover track, and in the year 2019 she won the Večernjakova Domovnica prize awarded annually by the Večerjni list daily newspaper for the most successful musician of the Croatian diaspora and as if that wasn’t enough, Helena has recently published a book of political haikus in her native Croatian. One of Helena’s big missions is to educate the public about psychiatry and one of the ways she would like to do that is through a short opera based on her experiences as a psychiatrist (she’s already written the libretto.)

Helena and I talk about how psychiatry and classical contemporary music complement each other, how important understanding someone’s culture is in determining whether they have a psychiatric condition, how every discharge letter from a psychiatric ward could be a libretto, as well as one thing Helena says should be taught in conservatories but isn’t.

Helena’s website and blog: https://helenamamic.com/

Helena’s Instagram: @helenamamich

Music (all music on this episode is interpreted by Helena Mamich):

G.Scelsi -Lilitu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIUhF7EOMxs

Black Needle Noise: https://soundcloud.com/doctordiva/just-one-more-day-nocturnal-vocalise

Gerhard Stäbler: blindflug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GyY7ub_TYU&t=69s

Ivana Lang: Macji pir (Cat's wedding): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p-GdFrgJjw

💋👁👂🏼 Website: https://onthevergetrilogy.com/

This is an episode of the old podcast, called Artists on the Verge. I decided to keep these conversations up in the feed because they are, in fact, part of what led me to create Classically (Un)Trained. I have taken down all except the artist interviews - but you can check out an expanded archive here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/former-podcast-archive/

Check out the current podcast here: https://classicallyuntrainedpodcast.com/

Meet Felicita Brusoni, Italian singer and voice researcher. Felicita is pursuing a doctorate at Malmö Academy of Music is Sweden (part of Lund University) where she is working on a project called “A Voice Beyond the Edge.” One of her main mentors is composer Michael Edgerton, author of The 21st Century Voice: Contemporary and Traditional Extra Normal Voice which is a catalog of vocal sounds that often comes up in conversations about extended vocal techniques.

As the name of Felicita’s artistic research project implies, this is definitely going to be an episode for voice geeks but also for those who like the bizarre. Felicita and I talk about the inaccuracy of the term “extended vocal techniques,” about the somewhat hard-to-define but increasingly popular discipline of “artistic research,” about the difference between extended techniques in the mid-20th century and today, about Felicita’s fresh discovery that humans can produce ultrasounds, but also about singers Cathy Berberian and even Maria Callas and, at the end, Felicita even tries to teach me an extended technique I hadn’t done before – to mixed results.

Felicita’s website: https://www.felicitabrusoni.com/

Felicita’s Instagram: @felicitabrusoni_soprano 

🎵 Music:

Felicita Brusoni sings Vinko Globukar’s Jehnseits der Sicherheit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5AyEU4mpBk&t=297s

Felicita Brusoni sings Michael Edgerton’s Anaphora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgkiWUgNEdA&t=344s

Cathy Berberian sings Luciano Berio‘s Folk Songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiRgEFotRxM

Cathy Berberian sings Luciano Berio’s Sequenza III: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxjCIANddU

Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi in murder scene from Tosca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnFlg1z1hPc

For more about Artists on the Verge: 

💋👁👂🏼 Website: https://onthevergetrilogy.com/

Insta: @Soprano_on_the_verge