The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 033 The Fischoff Effect: Matt Landry – Akropolis Reed Quintet

Starting point is 00:00:00 You're listening to the Mind Over Finger podcast, episode number 33, the third of this five episode series discussing the fish off effect. Welcome to the Mind Over Finger podcast, discussions on mindful music making, efficient practice, and building a purposeful career. And now your host, Dr. Rene Paul Gaultier. Hi, everyone. I hope it's a wonderful day for you so far. As you might know, if you've listened to the two previous conversations,

Starting point is 00:00:43 I will be on site at University of Notre Dame as one of the official podcasters covering the 46th annual Fish Off competition from May 10 to 12. And this week, I'm bringing you five former winners of the competition to talk about their experience preparing for the performances and competing at Fischhoff and about the wonderful adventures and opportunities that have followed their win. In this series, you will hear all about the Fischhoff effect with my guests Blaise Magniere from the Avalon String Quartet, Dorival Puccini from Axiom Brass,

Starting point is 00:01:18 Matt Landry from the Acropolis Reed Quintet, Christopher Whitley from the Talia String Quartet, and Lydia Ray from the former Cairo String Quartet. Whether you're a musician about to compete at the competition or a music lover looking for a fresh approach to practicing and preparing for a concert, make sure to subscribe and tune in every day because those conversations are bursting with inspiration and extremely useful information. Each group has a unique and motivating story, and my guests are so generous with their insightful

Starting point is 00:01:51 tips and advice. So let's dive in with today's guest, Matt Landry from the Acropolis Reed Quintet. Let's go to the show. Matt Landry, it's so great to have you on the show. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it'll be fun. I appreciate it. Matt, I would love to know more about you and about Acropolis. So can we start by hearing about your story? Yeah, absolutely. Well, Acropolis formed at the University of Michigan in 2009. And so this is our 10th year together. And it's been a long journey. The fish off competition has been a really important part of the journey. But we started

Starting point is 00:02:45 as a student group, just kind of playing the music we enjoyed playing, and then getting into some creative projects like doing commissions. And we were even still students when we recorded our first CD. And then just a couple years after we started, and we were all together, the group started kind of, the individual members started going off in different places geographically. Tim, our oboist, was the first one to leave to go off to do grad school at Yale. and then Ryan ended up doing his doctorate at Florida State and so really for almost the entire time we've been together we've been in different places but we from the beginning wanted to find something that would sort of magnetize us if you will and so really the core of what we've always

Starting point is 00:03:28 been is a group that likes to just innovate you know chamber music in some way or another and mainly of course we do that by being a reed quintet just sort of existing as a reed quintet in the world. And then, of course, we also do that by putting recordings out. We sell sheet music. We do tons and tons of educational outreach, kindergarten all the way through college, playing concerts, doing different collaborations with different kinds of artists and all those kinds of things. So the journey started then through a number of competitions. And of course, including Fish Off, we sort of started to gain notoriety. In 2013, we started being managed by Aerial Artists. It's a wonderful booking agent in Boston. And that was a big moment for us as well.

Starting point is 00:04:09 Since then, a little over four years ago, we became a nonprofit. And so we incorporated, kind of did it the long way and built our, really started building the foundation for our long-term organization, which is Acropolis Quintet, Inc., basically Acropolis Reid Quintet, but just a little more official. And I am now the executive director and the saxophonist of the group. So executive director of the nonprofit and a saxophonist in the ensemble, of course. And that brings us to today. And these days, any given season, we usually have about 40 to 50 sort of formal recitals, as you would think of them. And then anywhere from from like 50 to 100 different events that are educational or just sort of community outreach oriented. So that kind of brings us to to where we are today. That's a wonderful schedule.

Starting point is 00:04:56 yeah yeah indeed um it's a little bit uh busier maybe than we ever anticipated it would be and a lot of um a lot of schedule acrobatics and a lot of very advanced planning and and a lot going on but it's uh i think right now we're in a really good groove and we like we like um everything we're doing and we like where it is so this is great and matt would you tell us a little bit about how Acropolis went about to prepare for Fischhoff competition, the rehearsal process, and all of the things that went into this preparation for a major competition like Fischhoff. Sure. Well, we went to Fischhoff three times. So we have three different experiences with the competition. And each one we prepared for, I think, slightly differently. Each one

Starting point is 00:05:47 we prepared for, I think, better and a little more intensely and with even more focus and with even more purpose, I think. The first time in 2010, we had hardly been a group for very long. We did manage to make the semifinals, which was a great accomplishment for us at the time. And so the first one was just a learning experience. We just in about seven or eight months prepared the music the best we could, got a lot of coachings with our faculty members at the university of Michigan who were, and still are very wonderful supporters of us. And we kind of, I would say that we did a few things quote unquote wrong. I think we, um, didn't, uh, manage our time as well as we could have in terms of like giving ourselves free time in terms of not kind of

Starting point is 00:06:33 burning ourselves out, right. In terms of sort of spacing out our travel and such so that we could have, you know, some time to rest and relax and stuff. But we really had a great time just coming to the competition and learning. In 2012, we won the silver medal, which was a big step up for us and really meant a lot. And it was really motivating for us to try to come back for a third time and win the gold medal, which we did in 2014. By the time 2013, or really immediately after 2012, when we almost won the gold medal, came around, we started thinking about what is going to be the difference for us. This very small, but really big difference between groups that do well at the competition and the groups that win the competition, right? And it's the

Starting point is 00:07:16 same fine margins that separate groups that are very close to having fully fledged professional careers and those that don't or just that can't quite get all the way. And so we started thinking about what are those differences and what do we need to do to get there? So from 2012 to 14 for us was really centrally focused on going back and doing better at the competition. So we decided to memorize all of our music. So we memorized a little over 60 minutes of repertoire. It was the first time we had done anything like that. And actually for both years, we were preparing, uh, Tim, like I mentioned, uh, was still away at grad school. So we spent most of the time preparing for the 2014 competition with four people. And we memorized the music with four people and we would

Starting point is 00:08:01 plug Tim in, uh, over the internet. Uh, you know, he would, he would kind of just listen and do his best to play along. And we just put as much time as possible into spending time together. And the individual time it took to memorize that music was, I think, really what got us to the next level in terms of being able to understand the whole piece and everybody's parts and everybody's music and give a really, really polished presentation. And the benefit of all of that is that moment for us of of of winning the gold medal in 2014 became a really seminal um moment that uh formed kind of the real artistic identity for us the real kind of standard by which we have held ourselves since and we've continued to improve since the competition but that was sort of uh where we i

Starting point is 00:08:53 think made the most improvement in any you know given amount of time was getting up to that 2014 14 competition. Um, some other, some other things that we did to prepare, we, uh, performed our music in sort of a concert setting for people as much as we could. Um, we got a lot of coachings. Uh, we had sort of mock competitions where we would have people call out repertoire for us to perform. Um, and, uh, we gave ourselves really, really strict deadlines. So, you know, by this time, everybody has to have the music memorized by this point, by this specific time, uh, we have to be able to perform it all, quote unquote, really well. Right. And that gives us enough time to make even more refinements. So I would say we, we took it incredibly seriously and we

Starting point is 00:09:33 were incredibly motivated to do well. And so I think those, those made the biggest difference for us. This is really wonderful. I love that you use the word focus and purpose. And I think that your story illustrates so well, how you can learn from past experiences and, you know, reach such a high level of success by knowing how to bridge that gap between where you are and where you want to be, how to get to the next level. This is so great. And I love how you say that this really helped you establish the standards that you hold yourself up to today. This is a perfect example of establishing a clear plan of action and implementing strategies. Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. Yeah, of course. Of course. That's good to hear.

Starting point is 00:10:23 Can you talk to us a little bit about the experience during the competition itself? Yeah, well, the experience, there's an experience for the ensemble as a whole in a chamber music competition or in any performance, right? There's sort of what can be gleaned as the collective experience of the group, right? Which is difficult to figure out. But then there's also the individual experience of all the members. And everyone from a duo to any size chamber music group has to negotiate the way that all different members with different experiences and different comforts about different things feels at one time. So my reaction to most performances is to be relatively relaxed.

Starting point is 00:11:10 relaxed. My reaction to fish off was always to be incredibly, incredibly nervous. And almost I mean, to the point where I would I would have trouble eating, I wouldn't sleep everything up until we would go on stage, in which case I sort of flip around and and I become a bit cooler, you know, and a bit more able to to sort of arrive at the situation and not be overdone by it in a way. Some members of the group are sort of the opposite. Some are kind of in the middle. But what we tried to do as a group was just let our collective energy and all the work that we had done to get to that point come together and just really try to enjoy ourselves.

Starting point is 00:11:53 So in the moment, competitions can be difficult to enjoy. But what I would recommend and what I would say is that when you're finished with competitions and when you look back on them, whether you do well, quote unquote, or not, they will end up being some of the most important and most memorable things you ever do in your life. Remembering that even getting invited to the live rounds of any of these competitions is a feat. So many groups apply, so many groups send in tapes. Just to be able to go is a big deal. Having that kind of perspective really helps you get through the rigor of how difficult these competitions can be. So fish off for us, I think like it is for most groups, it was just a

Starting point is 00:12:31 combination of, of nerves and stress, but just like, you know, adrenaline and joy, you know, all at the same time, the best part of, of any competition is just going and, and being able to show off what you do. And that's the stuff that we remember the most, but we certainly tried to have a good time. We really tried to use our downtime and go do fun activities and, you know, all that kind of stuff when we did get a chance. But for me, honestly, the over the overwhelming uh, emotion when I think of a fish off and all the competitions we've done is kind of a, a comp, a balancing of like dread and joy, you know, just because I, I know how, how nervous I would get. And I know how, how high stakes things would be. And, um, it's sort of that, that I now measure

Starting point is 00:13:14 my emotions and, and try to, um, maintain my, my poise when we do all sorts of concerts. So there's sort of a scale now as to how high stakes things are. Right. And, and that, that brings out different levels of of of nerves and energy before a concert and competitions um especially fish off for me have always been at the the top of that sort of litmus scale you know if you will um and uh so so a combination of all those things is sort of what it's like going to these competitions i would also say that fish off especially is incredibly competitive there's no doubt about that but it's it's um it's it's sort of collaborative among the artists um we There's sort of a collective sense of being there to all promote this great idea of how great chamber music is and trying to push each other.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I think artists push each other at the competition in the moment, but also from year to year as the quality of groups continues to improve and the standards continue to evolve and new ideas start to be put into competitions. New kinds of groups, like when Acropolis showed up and was the first reed quintet ever to go to fish off, these new things continue to evolve. So there's a good sense of partnership, I think, among the ensembles that go there as well, which is kind of a fun energy to have as well. Did you have any personal strategies or approach to tackle this stress that you're talking about? Oh, man. I wish I could say that I had something in the moment, right? That when you're dealing with a really stressful musical performance of some kind, right? That in the moment, I could sort of just give out there and prescribe. I was personally, and still to this day, I'm not ever really able to come up with anything in the moment other than whatever and everything that you do leading up to the moment is what gives you the ability to overcome it. Being as prepared as possible, having trust in the people that you're performing with. And I think more than anything, making sure that everyone you're performing with has deep trust and respect in you and that you have the same trust and respect in them.

Starting point is 00:15:19 So that you're not nervous about that you're going to mess something up. You're not nervous that you're going to be the weak link in a performance or something like that. Because you know that at the end of the day, everyone is going to love and appreciate you and your artistry. And Acropolis always had that established. Instead, what we would get nervous about is just the occasion, just how badly we wanted to succeed. And those kind of nerves are okay. And when you get into the performance, I think you can deal with those. Because the nerves of worry that you're going to make a mistake or worry that you're going to be the downfall of success or something like that are nerves that, in my opinion, you have to handle long before the competition and long before the performance.

Starting point is 00:15:59 You have to talk about that as a group. You have to talk about how everyone's important and how no one thing, you know, is going to be the result of doing poorly or badly. And that takes the pressure off of the individuals, I think. And so that was really helpful. So I couldn't really do anything to get rid of the stomach, you know, butterflies and that physical issue that you go into when you're in these really stressful situations. But I think I was able to overcome them and all five members were able to overcome them because of that group, that positive group dynamic that we had. So I hope that's helpful. And that's really the best kind of firsthand advice that I could give. It's very wise advice. Thank you. And Matt, do you have a favorite memory attached to Fischhoff? well i think the easiest um the easiest favorite memory is sort of like you know um being being announced as you know as a gold medalist um but in fish off in notre dame indiana uh you know where the university is and where and where fish off is um as long as it's still there which i hope

Starting point is 00:17:08 it is there's a yeah there's a bar called a rorks and it's just kind of this um irish pub that's right across the street from the competition. And we went back to South Bend for the, you know, the gold medal tour. We went back to South Bend for the fish off educator tour when we won the fish off educator award. And we sort of made a habit, sort of a joke almost, but we kind of took it seriously of going to O'Rourke's as many times as humanly possible. So I think we've probably been there like 20 times. It's no joke. I think the people in there thought that we like lived in the area, even though we didn't. And I'm not sure like if it was the beer or the food or what it was. I think Andrew particularly liked the mozzarella sticks. I can't, but it was just

Starting point is 00:17:48 something about how it was just a comforting place for us, sort of, right? Amidst all this. And there's tons and tons of good memories. But honestly, I think the one that we all kind of, you'd say like if word association, right? Like fish off, we'd all just be like, O'Rourke's, right? I don't know why. So anybody who's gone to the competition knows that place, I'm sure. And you might even hear the same thing if you ask another group, but we kind of made it a sort of hilarious recurring theme to go back there. So I'll give that one as my best memory. And Matt, what has the competition brought to your group? How did it change your life? well there is the sort of there's a a way a thing that fish off you know does to you as an ensemble

Starting point is 00:18:38 that's difficult to categorize and it's difficult to quantify which is the prestige that it brings you uh people look at the competition people attend the competition they look for groups they want to manage or groups they want to book or groups they might want to promote and so to what degree fish off helped acropolis in that way we can certainly say that it did it's really hard to figure out as how much it did but we know that it did to a degree we know that it directly resulted in some people taking a look at us for bringing us out to their series uh we know that our our manager knows what fish off is and you know everybody looks at those at people who win fish off to to to kind of help out and and you know for groups that are going to be doing great things in

Starting point is 00:19:18 the future but honestly for acropolis the biggest thing that fish off did was just give us confidence. It taught us that what we were doing had artistic value. Still to this day, we're the only reed quintet in America that has a regular full-time touring schedule. My wife and I run the non-profit and run the organization, the ensemble, full-time. We're the only reed quintet in the country that has anybody working full-time for the group. And Fish Off was the first competition to give us that substantial legitimacy and really take us seriously. So in the public and to all those players and in the music world, that was important. But to us, it was even more important. Had no one even come and recognized that we were at Fish Off, it still would have had a great impact on our career. We still, as a group, would have been able to say, we are capable of great things. We just need to keep on the path and continue to promote ourselves and do all the music business related things that we needed to do as a group to be successful. without fish off, it would have been quite a lot more difficult. We would have had to find another

Starting point is 00:20:23 way to satisfy that urge of, of making sure that we knew that people valued what we did and that it was artistically relevant and that we were good enough, frankly, and, and fish off, um, because of the artistic standards, it makes you aspire to and achieve and the rigor of it and everything. And the, frankly, the fairness of it and the, uh, the, the organized nature of it and everything leads you to really just taking hold of such a high amount of respect and regard for yourself that lasts for years and years. I mean, we still sort of feel some of those effects now as a group in bringing us together. So frankly, you know, as an ensemble, if you're looking to go to these major competitions and especially Fish Off, that's the effect that you should be

Starting point is 00:21:06 looking to achieve. It's building your own sense of self-worth as a musician and purpose and value to what you're doing. Uh, if you're going strictly because you want to get a manager or you want to get gigs or you want to get booked, uh, you know, there's absolutely no guarantee that any of those things are going to work out no matter how well you do. Right. So, um, that that's kind of the way that we've approached it. And that's been the biggest impact on us for sure. And you've already given us some great tips, but do you have any additional advice for the young musicians that are about to perform at the competition? Yeah, well, a lot of the advice, and so this is for groups that are going to go to the competition now, but also since I know we'll

Starting point is 00:21:50 have a lot of groups that want to go in the future, I'll start with a little bit of advice for groups that will be thinking about Fish Off next year, right? So not in the immediate. And one of the things that made the biggest difference for Acropolis is, first of all, just preparing as far in advance as possible setting a goal a year and a half or two years out setting a long-term goal for going toward the competition uh secondly in terms of like repertoire in terms of the programs that you choose um being choosing repertoire that isn't the repertoire that you think judges want to hear but is the music that you are your absolute best at the music that shows you off and that represents you and that you care most deeply about, that honestly for Acropolis was

Starting point is 00:22:36 the biggest difference maker between our semi-final year, our silver medal year, and our gold medal year was moving from less, moving from about half and half arranged to original repertoire. As a reed quintet, if you're not going to play arranged repertoire, you're stuck to about the last 20 or 30 years of music, right? So when we moved into the gold medal year, we did almost entirely original reed quintet repertoire, most of it from the last three or four years. Some of it we commissioned ourselves. And the judges actually saw more value in that, and they saw more of Acropolis shining through, more of our artistry. A lot of groups will probably think, if we don't play Mozart or Beethoven or Bartok or something like this, how are we going to show artistry?

Starting point is 00:23:20 There is so much artistry in all kinds of music. It's a question of what are you most comfortable with and what makes you shine. Maybe you need second opinions on that. Maybe you need to do a lot of recording of yourself, right. To, to understand how you sound best, but choosing that music is, I think, apart from actually preparing the music, the most critical thing you do in preparing for competitions. So, uh, to the groups that are, that are going to be going soon, the groups that are kind of finalizing their preparation. Um, now, um, I just mentioned recording. I would, I would do some mock performances and, and get some really good microphones the best that you can and record yourself and and listen back um you will hear

Starting point is 00:23:57 things from outside of the ensemble from outside of your own position in the group um in a way that you just you just won't be able to and listen to those recordings with great with great criticism self-criticism and that's that's really the only way uh to understand what the audience is going to be hearing um get uh as many um coachings as you can you know i mean that's just it sounds really simple, but that was, that was really big for us. Um, and I think sit down as a group and I kind of mentioned this, this earlier, but sit down as a group and talk about what do you hope to achieve and come up with a group consensus? What is the, why are we doing this? What do we hope this will bring us? And why did we decide we were going to, we were going to do this in

Starting point is 00:24:39 the first place? What results are we hoping for? If we don't achieve those results, how are we going to react? And if we do, how can we use them, you know, moving forward? Those conversations can be just as important as, you know, sitting down and rehearsing and playing music. Develop that rapport and that trust with each other. And that will make competing in the competition, you know, a lot easier and a lot more fulfilling, I think. Matt, this is such great advice. Thank you so much. Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. I find Acropolis' mission so wonderful. You guys are such a vibrant ensemble and your online presence is so dynamic. I'm going to put all of this information in the show notes, but can you tell our listeners where they could find you and engage with you? Sure, sure. Well, since this is a competition for young artists, Facebook is probably the first place people will think to go. So if you get on Facebook, it's Acropolis with a K, A-K-R-O-P-O-L-I-S, Read Quintet, read as in like the oboe. Acropolis Read Quintet, you'll find us on Facebook, no problem.

Starting point is 00:25:44 uh on there's also our website acropolisquintet.org uh and we also have a killer instagram as well i think those are those would probably be the top three places to find us um we do a lot of work with young musicians and musicians at the high school and collegiate level and if you shoot us a note or a facebook message or an email or anything like that we always respond you know if anybody wants any advice on anything uh regarding competitions or beyond um you can find us, but you can also like interact with us and, you know, we'll, um, we'll give you as much help as we can. This is great. And I think that a lot of young musicians should take advantage of getting in touch with you and maybe getting some coachings from you guys.

Starting point is 00:26:25 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we, we, we do tons of it. Um, I think because our journey as a group has been so unorthodox and has been such a, um, such a sort of steady, you know, grind from that first day 10 years ago when we formed. We have just a lot of a lot in our hearts that that wants to find groups like us that are ready to go on that journey. They're ready to put in the time and the hard work that it takes, but they just simply need a little bit of a little push or they need a little bit of security or a little bit of confidence or just a little bit of advice you know um we you know again because of of the journey that we've been on we just have a lot of respect for that and a lot of and a lot of um room and time for students who are

Starting point is 00:27:13 ready for that so we're very open to that and we do we do quite a lot of that mentorship so matt you and acropolis are such wonderful advocate for chamber music thank you so much again for being on the show oh thanks renee for all you do as well and good luck to everybody out there competing. Thank you for listening. I hope this conversation brought you inspiration and great value. As always, you can visit mindoverfinger.com for the show notes, which have more information about the competition and today's guest. And I'd love to hear from you. So take a screenshot of the episode share on instagram and tag me at mind over finger tag the acropolis quintet at acropolis spelled with a k the number five and the letters t-e-t and also tag the fish off competition at

Starting point is 00:28:11 fish off chamber music and use the hashtag fish off 2019 so we can see that you're listening we can share it on our stories and we can give you some love to join in the experience and follow the competition visit fishoff.org and visit their facebook page at facebook.com slash the fish off to get more info on the live streaming of the performances and of course the results thank you for tuning in and i'll be back tomorrow for more fish off insight

The Mind Over Finger Podcast - 033 The Fischoff Effect: Matt Landry – Akropolis Reed Quintet

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