Help me out, folks. Is audiential a word?
The dotted red-line I can see beneath it whist typing suggests my computer thinks not. A cursory Google search reveals less than I thought it would.
However, as any good creative knows, our capacity to bring new things into being is an important task, and so; if this stretches to adding a suffix to a word to create an adjective of controversial derivation to help make a point, then so be it. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I should start this post with something of a gentle warning - I am gently flexing my cognitive muscles a little with this post. For well over a year, I’ve had something brewing in my mind; a long-form article about an important topic related to live music and how we experience it.
To be honest, I am scared of writing it, let alone putting it out there. It’s one of those things that kind, responsible friends and family would say “just leave that one alone…it’s more trouble than it’s worth to bring that up”. It will just piss people off (even more than those of you I’ve just annoyed by using the ‘p’ word. See? It’s all preparation).
It begins with an ‘I’, and I’ll give you a clue - it’s not ice-cream. More’s the pity.
Whilst I gird my loins and prepare for ensuing battle, I thought I’d start the ball rolling and ease in gently by referencing some upcoming live music events I am curating here in Leeds, and why I think they have the potential to be more than just “well, that was nice”.
My English teacher at school banned us from using the word ‘nice’, and it still sticks in my craw, even if used tongue-in-cheek.
Anyway…onwards.
In 2018, I began a very rough, nascent live music event series titled Brudenell Piano Sessions. Some of you will know of it (goodness knows I’ve posted enough about it); some of you will have been along (if you live close enough). Some, I know, wish you could come, but distance/oceans preclude it; and some - and yes I definitely know it - think I discriminate against other instruments by sticking rigidly to the gamechanging USP of the piano as the central item, to which I simply have one message:
Make Pianos Great Again.
Over six years and more than thirty shows later + a pandemic which briefly stopped it all, it is more popular than ever, and it’s something I am very proud of. Here’s the blurb:
Since its beginnings for Piano Day in March 2018, Brudenell Piano Sessions has grown into a consistently captivating, regular part of Leeds’ thriving music scene. Celebrating the wide variety of music composed for and performed on the piano, each show offers curious music fans an opportunity to make new musical discoveries; experience a range of genres and musical styles combined together in one lineup; to challenge perceptions about what, where and how certain forms of music can be encountered - all in a relaxed, friendly, engaging and inviting atmosphere.
Founded by Leeds-based pianist & composer Simeon Walker, these live music events provide opportunities for young and emerging piano-based artists, performers and composers from across the musical spectrum to perform new, original music alongside other established artists, to a captive, supportive and encouraging audience of dedicated music lovers. Born out of Brudenell Social Club - one of the UK’s most iconic grassroots music venues - BPS is a celebration of good music, good people and good times, gathered around the piano. It’s piano music, for everyone.
You’ll notice there are no ‘C’ or ‘J’ words in there. The silo-ification (more red dots, sorry) of the musical landscape has pretty much always just been a cynical marketing ploy - these days, you know what you like, thus you can be ‘targeted’ by an algorithm which pushes more of the same stuff at you over and over again.
In the old days (ok, maybe not those old days, I’m only 37!), there were sections of my local record store I would never venture into. Why would I? I know I don’t like Mongolian throat singing. Or, at least, that’s what I thought. I never gave it a go. And regardless, it would be hidden deep within the disastrously named “World Music” section; a perfect example of western-exceptionalism if ever there was one.
I digress. I think the piano is as versatile as any instrument, bar the voice, there is. But goodness, there is still so much stigma around it; what is played on it, and how that should be done. I’m sure many of us can still hear the unhelpful “if only you could just use a lighter touch on the pedal” comments ringing in our ears.
If you play the piano, and especially if you compose music on it with the aim of it being played on one, you sure want to play the real thing. Keyboards are great, but come on - it’s not the same. Plastic trombones are helpful for beginners, but people really want to hear the real thing.
I was finding there was a huge lack of pianos in places and spaces in which musical performance could occur. This was especially stark in contrast with other parts of the European continent, where seemingly every bar, venue and arts centre had one.
It’s not all about Steinway, you know. Sure, they’re beautiful, but so is my Ford C-Max, in that it gets me from A to Z and does the job. Sometimes a dose of realism is helpful, nay necessary.
In true DIY fashion, if nothing exists, start something yourself, and I did. I partnered with Brudenell Social Club - genuinely one of the most iconic, unique and community-focused music venues in the UK - and using a piano we found for free (I have no recollection of what model it was), we started something, built it slowly, and people trust it, and my curation of it.
The earlier paragraphs help explain what it is about, but a key thing for us was always around accessibility. We wanted to challenge ingrained perceptions about what type of music could be heard in certain places, spaces and environments; but of more importance the issue of who felt welcome to hear it.
A while ago, I wrote an article titled What Is Music For? Maybe the sequel should be Who Is Music For?, although it wouldn’t take very long, as the answer is self-evident.
Stylistic musical silos literally create barriers for people to access music. I’d go as far as saying regardless of whether there is intent or not to actually do that (and no, that’s not the ‘I’ word I’m referring to) is mostly meaningless. Most (decent) people want a more equal society. Most (decent) people want better representation for minorities. To achieve this, big changes often need to happen and be implemented, even when there is pushback against it.
Our events are based around the piano as the centralising item, not a genre, and I passionately believe this aids accessibility. But, most importantly, it has always been a Pay What You Can event. We started off as Pay What You Feel which was trendy, but from a psycological perspective, it didn’t work that well. No one feels like paying anything! But when you put the ball in someones court, and ask them to Pay What They Can, you do a number of things:
It helps them think about what they have experienced, and the effort/time/skill/practice it might have taken to prepare
The phraseology suggests that it is not a ‘free’ event - musicians, and all the people around them who make things happen, shouldn’t be expected to work for free, the same as anyone else, and so there are, of course, costs involved
The word ‘can’ is small, but so very instructive, in that it helps focus peoples’ minds on whether they can and to what level they feel able to contribute. Some of our audience are well-off and don’t think twice about paying £50 to see an evenings’ live music. For others, £5 is as much - and genuinely sometimes too much - as they can afford. I’m not asking to see peoples’ bank statements, because I trust they know how to deal with their own situation better than I ever could
What it comes down to is agency: do people feel as valued as anyone else, regardless of their ability to pay to access something? And, crucially, these events enable a sense of community to be born, grown and nurtured, mainly because it doesn’t put people in the audiential boxes we have traditionally often been placed in, because they have been taken away.
Truly, it is in the collective experience and sense of togetherness that we begin to move away from such a binary approach, towards one which embraces each other with a sense of openness and excitement.
Yes, yes - I know the criticism which will come my way. I am a fully signed-up dewy-eyed artsy liberal who will spend everyone else’s money investing in good stuff, whilst bankrupting the economy, so that the rich-white-men-who-know-how-to-do-things-properly have to go in and build it all up again, whilst - shock-horror - getting richer themselves (sorry, I got distracted).
It’s about giving people a sense of agency, knowing that £50 and £5 might not be as far away from each other as we believe them to be, if we reframe what the value of those numbers mean to people and their sense of fulfilment in enjoying music alongside other like-minded people, together, for the simple pleasure of it.
It’s a risk, of course. What if we don’t receive enough Pay What You Can takings to cover the artists’ guarantees? Well, so far, it hasn’t happened, but if/when it does, I think we’d find a way.
That’s why, this September, here in Leeds, whilst the world’s most genuinely astonishing young pianists compete against each other (yes, I have an issue with everything about that term) to be The Best at The Leeds International Piano Competition, we’ll be down the road in Leeds City Museum, gathered *literally* around the piano, to listen to a wide range of piano-centred music, composed and performed by a mixture of emerging and establushed artists and musicians - some of whom are local, some from further afield - in a circular amphitheatre called the Pianodrome, which is made up entirely of up-cycled old pianos. Genuinely.
It’s very much worth exploring all that Pianodrome is. They do it better than I will. We partnered with them two years ago to put on some shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, and now they’re here in Leeds as part of a really interesting, engaging and varied outreach programme from the Piano Competition, titled The Piano Trail Festival.
We’ll be there on three consecutive Sunday lunchtimes, starting at 1pm, and bringing something of the spirit of the Brudenell to the city centre. If you’re based here in Leeds and the surrounding area, or are able to travel by virtue of it being earlier in the day, you are very welcome indeed.
All the relevant info about the events and reserving a place is available here. It would be such a pleasure to see you at any of them if you can make it.
In the meantime, I’m going to go back to building my protective moat, in preparation of - perhaps - writing what I really think!
Have a great weekend ☀️