Christiane Hutcap gives unusual master classes for violinists
By Gus Kairupan
JAKARTA (JP): "Now, lift your elbows ... up, down, up, down," taking Umiyati's (or Akira's, Jane's or Rebecca's) elbows in her hands she demonstrates a movement. "Alright ... now swing your arms in a circular motion from the shoulder ... that's it ... in a circular motion."
She is Christiane Hutcap, and perhaps you would think from the above, that she is some kind of gymnast, a physical education whiz or maybe a therapist. Certainly Ms. Hutcap doesn't have the looks of someone involved in the art of making music: she is tall, well built, good looking and decisive and powerful in her movements.
Perhaps therapy is applicable in some way, but the kind of therapy involved in the exercises described above has more to do with music -- violin playing to be exact -- than building muscles or getting an athlete into shape for some sports event.
Christiane Hutcap was in Jakarta for about 10 days (March 15 to March 25) as the most prominent participant in Pekan Klasika (A Week of Classical Music) held by the Amadeus Music Foundation. She holds a professorial chair at the Academy of Music and Theater at Rostock in Germany and is regarded as one of the foremost experts of violin teaching in Germany.
Her participation in the classical music week was made possible through, among others, the sponsorship of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Council of Music (Deutscher Musikrat), the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Lufthansa, Siemens and Komrowski Maritim GmbH.
The violin masterclasses constituted the major feature of Pekan Klasika, though professor Hutcap also appeared in performances, and brought with her one of her top students, 14- year-old Byol Kang, who hails from South Korea but was born in Salzburg. Kang appeared in performances (including recitals with Helen Gumanti as accompanist for the Korean community) but did not participate in the masterclasses.
Unusual
There are three aspects that put professor Hutcap's masterclasses in the category of unusual events.
Firstly, masterclasses for all manner of musical instruments and for the voice are not foreign to musicians or aspiring musicians in Jakarta. What made the Pekan Klasika masterclasses unusual is that they were held over three days, each divided into two sessions, and were for the same six participants who passed auditions in February.
Normally, a participant gets a 20-minute to half-an-hour tutoring session by an expert musician from abroad, and that's it. At Hutcap's masterclasses each participant enjoyed three hours of tutoring, not, of course, consecutively.
Secondly, another rare aspect was the emphasis on physical matters involved in playing the violin. I do not know of any other music teacher in this country who lays so much stress on explaining why a certain movement, say, moving upwards or downwards, needs the involvement of this or that muscle in the upper arm in order to get the desired sound on a certain string.
And thirdly is the idiotic notion that prevails in Indonesia, even among those who should know better, that women are incapable of teaching string instruments. We'll discuss that later. Now let's go back to the masterclasses and professor Hutcap.
"No, no ... hold your arm down, don't press the heel of your hand against the fingerboard," she admonished, at the same time pushing Umiati's arm downward. Having never witnessed so much focus on the physical aspects of making music, I asked her if she had ever considered a special study of it.
"No, not really. Anyway, for a couple of centuries now there has been attention to these aspects, such as how the left arm (the one that holds the violin and does the fingering) must give the impression of roundness up to the hand. But I must say that there are a few things that I discovered myself." Here she took my hand and pressed down with a finger in the center of the palm. "You notice how it makes your fingers move?"
So a lot of time was devoted to physical matters. I would say that for each hour the student had here, about 20 minutes were spent on this. I asked Grace Sudargo, chairperson of the Amadeus Music Foundation as well as leader of the Capella Amadeus String Chamber Orchestra, whether teaching violin in Indonesia also included these physical matters, and the answer was a very firm and decisive "No".
Granted it is an important aspect, but how do you communicate this to children, of say, up to 11 years old? Older than that, such messages would be more readily understood by the learner. Hutcap admitted that it was not as easy with children, "but I make them touch my hands and arms so they can feel what muscles move. You can't do it too long, though, because they get bored with this quite quickly."
Teaching rather than performing
Take a look at the pantheon of violin players today: there's Henryk Szeryng, Anne Sophie Mutter and Itzhak Perlman to name but a few, but you will not find the name of Christiane Hutcap, though she has more than proved to be a performer of formidable proportions.
Her interest, however, is in teaching rather than performing. "You really can't be both -- a teacher and performer. I like teaching very much and started doing it at the age of 17."
Thus, playing in public appears to be deemed necessary only to prove that she can perform, but did not make a career out of it. So it is as a teacher that she is renowned.
Grace Sudargo, who worked with her last year, said that there was a long line of aspiring violinists at her front door hoping to be accepted. If they did get in, they would have quite a hard time, she said. Christiane Hutcap does not come across as an easygoing teacher.
She laughs easily, but when you talk with her about playing, and especially teaching, you occasionally notice a flash of metal in her gray-blue eyes, and you realize soon enough that she does not compromise on anything regarding playing or teaching the violin, and demands no less than total dedication from her students.
"It seems to me that you want everyone you teach to become a professional," I ventured. "Of course," she said. "I teach at a music academy, so the ones who attend already have in mind a profession in music, with, in my case, the violin." "But you can't expect a nine-year-old child to know that he expects to be a professional violinist, can you?" I said.
"That's why I stopped teaching children," she answered. "Byol (the Korean girl who accompanied her on the tour) is the only one now who's been with me since she was about 10."
Kang has thus been with professor Hutcap for some four years and will likely be the last child-student she will teach.
Prejudice
Whether professor Hutcap's guidance will yield results still remains to be seen. It seems certain, though, that the system of teaching followed in this country is quite a long way behind the times, and apparently also is tainted with prejudice, even among those who occupy teaching positions at music institutes.
One of these is the opinion that women are incapable of teaching string instruments like the violin. Something of the sort came to light when a person who teaches violin at a prominent school of music in Jakarta approached Sudargo with the intention of taking lessons from professor Hutcap in Germany.
Looking at this from a certain angle it is perhaps of little significance whether or not he was accepted. What is more important is that an Indonesian male did not mind being taught by a female, and this could help wipe out the ridiculous prejudice based on gender. Something of the sort also happened to an American female musician when she was at the arts institute in Yogyakarta.
However, such misconceptions have been proven quite wrong, ever since the Capella Amadeus String Chamber Orchestra -- led by Grace Sudargo -- entered the Jakarta music scene in 1993. Ever since that year, it has, with clockwork regularity, presented a concert at least twice a year, and that does not include special events such as receptions, charity events, inaugurations and the like.
In 1997 it also launched a program whereby the orchestra would visit a region outside Java every year to hold concerts, workshops, tutorials and other educational events. No other music institute has ever undertaken a program of such proportions. Not a bad track record for a female violin teacher and player.