Guildhall Q&A: Iain Burnside & Edward Picton-Turbervill

Taking place on Monday 7 November in Milton Court Concert Hall, Open Your Eyes And Tell Me What You See is a performance piece devised by distinguished pianist and Guildhall professor Iain Burnside to connect performers and audience to the profound changes happening in our world.

Shining a spotlight on the Climate Crisis through the powerful combination of words and music, this exciting project is a collaboration between Guildhall School and three other European conservatoires: the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Conservatoire de Paris and University Mozarteum Salzburg. A performance will take place in each of the four cities, featuring three student performers from each institution.

Before they set off on the tour, we caught up with Iain and Guildhall pianist Edward Picton-Turbervill (who will appear in the concerts alongside Guildhall singers Thomas Litchev and Ed Birchinall) to find out more about the programme and how this series of performances has come about.

Could you tell us about the concept behind Open Your Eyes And Tell Me What You See?

IB  We're all facing a climate crisis. As musicians, one way of flagging this up is in concert form. I hope that for an hour we can make people think and react.

This concert involves performers from across four conservatoires: Guildhall School, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the University Mozarteum Salzburg. How did this collaboration come about?

IB  I'm a visiting artist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM) in Dublin. In previous years we've enjoyed three-way collaborations with Guildhall, RIAM and Juilliard School. This time round we were aiming for a similar three-way with Salzburg, when in the course of a pandemic zoom call a year ago, the idea of Paris suddenly emerged. Et voilà.

This concert interweaves poetry and music. Could you tell us a little about some of the pieces that are being performed, and why they’ve been chosen?

EPT  It's an eye-poppingly varied programme, with 21 songs and 12 poems in English, French, German and Gaelic. It's very hard to summarise briefly, and I think it has to be experienced to feel the full force of the message, which is approached from 33 angles! When you consider that each piece speaks to and contextualises every other piece, then you can see that something profound and inexpressible is going to emerge from the sequence, which I hope will move people deeply. There's lots of modern music, modern poetry, and it all feels quite thrilling. I'm still getting my head round it! 

Iain, this is one of many innovative recital programmes that you have devised throughout your career. What is your approach to curating such concerts?

IB   I think a lot of concerts are rather dull. Mixing up different formats and different forms of presentation help keep us all on our toes, performers and audience alike. We have to keep moving! 

Edward, you are a committed environmentalist and writer as well as a musician. How do these roles intersect?

EPT  I'm still trying to work this one out, which is partly why this project is so exciting for me. They feel like very disparate parts of my life, and it's not obvious for me how to bring them together. It seems to me that as artists, we should urgently be turning our attention to humanity's relationship with the natural world, which is surely the most important consideration of our time. Classical music is by its nature quite conservative and only rarely carries a specific message, so I've found that not much of the repertoire speaks to this question. What I'm trying to do is write and commission new music that explores this topic, and programme intelligently to bring older songs into a constellation that speaks to our current experience. Watch this space!

Performances of this song cycle take you to Ireland, France and Austria, and all travel will be done by land. How are you feeling about the journey?

EPT  I'm very excited. I'm looking forward to lots of good conversations on the train, and I have set myself the goal of reading Vaclav Smil's book Growth over the two weeks. I can't wait to spend two weeks immersed in this project – it is a very special opportunity, and I'm thrilled to have been selected. 

Edward, are you enjoying collaborating with fellow students at the other conservatoires as part of this project?

EPT  We have only met each other briefly online so far, but I'm really looking forward to meeting the others properly, and getting down to some good conversations about our relationship with the natural world, and what we can bring to the table as artists. It's my favourite topic! It's always inspiring to watch other pianists play, so I'm looking forward to that aspect as well. 

Iain, what are your top tips for aspiring young pianists and singers?

IB  Pianists: if at all possible, become conductors! If you want to play the piano professionally, be aware of the marketplace. Flexibility has much to commend it. Embrace a portfolio career.

Singers: look after your body and your voice; work on your German, as Germany's where most of the work is; and be a supportive colleague. Opera, oratorio and song are all team sports.

Open Your Eyes And Tell Me What You See is performed as part of Guildhall School’s Songs at Six series on Monday 7 November in Milton Court Concert Hall. Admission free, no tickets required.

Performances also take place in Dublin on Saturday 5 November, Paris on Wednesday 9 November, and Salzburg on Friday 11 November. Find out more on the Open Your Eyes tour website.