On the frozen edge of the world, staying in practice as a professional musician takes ingenuity, grit and a plastic instrument for schoolchildren that is guaranteed not to freeze to your fingers or face.
Natalie Paine is a French horn player in the Royal New Zealand Navy who since last month has been among 21 military members stationed in Antarctica. There, her melodies drift across the frozen Ross Sea from perhaps the most remote practice room on Earth.
“It’s beautiful and very inspiring,” Paine said. “I’ll sit there by the window and I will do my routine and play music in my time off, which is not very often.”
Photo: Anthony Powell, Antarctica New Zealand via AP
Paine grew up in the hot, dry climate of Adelaide, Australia, where she dreamed of visiting the frozen continent as a scientist.
She studied music instead, putting Antarctica out of her mind. Years later, as a musician in the New Zealand’s navy, she learned that military members were stationed in Antarctica to support the work of scientists.
When she asked, her instructor said any military member could win one of the coveted assignments.
“My eyes lit up and I was like: ‘What? Even a musician?’” Paine said. “He’s like: ‘Heck yeah, why not?’”
Her dream was revived, but enacting it was not simple. It took four years of unsuccessful applications before Paine landed a posting as a communications operator.
It is a consuming job, worked in six-day stretches that leave little time for music. Paine monitors radio, phone, e-mail and other communications traffic at Scott Base, sometimes speaking to people on the ice who have not heard other voices for weeks.
In whatever window she can find, Paine squeezes in scales and mouth exercises, going to great lengths not to disturb others on round-the-clock shifts. That means slipping out of the main base to a hut built in 1957 under the leadership of explorer Sir Edmund Hillary.
“There’s so much beauty and it’s not tame either, it’s this wild, untamed beauty of the land around you and the animals as well,” she said. “It’s just so overwhelming, spiritually, emotionally, physically sometimes as well.”
Her practical dilemmas included finding an instrument suitable for Antarctica — something hardy, lighter than a brass French horn and less likely to freeze to her hands.
The winner, called a jHorn, is not elegant.
“It was designed to be a beginner brass instrument for children,” Paine said. “So it was like, super compact, super light plastic, very durable, nowhere near as much maintenance required.”
New Zealand’s navy does not have records of another military musician being posted to Antarctica, so Paine, who will be there until March, could be the first.
Her presence has delighted Scott Base and she has provided live music for ceremonies, such as the changing of the flag, instead of the usual tunes from a speaker.
“I had to have ski gloves on with double layers and hand warmers on the inside to be able to hold the trumpet and still my fingers were freezing,” she said.
Paine is likely one of the few musicians to perform a solo antarctic concert in minus-21°C.
She said the collective effort between nations to work together on the frozen continent had a familiar theme. It reminded her of music.
“Music is the universal language and it’s something that reminds us that we’re all connected,” she said. “It brings that connection back to home, back to land and back to the people you’re with as well.”
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