Programme Note by Julia Potter

In today’s modern classical music environment, musicians strive for absolute perfection in performance, however unattainable it may be. Fast passages can always be cleaner and more sparkly, melodies can always be more sensitive and heartfelt, entries can always be smoother and more polished.

To make a mistake is to commit an absolute faux pas. A mistake is shameful, embarrassing, and catastrophic. If a musician makes an error during a performance (whether producing an off-key note, stumbling during a passage, or having a lapse in memory), they appear unprepared, under rehearsed or inexperienced. Though obvious mistakes are rarely witnessed in a professional setting, the fear of slipping up is an omnipresent anxiety for many musicians.

Flawed examines these concepts of performance perfectionism and anxiety through a humorous lens. The piece takes the audience inside the mind of a nervous musician to show what happens internally (and externally) when a professional performer makes a mistake. Consequently, the piece challenges and interrogates classical performance conventions. It asks what it means to perform “serious” classical music and what results when a mistake is made.

Flawed was commissioned by Kit Millais and Louis Nicoll for Julia Potter as part of Millais and Nicoll’s duo recital “Flawed”. It was premiered on the 11th of April 2024 at Tempo Rubato, Brunswick, Victoria.