What does a former speaker of the United States House of Representatives have to do with an international choral conducting competition and a Swedish singer-songwriter? Not much, on the face of it. But let’s dig a little deeper, and we might might find a connection.
Last weekend, I worked as a script supervisor on the live broadcast of the finals of the 2024 Eric Ericson Award, an international choral conducting competition where the winner gets basically a big scholarship as well as guaranteed concerts with several prominent European choirs.
The three young finalists all seemed well prepared for the task at hand – conducting the Swedish Radio Choir in one major choral work each, which had been decided for them at random – but also understandably nervous about the whole situation and what the different outcomes may mean for them going forward. The winner, German choral conductor Alexander Lüken, certainly has an amazing future ahead of him, but I’m sure that the two runners-up – Heide Müller and Marcel Ortega i Martí – do too.
Yesterday, I listened to an interview with former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, discuss among other things her reasons for wanting to work in politics. Mixed in among the details and anecdotes she related was a particular golden nugget, a word of wisdom that actually made me do a double take because of its poignancy.
[…] So, I go from housewife to House member to House Speaker, my motivation was “for the children”. I always tell people, “Know your ‘why’”, know why you are doing this. Because you’re going to get the slings and arrows and everything else, and it’s all worth it if you know why you’re there. And mine was the children writ large […]
Nancy Pelosi, interviewed by Alyssa Mastromonaco
I imagine that Alexander, Heide and Marcel all are pretty darn sure of what their ‘why’ is. It must be hard – even harder than it already is – to push yourself through all that work, the years of study and practice, and the continued labour of honing and developing your multifaceted, interconnected skillset without it. And I imagine it is the same for many of us, regardless of profession.
The ’why’ may change over time. In fact, that is probably healthy, as a sign of personal development and growth.
My own personal ‘why’ has changed somewhat over the years, not that I have thought about it in that way in the past. Looking back, it has been – and still is, to be honest – easier for me to express ‘why not’, even though a positive, constructive goal is more engaging, especially over time, than a negative one. However, with time and experience, a personal ‘why’ has gradually emerged. It is by no means set in stone, but even though the details shift slightly, the core seems to have crystallised.
For more than a decade, I have been animated by a desire to inspire and enthuse people, without pandering or diluting my artistic values and ideals. Growing up subjected to a wide range of musical styles inoculated me against the self-imposed, overbearing aesthetic asceticism and purity of the 20th century art music world (and, to be fair, plenty of other musical circles as well!).
I have also become increasingly passionate about public education, my role as a musician and composer in service, essentially, of the people whom I reach with my words and my music. Whether as a composer, writer on music, singer, choral conductor, music history teacher, score supervisor, or presenter, it informs my work and how I present it to others.
Also, I consider this blog an extension of that idea. It is a relatively uncensored mix of philosophical musings like this one, practical walkthroughs of various parts of my work process, lived lessons from my career, and updates on my different projects. It is not a social media-tailored, taste-tested outreach, but rather a window into a sometimes weird, often wonderful world that I am blessed to work in.
The other week, I saw the New York City-based electro-jazz-fusion duo Sungazer perform in Stockholm together with one of my dearest friends. Besides simply being a big fan of Sungazer’s music, I also really appreciate how they combine the intellectually challenging with the emotionally engaging.
Their songs often have a complex underlying structure that those who are so inclined can geek out over, with odd meters and unexpected tempo modulations, but at the same time it is just as easy to – and they even encourage the audience to – simply dig the music as it is, disregarding all the musical and mathematical trickery underneath.
I sympathise wholeheartedly with this approach.
Going back to Nancy Pelosi’s talk of knowing your ‘why’, it reminded me of a song by another favourite artist of mine, Swedish singer-songwriter Jens Lekman. My lovely fiancée introduced me to him back when we were dating and I immediately liked his mix of catchy melodies, quirky but thoughtful lyrics, and eclectic musical arrangements.
Lekman’s 2017 album Life Will See You Now opens with the song To Know Your Mission, ostensibly describing a Mormon missionary walking in Gothenburg. In the first chorus, the missionary watches people in a coffee shop who seem sure of everything “except one question: What’s our mission? What are we here for? Who are we serving? What can we do?” (Technically, that’s four questions.)
In the second chorus, the missionary meets “a teenage boy leaning against the fence who takes his headphones off and introduces himself as Jens” (yes, he does a self-insert in the song), who wants to talk not about religion but rather about “how it feels to know your mission. To know what you’re here for. To know how you’re serving. To know what to do.”
Towards the end of the song, the song’s Jens tells the Mormon missionary he “write songs sometimes, but they’re kinda bad” and that if his music career doesn’t work out, he wants to be a social worker, just like his dad: “In a world of mouths, I want to be an ear; If there’s a purpose to all this, then that’s why God put me here; I know what I’m here for, I know who I’m serving – I’m serving you.”
That message I think both I and Nancy Pelosi would agree to, even if her perspective and life’s work as a U.S. politician is rather different from my own. But that’s part of the beauty of life, isn’t it? That deep down, there was a connection after all, between Nancy Pelosi, Alexander Lüken and Jens Lekman. (And me.)