Rena Roussin’s lecture, Musical Constellations and Bodies that Matter: Disabled Classical Musicking in Canada and Access as Collective Care, shared considerations about disability studies, disabled artists in classical music in Canada, and care, seen from a disability justice lens, before engaging in a conversation with the participants.
Question asked by Rena:
What forms of disabled musicking and care you wish the classical music industry implemented or interacted with differently?
In person participants paired with another person to talk about this topic, and then were asked to share of they were comfortable doing so.
Participant 1:
We kind of talked about two major points. One being this emphasis on tradition of techniques. And from there, not being a lot of room for deviating from the techniques of whatever your instrument is. And then the other major thing we talked about is this fetishization of playing to exactly what the composer wants. Which doesn’t always leave a ton of room for creative freedom and especially a disabled artist that can present other kinds of challenges or limitations to being able to express yourself in ways that make sense for you.
Participant 2:
In discussion that I was having with the panel with Gaitrie [Persaud], we were putting a lot of thought into deaf spaces. And understanding how music can fit in deaf spaces. Having the vests on that provide that sound vibration for music. Captions as well. All of those things related to how things are happening on stage. This also could include things such as lights and having different lighting in the room that also then coordinates along with the sound and rhythm. It could be sort of the context of the music itself.
Gaitrie Persaud:
I would just encourage deaf performers, hearing performers, to look at working together in creating music together. Looking at– how to use technology. And really having the opportunity. I don’t know if education is the right word. But the opportunity to learn something new together. Like Xenia [Concerts] which is really a fantastic organization. I do partner with them. And have been for about the last three years. And it’s been incredible. They are providing spaces for deaf and disabled folks. There is a lot of lighting cues that happened that are based on the sound and that’s really been brilliant.
Rena Roussin:
Thank you. I love how so often in classical music we tend to assume that music is only ever sound. When in fact we know it’s all of our senses. And that whether we’re deaf or hearing musicians, we need to be in dialogue with that and the things, the ways that we’ll enrich how we experience music as a multisensorial art form.
Participant 3:
I work a lot in accessibility in performing arts. And I often get hired and people always focus on accessibility for the audience. One of the things that I do is whoever I work with, I always question okay, you want to hire me to connect with blind audience, deaf and hard of hearing audience, but I always question what are you doing internally for your staff? How are you engaging with artists? I always encourage them to work with deaf artists. Work with disabled artists. And you know– it’s not that I refuse to work with people who don’t do that, I have, there’s certain organizations that I won’t work with anymore because I won’t tick their boxes and make them look good if they are not willing to do the work. But mostly it’s just– sometimes they’ve just never even thought about it and it’s just about starting that conversation. You know they have really good intentions. And they’ve never even thought about looking at their own staff. But sometimes they just haven’t and just offering that support as well and just taking it away from only focusing on audiences.
Online participants were encouraged to share. Some of the comments were read during the session. All comments are shared here. Only initials of the participants will be published for privacy:
AX:
I wish that the classical music industry thought more about how performance practice can make the entire industry inaccessible to people with different disabilities. For example, performance practice in opera requires performers to not wear glasses or masks, which can create barriers for people with vision issues or who are immunocompromised.
AM:
I wish there was more representation and normalization of disabled musicians in so-called “elite” spaces of classical music, like major orchestras, opera houses, and concert halls.
BR:
I wish injury and fluctuating abilities was seen as normal/cyclical/value-neutral. Injury and pain are such normal parts of life and I wish music schools and the industry supported and acknowledged that. It’s always treated as the exception when someone is injured or not able to perform in some way.
TB:
Performance anxiety is generally viewed as a negative experience for the performer and audience alike. I wish we could honor anxious music-making as a form of disability culture. I want to reclaim the visibly nervous performer as a valid and beautiful expression of disability–“broken beauty” to use Straus’s term.
CA-D:
which would require exactly the kind of visibility that Adeline is saying they don’t allow…
MO:
Stop expecting performances to be perfect. Just do you best and have fun. I’m thinking of the Gather Round Singers in Toronto, which welcomes disabled singers and doesn’t require knowledge of music reading or beautiful sound from any chorister. yet we really sound good as a choir. Not only that we have original work commissioned for us. It’s beautiful but not difficult to sing. Lastly our choir conductor does not at all require perfection. Every effort is appreciated. It’s the most unstressful choir I’ve ever been in.
SM:
What would you all say that care work could like within musicology itself?
ADA:
@SM I think that the welcoming approach to opportunity to participate and share in our community of practice is a great first step
KM:
The denigration of learning by ear needs to go— that is a skill, too, and is extremely important across most music cultures.
ADA:
I think within graduate work the opportunity for doctoral final-projects to be much more varied would be a good start. I think that support for non-normate timeframes of learning and creation within music academia would be so important. Of course that runs into the logistics frameworks of educational ableism.
AX:
BR I like that you brought up injury and illness. I find that my instrumentalist peers in college are so prone to injuries but are expected to “tough it out”, and when that translates to disability, it means that there is an expectation to hide symptoms and disability.
BR:
@AX totally! It sets the bar for everyone else in a really negative way
ADA:
There’s a great essay by Nathan Langfitt in the collection Sound Pedagogy about the importance of changing the culture of hazing in music programs.