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Arts & Communication Artists recreating our world

inadequate. He wrote to his friend Zatayevich: “either, like by offering advice and by helping create space for these
some composers, I am unduly partial to this composition, experimentations to occur. That means that mentors play
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or this composition was poorly performed. And this is what a significant role in affirming, pushing, critiquing, and
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really happened.” (p. 73) This blunt personal assessment supporting artists as they take tentative steps toward their
provides the raw materials which might guide artists formation.
today; namely, to maintain a healthy separation from the Mentoring differs from the college or tertiary training
composition and an ability to deal graciously with those environment, where instructors expose students to a
who will perform the work. wide range of ideas and competencies, involving them
Perhaps he was too vested in his composition to have in “taster” activities that allow the student to find their
any sense of objective assessment of it. Moreover, this is not unique pathways. Where education is general, and
surprising because creative works must necessarily come educationalists explore many diverse areas with students,
from intense and prolonged concentrated effort. However, mentors fulfill a support role within the world where the
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there were signs in the work that could have accounted for protégé is functioning. Mentors work in specific areas of
Rachmaninoff’s sense of failure. There is no doubt that it competence, and although the relationship is significant
formed a turning point and set Rachmaninoff on a path and important, contact is perhaps much less than with
of performer rather than composer. As Findeisen, a more teachers from the past.
generous music critic of the time, wrote: With the support of his mentors, Rachmaninoff took

“Rachmaninoff’s symphony is the product of a the risk that all artists must take to make his work public.
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composer who has not yet fully found himself. At this As Maisel advises, artists must have a degree of confidence
point, he could become either a musical crackpot or in their work when they expose it to the public, and their
Brahms.” (p. 72) 19 sense of self-belief “safeguards [them] from the dangers of
What he did to “find himself” and recruit the resources receiving [harsh] responses.” (p. 215) Mentors strengthen
necessary to keep his career alive is the focus of what follows. this necessary self-assurance, for without it, artists lack the
To explore this, several issues are salient, namely, the role of ego strength to combat inner doubt and outer naysayers.
mentors, the risks of making bold statements, and how to A mentor prompts and even goads from the wings off-
move beyond a profound and debilitating sense of failure. stage, providing political skills necessary to survive, all the
4. Mentors while helping their protégé avoid the traps of an arrogant
self-belief. They offer “privileged information [that] is
While art-making relies to some degree on individual provided only to the chosen ‘insiders’ and withheld from
talent, creativity is nurtured in the community. Indeed, as the ‘outsiders,’” (p. 6) grounding protégés in the political
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Sampson argues, although the individual self is formed and cultural realities of their world, beyond the somewhat
and functions independent from society, “individuals are idealistic training received from educational institutions.
[also] constituted by their communities.” (p. 919) Herein Rachmaninoff’s story demonstrates the important shift
is the paradox of the artist: freedom to experiment alone from the influence of the teacher, Zverev, in his case, to
with ideas is enhanced by peers, supporters, and those that of a mentor, Tchaikovsky. It was Zverev who imposed
who differ. Creativity is both an individual and communal disciplines, and who gave him the necessary technical
pursuit.
skills for him to make music his profession. However,
Johansson presents a compelling case for this creativity their relationship became fractious, and eventually,
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paradox. Drawing on the image of the Florentine House of Rachmaninoff renounced his tutelage and, in 1889, left
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Medici in 15 -century Italy, the Medici name symbolizes Zverev’s house, moving in with a fellow student. They
the burst of innovation that occurs when people of eventually reconciled and 1892 when Zverev acknowledged
difference work together. Johansson writes of this as that Rachmaninoff, indeed, was an excellent composer.
intersectional thinking, as ideas traverse beyond discipline Tchaikovsky, on the other hand, encouraged
boundaries to welcome sometimes contradictory insights.
Rachmaninoff to continue to stretch his compositional
As the developing artist tries out different processes boundaries, even though Tchaikovsky was not particularly
and practices, mentors help by supporting expressions pleased with Rachmaninoff’s early work. For example,
of what Ibarra calls the “provisional self,” identities in 1890, Rachmaninoff had accepted a commission
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that begin as “makeshift, until they have been rehearsed to transcribe Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty for
and refined with experience.” (p. 767) In the process of piano, yet Tchaikovsky was appalled at Rachmaninoff’s
developing a distinctive artistic practice, mentors support “unimaginative efforts.” (p. 8) The young composer wrote
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Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 5 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.2126