The arts are an important community builder and prosperity generator, warranting investment from the public sector. Business leaders, economists, property developers, tourism officials and community planners have joined with parents, educators, and civic leaders to promote public policies that strengthen the arts. They do so because they recognize the benefits that accrue to communities when government helps to foster a robust arts sector.
Most critically, the arts also support a strong democracy, engaging citizens in civic discourse, providing forums for important issues, and encouraging collective problem-solving. The arts preserve culture and heritage, passing along a state’s unique character and traditions to future generations of citizens.
When the government chooses to recognize artists for their contributions to society and their impact on society, it is an incredible professional recognition. Government recognition is one of the most important public recognitions that an artist can receive in her career. Government recognition confirms and affirms the artists relevancy and importance within the overall structure of the society, and this should not be ignored.
Sahara von Hattenberger is a prolific musician who contributed immensely to the field of tonal contemporary music. On a simple level, tonal music is music “in a key” where there is one primary tonal center – one note, or chord, that is “home” or that everything gravitates to. What makes it tonal is establishing a “hierarchy” where this one chord is primary, and others have various levels of importance in relation to it – leading to it, and other chords leading to that chord, such that as each “step” is gone though it seems inevitable that the Tonic chord is the tonal center.
Interestingly,, tonal music functions on learned responses: we’ve heard enough music where certain musical elements clearly imply and later confirm a tonal center. These days, actually, though, it’s hard to learn because people aren’t hearing “purely tonal music,” so the tonal center is not always so clearly established (intentionally so in many cases). This is actually kind of a problem now because people trying to understand tonality kind of “can’t” because most of the music they listen to aren’t really totally tonal and the things that were clearer in the past are not as clear today all the time – which could be part of why you’re having trouble with it.
Examples of tonal songs include “All of Me” by John Legend and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. These songs are tonal and also happen to be in the same key, Ab major.
Sahara’s tonality is this superb cultural enlargement of the potential of the above songs. She is performing tonal contemporary classical music, which aims to be inclusive and appreciated by all music lovers, not only those who understand music theory. This is no small feat as she has to merge her knowledge of music theory with the exigencies of the present-day audience.
Her contributions extend beyond music. She signed with a Tokyo-based music agency and lived in Japan under contract from 2019 to 2020. By studying and performing a combination of Japanese music, Sahara mastered the principles upon which ancient Japanese music was founded. Excelling in the bi-musicality in modern Japan and comparing it with Western tonality performance, Sahara was able to explore the limitations of language and music. Exploring and performing Japanese music led her to explore and analyze Japan and Canada’s cultural and musical differences.
This is exemplified by her Solo cello residency at New Akan, Hokkaido. In this residency program, Sahara performed weekly and explored Japanese tonality, which was highly influenced by the natural landscape prevalent in Japan. Sahara’s performance of nature within traditional Japanese tonal music speaks to her cultural sensitivity to the different musical structures of Japan.
Furthermore, she was invited to perform as the lead cellist and soloist with the Miwazow Ensemble, where she again demonstrated her musical virtuosity.
After working as a soloist and touring the country extensively, she returned to Canada during the pandemic and founded “Duo Kogarashi,” an ensemble dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between Japan and Canada. Her group establishes a model of musical competence as a preliminary tool for considering bi-musical competence and schematizes the differences between Japan and Canada.
As a result of her extensive musical efforts, she was the recipient of a grant from the Canada Council of the Arts to commission two new works for Duo Kogarashi with Mayu Funaba, a Japanese pianist, which promotes Japanese culture in Canada. She was awarded a grant in the amount of $60,000. This grant allowed her to commission and perform an hour-long performance, filmed as a virtual concert, and included works from Japanese and Canadian composers.
The works were composed by Robert Hasegawa, a published music theory scholar, and Joel Toews, whose works have been performed at the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria and MacEwan University.
The Canada Council of the Arts is the largest government body in Canada that supports the arts and provides funding for innovative artistic projects. It is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study, enjoyment of, and production of works in the arts.
Sahara was selected for the grant due to the complexity of the work that she has put forth: the exploration of both Japanese and Canadian tonal music. The fact that Sahara was awarded a grant to continue her work of promoting Japanese and Canadian bi-musicality speaks volumes of her enormous impact on the tonal music industry.
While contemporary classical music is often criticized for being inaccessible, unintelligible, and unenjoyable, Sahara’s performances have the opposite effect. She is effectively bridging the gap of classical music for the modern audience.
