Why is learning important to you and how has it impacted your life?
Learning is a journey that has no end. A journey towards the unknown, which when familiar reveals even more of the unknown, yet to be discovered. Learning is important to me, not merely because through it I grow in the understanding of my own professional field, but because through it I grow in my appreciation of life.
Learning expands our knowledge but also our world. The more we learn, the more we see in the world around us, the more things have a significance for us and therefore, the deeper is our experience of life.
In my professional life as a musician focusing on the performance of music composed between the 16th-18thcenturies, learning is my constant companion – from discovering how historical instruments were played, how music was transferred from page to sound in performance to the world its composers and performers lived in. Learning enables me to achieve a deeper understanding of the music I perform and thereby uncover more and more of its original beauty, which then, in its naturalness will speak to audiences who are there to hear it.
It is not possible to record in writing, every dimension of a musical performance, which before recordings, existed only in the moment in which it took place. The particulars of interpreting a piece of music from any age, comparable to that of anything involved in reading a poem beyond recognizing letters and words, was passed on from master to student. However, with the gradual change of aesthetic from one stylistic period to the next former practices were forgotten as they made room for new. Therefore, musicians of today, who do not have access to a 17th century music master when learning a piece from the 17th century, have to assemble a puzzle of many pieces made up of written records and paintings, all the while being guided by their musicality and nourished by a love of learning.
Growing up in a small town in the northeastern corner of Europe, my pursuit for knowledge has, quite literally, given me wings and taken me to a large city in the northwestern corner of Europe. In the coming autumn, it is leading me into one of the biggest cities in the world as I start my studies as a lutenist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
My first move, from my childhood home in the Estonian countryside to the country’s capital, was more exciting than daunting. I was going to study in the country’s most senior institution for the training of young musicians, but since I had prepared as well as I could instead of a fear of failing I was in awe when hearing the beautiful sound of violins and pianos in the gloriously badly soundproofed practice rooms (for I was very happy to hear them) and when hearing the national anthem sung more beautifully and loudly than I’d ever heard before in a school assembly because the school was filled with musicians. I knew that in this new place, I could get answers to all of the unanswered questions I had about music and about playing the guitar which would help me to move closer to being able to express myself fully through my art.
Of course new knowledge, as I mentioned in my opening paragraphs, always creates more questions, so in my second move from Estonia to Scotland, I was equally excited and not at all worried about moving thousands of miles away from my friends and family. I have discovered that the people who are passionate about learning and then, later, as teachers, passionate about passing on that knowledge, form a kind of a family of their own. As standard family life is about passing on to children the basic skills of life, the same stands for passing on any particular form of knowledge – a senior member, who possesses more knowledge, passes it on to those who have the desire and determination to learn, and thereby knowledge is perpetuated and expanded from generation to generation.
I think it is for that reason – because I have always been yearning for more knowledge – I have never been frightened by any of my moves, every time I have just joined another family of learners.
While in Scotland, my discovery of the music of earlier times led me to playing the lute and it is in the performance of early music where I feel I have found my home. I am certainly not done learning, but instead of digging forwards, I can now dig deeper. It is for this reason I am writing this essay, in a quest to find ways to make it possible for me to follow again to where I know I will be able to get answers to all of the unanswered questions which new knowledge has opened for me.
This essay was written in response to the call for applications for the activia scholarship. More information is available on this website: https://www.activia.co.uk/scholarship-uk
In harmony. 