At the Centre is Voice, and beside it is Learning - An interview with Tony Makarome

Tony Makarome is a long time friend of Vocal Associates, a professor at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and a composer and musician. In our upcoming concert at the Esplanade Concert Hall on June 1st, we are performing his incredible work What Pattern? which we first commissioned from him and performed three years ago and then toured with him to perform it at Carnegie Hall in New York.
As the choir gets to grips with the incredible rhythms of What Pattern? afresh, Tony came over to our rehearsal to give us some quick tuition (you can see a video of him teaching us embedded here): [Youtube embed]
After rehearsal, I took the opportunity to catch up with Tony to talk about the music and about teaching and learning.
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VA: Thanks very much for teaching us again, Tony! It is always a pleasure having you and working with you! You’ve just been teaching us your wonderful piece What Pattern? How well do you think we learned it?
Tony: In the one session that we had, I think very well! I got the sense that everybody was able to understand how the piece is laid out, and that’s the most important thing.

VA: The Carnatic Music Tradition on which What Pattern is based is a spoken way of learning music… can you tell me a little more about it?
Tony: It’s a thing called Konnakol which is a South Indian Carnatic music of rhythmic vocalizations and it is part of their music teachings. So every child, from a vocalist to an instrumentalist, a percussionist or even a flute or string player - they learn how to do these rhythms. And if the phrases go wrong their teacher won’t sing the melody, instead he’ll sing the rhythms (“Ta - ti - thang… ta - ti- thang…”) to correct them that way. The Western version would be “you need to come in at the end of beat 2… you are coming in too early” but here you are getting the students to really feel the sub-divisions and in many ways it is more accurate.

VA: You’re a professor of music at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and your students often talk about your enthusiasm you bring and the joy they experience in their lessons, we also experience that tonight! How long have you been teaching and how much joy does it still bring you?
Tony: I’ve been teaching at YST sine 2003, so almost 16 years now… does it still bring me joy? Well yes, because every batch of students have their own quirks and needs so I’m always being challenged that way: not everybody learns the same way and sometimes it is a matter for getting a feel of how the students are gonna react to you and adjust to teach them in the way they need.

VA: In all your years of learning music yourself, who has been your favourite teacher and why?
Tony: Oh! This is a tricky question! Does it have to be one?

VA: No… you can tell us a couple!
Tony: OK, I can group all of my Indian teachers as one, they were all very good and they all come from a tradition where you lived with the teacher and you studied with them while you learn how to play the instrument. For them, there was no time limit - you just take lessons and they train you to become a performer - instead of thinking you have to complete it within three months or one year. With no time limit, it makes them more pushy but also more patient at the same time.
In terms of Western music teachers, a favourite is Robert Spano who is the conductor of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He is like a Yoda to me…

VA: He taught you the ways of the Force?
Tony: Yeah! It’s really funny, after I auditioned with for him to become a conducting student, he said: “You know, you have the conducting technique, but I can teach you what can’t be taught.” And I thought: OMG! I have got to study with this guy! And then I saw him rehearse the opera Don Giovanni and I thought: I have never seen anyone that is this good, I just had to work with him… Even though I was already a little bit older, too old to start a career as a conductor, I really just had to study with him.

VA: Thank you very much for your time and for all of your support of Vocal Associates, Tony! I’m sure we’ll have the chance to be taught more by you again in the future.
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Come and hear what we learned from Tony at the Esplanade Concert Hall on June 1st get your tickets now on Sistic.