“Labels kill your creativity”
- Music
She moved to the Netherlands to study Jazz & Pop at the ArtEZ Conservatorium in Arnhem. She expected to learn things completely new to her, and these new things would make her into a better singer. But when Elsa Steixner began the Jazz & Pop course, she had to let go of that expectation. The insight that she got instead, however, was much better than that: “I realised that I already had everything inside me that I needed to become a good musician. I became a little bit more ‘myself’ every day.”
“The most significant thing for me from my Jazz & Pop studies is actually nothing related to singing. It’s the people that I met here and what I learned through playing with and chatting to them. That’s what I’m most grateful for.” Elsa Steixner is originally from Vienna. Before ArtEZ, she pursued a preparatory music course in Leipzig, where a teacher advised her to look into studying a bachelor’s in the Netherlands. The teacher told me: “Music education is more progressive there than in Germany or Austria, and you would have more possibilities to develop your own musical identity. That piqued my interest, so I travelled to the Netherlands twice. The first time was when I gave the entrance exam for the Jazz & Pop course, and the second was when I moved here to study.”
Developing your strengths
Naturally, she progressed musically and learned how best to use her voice during her Jazz & Pop studies. But things really took off for Elsa when a teacher told her to embrace and develop her strengths. “Before then, I had no appreciation whatsoever for the things that came easily to me. I always thought you have to focus on the things that are most challenging for you. But now I know it is the other way around. The things that come easy to you are precisely what make you special.”
“I don't need to put labels on my music”
Elsa wrote her graduation research on the significance of genre in pop music: what is ‘genre,’ do we even need it, can we also define ourselves without it? She finds the question “how do you describe your own music?” a bit cheap: “My music is what it is, it is who I am. On top of that, I’m not a fan of pigeonholing. In the music industry, they really hammer it into you that you have to fit into a specific box, because that is more marketable. But I think it kills your creativity when you have to be distracted by that. I would rather people come listen to me and only afterwards think to themselves: hmm, I heard jazz, some soul, and a bit of singer-songwriter.”
Stereotypes about jazz
Elsa has been performing with her band for the last year and a half, with Julian Bazzanella on piano, Daniël Louis on drums and Jakob Lang on double bass. The pianist and drummer are also Jazz & Pop students, and the bassist is from Vienna. Elsa lives with the first two: “We are very close, and we have a lot of fun together. You can hear that in the music. I want my music to be inviting, to have something for everyone, not just for the elite. It’s a shame that elitism is still so prevalent in the jazz world. It has this image of being super complicated, that you have to be very ‘sophisticated’ to be able to appreciate the music.” These are all stereotypes that unfortunately accompany this particular genre of music. Elsa navigates through them by not placing a label on her music, and that is working out well for her: “Recently we gave a release concert for our debut album, A Day on Solid Ground. A music journalist was there, who told us afterwards how great she thought it was that so many young people were there in the audience. That they didn’t even realise they were listening to jazz, and so the genre came second to our music. It’s so nice to hear!”
The luxury of the ArtEZ concert hall
Elsa doesn’t view her finals performance as an exam, but rather as a nice opportunity to perform alongside as many friends and fellow musicians as possible: “If I were playing alone at a club, then I wouldn’t have the money to be able to put on a show like this. The finals is the last opportunity you have to enjoy the luxury of the ArtEZ concert hall, to make use of the amazing sound engineers there who can help you with everything. The finals are a real golden opportunity for me, I’m looking forward to it.” Elsa is entering the workforce with that same relaxed attitude: “I know I want to play as much as possible. I haven’t mapped out anything more specific beyond that, but I’m open to everything. If a nice opportunity came up and it meant I had to move to Spain, I would most likely do it. I know what I want to do, and which circumstances work for me. After four years at the Jazz & Pop department, I can now say that I know myself well, so I trust my gut.”
Elsa's advice for new students
"Make music with people you like. When you make music together, you also connect socially. If one of those two doesn’t work, then often the other doesn’t work either. So, team up with classmates and mentors who vibe with your artistic wavelength. It'll propel you forward in ways you can't imagine."
"Stay authentically YOU. As you journey through the later stages of your studies, you'll have the power to make choices that shape your path. Stay true to your instincts, and resist the urge to compare your journey to anyone else's. Your path is unique, and that's where your strength lies. Stay focused!"
"Networking, networking, networking! You'll hear it a lot during your time here. But here's the twist: genuine interest is the secret sauce. Get to know your peers and mentors on a deeper level. Let your curiosity shine. By doing so, you'll naturally build a circle of supporters and collaborators who'll be by your side throughout."
Read more about the Jazz & Pop course
