On the trail of versatility
Conversations with musicians who pursue a wide variety of activities inside and outside of music.
The author of this podcast, Matthias Droll, is himself a versatile musician: after studying classical percussion and elementary music education, he completed a jazz master's degree and plays in a trio that makes electronic music. He also climbs. He would also like to make his future professional life versatile. That is why he is trying to explore versatility. As part of his master's thesis at Bern University of the Arts, he has now created a series of acoustic portraits that can be listened to online. In x-voiced he talks to musicians who play several instruments, in several genres, in several roles, from performer to university lecturer, and who are also often active in sport or in organizations. He asks them how they came to this multitude of activities, starting in childhood, and wants to know whether they ever had to give up areas of interest, how they had to decide how to reconcile everything and how they managed to find creative phases in this diversity.
Listening to the contributions, which are between 39 minutes and just over an hour long, there is a pleasant tension between the calmly conducted conversation, which also has time for follow-up questions and longer explanations, and the sometimes dizzying amount of activities to which the interviewees devote themselves. Is this patient and careful approach one of the answers? However, it is not really a question of how different activities can be managed alongside one another, but whether and how they are mutually beneficial.
Anyone who has questions about their own versatility or simply wants an insight into the lives of inspiring musicians (although - in keeping with the versatility - you can also prepare vegetables or do the washing up) should listen in. There are nine episodes so far, with more to follow in the fall.
