- I feel like you're always there. - I'm sorry! - Wow...

(both) Whoa...!!

Hey, how's it going?

Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.

Today, we have a very special and different episode.

Many of you probably have seen these videos

where they get a group of people

from a certain field, or expertise,

and they will see

if they all felt the same way on certain topics.

And so what we decided to do

is to do a classical music version of that.

We invited four of our good friends

that are all professional musicians,

and we wanted to get together to find out,

do we all think the same way,

- regarding certain topics? - Oooh...

Controversy!

My name is Emma Di Marco,

I am a saxophonist and a woodwind specialist.

I play classical saxophone,

not jazz, and I also do a lot of contemporary music, so...

Yeah, I do some really, really weird noises on the saxophone.

Hey, my name is Tijana Kozarcic.

I'm a professional harpist.

I'm currently a freelancer, a teacher,

and a harp ensemble leader for the Harp Society of Queensland.

Hey guys, I'm Alex Raineri.

I'm a freelance classical piano player.

I am the artistic director of the Brisbane Music Festival.

I'm particularly passionate about

working with composers and collaborating on new works.

Hi guys, my name's Phoebe Russell.

I'm a professional double bass player.

I play in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

I enjoy teaching, and I'm particularly passionate about

playing as a soloist, and...

playing repertoire that's not usually played on double bass.

Hi, my name is Eddy.

I'm a violinist. I've been playing for 20 years.

Used to play in an orchestra, and now I just...

make videos.

Hi, my name is Brett. I play violin.

And I used to...

play professionally.

I don't know what happened.

Three, two, one.

Oh, wait a second, I see!

We all did the same!

Oh wait, we do have one, we have one.

No, you can't change!

- I did not expect that. - Wow!

I'm a sucker for Taylor Swift, okay?

- Yeah! - I like it! It's catchy!

- Dude, that was... - ♪ Shake it off ♪

That was so...

I was expecting at least one person to be like, "Nah."

- "It's shallow." - Yeah.

I think we're just really cool, down-to-earth...

- open-minded people, you know? - Yeah.

Hey, maybe people don't...

have this like, idea of classical music.

And actually reality is,

most of us just enjoy music in general. Anything.

Classical music is just one form of it.

- That is very true. - Yes, we really do.

Eddy: Yeah.

- I listen to pop music. - Just save my one line.

Saving myself.

Brett, the question is, what pop music do you listen to?

BTS.

That's the safest answer.

Three, two, one.

- Oooh... - I love it. Here we go.

I think it's...

good to an extent.

For people like me, it makes me practice.

What if you get motivated to practice,

and then you don't come first place?

And now you don't get motivated in the future?

But I don't think that's the actual point of competitions.

In music, you're not first because you beat everyone else.

You're first because you did it really, really, really well.

Like, you're competing against this absolute.

But do you think that it is absolute, though?

Because I feel like

in reality, most music competitions, it's quite biased.

I see young kids that,

you know some of them, it is a good thing.

You know, they get that kind of,

"I want to practice harder because I want to get first."

But for a lot of them, they work their little butts off,

and then they go to the competition

and they feel like they're not enough

because they didn't place.

And I don't know if that's the right message

to send to younger musicians.

Well, it's playing the game,

and I think when you enter a competition,

you are entering a game.

It's, you know, the Olympics for...

instrumental playing.

And I think the psychological impacts of that aspect

of being competitive can be deeply problematic.

But, as we've all been saying,

it can have positive impacts if you're really clear about...

why you're there.

Three, two, one.

- Ooh! - Whoa!

- I see a... - I'm seeing a...

- I'm seeing a pattern here! - Yeah! I'm seeing a...

An Asian...

- Asian... - Asian situation right now.

Definitely my immediate family

were on board, but my big extended Italian family,

who are all lawyers, and like, high-in-power business people,

still are like, "Are you doing the music?"

I'm just neutral, because...

I don't actually know what they think.

- Oh...! - In case your mom is like, watching. - Yeah, I feel like it's...

Yeah, they're watching!

I know in the beginning,

my mom wanted me to become a doctor.

But I think, be like, continuing practicing.

It's like this conflict,

she wants to let the kid do what they want.

Chase their dreams, so to speak,

hoping they'll be a doctor.

But my brother has filled that void.

Yeah, but see, you have a younger brother

- to fill in the void. - Yeah.

My older sister already became a musician.

I was meant to be the backup plan,

and then I was like, "I want to be a musician too."

My dad was actually very supportive, um...

But my mom initially was very concerned.

She came from a background where

economic reality was a genuine concern,

and she wanted the best for me, I guess.

- Alex is off the chart! - Yeah...

He's way off the chart!

My family, they're awesome.

I'm really, really lucky to have, um...

I mean, not easy, but very smooth journey with...

my music.

It probably is quite tough from a parent's perspective,

if they're not musicians,

to even have a concept of what that means.

It's annoying 'cause I'm in the front,

- I can't see what people are doing. - Yeah.

- We're just judging you. - Yeah.

For professionals?

People that, I guess,

see themselves as musicians.

Divided answer.

Yeah!

I read this thing once and it was like,

"Why are you paying, like, a hundred dollars an hour

for a string quartet at a wedding?"

Or whatever the rate was, it's like,

"Why are you paying that big amount?" And it's like,

"Because you're not paying for that hour at a wedding,

you're paying for the ten years of study that they did."

"And the rehearsals that they did leading up to that,

and everything else."

We spend years and years training.

I think most of us probably started as young kids.

Most of us probably practiced several hours a day,

all the way through high school.

We can't expect to be

taken seriously, and we can't expect for people

to understand why music is so important

and share our music with everyone,

if we don't value ourselves enough

to ask for proper payment.

- Whoa. I think I'm just gonna go back here. - No no no...

- Brett, I want to hear your thoughts. - I was sold.

The reason why I was like, very hesitant on moving right...

Because I had, like you said, early stages,

so I was thinking of most situations.

When they're young, they can just do it, just for fun.

And just start getting people to know them,

within the community.

But also, I agree with all those points.

That's why I wanted to move there.

I guess playing for free as, you know,

university students, it kind of comes more to networking.

You will do one or two free things while you're a student.

It's kinda like a gateway.

Like, now I pretty much refuse all...

unpaid gigs.

Unless it's really something that I know that I wanna do.

As musicians, we need to know when to say no,

and also learn when the odd situations are

that the exposure is worth it.

I feel like it's a tool,

- and it's up to us to make good choices. - Yeah.

During our first tour...

- OHH!! - There was an agent that approached us.

And he tried to sell us on this whole idea that

he would manage the tour, but we would get like,

basically nothing from it.

"You guys are artists anyway, you do it for the art.

If you wanted money,

you wouldn't be doing music anyway, right?"

Yeah, that...

- That was... Yeah. - I'm so sick of that, it's very pathetic.

I'm like, "Look, I wanna eat, too."

- Yeah! - Like, sorry.

Agree or disagree. Three, two, one.

Whoa!

Alright, I wanna hear from Alex.

- Yeah, let's... - How do you do it?!

Teach me!

I'm in the middle.

So I do get nervous sometimes,

but it's very based on context for me.

Like, if I'm on my own onstage,

you're the one person in control of the entire product.

I get, I definitely get nervous sometimes,

but I feel like I've been playing piano a long time,

I think I can do it, like...

- Yeah. - It's fine.

I'm a bass player, so when a solo happens, it's very rare.

- And there's often like, - Yeah.

a very long build-up for a two-bar solo or something, so maybe.

As a kid, I was fine.

And then it started growing, growing,

and then I went to university,

and in the final year of my bachelor degree,

it just like, hit.

And I had this concerto opportunity

with the Conservatorium Wind Orchestra,

and thankfully I was wearing a long dress,

because I walked out onstage, and my knees were like,

going like this.

Like, not even kidding. And it just hit me.

When you're getting shaky bow,

and your legato's like, becoming ricochet...

It's no longer just like, "I'm nervous," it's like,

- "Oh crap everyone knows I'm nervous." - Yeah.

"How embarrassing."

- Yeah. - Mm. - And that always got to me psychologically.

It got really bad in uni, actually.

Every music student played the same repertoire.

I just remember I was like,

shaking throughout the entire...

Second movement, it was like,

- slow. - I was playing for you! I remember that.

That's what I mean!

Point... point proved.

I feel like there's a trigger. Like for me,

that area backstage,

where you're just looking through the window,

and you can see the piece before happening,

and you're about to play a concerto.

Even though I love playing...

- Yeah. - I'm like, sitting there like,

so nervous.

Hopefully people watching this,