Mentoring session one: experimental musical collaborations

On Wednesday 20 December, I went to visit Peter Wielgold in his studio in Uxbridge, for the first of our mentoring sessions as I work towards a series of experimental musical collaborations.

Over the course of the day, under Peter’s mentorship, we explored questions of inclusion, musicality and leadership: considering what it means to create a true level playing field; reflecting on the musicians as the embodiment of their instrument and their musical expression; and meditating on the qualities of leadership which help bring about the balance of comfort and challenge required to maintain the living process of musical exploration between collaborators.

Within the conversation, there was a returning to the theme of “creating the conditions to happen upon something”: an idea with many layers, and which needs deeper exploration in the work to come, which will continue as I plan for the first musical collaborations in early 2024.