Music Storyline Interview

Google translation of the original article in Serbian:
https://musicstoryline.com/2019/06/22/maja-bosnic-kompozitorka-koja-pomera-granice/

After the first time I had the opportunity to listen to her lecture at the closing of this year’s Webiz Conference in Zrenjanin, I knew that I would certainly write a text at a time and make an interview with Maja Bosnić, composer and music pedagogue who moves the boundaries with his work. In her biography she says she is a composer of experimental conceptual music, but after having had the opportunity to meet her, I would say that she is much more than that. She not only experiences music in a different way, but completely without restrictions on access to composing it, seeking new ways and approaches, both to herself and the musicians with whom she cooperates. All this I’m talking about to a wider audience will become clear if on June 27th they arrive at the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall at the premiere of the first concert in the world of mobile phones called PHONES: ON. Maya is the author and initiator of the project, and on the upcoming premiere, her previous composer experience, her relationship with music and many other things, we talked to her in the interview that follows.

K: You started your academic music education in Serbia, but with further training you continued in England and got a doctorate in the field of composition there. Can you tell us more about studies in London and how your relationship to music and composition was when you arrived there, and how much did it change after you finished your studies?

M:I went to London first of all because I had the need to carefully study everything that happened to that moment in music (and sound) art, to have access to huge libraries and develop skills that would later help me to investigate, discover, and ” patented “completely new features in this area. I knew that at Goldsmiths I would have all the resources needed to achieve it, and I did not even make a mistake. During master studies from a composition at Goldsmiths University, I had the impression that I was so bombarded with information that my perception of music changed from root every three months. I was fortunate to be in the class of Professor Roger Redgate, who from the first day gave me incredible motivation with my faith in me and my ideas,

K: An important segment of your compositions is the interactivity you often involve in the audience itself. When did you first compose, or rather create one such composition? Is it necessary, in the 21st century, for the audience to no longer be a gloomy observer and to feel the music of all senses?

M:I am very interested in making compositions that bring all present people into some completely new situations and they conduct themselves through new experiences. Also, I think that it is necessary that contemporary art follows the world around itself, so that it can succeed in communicating with society directly enough, and thus inspires it and moves on to continue the development. When you look around the world around us, you will see that, over the last decades, the development of art and media content has largely gone in the direction of giving greater importance to the audience and to every person who comes in contact with artistic work. It happened that we were all in some measure somehow became some kind of authors. Whether we are writing a blog, sharing photos on the instagram or social networks, publishing short films, playing games on a console that scans the movements of our bodies, or watching a 3D movie in the cinema, We all experienced art and media from the first person, or on their skin, to a lesser or greater extent. Everyday media remind us that we are important enough to comment, publish and share various content, and therefore I think that the traditional concept of a concert where you have a passive audience who only sees, sings and listens to music is no longer interesting enough. So my first interactive composition was created in 2010 under the titleBuzz on the scene.01 / Bring your noise! – an interactive stage installation featuring audiences for audiences, noisy items, ensemble, video and audio playback. After that there was Zabuna on the scene.02 / What do you say? for the crowd of the audience, flute, clarinet and guides. Then the concept for a non-music workshop was developed. I realized the Djubrophonical Orchestra with Goethe Guerilla, followed by the Shhhumigrad Workshop with a concert for citizens who convert the city’s chords into instruments, exercise and perform with them. And there is also the last interactive performance of Menuet4phoneS for the audience with smartphones, which was created in collaboration with a group of international artists 4 / phones collective at the CTM festival in Berlin this year.

K: In such an approach, you are not alone in music, and you have several colleagues across Europe who approach the creation of music in a very similar way. What kind of cooperation do you have with them and how do you exchange experiences?

M: The compositions in which the audience participates are still rare, only a temporary occurrence, and again each of us treats the audience in a different way. I very much appreciate the works of Jennifer Walsh and David Helbih, who often experiment with the transformation of the idea of ​​a traditional concert, and so are their compositions, as well as mine, often between the categories of installation / workshop / performance. I have great cooperation with them, and recently we exchanged a lot of ideas, discussed the procedure of involving the audience in the performance and the most effective communication between the performers and the audience, because we are preparing the performance of their compositions at the PHONES: ON – new music with smartphones concert . We also recorded video instructions that the audience will be able to follow with David’s composition NO-MUSIC – earpieces (remix)and I can not wait to see how the whole thing will react. Also, Jennifer’s Volunteer Chorus will be set up as a live installation from a performer on Facebook and will share our personal Facebook news feeds on the screen with the audience.

K: What is the biggest challenge for you when you start working with a new ensemble? How do the musicians who perform your compositions react when they first show you their idea and concept, since your compositions are in some way a part of the whole performance that without their additional engagement on the scene that goes beyond the music box would not be feasible?

M: I think that for every composer work with ensembles is an invaluable experience. Each ensemble has its own system of work, so I always try to adjust my approach as soon as possible. In the case of my compositions, I am always ready to hear their opinions and suggestions, and, if necessary, even change the individual parts of the compositions. I just returned from the Dilian Academy of New Music at Mykonos where my composition was for musicians with mobile phones \ com.app.datathe members of the renowned music band Klanforum Wein performed. They immediately informed me that they had never used phones in compositions and had additional questions about both the details in notes, settings in telephone applications, and my ideas behind all these solutions and procedures. Given that I am a pedagogue, I enjoy explaining, convincing and conducting people through my actions step-by-step so that in the end they themselves can form a complete picture of the whole composition and understand every detail. I love the process of preparing my compositions and all that work on the trials.

K: You represent the idea that musical instruments can be anything that surrounds us. The Shhhumigrad project is based on this idea . Can you tell us more about this?

M: In almost all my works, I try to find art and discover something completely new in the most ordinary, everyday, trivial things, phenomena, and I also awaken a creative artist in every human being. Imagine that you are an excellent painter who likes to explore and try out yet undiscovered opportunities, and that someone urges you to spend your whole day painting paintings in one of the same colors, waxy crayons, never crossing the line. Composers have long since saturated with a range of sounds that produce classical, romantic, and even some electrical instruments, and in contemporary music, completely different ways of using instruments can be found, or using various unusual, or too ordinary objects in performance. This is nothing terrible, nor is it a negative commentary on history and melodic music. This is the most natural possible continuation of the development of musical art. There are so many written and recorded traditional classical music that one man can not even listen to everything during his life. And all the musical works will always remain archived and available for repetition, to each of us. So traditional classical music should not worry that in the middle of the 20th century, artists have opened the mind that every sound can be music, depending on the context. And I am certainly not the first in this idea and approach. artists have opened the mind that every sound can be music, depending on the context. And I am certainly not the first in this idea and approach. artists have opened the mind that every sound can be music, depending on the context. And I am certainly not the first in this idea and approach.Shhhumigrad are music workshops with public appearances where the city’s places turn into instruments by making a group of citizens (non-musicians) serving only on-the-spot items. It was a very interesting challenge for me to create compositions from corners, playgrounds, roof terraces and ruins, without the help of trained musicians, but citizens who live and go through it every day. I like the idea of ​​creating situations in which everyone is outside of his comfort zone, and so do I. So we go through completely new experiences and discover ourselves in previously unknown situations.

K: You participated in a survey that shows that the number of jobs for music professionals in state institutions in Serbia (here primarily refers to educational institutions) is seven times lower than the annual number of graduated music professionals. How do you see the solution to this problem and do you find it important that young musicians think innovatively and in some ways enterprising with the knowledge they have gained during the studies?

M: Yes, for some time I have been following research and lecturing on Music profession, music management and creative entrepreneurship. Our educational system needs a lot of reform, as well as music schools and faculties. We are one of the few countries in the world in which the state pays to teens to move from the age of 15 very strongly towards music, and even they do not have to be exceptional talents (because professors need full time funds and a certain number of pupils). Thus, 1000 young people in Serbia until the age of 19 years, completely devote themselves to the 4 years of their lives and learn to write the Baroque exposition, the vocal medieval motet, solve harmonic tasks with complex modulations, all of which are orally defended in theory and still perform a whole-evening resital some instrument. By the way, during the secondary music school they do not have access to a large number of subjects of general education, including mathematics, geography, and chemistry, while physics and biology is reduced to a one-year speedy implementation only through areas that one seems to consider to be the only important musicians: in physics – acoustics, in biology – disease addiction and sexually transmitted disease . In addition to all this, throughout Serbia, at faculties there are a total of 300 places a year on music departments. Of course, there are fewer students who actually complete those faculties at the end, and even less those who succeed in gaining employment in the field of music profession after the studies. So, it is my opinion that it would be a lot smarter, if all the secondary music schools in Serbia would introduce more general education and reduce the amount of music professional specializations at such an early age, because there will be times and possibilities later, for anyone who and after that medium, At age 19, he realizes that music is really the right call for him. Then I think that music departments at the faculties should provide more practical management and entrepreneurial skills, which would enable students to independently design, plan and lead their careers after studying. And all primary schools in our country should introduce two music instruments as compulsory subjects throughout all 8 years, with a very symbolic, flexible and light program. Not for the purpose of forming and developing talents! For the purpose of forming and developing a cognitively capable and intelligent society, for which art has an invaluable significance. plan and lead their careers after studying. And all primary schools in our country should introduce two music instruments as compulsory subjects throughout all 8 years, with a very symbolic, flexible and light program. Not for the purpose of forming and developing talents! For the purpose of forming and developing a cognitively capable and intelligent society, for which art has an invaluable significance. plan and lead their careers after studying. And all primary schools in our country should introduce two music instruments as compulsory subjects throughout all 8 years, with a very symbolic, flexible and light program. Not for the purpose of forming and developing talents! For the purpose of forming and developing a cognitively capable and intelligent society, for which art has an invaluable significance.

K: One of the projects you participated in, which involves working with very young children is Zvechkalica . How much of such an experience inspire you in composing music itself, and what can you learn and learn from new things in dealing with children?

M: I love working with children, because I regularly go into their world with them. They remind me regularly that everything is possible, that everything can exist, that ordinary things are incredibly interesting, that absolutely impossible things are actually right behind the corners, that fears do not exist, that there is so much to be revealed and that we are many the rules of the adults have absolutely nothing to do with me. I always had a special level of understanding with children, so I was so encouraged by numerous scientific studies to start Zvechkalitsa . Zvechkalicais a program of music workshops that stimulate high-quality intellectual and emotional development in babies and children up to 6 years, from the first days to the beginning of school. Research has proven that up to 5 years, the baby’s brain is the greatest potential for developing a large number of skills. And then until the age of seven, the children’s ability to learn and learn quickly has already been reduced five times! Of course, in elementary school children’s brain is faster and better learned from the brain of an adult man, but it is a great disadvantage to miss the stimulation of head development during this earliest age of 0 to 5 years. So on ZvechkaliciThrough games, fun, singing, dancing and playing, he develops motor skills, memory, logic, speech, hearing, rhythm, empathy, tolerance, socialization and singing with his mom and dad, who always share the same with them on lessons. In addition to commercial workshops, Zvechkalica is also held in the house Dragutin Filipović Jus for infants and children without parental care from 3 to 7 years old. We try to make sure that the kids from home know how wonderful, capable, smart and creative, prepare them for learning and going to school, and we hope, maintain and preserve their faith in themselves, the world and the people around them.

K: At this year’s Webiz Conference in Zrenjanin during your presentation, and to our great enthusiasm, we all had an opportunity to participate in the creation of a single composition with the help of our mobile phones. It was all an introduction and an announcement for the big premiere of the project PHONES: ON, which will have its premiere performance on June 27 at the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall. In order to explain to the audience what to expect from this concert and why should not they miss this event?

M:I can not wait for that concert! I’m looking forward to three days in advance before each test. This is really the first concert in the world where all the compositions are performed with different uses of the phone. Yes, at the Webiz conference the audience performed one of the compositions that will be on the program and this approaching concert. In the composition of Jennifer Walsh, we are all admiring our reactions to our Facebook news feed, live. Then in my compositions, along with instruments, telephones serve to monitor video notes, scene effects and use of several free phone applications (which anyone can find on the Internet). Andreja Andic made his own digital instrument in the form of web ablation and wrote a composition for making the phone. The composition of Johannes Craigler is for a pianist who by the way photographed his hands, himself and the audience. There will be two other compositions performed by the audience. One was written by David Helbih for a deliberate listening environment, but our environment will be filled with playing phones and in the end we will perform a new version of the composition for the audience with the phones, which some heard and performed at the Webiz conference. This concert is yet another way in which I, in my custom, pretend to be a daily object or an occurrence in art, and I am trying to create a whole new experience for both the performers and the audience. Likewise, art is the only area in which technology will never be able to replace a man, and in this concert we will try to awaken artists in every present man, with the help of his everyday technology. but our environment will be filled with playing phones and in the end we will perform a new version of the composition for the audience with the phones, which some people heard and performed at the Webiz conference. This concert is yet another way in which I, in my custom, pretend to be a daily object or an occurrence in art, and I am trying to create a whole new experience for both the performers and the audience. Likewise, art is the only area in which technology will never be able to replace a man, and in this concert we will try to awaken artists in every present man, with the help of his everyday technology. but our environment will be filled with playing phones and in the end we will perform a new version of the composition for the audience with the phones, which some people heard and performed at the Webiz conference. This concert is yet another way in which I, in my custom, pretend to be a daily object or an occurrence in art, and I am trying to create a whole new experience for both the performers and the audience. Likewise, art is the only area in which technology will never be able to replace a man, and in this concert we will try to awaken artists in every present man, with the help of his everyday technology. I convert a daily object or an occurrence into art and I try to create a whole new experience for both the performers and the audience. Likewise, art is the only area in which technology will never be able to replace a man, and in this concert we will try to awaken artists in every present man, with the help of his everyday technology. I convert a daily object or an occurrence into art and I try to create a whole new experience for both the performers and the audience. Likewise, art is the only area in which technology will never be able to replace a man, and in this concert we will try to awaken artists in every present man, with the help of his everyday technology.

K: What are your further plans after the PHONES premiere : ON and what else can the audience expect from you in the coming period?

M: After the PHONES premiere : ON follows a great deal about the preparation and organization of the tour around the region and the world. At the same time, there are customary ordering compositions for interesting ensembles, about which I will have a lot of (interesting) work. I am also a contributor to three different multimedia and interdisciplinary projects, one of which includes the sound imaging of emotions detected by artificial intelligence, of which I am particularly excited about!