Academy O/Modernt
Everything is alive; everything is interconnected
— Cicero
About
Interconnected Musicking
Adding to its core group of outstanding musicians, O/Modernt also brings together artists and thinkers from many fields. The O/Modernt Academy provides opportunities for students to be mentored in their respective instruments by world-class professionals, but they also receive broad-based tuition from some of the foremost thinkers of our time, including writers, historians, philosophers, ecologists, and theologians. In pursuit of aesthetic ideals echoing those of the ancient Greek Academies, the O/Modernt Academy nurtures the artists of tomorrow to become musicians in the comprehensive sense understood by citizens of ancient Greece – responsible, tolerant, cultured, creative, and intellectually receptive members of society. Referred to as Interconnected Musicking, the O/Modernt Academy curriculum offers a musical training that is grounded in a heartfelt respect for the humanities.
Musicking (a term coined by Christopher G. Small in his book of the same title) means participating in music in any capacity whatsoever. It defines music as an active way of relating to the rest of the world through sets of non-hierarchical relationships: first, between the organised sounds that are conventionally taken to be the essence of musical meaning; and secondly, between all the people who experience and contribute to musical performance.
The idea of musicking therefore signals the loosening or collapse of hierarchical structures in the musical ecosystem, including the dissolution of the barriers that separate the various agents who join forces in musical production, performance, and consumption (composers, performers, listeners, technicians, and so forth).
Embedded in the programming and performance practice of O/Modernt is the belief that the removal of dividing lines between everyone involved in music (the transformation of music into musicking, in other words) is vital to the well-being of the art form.
Interconnectivity is a concept used in many scientific and scholarly fields to signify that all parts of a system interact with and rely on one another, purely and simply because they inhabit the same system. In consequence, a system cannot be analysed by reducing it to its component parts, but must instead be understood as an integrated whole.
O/Modernt wholeheartedly embraces the idea of interconnectivity. That is why we encourage aspiring musicians to explore and enrich the interconnected parts of the musical ecosystem while they are studying their art. In so doing, they learn to ground their musicianship in the wider world in which we live.
The act of musicking establishes in the place where it is happening a set of relationships, and it is in those relationships that the meaning of the act lies.
— ‘Musicking’ by Christopher Small
Every day is a surprise. There are confirmations of an interconnectivity and synchronicity which inspire, titillate and confirm the inherent comedy of the universe
— Billy Zane
recent speakers
past events
Prismatic Perspectives on Music & Nature
Inspired by ARVO PÄRT
Three webinars and a field trip to the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia.
Three Aspects of Pärt
God, Nature and History
Three webinars focus on themes that are intimately linked to the music and philosophy of Arvo Pärt. Ben Quash discusses the theological underpinnings of Pärt’s epiphanic soundworld, while Elizabeth Wilson gives some fascinating insights into the Soviet-era context of Pärt’s formative years. Stepping sideways into the realm of nature, James Canton reflects on the wisdom and joy of a sympathetic connection with trees.
Friday 22 April 17:30 CEST
Ben Quash
PURGATION AND ILLUMINATION | A Theological Appraisal of Pärt’s Deep Surfaces
Friday 13 May 17:30 CEST
James Canton
THE PATIENCE OF TREES
Friday 20 May 17:30 CEST
Elizabeth Wilson
THE AVANT-GARDE ON THE PERIPHERY | Musical experiment in the republics of the Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s
Three Aspects of Pärt
Musical Field Trip to the Arvo Pärt Centre
To complement the series of webinars that took place in May 2022, O/Modernt will lead a group of students on a field trip to the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia, located in the coastal village of Laulasmaa, some 35km to the west of Tallinn. The centre is a tranquil meeting place, where musicians, researchers and music lovers can explore Pärt’s music and his complex spiritual and intellectual universe, and also inquire into their own relationship with art, nature and life itself.
Expand your consciousness as artists - Part 2
This spring, in a series of three webinars, O/Modernt Academy invites you to follow the advice of the eccentric composer Eric Satie and ‘open your head’ to some diverse perspectives on consciousness. Our three distinguished guest speakers will introduce you to a rich array of mindfulness topics and will offer practical advice on how we, as artists, can embark on exploratory journeys of creative self-discovery.
Fri 18 Feb 17.30-19.00 CET
Matthew Barley
Music, Motivation, Perfection and Perspective
Fri 4 Mar 17.30-19:00 CET
Steph Magenta
Expand, Focus and Calm your Nervous System with the Breath
Fri 18 Mar 17.30-19.00 CET
Ruth Herbert
Everyday Trancing, Creativity and 4E Cognition
Expand your consciousness as artists - Part 1
Fri 29 Oct 17.30-19.00 CEST
Charlie Morley
Lucid dreaming: tapping into creative genius
Fri 5 Nov 17.30-19:00 CET
AumRak Sapper
The sacred space of creativity
Wed 24 Nov 17.30-19.00 CET
Simon Tandree
Obstacles to flight: why understanding trauma is the key to creative freedom
Arvo Pärt - Discovering a living legend
Online Webinars
Friday 7 May 17.30 (CEST)
Jaanika Peerna
Embodied listening
Wednesday 12 May 17.30 (CEST)
Peter Bouteneff
Arvo Pärt: a spiritual and religious convergence
Friday 21 May 17.30 (CEST)
Gareth Lubbe
Harmonic singing and the prismatic self
Friday 28 May 17.30 (CEST)
Paul Hillier
Pärt notated: the composer, the performer and the musical score
FIELD TRIP TO THE ARVO PÄRT CENTRE
Dates: 20–24 September 2021
October & November 2020
Online Webinars
Wed 7 Oct
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Can Sounds Transform our Lives?
Wed 21 Oct
Thomas Lange
The Art of Resonance – Sound Movement Practice for Musicians
Fri 30 Oct
Jan Mühlfeit
Unlocking Young Musicians’ Potential
Fri 20 Nov
Emma Bonnici
Singing as Knowing: Why your Voice Matters
20 May 2020
Online Webinar
Stephan Nachmanovich
Free Play. Improvising as a way of life.
27 November 2019
Nora Bateson
‘How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?’
Simone Tandree
‘Bringing balance, self-awareness and more fun to your life as a musician’
29 May 2019
Dik Harrison
Music as a key to understanding history. About forgotten geniuses, popular soundscapes and the power over sound.
Hugo Ticciati
Intuition, spontaneity and Henry Bergson's duration as a lifestyle for performing musicians.