Newzik Talks: Max Ruisi from the 12 Ensemble
On the occasion of the BBC Proms, the 12 Ensemble used Newzik for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall with singer Laura Marling. Max Ruisi, co-founder and artistic director of this incredible orchestra, talked to us about this very special concert, and their use of digital scores.
Watch the interview (French subtitles available)
The Newzik application is so intuitive that you don't even have to think about it.
When we created Newzik, we focused on the design of the interface. The intuitiveness of the app was an absolutely obvious choice when developing Newzik, because our aim is to get this solution to as many musicians as possible, and we know full well that not everyone has the same relationship with technology. "You can simply forget about the software and concentrate on the music. Being able to forget about the hardware aspect of music helps you to create better, rehearse better and give better concerts.
Normally, two people share a desk, but because of the social distance, we couldn't work like that this time.
In light of recent events, the use of solutions like Newzik has become more relevant than ever. The 12 Ensemble used the app with page-turning pedals to meet the new norms of social distancing. Normally, two musicians share a music stand, for a simple reason: one can turn the page while the other continues to play, to avoid "gaps" in the concert. With Newzik, each member of the 12 Ensemble could have his or her own music stand and turn the pages with his or her foot, thus solving this problem faced by all musicians and making the performance more fluid.
If you are interested in this system, please read our guide to the best page-turner pedals.
In just a few seconds, you could send documents to each other with AirDrop, edit your shared Dropbox, write annotations and send them to everyone...
Here, Max Ruisi highlights Newzik's collaborative features. On the one hand, the application's integration of tools such as Google Drive, AirDrop or Dropbox makes rehearsals much more efficient. On the other hand, with Newzik, you can share scores and annotations with fellow musicians, making it even easier to work with others, even if you're just a meter apart, in different rooms... or even in two different countries.
Because of the social distance, there would have been so many desks! It would have been chaotic.
Aesthetics may not be your first concern when it comes to concerts. However, it's true that the big traditional music stand isn't the most attractive object on a stage. One of the advantages of using an iPad is that the different music stands you can use are much more discreet and don't hide the musicians when they're playing. This was very important to Max Ruisi, but we've found that many of our users see it as an undeniable advantage.
