News This Week

News for this week: The podcast schedule is finally written so you can check the schedule to find when the latest podcast is coming out.

There was supposed to be a podcast this week but there’s been a bit of a problem section, it hasn’t worked out, it’s left me a bit frazzled the past few weeks and there won’t be a podcast this week. The podcast will be back with the regularly scheduled episode on 22nd October.

Changes to the podcast

The past few podcasts have featured a Fantasy Concert League to imagine concerts with inclusivity and diversity baked in. These concerts have featured themes of universality instead of things like era and nationality which naturally mean white supremacy and bias.

It’s not been working out. If the entire 90 minute podcast was just this segment as a concert then definitely.

The content has been amazing, everything I want to create with The Daffodil Perspective. However it has highlighted one thing. My encyclopaedic knowledge of diverse composers has a limit of what it can achieve in one single day’s work.

The other four segments on the show each take an hour or two to research, plan and curate. Then there is the scriptwriting and storytelling time, that takes at least a couple of hours. Then the actual production time, publishing, creating tracklists, website posts and social media, that takes about 3 hours.

All in all it takes about 12/15 hours to put The Daffodil Perspective together. Instead this segment has been taking 4/5 hours, that’s more than twice the allotted time.

The necessities of curating a concert include not just music that fits the themes but music that fits together with the other pieces. Then they all have to be the same instrumentation, then enough time to fit an 80 minute concert. So far I’ve just done orchestral music because the pieces are longer and easier. If I had to plan for 8 or 9 pieces like a solo piano concert then it would take me much longer. We don’t want to have an exclusively orchestral segment on every single episode, that’s a bit boring.

Trying to do this theme has left me a bit frazzled and it’s showed from the length of the podcasts. I’ve not been able to devote time to planning the show properly, instead of a tight 90 minutes it’s been getting longer. Plus choral and vocal music has been getting a bit neglected recently. None of this is acceptable.

Plus, I’m like the Fairground Attraction song:

“It's got to be perfect
It's got to be worth it, yeah
Too many people take second best
But I won't take anything less
It's got to be, yeah
Pertect”

I want the podcast to be perfect, if it’s Less Than Perfect (another pop culture reference heehee) I get annoyed. Something else for me to work on.

I want you lovely listeners to have the best podcast possible, the most enjoyable, well crafted hour and a half of entertainment.

Concerts based on universal themes can absolutely be created. It’s more than can be done with the 12 hours time I have for this voluntary project. Even if it was funded more time couldn’t be spent on it because I’d need the extra time and money for all the other ideas I wish I could implement. Unless I was doing this as a full time paid job (what a dream).

This experience also made me realise I have problems with commitment, I don’t like saying no and I don’t like admitting defeat once I’ve committed to something cos it feels like failure. This is not a failure. This was an experiment. It was proved it can be done to create exciting, diverse programs using themes. It also demonstrated that it takes more than a couple of hours research.

It’s interesting because I’ve made so many changes to the show over the last two and a half years. I’ve changed so many segments that weren’t working out due to various bias. That’s been fine with me yet when it’s because of a perceived shortcoming on my part I’ll beat myself up trying to make it work. Something else to work on.

I love doing this podcast. I’m continuously learning so much about myself. Not just a journey of discovery into diverse classical music but a journey of discovery into Elizabeth de Brito.

I would love to do this in real life though with actual concerts. I know this works and I know it’s a brilliant way to counter white male bias. There is so much music out there that can be programmed and I just need a bit more time to make it work.

If you’re interested in talking with me about concert curation then please get in touch.

See you on the 22nd October. I will be thinking up a different segment. I’m thinking of trying to continue the music around themes section, just not a fantasy concert. Let me know what you think in the comment section below!

In the meantime remember to check out the podcast archive on Mixcloud, every podcast from this year is free to listen.

Thanks for listening to the podcast and your continued support, hope you’ll join me on 22nd October for the next exciting episode.

Elizabeth de Brito

Founder and producer of The Daffodil Perspective