#374: Marianna Bednarska (Percussionist) (pt. 2 of 2)

This week on the podcast is part two of our interview with Polish percussionist, Marianna Bednarska. She’s a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician and teacher.  

Among her many accolades, she’s performed throughout Europe and the US, and has appeared as a soloist at the Lucerne Festival, the Davos Festival and with ensembles such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Polish Radio Orchestra 

In addition to her professional experiences, Marianna has won prizes in over two dozen music competitions, including the Geneva International Music Competition, the Swiss Young Soloists, and she was a finalist in the Polish Eurovision Young Musician of the Year in 2009. 

Tune in to hear Marianna’s creative approach to pursuing opportunities throughout her career. https://mariannabednarska.com/en/home/

Transcript

Sponsor And Show Opening

Nick Petrella 0:03

Hi everyone, Nick Petrella here. This episode is sponsored by Steve Weiss Music, percussion specialist since 1961. If you're looking for a rare piece of sheet music, a specialty gong, or anything percussion, Steve Weiss Music will have it. Please visit Steveweissemusic.com or click their link in the show notes. That's S-T-E-V-E W E I S S Music.com, our percussion series sponsor.

Announcer 0:55

Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast, Making Art Work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion, and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent, or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts, Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.

Andy Heise 1:38

Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. I'm Andy Heise.

Nick Petrella 1:41

And I'm Nick Petrella. Joining us on the podcast is Polish percussionist Marianna Bednarska. She's a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, and teacher. Among her many accolades, she's performed throughout Europe and the U.S. and has appeared as a soloist at the Lucerne Festival, the Davos Festival, and with ensembles such as the Orchestra de la Suisse Remonde, the International Chamber Orchestra of Washington, and the Polish Radio Orchestra. In addition to her professional experiences, Marianna has won prizes in over two dozen music competitions, including the Geneva International Music Competition, the Swiss Young Soloists, and she was a finalist in the Polish Eurovision Young Musician of the Year in 2009. We'll have Mariana's website in the show notes so you can read more about her career and hear excerpts from her performances.

Marianna Bednarska 2:30

Hello, thank you so much for having me. It's a great pleasure.

Andy Heise 2:37

So as as we've also been discussing your career span in several different national contexts, um, does does where you're performing ever change anything about how you do your work?

When Instruments And Stages Surprise You

Marianna Bednarska 2:49

Well, um, very often I receive these invitations from festivals or orchestras, and the projects are clearly defined. So for example, the program is already established, and sometimes I am invited to perform a specific concerto or program, and sometimes I'm asked to prepare a like a selection of works for recital, and this idea appeared lately through performances, as we mentioned, Hong Kong Sinfonieta or Tonyong Festival in Korea, Wei Wing Festival in Taiwan, or simply with, for example, my concert in Warso Philharmonic lately, where I had to prepare a new work. So there is a certain direction always uh indicated in this project. Of course, there are some projects where I am very free and I can really project my own recital. And also lately, like discovering new roles. For instance, I recently had the pleasure of being invited by the wonderful cellist Solga Beta to perform a recital at the concert house Dortmund. And I also had to arrange a piece for two pianos, violin, cello, and percussion. So in such situations, this yes, that took time, and this artistic framework is often already you know outlined, and the preparation naturally follows the requirements. And at the same time, the way I work can also depend on the context of the performance. So is it solo or with somebody like orchestra, uh, chamber music, instrumental theater, or projects involving electronics? I think each of these situations requires just slightly different approach in a moment, and that's what maybe makes it uh special. It's not what what I do before, but how I react during this um this project happening. And in our case, also the instruments. Uh, we often don't have what we practice on uh at the place. So in in Asia, for example, when you go to another continent to the US, uh different brands, different marine bus, different uh stands, so it changes a lot and it's it's the reaction in the moment, and uh this is something that we cannot predict. But I think at the same time it's a beautiful aspect of live music, so every performance becomes unique at the very special moment.

Nick Petrella 5:19

And you know, for for the listeners, I just want to expand one of the things you said. So different brands, wherever you go, different places, the distance between the keys in certain brands changes. So if you're used to right, so I mean you have to be aware of that. And absolutely, yes, yes, you're dealing with a variety.

Marianna Bednarska 5:40

Yes, not only about the interval change in the hands, but even like a small, small uh millimeter can really change some perception, either when you're looking at it or when you're listening, the different tuning on the drum or different color of the marimba that can also make a difference. So uh it depends. It depends, and it's a big challenge, but I think it uh allows us to stay more uh uh open for okay, what can happen now? And the same is on stage when we play. We cannot actually guarantee that this will be perfect and that we will manage to go for the piece. Everything can happen, and that's life, and we learn to live with it.

Nick Petrella 6:22

See, I think percussion is much harder than piano, probably.

Marianna Bednarska 6:26

But but many people say that it's like a percussive instrument. So I think there is maybe some connection, and it's great when they both come together.

Andy Heise 6:35

Yeah, yeah. I think the the size of piano keys is pretty universal, though, right? I mean, I assume. Yeah, I assume too.

Nick Petrella 6:43

I don't know, never really thought about it. But the the worst, tell me if this has ever happened to you glossy vibrophone bars as opposed to matte. Because if you're looking at the glossy, those stage lights, if you happen to catch it just right, it's like a flashbulb going off.

Marianna Bednarska 6:58

Oh, absolutely. And also the light settings, either on Marimba or Vibraphone, if you have a shade on the keyboard, that can be very confusing. So, really, like very small details or the the floor that is making noises, uh, all of that can be very surprising.

Nick Petrella 7:17

Yeah, because if there's a creak on the floor, you'll you'll find it, right?

Marianna Bednarska 7:21

Oh, yeah.

Andy Heise 7:23

Oh my gosh. Yeah, an unintended uh contribution to the piece. You get the the floor squeak. Uh-huh.

Marianna Bednarska 7:30

But also like a percussive effect, let's say.

Andy Heise 7:33

That's right. Yeah, I meant I meant to do that. We had that squeak um put there specifically for this moment. Yeah, that's right. Do it do it twice, they'll think it's part of the piece. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah.

Nick Petrella 7:45

So we had talked about you know how long it takes to arrange. So nice segue into my next question, which is about time management and cost structure. How much time on average do you practice every day, including rehearsals? And do you account for that in the price of your solo and chamber music performances?

Marianna Bednarska 8:05

Well, yes, so it often depends on the type of musical activity. For example, when working with orchestras, ensembles, or teaching, the structure of rehearsals or this pedagogical work is usually defined in advance, and these conditions of the projects include the workload, and you know, it corresponds quite clearly to the to the professional framework and the compensation. And it becomes much more difficult to calculate in the case of solo performance, of course, because uh the process of preparation depends on so many different factors. And in percussion, especially, we work with a very wide range of instruments. So preparing a recital program often means moving constantly between different setups and techniques, and of course, many other elements influence how time is distributed. Um, and teaching responsibilities, in my case at the university, planning projects, communication, travel, administration, that simply um needs, you know, sometimes the artist needs to rest. So, in order to maintain uh this artistic uh life clearly. And um, in case of us musicians, sometimes the work uh progresses very quickly or efficiently, and sometimes it's so long and it's it needs time and it's a detailed process. So there are moments when preparation happens in a more internal way, like studying the score, imagining the sound, uh shaping the interpretation, sitting with a pencil and simply doing work like this. So I think about preparation as something that can be strictly free and not so so calculated in hours. And one day it might be seven hours, one day 15 minutes, and at the same time, at the same time, I believe it is important for artists to remain open and maybe not to approach every project purely through this, let's say, counting and calculation. And I have to admit that some of the most meaningful and and beneficial artistic experiences in my life, they appeared unexpectedly through through encounters and opportunities of different sorts, even when I practiced more or or less this curiosity and sincerity of music, and that were really the most beautiful experiences that are strictly beyond the planning.

Nick Petrella 10:37

Yeah. And so it sounds like you that your time is accounted for when you're playing a solo with an orchestra, or perhaps chamber, but solo.

Marianna Bednarska 10:49

Yes.

Nick Petrella 10:50

Yeah.

Marianna Bednarska 10:51

Chamber music and orchestra being a part of the of the orchestra. But as a soloist, um, yeah, it's very, very difficult for me to really count it. And I I stay open. I think I have so much ideas one day, and next day I have another. So it's a lot of internal work, and I depend on that. And um I really approach it in a more uh aesthetic philosophic way uh with my work than really uh being purely into the mathematics, let's say right, right.

Nick Petrella 11:25

Yes, and just for clarity, I I didn't mean that you were sitting there with a stopwatch, like you know, filling in six second or six minute you know, intervals like an attorney, but but just in general, are you capturing that in the cost? Yeah. Okay.

Teaching At Chopin University

Andy Heise 11:38

Yeah. And I'm I'm just out of curiosity, um, your role at the university um or yeah, at Chopin University. Uh what do you you have a studio where you have private, you know, one-on-one lessons? Do you do ensembles? Do you teach other classes? What's what's your what's your uh role at the university?

Marianna Bednarska 11:59

Yes, so I'm um running this percussion department uh with the main subject like uh solo percussion and also the ensembles. We have um a very nice percussion space, several rooms, we um have many instruments, and uh we are now planning to really expand the class equipment and to have really like a very, very big professional um studio opportunities to for the students to work with a big comfort. And um I do this solo classes, I teach multi-procussion, marimba. There are many wonderful teachers that we have, um, teacher who works on vibraphone or snare drum. But of course, if the students want to profit uh from another teacher learning another instrument, we are so free to for them to decide what they want to learn. So they come really with um all kinds of repertoire at the during the year, it's all mixing very much. And we have also orchestra departments, so we have a teacher on the timpani and also on another uh orchestral instrument, so it's very, very diverse. And there is also world music department, there is drum sets, so all of this sort of uh percussion instruments.

Andy Heise 13:18

Yeah, yeah, that's great. That's uh I always enjoyed um I'm I'm a bass player, so I often played with some of some of the world percussion uh ensembles and things like that. So I always I always enjoyed rehearsing in the uh percussion building because you never quite know what you're gonna find or what's gonna be going on. Right, right. Who you're gonna find. Yeah. Who you're gonna find, yeah. One of our percussion faculty, um, when I was in school, uh there you'd walk in and there were it's like masking tape with with notes written on it, like A, B, C, B, C sharp, whatever. They had gone around and sort of found the pitch of all these different objects all throughout the building. And so, like, I guess if they were to need something, they need a they need a C sharp, they can go grab the uh whatever spatula out of the kitchen or whatever it was. Uh just kind of crazy things like that. That was it was very inspiring, right? It was like, yeah, um yeah, anyway, saves time for later.

Marianna Bednarska 14:18

Yes, the discovery process. And I think somehow percussion classes, when I whenever I go through the world and I give master classes, I meet students, they are so like a family and they are together, so it's uh it's a grap of people going on a uh journey together. Yeah.

Andy Heise 14:37

Absolutely. That was uh that was definitely part of part of my experience too, working with percussionists, was they were just a very tight-knit um community, yeah. Like you said.

Marianna Bednarska 14:47

Yes.

Andy Heise 14:50

So classical uh music careers tend to follow a fairly established path, right? There is no one pathway for every musician, but in the classical world, right, it's a little, it's a little better defined, I guess. Um maybe that's overstating it. But um, how much of your career has gone according to that sort of clo traditional classical music script um versus um how much you've diverged from it?

Marianna Bednarska 15:17

In many ways, my path has certainly followed you know the elements of the traditional trajectory, like studies and competitions were an important part at the early stage. And after my path naturally led to concerts, collaborations with orchestra ensembles, to the recordings, to different artistic projects. And at the same time, percussion is an instrument and and that invites a very particular kind of artistic exploration, and compared to instruments with centuries of repertoire, percussion uh is still relatively young and rapidly developing field, and because of that, um we are directly involved in shaping the repertoire itself. So, right now there is a lot of going on uh through premieres for me, close collaborations with composers, creation of very interdisciplinary projects, and um as we said before, and and uh I'm happy that you mentioned this word uh curation and curatorial uh dimension, it's very creative. So many projects involve thinking about how percussion can be presented in new contexts, whether through contemporary music, interdisciplinary and technological elements or or new concert formats. And what I found um especially beautiful about this field is that that percussion often appears in very unexpected forms, um, and this instrument constantly reveals new possibilities. So another dimension is teaching. Um so, in terms of very like uh traditional career path, this may be another path. And in a way, working with young percussionists becomes part of the same mission, not only to perform music, but also to help the next generation discover um the richness of this field and to encourage them to find their own artistic voice, and that encourages a great deal of creative freedom, I think, and I'm ready to discover even more and uh to think really flexible about this stuff that will take place in the rest of my life.

Andy Heise 17:34

Yeah, that's great.

Connecting With Audiences Onstage And Online

Nick Petrella 17:36

Mariana, how do you engage with your audiences during the concert as well as outside of concerts?

Marianna Bednarska 17:43

Well, during the performance, I try to reveal the widest possible spectrum of character styles, different sides of my personality that can be expressed through percussion instruments, and the percussion field is, as we said, incredibly versatile. And my biggest mission is to show that I can speak many different musical languages from transcriptions through arrangements of classical repertoire to contemporary works, uh new works with composers, projects with theater. I really enjoy doing this kind of field and voice objects, gestures, body percussion, and everything that allows to go beyond this classical uh style. And I think that the connection then during the concert is really rising, let's say, when when I uh connect like that with the audience and it's deepening the listening experience. Um, and I'm also very inspired by visual art, so so sometimes I'm painting and occasionally I wave um some of my own visual works into performances as another layer of this artistic expressions. But uh beyond the concert stage, I also try to stay in contact with audience in different ways, like enjoying meeting listeners after concerts, speaking with them, um, hearing their impressions and you know, exchanging ideas. And I also receive many messages or emails from listeners. I try to respond whenever possible, which is not always easy. Um, but of course, today social media uh offers another dimension of communication, so through posts, stories, digital collaborations that allows us to share parts of the artistic process and to keep this dialogue with audiences. So for me, all of this is uh part of the same idea, and um music is like a form of communication, and the more sincerely we open that space for dialogue, um, the more meaningful this experience becomes for everyone involved.

Upcoming Projects And Creative Variety

Nick Petrella 19:55

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, engagement is uh super, super important. So before Andy kicks off the final three questions, do you have any fun projects on the horizon that you could talk about?

Marianna Bednarska 20:08

Oh, I'm so much missing the projects with the Philharmonie Luxembourg. Maybe I will go there in one year. Um, but there were like uh theatrical productions with costumes, it was um always created for children, and I enjoyed it so much. There was so much fun with the stage director, with other musicians, the reactions of the young audience. That's something truly special to me. But of course, every project is uh a big joy, and it reveals always great, great uh memories and great experience, and the reactions of the audience they are so different when I play Bach, and then when I play, for example, on the uh Zarb on the Iranian drum and speak and uh scream or sing, or when I uh hit my body, or when I play the vibraphone, it's so different, and I I can see how much the audience is changing and transforming with me during this concert. So, this is always a big fun for me, too.

Advice For Aspiring Arts Entrepreneurs

Andy Heise 21:09

That's wonderful. That's great. Well, Mariana, we've we've reached the point of the interview where we ask all of our interviewees the same three questions. And the first question is what advice would you give to others wanting to become an arts entrepreneur?

Marianna Bednarska 21:26

I think the first thing is to understand that being an artist today also means being a creator of your own artistic environment. So it is no longer only about performing the repertoire that already exists, but about imagining how music can live in the world and how it can be reached by people. Um at the same time, um, this entrepreneurship in the arts should never mean losing the artistic core. And the most important thing is still the sincerity of your artistic voice. I would also say remain curious and open, and many of most interesting projects emerge from really unexpected encounters. So collaborations with others, other disciplines, musicians, artists, this ideas that at first seem very unconventional. They can reveal such a great potential. I would also encourage young artists not to wait for the perfect moment, as very often that ideal situation never really arises, arrives. And instead, it is important to work with the resources that we already have and with people that we know. And the ideas to grow organically from there. Today we also have many digital tools so to allow artists to communicate their work beyond the concert hall. And finally, I would say do not be afraid of the long journey of trying or falling or standing back on your feet. I think artistic paths rarely unfold in a straight line, and that requires patience and resilience and trust in the process. But I am convinced that if you truly believe in the music you want to share and you continue to work with dedication and imagination, you gradually build not only a career but also a very uh meaningful artistic life.

Nick Petrella 23:29

Well said. What can we do to ensure the arts are more accessible and reaching the widest possible audience?

Marianna Bednarska 23:37

In my opinion, one of the most important things is to continue opening doors of the art to as many uh people as possible. So sometimes classical music can appear distant or intimidating, especially to audiences who have not grown up in this environment. So part of our responsibility, I think, as artists is to build bridges and invite people into this world in a very welcoming and curious way. And education um plays a very important role here. So when young people encounter music early in life, whether through schools or workshops or concert design for new audiences, it's it can have a lifelong impact. So this first uh experience often shaped the way we perceive uh music and creativity. And at the same time, um, artists can explore new formats of presenting music. So concerts today can uh take place not only in traditional concert halls, but also unexpected spaces and interdisciplinary projects, digital environment that can really reach audiences across the world. And communication is also essential. So when listeners understand more about the artistic process, like a story behind the piece, the connection between compositions in a recital or inspiration of the composer, that is very uh meaningful and that becomes much more accessible to the audience. Um, but I always think and I always say also to my students that the most important is this authenticity. So when music is uh shared with genuine passion and honesty, um, audience can feel that immediately. So that emotional connection is what allows the art to reach for um very far beyond any other boundaries.

The Best Advice She Ever Got

Andy Heise 25:36

Lastly, what's the best artistic or entrepreneurial advice you've been given?

Marianna Bednarska 25:42

Uh, one piece of advice that stayed with me from it's is from a teacher who once told me something very, very simple. Um saying, you will manage because you are yourself. And so at first time it sounded almost too simple for me, but over time I understood how meaningful that sentence really was, and it carried a deeper message that you are capable of finding your own way precisely because you are yourself. So with your own imagination, your sensitivity and perspective. So in the beginning of a career, it is very easy to compare yourself with others or to feel that you should follow a certain model of what a musician is supposed to be. But in reality, what audience uh responds to most deeply is this authenticity. So that advice reminded me that the most important task for an artist is not to become someone, someone else, um, some another version of a musician, but to discover and develop their own voice. And of course, that um path is not um really easy, it still requires discipline, constant learning, and dedication. But when you remain honest and um really uh motivated, engaged in what you do, to communicate it through music, I think the path that you're going through is like gradually becomes clearer. So, in that sense, this simple advice um can sometimes be the most powerful, and just trusting who you are and allowing this authenticity to guide your artistic journey.

Thanks And Closing Message

Nick Petrella 27:23

Very good. Mariana, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. It's it's heartening to hear your passionate and creative pursuit of opportunities, and as a percussionist, it's great to hear your desire to promote the genre of percussion. Thanks so much for coming on.

Marianna Bednarska 27:39

Thank you so much.

Nick Petrella 27:42

Thanks, Mariana.

Announcer 27:45

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