**The Many Faces of the Freelance Performer of Contemporary Music in the 21st Century**

#### **by Zubin Kanga**

This chapter examines the many non-musical skills that are required of the freelancing contemporary music performer. Recent generations of musicians working in contemporary music are increasingly self-managing their work rather than having agents or management teams. These musicians now need to learn the skills of agents and managers as well as those of marketers, PR agents, lawyers, fundraisers, project managers, social media managers, and compositional coaches. The increasing use of digital technology in both their performances and their marketing also demands that new skills be acquired, from a wide knowledge of computing and audio-visual hardware to skills in programming, photography, and video editing. This chapter has two main parts. One is a case study of one of the author's own touring projects, examining the many skills and costs required during the two years of commissioning and performing. The second is a survey of mid-career freelancing contemporary music performers—performing as soloists and chamber musicians—that sheds further light on the range of skills developed and utilised by contemporary music performers, their approach to self-training in these skills, the time and financial pressures of self-managed work, and some of the troubling discriminatory issues that they have faced as freelancers. Finally, a number of recommendations address these systemic issues, with the aim of creating a more sustainable, artistically vibrant, innovative, and diverse contemporary music culture.

#### **Partnership in Piano Duet Playing by Mark Hutchinson and Elizabeth Haddon**

This chapter discusses factors contributing to the development of partnership within the rehearsal process of a piano duet, explored previously in relation to empathy. A reflective–analytical approach was utilised in which the participant-researchers undertook reflective writing after each of eight rehearsals; this dialogic undertaking produced a substantial body of rich data. Further thematic analysis for this chapter revealed processes concerning individual qualities and joint possibilities; trajectories of foundational elements that underpin creative exploration and key issues relating to preparation; ensemble leadership; communication roles, modes, and strategies; shared creative musicianship; and possibility thinking. These are discussed in relation to the literature on partnership within other fields. The findings have implications for ensemble rehearsal and performance as well as for educators working with chamber musicians, in particular through the consideration of concerns relating to communication strategies, sharing and developing ideas, and issues of roles and responsibility. The role of the shared reflective writing in facilitating various aspects including longitudinal recall is also discussed in relation to its influence on the development of the partnership. These concerns are relevant to those involved in chamber music within non-formal contexts as well as musicians within formal and educational settings.

#### **"Let's Play!": Professional Performers' Perspectives on Play in Chamber Ensemble Rehearsal**

#### **by Rae W. Todd and Elaine C. King**

This chapter explores the phenomenon of play in the context of professional chamber ensemble rehearsal and argues that play lies at the heart of it. The account begins with an interrogation of the concept of play and a distinction is made between "playing music" (that is, how the term play is ordinarily used in making music) and "play" (that is, the social and cultural activity that manifests in many contexts). Characteristics of play are identified according to existing research conceptualisations. Within the domain of musicology, it is noted that previous studies on play and music performance focus on activity about scores and sounds. To date, there is a lack of insight into music performers' understandings of play, as well as little emphasis on the way in which play is experienced among co-performers, such as in small ensembles. A novel empirical enquiry was undertaken to gather professional chamber performers' perspectives on play through post-rehearsal reflections using video recall of live footage. The performers revealed nuanced understandings and experiences of play and highlighted "moments" of play as uniquely positive experiences. Play was vital in enabling the performers to "make the music their own". These findings are cross-compared with existing research perspectives, and the implications for the performers and researchers are discussed.

### **A "Naked Violin" and a "Mechanical Rabbit": Exploring Playing Relationships in Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) by Neil Heyde**

We are fortunate to have been left an unusual and very personal account of the players' work with Ravel on this piece at the time of its creation. The "naked violin" and "mechanical rabbit" of the title are characterisations of the two instruments that appear in Hel´ ene Jourdan-Morhange's ` *Ravel et nous* (1945). (Jourdan-Morhange was one of Ravel's most important collaborators in the 1920s.) Her description of the violin as "stripped of decent attire" suggests that this piece presents a peculiarly "exposed" approach, and this chapter explores some of the ways in which the explication of the musical relationships embodied in this extraordinary piece of chamber music offer a particularly distinctive picture of the ways in which relationships between players in chamber music are also played out through the instruments. The chapter establishes the nature of some of the "games" in which players of this music engage, exploring in particular the roles of open strings and harmonics in shaping the interactions. In order to understand the implications of Jourdan-Morhange's characterisations, some comparisons are drawn with Ravel's other pieces from the surrounding decade.

### **Asynchronous Small Group Ensemble: An Exploration of Technology-Mediated Chamber Music Making in Higher Education**

#### **by Maria Krivenski**

The practice-led study discussed in this chapter explores the creative and pedagogical affordances of asynchronous small group ensembles in a higher education (HE) context, with a particular focus on four-hand duets. A qualitative multiple-case study design was adopted, which combined a range of auto-ethnographic and ethnographically informed data-construction strategies. Data were analysed through thematic analysis (TA). Within the limitations of this study, findings indicate that the "virtual ensemble model" proposed and discussed here is an artistically meaningful and pedagogically valuable form of chamber music: it affords unique opportunities for deep learning, joint creativity, and artistic fulfilment. Furthermore, it promotes the development of musical and technological literacies that can facilitate (student and professional) performers' participation in online music communities and access to online collaborative music-making opportunities. Findings suggest that the inclusion of virtual performance in HE curricular activities can play an important role in enabling performance students to acquire the experience, skills, and mindset they need to embrace the evolving roles and identities of the 21st-century classical musician.

#### **Amateur Chamber Music: Repertoire and Experience**

#### **by Mary Hunter**

Although there are a growing number of studies in the literature about the participation of adult amateur musicians in classical music making, there is relatively little written about chamber music, particularly about the relationship between repertoire and experience for this group of musicians. This essay, which is theoretically underpinned by Robert Stebbins' work on "serious leisure," is based on 55 responses to a questionnaire I sent out in early 2020; most of the questions required answers in a free-form prose style. In addition, I solicited 15 lengthier responses (some written, some in-person interviews). The respondents fell into essentially equal groups: one of string and piano players, and one of those who played wind or brass instruments. Although there is some difference between the repertoire of the two groups, mainly concerning the smaller proportion of acknowledged 18th- and 19th-century masterpieces for winds and brass, attitudes toward the experience were much more similar than different between the groups. Four themes ran through the responses: (1) amateur chamber music is an intense, important, and generally happy experience for its participants; (2) respondents tend to think of works as "units of personal experience" rather than as elements of a free-standing repertoire; (3) the virtual sociability provided by chamber music playing is important to most of these musicians; and (4) respondents viewed music making as embedded in, and in many ways about, a series of nested and usually familiar communities.
