Becoming La Maestra with Rebecca Tong

12/09/21 • 44 min

Competitions Are for Horses, Not for Artists?
Today we are going to discuss a sensitive and yet, somehow controversial topic - music competition. Composer Bela Bartok‘s famous quote says, “Competitions are for horses, not artists.” However, some of us, including myself, dream about winning a major competition and then have a career that just takes off at times.

Professional ensembles, agents, or businesses continue to organize conducting competitions, and we continue to enter them because we are seeing people successful through this route. However, we are not seeing those who won a competition without a major career, not to mention those who tried, also worked hard, perhaps equally talented or qualified but didn’t win the glory. We only see the flamboyant and sparkling part of the business.

With the pressing call for more diversity in the conducting field, la Maestra was the first conducting competition for women only, which was held in March 2021 in Paris amidst Covid-19. My guest today is the winner of the inaugural La Maestra Competition, Rebecca Tong, and she will share her journey before, during, and after the competition with all of us.

Rebecca is Resident Conductor of Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra and is Artistic Director and Music Director of Ensemble Kontemporer. She recently completed her two-year tenure as Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, and previously studied at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. During her studies, Rebecca worked extensively in assisting the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and frequently collaborates with the Hallé Orchestra and Manchester Camerata.

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Previous Episode

Four Tips to Get Unstuck When You Are Depressed

Do you sometimes feel that everyone else has it all figured out, and you are the only person that is so stuck?

If you’re like me, you probably feel that your career is stuck at times - if not the majority of the time. It’s really hard seeing others announcing their shiny new career opportunities and engagements as it feels like everyone else but me is having such a great career and such great success as a conductor. Deep down when I could pause to think rationally, I know that social media is full of false and toxic positivity. I know for a fact that my colleagues are also going through frustrations and rejections - and maybe even some self-doubt at times - but I still can’t help thinking about all the opportunities and gigs I thought I deserved, or how everyone else seemed to achieve success but me.

I am opening up and telling you all this because I wanted you to know that you are not alone, my friends, if you sometimes feel depressed and stuck, just like me. But it’s okay to feel frustrated, defeated, and even depressed at times. What’s important is that we acknowledge our feelings, become accepting of ourselves, and give ourselves the much needed time to figure things out.

Give yourself much time and love to heal, and when you feel ready, try a few different exercises to get through the feeling of being stuck. Today, I wanted to share with you strategies that have helped me through my darkest days, in the hope that you will also find a tool that resonates with you. Later in the episode, we will also talk more about effective goal setting skills and ways to audit your progress, so make sure that you stay with me and listen to the end!

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Next Episode

Building a Collaborative Creative Team - Tips for Working with Living Composers with Rachel Howley

What if orchestras in Beethoven's time weren't interested in performing 🅽🅴🆆 🅼🆄🆂🅸🅲?
One of the great advantages of performing works by living composers is that we can ask them questions. A conductor’s job is largely deciphering the composers’ intentions, translating the knowledge into our gestures, and conveying to the musicians to realize the music together. However, the composers’ intentions are not always clear from the score. It can come from editorial mistakes or the composer’s own inconsistency, and of course, the more we know and learn about the composer’s own personality and background, the better we can speak the language for them.

However, not everyone loves working with living composers. There are many reasons -- some might feel that the newly composed works haven’t made it through the test of history, as we say in Chinese, that they are not as worthy. Some people simply don’t enjoy working with composers as the score and parts might not be as readily engraved in some cases. Some conductors do not like having another dictator to the rehearsal process, and there will be people who just tell you that they don’t like new music -- it’s not their taste.

My guest today Rachel Howley and I will share our experience working with composers on premieres and beyond, and we both found this process really rewarding, especially when you are working with educational ensembles. Even if you work primarily with professional groups -- remember all music was once new. If orchestras in Beethoven’s time weren’t kin to programming new works, we wouldn’t have had so many masterworks now.

Rachel Howley is a music educator, conductor and researcher. She is the founding Director of Grace Academy at Grace Lutheran College, a leading educational institution in Performing Arts in Queensland, Australia. She is also a conducting staff with the Queensland Wind Orchestra, and regularly guest conducts throughout the area.

Rachel is a current Doctor of Musical Arts candidate, studying conducting with Dr. Peter Morris at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Her research explores the role of the conductor in championing the wind band works of Australian female composers. She is also an active advocate for encouraging diversity and fair gender representation through the selection of repertoire. Through her research, she has commissioned several new works and facilitated partnerships between emerging composers and Australian publishing companies.

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