Very rarely, a special artist can stop you in your tracks, cause you to look up and remember there is beauty in the world. Enter Nat Bartsch.
The records describe her as a double ARIA-nominated, genre crossing nay defying, neurodivergent wonder-talent. A pianist and composer centring in and around jazz, classical, neoclassical and children's genres, but those are simply labels.Who Nat Bartsch is, is kind. The kind – pardon the pun – of person who desires to make music that soothes the listener. In a world of overstimulation, pressure to perform and do and be more, Bartsch creates a space inside her music to simply be, to allow silence and gentleness to reign.
Atop her thriving musical career, Bartsch has established Amica Records, a haven for artists desiring to make kind music. "All sorts of music can elicit different emotions and they're all totally justified. There's a place for angry music in the world," Bartsch states, "but there's so many genres that instil kindness and are kind to listen to.
"Wouldn't it be nice to create a home for artists that have that intention of soothing the listener, whether you're indie folk or electronic.
"It's about creating a home not defined by genre so much as the intention and aesthetic of the music, to support a handful of artists, and establish mentoring and industry field development for independent artists, because there's a real gap in skills."
Attempting to learn music in the traditions of jazz and classical, which are held onto almost religiously, Bartsch began life feeling like a fish out of water, always left of centre, not fitting in any one typical place.
Musically, this had only one courageous solution – composition. Thus began a life of blurring the edges, taking from here and giving to there, constructing the world as she sees it – differently, and beautifully.
"There have always been people doing something slightly differently. In jazz, there's ECM, Scandinavian sounds, which I was always drawn to; artists like Tord Gustavsen and Jan Garbarek, drenched in reverb and spacious.
"It's realising that it's ok to blend worlds together and create. In terms of courage, part of it relates to being neurodivergent. If you feel like a fish out of water, most of the time it's easier to assume the norms. Composing was a way of bypassing a lot of the expectations I might have had."
This fortuitous exploit afforded Nat a destiny she could only have ever imagined, a world where the most intimate parts of herself shared through her music have an emotional weight in the most tender and intimate moments of other's lives.
Many have written to her telling of these moments they chose to experience with her music. "From releasing my lullaby album 'Forever, And No Time At All', many expecting parents liked it enough to play it while giving birth, which is amazing.
"Someone else lived in Australia, her relative was in South Africa, and because of COVID, she couldn't travel to the funeral. So she bought my sheet music, learned how to play it and played it live on Zoom for the funeral, and there's the time I played a family concert, and there was a six-week-old newborn there, and also a grandmother who was dying of cancer. She passed away a week later. So it was someone's first concert and someone's very last concert all at once.
"I've been really taken aback realising that the music I'm making is useful in those moments. It's staggering. It inspires me to keep composing from the heart. If music regulates my own emotions and helps me process difficult things in the world, and it seems to have this benefit for others, then I'm very happy to keep going on that path. It's pretty great."
Bartsch believes that neurodivergence is a superpower with a caveat – when it is effectively supported and allowed to flourish. She seeks to advocate for its benefits and those living through its lens, establishing a regular artist meet up at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
"Neurodivergent people have a way of viewing the world that enables us to contribute things that are really valuable. There's so many different talents and abilities, there's autistic people coming up with incredible innovations in engineering or coding.
"The pure, unbridled joy of hyper-focusing, that flow state a neurodivergent person can have, it's unparalleled. So it's about what support needs to be in place for those skills and talents to thrive.
"The reason I also identify as disabled is because there are aspects to being neurodivergent that are disabling, particularly in a neurotypical world with expectations of being on time and being productive everyday. That stress has a flow-on effect for relationships, or physical health conditions.
"For me, it's understanding needs and finding solutions, things like support workers and ways of organising, but it also means a lot of privilege, because these things cost money. Saying it's a superpower, you don't wanna sugarcoat the real-world struggles that neurodivergent people have everyday."
Bartsch credits knowledge and understanding herself with helping her navigate the world as a neurodivergent, using repetition within her music as a source of regulation.
"The game changer was realising I was autistic and learning about stimming. Listening to music is a source of stimming, going back to the same album over and over, it's usually because you need that regularity. Within a piece of music, for me, something going around and around I find really regulating."
In recognition of her work and sacrifice, Melbourne Recital Centre has named Bartsch their 2024 Artist in Residence, an incredibly validating honour for a genre-revolutionary artist like Bartsch, who will play multiple events across the year, beginning in her all-time favourite live space – The Primrose Potter Salon next month (17 May).
"The Centre is the Holy Grail of venues, particularly as an art music creator, because The Salon is the most acoustically and visually beautiful space for an emerging to mid-career artist in Melbourne.
"Every year I got to play a show there, it was the highlight of my year. So being Artist in Residence is a really moving experience. It's also the validation, especially being between genres, feeling a bit like a fish out of water, it's like maybe that's a good thing, the way that was valued by them, it's really special. It's a real honour.
"I'm lucky that the music my heart's telling me to make authentically seems to have this connection to people. People find what I'm doing meaningful and that for me is the biggest honour, and opportunities like the residency are the icing on the cake." A beautiful space for the work of a beautiful artist.
Melbourne Recital Centre's 2024 Artist in Residence, Nat Bartsch Quartet presents 'Busy/Quiet' at Melbourne Recital Centre on 17 May.
