This was to be a conversation about how experienced artists are helping young composers from Poland, Iceland and Norway to make it big. It did cover this topic but not only. I discovered a world I was completely unaware of.
"Mr Paweł, I’m a bit lost. Everything here is ‘neo'"
- I said at the beginning of our meeting.
NeoArte, NeoVoyager, NeoQuartet, NeoEduArte, NeoArte Synthesizer of Arts – these were the names I had to deal with when preparing for this conversation (you will find a glossary at the end of the text). This was quite confusing for me. And even though I had more or less figured out what was what, when talking to Mr Paweł, I made repeated mistakes anyway.
“The ‘neo’ in the name is our manifesto. We’re showing that we want to change the perception of the string quartet,"
- explained my interviewee. What quartet? What manifesto? Let's start with the basics.
Pioneers in Poland
Paweł Kapica is a ‘genuine’ musician: he was educated at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, holder of a master’s degree in instrumental music. He is also manager and member of the NeoQuartet string quartet, in which he plays violin. In addition to him, the ensemble is composed of another violinist, a violist (a person who plays the viola) and a cellist. There are four of them, as it used to be in quartets.
NeoQuartet. From the left: Krzysztof Pawłowski (cello), Karolina Piątkowska-Nowicka (1st violin), Pawel Kapica (2nd violin), Michał Markiewicz (viola). photo. Lukasz Ziętek
They have been performing together for 17 years. They have played more than 500 concerts around the world, primarily in Europe and Asia, but also in the famous Carnegie Hall in New York.
"Unfortunately, I couldn’t go there for personal reasons" - says Paweł Kapica with regret.
NeoQuartet won numerous awards and prizes and was also nominated for the Fryderyk Prize.
The reason I’ve arranged an interview with Paweł Kapica is that the NeoArte association, which was founded by members of the NeoQuartet, is implementing a very interesting project subsidised by the EEA and Norway Funds. I’ll describe the project a little later. Now let’s meet our interviewees.
Paweł Kapica during NeoQuartet's performance at the Oslo Festival in March 2023. photo. Edyta Rembala
"We met in Gdańsk. This is where three quarters of our quartet comes from. Only I’m from Białystok" - Paweł Kapica explains.
The ensemble also composes its own music. Last year, their first original album String Theory was released. It can be found on Spotify, among others.
Sky is the limit
When preparing for this conversation, I realised how little I knew about the world of classical music, contemporary music or the string quartet as such. Perhaps this knowledge isn’t essential to understand what the project carried out by the NeoArte association is all about. However, it’s certainly very helpful in understanding the story of the people behind this initiative and in immersing ourselves in a world of music other than the one we hear every day on radio stations and have set on our playlists. That's why I explored a bit the history of the string quartet
String quartet is a term associated with classical music and it has two meanings. On the one hand, we can call string quartet a piece written for four performers; on the other hand, it’s simply a genre of music. String quartet began to be highly popular around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Quartets were composed by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Ravel, among others. Only the most eminent artists. It’s difficult to find names associated with classical music that would be more important.
That’s why I was a bit surprised when I played myself the String Theory album on Spotify. I expected to hear the classical sounds of violin, viola and cello. And they were there, indeed, but accompanied by electronic sounds and even surprising squeaks, crackles and creaks, as in the track “The fifth element”. Unfortunately, my music-related conceptual apparatus is a bit too poor to describe this in a professional manner.
"At one point we decided to buy electric instruments for string quartet. We combined them with synthesisers and loopers to play the kind of sounds we wanted. The creative possibilities with classical instruments are limited. It’s impossible to go beyond certain sounds. We have the strings, the sound box. In electronics, only sky is the limit" - explains my interviewee.
NeoQuartet violist Michał Markiewicz during the festival Neo Arte - Synthesizer of Art in Oslo in March 2023. photo. Edyta Rembala
In order to illustrate to me what it’s all about, he cites the example of the jazz guitarist Pat Metheny.
"When you listen to his records, the guitar doesn’t sound like a guitar. The amazing sounds he makes with his synthesisers are the very clue of his work. We wanted that freedom too".
Moreover, Paweł Kapica adds that NeoQuartet introduces these innovations because members of the ensemble want to refer to what they’re interested in.
"We listen to a lot of electronic music. It’s not about so much about pop but slightly more ambitious tunes. I listen to classical music the least" - he declares.
When listening to Paweł Kapica, I get puzzled by the following question: why musicians who are well-known in their field and quite successful, who experiment with new sounds, decided at some point to write an application, go through various formalities and obtain funding from the EEA and Norway Funds for a project whose main aim is to help young musicians develop their careers. We’ll come back to their motivations, but first let’s talk about the project itself.
Under the watchful eye of a mentor
For the record: the formal name of the project is ‘Neo Voyager – development of cultural cooperation by organization of Norwegian and Icelandic editions of contemporary music festival called NeoArte – Synthesizer of Arts Festival along with educational project called Neo Edu Arte presented in Norway, Iceland, and Poland’. I always have trouble with these names. As a rule, they are long, written in a language that isn’t very natural, dominated by nouns and adjectives, while in our language we find most natural verbs in the active voice. I know they must sound like that, but still, you have to read them carefully and at least twice to catch the meaning. That’s just my personal digression.
The project is composed of two elements. The first of them is NeoArte – Synthesizer of Arts Festival. This event is the brainchild of the aforementioned NeoArte association put on by the NeoQuartet musicians. The association has been organising its festival in Gdańsk since 2012. This event is always held in October. The funding made it possible to organise the festival also in Oslo (where it was held in March 2023) and in Reykjavik (where it's planned for March 2024)
Torstein Lavik Larsen - musician of the band Parallax from Norway - during a performance at the festival Neo Arte - Synthesizer of Arts in Oslo in March 2023. photo. Edyta Rembala
"Our festival is dedicated to contemporary music. We wanted to somehow stand out, which is why music at our festival is accompanied by other media, such as video and theatre" - says Paweł Kapica.
The second element of the project is of educational nature. It aims at helping young composers from Poland, Iceland and Norway to spread their wings. The association has launched a competition for young musicians to participate in the project in the three above-mentioned countries. They invited for cooperation organisations from Poland, Norway and Iceland, respectively: Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union, nyMusikk’s Composer Group and The Society of Icelandic Composers.
"About 60 people had applied and we chose two people from each country" - explains Paweł Kapica.
Each of the six winners works with five established artists who act as mentors.
"We’re working with composers from Norway, Iceland, Poland and Iran. Each represents a slightly different approach to composition. We have Trond Reinholdtsen from Norway, an absolute star in his niche, who has basically created a new theatre-music genre. We have Paweł Hendrich from Poland, who specialises in creating electro-acoustic music, or Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir from Iceland, who has a very multimedia approach to the art of composing. We also cooperate with two artists, who are connected to Norway, but come from Poland and Iran, namely Martyna Kosecka and Idin Samimi Mofakham, who uses elements of Persian culture in his compositions" - enumerates my interviewee.
Apart from working with mentors, the project participants take part in a workshop with members of the NeoQuartet dedicated to writing works for string quartet. Ultimately, each of the six young artists will write a composition for acoustic or electric string quartet.
Workshops with project participants. In the center of the photo, the violist of the NeoQuartet, Michał Markiewicz, and around: one of the composers-mentors - Idin Samimi Mofakham and participants of the Neo Edu Arte project: Ása ÖnnuÓlafsdóttir (Iceland), Anders Hannevold (Norway), Vanessa Isobel Black (Norway). photo. Edyta Rembala
"The two components: festival and education are closely linked. We meet live at festivals in Oslo, Reykjavik and Gdańsk. The NeoQuartet will perform works written by young musicians for the first time at the Reykjavik edition of the festival in March 2024. The compositions will also be recorded and released on CD" - explains Paweł Kapica.
From Germany to Korea
He draws my attention to two important aspects of the project. The first is the opportunity to networking.
"As a quartet, we performed 10 years ago at a festival in Berlin. It turned out that this small event was attended by the entire Berlin contemporary music community, which is probably the most vibrant community of this kind in Europe. Recently, we’ve been reflecting on what the path of our contacts was and how it came to be that we now play a lot of concerts, including in Korea. It all turned out to be the result of the contacts we developed at that Berlin festival" - explains the musician.
"When you work with established musicians, attend festivals - like the participants in the Neo Voyager project – you can pick up a number of contacts that will later develop exponentially" - he concludes.
What a composer can do
The second element is career coaching. Each of the six young composers is provided with the support of a coach throughout the project. This role is played by Anna Proszowska-Sala, who helps artist-musicians to build their brand.
"In fact, apart from a few exceptions, no one teaches in the Music Academies how to consciously build a career, how to showcase your work, how to take care of your image and, finally, how to monetise what you do. We provide this opportunity in our project" - explains Paweł Kapica.
I found this topic very interesting. After all, every industry has its own career paths. I ask Paweł Kapica what’s the best way for a young graduate, who leaves the music university and wants to become professional composer. Does the world lie ahead of him, with money and fame close at hand? Or is it rather ploughing in the fallow land with fame and money waiting at the very end only for the chosen few?
Anders Hannevold - a young composer from Norway, participant of the NeoVoyager project
It turns out that a composer can make money in several ways.
"Firstly, he can count that someone, e.g. a philharmonic, festival or local government, will commission a piece from him or her. Secondly, he can create music for films or for plays. Film music can be a very lucrative occupation, especially if you make your way to Hollywood. There is also the option of writing music for video games, this market is growing very rapidly. Other options include freelancing or being a teacher in schools and music universities" - explains Paweł Kapica.
I then ask him what the environment is like. Are most composers well paid? It turns out that it’s the same as in other industries, i.e. we’re dealing with a kind of pyramid scheme.
"At the top of the pyramid, we have a group of composers who are very well-known and successful. There is also a larger group of people who live in quite decent conditions. There are millions of talented people in the world, but talent and hard work are only part of success. The real challenge is how to show the world your worth. That’s why we put so much emphasis on career coaching" - explains the musician.
Hubert Gabriel Żmudzki - a young composer from Poland, participant of the NeoVoyager project. photo. Maria Jarzyna
I’m also interested in what the relationship is between the different professions in the music industry. Together, we come to an interesting comparison. The composer is, in a sense, an engineer who creates the bridge (the piece). He has to imagine it, place it in space and design it: decide whether it’ll be a suspension bridge or a bridge based on pillars, whether it’ll be made of concrete or wood. The musician who performs this piece is someone who builds a bridge. He or she is the building contractor who can comment on the design or say that some elements aren’t feasible or that something in the design is worth changing. The musician is in a sense a co-creator. The audience, on the other hand, is someone who uses the bridge: a pedestrian, a car or engine driver. It’s up to the pedestrian to walk slowly and enjoy the views or simply run across the bridge without looking around. Car drivers can drive calmly on the bridge, but they can also go into a skid on it and spin. Every person is a separate user.
Fire protection music
I’m also interested in the issue of differences between composers from different countries. I remember being in the Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre a few months ago to see a theatre from Iceland with a guest performance. For me, this play was difficult to read and, I painfully admit, I didn't quite understand what it was about. I know that I wasn’t alone in my opinion, but I also know that some people were delighted. Can composers from Iceland or Norway also seem a little “weird” to us Poles? Obviously, such a small group may not be representative, but I decided to ask about that.
"From my observations, Polish composers are perfectly prepared when it comes to skills. They have writing, instrumentation, counterpoint at their fingertips. In contrast, Kristján Steinn Kristjánsson from Iceland, who is participating in our project, doesn’t write or read sheet music. In Iceland, in the composition department, this is not required. He’s learning more about creating multimedia projects" - says Paweł Kapica.
Wait, what? A musician who doesn’t know the notes? I can’t believe it. It sounds like Mariusz Pudzianowski calling for help to bring in a washing machine or Krzysztof Hołowczyc going to the car service centre to have his windscreen wipers replaced. Actually, I have no idea how it looks like for the two gentlemen mentioned above, but I begin to understand the issue with the Icelandic composer.
Kristján Steinn Kristjánsson - a young composer from Iceland, participant of the NeoVoyager project
"He’s very open to experimentation. He once described us his project in a museum in the Netherlands, where he had put together a performance in which fire detectors played a central role. They were the instruments. The audience sat in the museum space and listened to the music, which he created by controlling sensors with a computer. As John Cage once said: everything is music" - says my interviewee.
I look into who John Cage was and why Paweł Kapica mentioned him in this context. Cage is the American musician who wrote the famous piece entitled “4’33”. The problem is that in this piece, there is no instrument and no music. The song was premièred in 1952 in Woodstock, New York, and caused huge controversy. The pianist came on stage, sat down in front of the piano, measured 4 minutes and 33 seconds with a stopwatch without playing a single note. The only music was silence or the reactions of the audience, most of whom were simply annoyed.
"Silence doesn’t exist – everything is music" - concluded John Cage
Paweł Kapica adds: "In music, all boundaries have already been crossed, everything has happened. Now we can just enjoy.variations"
He summarizes the issue of the young artists involved in the project as follows:
"Each of the young composers is a different personality. Which makes us happy. They create tailor-made music for our quartet. This project is like going to a tailor for a fitting. We’re very curious to see what will be the final result."
Vanessa Isobel Black - young composer from Norway, participant of the NeoVoyager project
Creative bombing
Let’s return for a moment to the thread of the NeoArte association standing behind the whole project. I find on the association’s website that its mission is to change the world for the better through culture and arts. I ask Paweł Kapica how he understands this sentence. I ask about the motivation that drives the association to act, including the project with young composers.
"At the core of our work is the belief that by the contact with culture and arts people can improve their quality of life. This isn’t just an unsupported thesis. There is such a concept as culture-based creativity. It was described several years ago by the European Union officials" - explains my interviewee.
Indeed, I find on the web a study from 2009 entitled The impact of culture on creativity. A study prepared for the European Commission.
Przemysław Pacek - a young composer from Poland, participant of the NeoVoyager project Lang
"Culture-based creativity has the capacity to break conventions, the usual way of thinking, to allow the development of a new vision, an idea or a product" - says the study.
The musician then refers to an example of the effectiveness of culture-based creativity, namely the city of Liverpool in the UK, which has attracted interesting people to the city through investment in culture and transformed its post-industrial sites into arts districts.
"Recently, I also examined the development strategy of Finland. It openly assumes that culture and business aren’t two separate entities. They are meant to intermingle and inspire each other. Culture is supposed to help searching for solutions that will be applied to business and that Finns can sell further to the world" - Paweł Kapica points out.
I think it’s worth adding in this context that Finland isn’t only famous for having the world’s highest rate of heavy-metal bands per capita (culture!), but is also one of the world’s most innovative countries (business). In the 2022 Global Innovation Index, which measures the innovativeness of national economies, Finland ranked 9th in the world.
Ása ÖnnuÓlafsdóttir - young composer from Iceland, participant of the NeoVoyager project
We end the interview by discussing whether, at contemporary music concerts, it’s better to put the audience in a situation of total ignorance and ‘bombard’ them with a new situation, or perhaps it’s better to prepare, for example, a kind of concert catalogue (as is done at exhibitions), in which the artists and their works would be described. Opinions differ. It all depends on individual preferences, because the reception of music – or, in a broader context, of the whole culture – is an individual matter.
And I think that’s precisely where the beauty and power of culture lies. There’s a difference between what the author had in mind and how I perceive it. I can complain that I didn’t understand an Icelandic play but I can as well open myself up to a new experience. I can be annoyed by the piece “4’ 33” or delighted by its concept. One thing is certain: everything is music and music is a bridge on which we, the audience, walk.
Finally, the promised glossary:
NeoQuartet – string quartet featuring and managed by Paweł Kapica – https://neoquartet.pl/
NeoArte – association founded by members of NeoQuartet. It formally implements the NeoVoyager and other projects – https://neoarte.pl/stowarzyszenie/
NeoVoyager – shortened name of the project to organise concerts and support young composers that I described in this text – https://neoarte.pl/projekt-neo-voyager/
NeoArte – Art Synthesiser – name of the festival that is part of the NeoVoyager project – https://neoarte.pl/
NeoEduArte – name of the element of the NeoVoyager project that consists of supporting young composers
Author of the text: Paweł Nowak (Communication and Promotion Team, Department of Assistance Programmes of the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy)
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The project ‘Neo Voyager – development of cultural cooperation by organization of Norwegian and Icelandic editions of contemporary music festival called NeoArte – Synthesizer of Arts Festival along with educational project called Neo Edu Arte presented in Norway, Iceland, and Poland’ is financed by the EEA and Norway Funds. It’s implemented as part of the Culture programme.
Percussionist and performer Jennifer Torrence during the NeoArte Festival - Synthesizer of Arts in Oslo in March 2023. photo. Edyta Rembala