Nat Bartsch is curating new music to remind you “it’s OK to be vulnerable, to ask for help”

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE


Earlier this year, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre director Jayashri Kulkarni told the ABC: “Women’s mental health is different and it needs better resourcing, understanding and approaches… There is a considerable need, we believe, to look at mental health differently.”

One in three women in Australia will experience anxiety during their lifetime — an issue that has been exacerbated during the pandemic and led to increased demand for support.

So when it comes to looking at women’s mental health differently, it’s safe to say that Australia must embrace as many ideas, and listen to as many voices, as it possibly can. This is where the Hush Foundation comes in, and its forthcoming release Seeking Solace is designed to support women’s wellbeing through challenging times.

The project is curated by Nat Bartsch, an Australian pianist and composer whose own work will feature on the album alongside pieces from neoclassical composers such as Luke Howard, Pat Jaffe, and Sophie Hutchings.

Nat and Hush Foundation founder Cath Crock facilitated a composers’ visit to the Cabrini Elsternwick — Women’s Mental Health Centre where they listened to the important stories of patients, carers, and staff members. Nat says listening to these voices was essential in the curation of an album that would foster empathy and encourage kindness.

We sit down with Nat to learn more about the creative vision behind Seeking Solace as it is being produced.

Nat, the Hush Foundation has a long history of commissioning Australian music for a worthy cause: to make people feel calm, especially during the most challenging of times. Why did you want to come on board and curate this new Hush project Seeking Solace?

I’ve written music with a meditative, soothing quality for a long time — but especially since my album Forever, and No Time At All of lullabies, and Hope, which responded to the Black Summer fires and the pandemic lockdowns. I’m very honoured to learn that my music is often chosen by people to accompany deeply personal moments such as childbirth, supporting people with illness and disability, and in the final hours of life.

I’ve been a huge fan of the work of Hush for many years, and it is a dream come true to have been asked by artistic director Benjamin Northey to contribute an album. I was actually studying with Paul Grabowsky during the early years of Hush, and his albums — especially volume 7 with the Goldner String Quartet and Diana Doherty — had a huge influence on my own creative aspirations as a composer and bandleader.

I love Hush’s genre-bending approach. It’s more about the intention of the music — and its atmosphere and aesthetic — that’s important, rather than whether it’s ‘classical’ or ‘jazz’ or ‘pop’. Bringing together people from different corners of Australian music to find common ground — that type of music-making is my favourite.

It therefore made sense to bring together many pianists to create the album with me: composers in neoclassical, ambient, film, and jazz scenes that I’ve long admired for similar meditative qualities in their music: Luke Howard, Mirla, Fia Fiell, Sophie Hutchings, Thrupence and Josh Hooke, Thomas E Rouch, Petra Salsjö, Pat Jaffe.

Like the recent Hush project Nightlight, this next album also focuses on women’s mental health — something that the Australian health system itself has neglected. Why is promoting healing for women something you’re personally passionate about?

I’ve been very open about my own struggles with mental illness in the past, as well as recently discovering my autistic/ADHD identity. This journey is very common for late-diagnosed neurodivergent women, whose ND traits are often missed as we ‘mask’ and fit into neurotypical society. We often go on to experience depression, anxiety, and chronic illness because our neurodivergent needs are not being met. This says so much about how our society is structured — not just in the way it favours neurotypical abilities and preferences, but also its patriarchal system — the way we have focused on the male presentation of autism and ADHD in research.

Too often women’s experiences of mental illness are downplayed, and this sometimes includes downplaying our needs ourselves. We live in a society where women feel pressured to be so selfless — focused on our caregiving roles — yet also juggle the return to the workforce, perhaps avoiding showing ‘weakness’ around our male counterparts.

It’s an unsustainable amount of pressure for many of us, with the pandemic bringing all of this into sharper focus than ever before. Referrals to mental health services for women [increased] during the lockdowns as we all juggled homeschooling, working from home, essential worker jobs such as teaching and medicine, disproportionate domestic duties and more. I personally am still recovering from the life-changing impact this traumatic time had on my own family and relationships.

Australia’s mental health system is chronically underfunded and fragmented, particularly for those in the ‘missing middle’ — the people who aren’t unwell enough to go to hospital, but not well enough that a monthly psychology appointment on a mental health care plan is sufficient. Many women fall into this middle, whilst carrying the burdens of caregiving, which creates further barriers to access — such as unable to spend time away from young children.

This album for Hush is designed to create a soothing music space for anyone to mindfully sit with and process big feelings and experiences. But it’s also designed to remind us of the disproportionate burdens many women carry — and that for women, it’s OK to be vulnerable, to ask for help.

You visited Cabrini Elsternwick — Women’s Mental Health Centre with fellow Hush composers to hear real-world stories and experiences. How do these experiences inform the music? Why are first-person accounts important?

Going to Cabrini’s Elsternwick clinic was a very powerful experience for me and many of my fellow composers. We sat with women across two workshops, and got to know their reasons for being at the clinic; the impact the pandemic had had on their family, work, and personal relationships.

These women were mothers, essential workers, business owners, secondary school students; with their own significant experiences of isolation, stress, domestic violence, physical, and mental illnesses. We are so grateful for their openness in sharing their experiences.

Hearing these stories was essential, I feel, to create music that responds to their stories with kindness and empathy, and authentically represents the theme of the album. 

This album will be filled with solo piano works. How do you feel piano has the power to achieve these goals of Hush — sharing stories with kindness as you say, and promoting calm?

The piano has always been an instrument with a gentle, warm tone; percussiveness, richness, the capacity for pedalled impressionistic lyricism. These cinematic qualities lend themselves beautifully to therapeutic music.

I interviewed several music therapists before writing my lullaby album, and discovered that these types of tonal qualities in an instrument are really important when playing gentle music for people in need of support.

With the rise of neoclassical piano as a genre, this is enhanced by the use of the upright piano recording techniques — using the practice pedal or fabric on the strings; creating a very intimate, bell-like muted sound.

Generally speaking, how do you feel about the role of music in self-care?

There are many rightfully disparaging things to say about the rise of streaming services, such as the way royalties are not fairly paid to music creators. But on the flip side, streaming has led to a greater accessibility of music recordings for people from all walks of life and socioeconomic backgrounds, as long as you have a device.

People turn to playlists such as ‘peaceful piano’ when they need to find calm and solace, or even to sleep. This is considered ‘passive listening’ as the consumer might not even be aware of the artist or title of the song they are listening to — it is more a ‘mood’ or atmosphere they are seeking to accompany the day. [This is] opposed to ‘active listening’: seeking out a particular artist or album, going to their live shows, which creates a meaningful and long-lasting audience base.

I’d love for every listener of my music on Spotify to know who I am, for sure! But it points to a silver lining — a type of active listening in a different way. You are listening to yourself, and what your emotional or sensory needs are in any given moment. And you are choosing music to support you. That is quite a deliberate act, and I think it has meant self-care through music is becoming more common.

This is so important, especially when mental health services are sometimes hard to access.

How do you envision the finished album will sound?

I hope that it will sound like a rich patchwork of meditative, peaceful pieces from many of Australia’s leading pianist/composers.

There is a rich history of compilations in the neoclassical genre, albums and playlists, but this hasn’t really been done in Australia before. It’s so nice to cultivate a sense of community amongst us. Most of these pieces will be recorded on the same piano — a Yamaha upright — and it will be a beautiful way to immerse ourselves in the different pianistic styles of different composers.

I hope it will be immersive, soothing, and inspire kindness. 

Keep up to date with Seeking Solace and learn more about the Hush Foundation on the website. The complete album is expected to be released in 2024.

For mental health support, contact your GP, call Lifeline (13 11 14), visit headspace, or call the Support Act 24/7 Wellbeing Helpline on 1800 959 500.

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