2024-05-17 09:52:03
She has simply launched a brand new album, launched a podcast sequence about forgiveness for Czech Radio in December and is behind the now sturdy undertaking My Physique is My Physique. Typically it is all a bit chaotic, she says, however she would not change it. Singer and voice instructor Ridina Ahmedová just lately celebrated her fiftieth birthday. “I used to assume that I’d be written off as a senior citizen. I succumbed to the ageism that permeates society,” she says.
The brand new Kaleidoscapes album by the group known as Hlaskontrabass Oktet completes three years of labor. The musical undertaking started as a duet between singer Ridina Ahmedová and double bassist Petr Tiché, who’ve been working collectively for over twenty years. Through the years it has grown to an octet. In all compositions, 4 voices mix with 4 basses. A unique creator is answerable for each, however in line with the artist, it’s the distinctive instrumental solid that unites all of them. She herself wrote the very first tune Kuleri be. “Once I hear particular person notes and melodies and shut my eyes, I see coloured strains intertwining earlier than my eyes. This composition could be very colourful,” he describes.
This octet is tough to suit into style containers. And in line with the musician, it is not even needed. “It is lived. I simply both just like the music or I do not,” he says. She recollects with amusement how she and Tichý have been nominated for the Anděl award on the planet music class. “I feel it was primarily attributable to the truth that my title is Ahmedová and I’ve ethnically various roots. In any other case, we do not have a lot in widespread with the style,” she alludes to her Czech-Jewish-Russian-Sudanese origin.
A part of the just-released album was created on the Icelandic residence, and the genius loci of this island state was additionally mirrored within the sound, in line with the singer. “Two songs have been written by Icelanders and two by Norwegians. In these locations, time runs a lot slower, so I understand a part of the report as a type of withdrawal and exhalation,” he says. Nonetheless, after publishing the recording, she does not take a breather. “It is a aid in some methods, however when one thing is completed, I am additionally stressed. It instantly pushes me to do different issues. I would wish to be taught to relaxation and cease extra,” she needs.
Again to the voice
He has greater than sufficient actions. For instance, she works as a voice instructor in her Hlasohled undertaking. She focuses on those that want to get to know their very own voice extra deeply, which in line with her is our most pure instrument. It is simply that we regularly turn out to be ashamed of it in the middle of our lives and are afraid to sing. And so Ahmed helps course individuals to search out their option to him once more. It’s mentioned that shyness usually begins in households or in elementary faculty. She is adopted by folks of their forties, fifties and sixties who wish to sing, however really feel that it doesn’t belong to them.
“In our society, it is as if the usage of a singing voice is conditioned by the truth that it’s a high quality efficiency. We imagine that if we do not sing effectively, we should not do it, as a result of we’d be annoying these round us. That is why lots of people solely sing within the automotive, within the bathe, within the forest or kids. However as quickly as they’re uncovered to somebody listening to them, it’s dangerous for them. They’ve already skilled that somebody has taken them down, humiliated them, or made ugly feedback,” he says.
Working with people who find themselves returning to their voice is fulfilling. “All kids have it, however schooling complicates it. It’s usually highly effective and transferring. I take pleasure in returning to fundamental human experiences, equivalent to singing collectively in a circle. Individuals have carried out it that manner for hundreds of years,” he recollects. A while in the past, she led a workshop on the Museum of Roma Tradition, throughout which they listened to a recording from the Nineteen Fifties. “It was faux. I heard that the singers had their enamel knocked out, in order that they snorted. However, there was nice pleasure within the music. I’m satisfied that everybody can afford to sing,” she believes.
The opening monitor Kuleri Be for the brand new album Hlaskontrabas Okteta was composed by Ridina Ahmedová herself. Picture: Honza Mudra | Video: Animal Music
She herself is aware of effectively that singing is therapeutic and helps to launch and share feelings. However generally, like psychotherapy, it will possibly put us in weak locations. That can be why the singer determined to provoke the creation of an annual coaching course known as Voice between music and remedy. It’s meant for musicians, choirmasters and singing academics who work with others. “Singing is emotional and it will possibly occur that we open up nice feelings with it. Each musician who begins working with others ought to make sure that he is ready to information folks by it safely,” he says.
He already has an thought of the place the connection between voice and remedy may go subsequent. “Sooner or later, I wish to attempt to mix the subject of physique and voice, to create a closed group the place we’d mirror on our physique subjects whereas working with the voice. However I really feel a terrific duty on this, as a result of these are very inside issues, so I’ll do it solely when I’ll make sure that I’m sufficiently professionally geared up for it,” explains Ahmedová.
The suitable to dwell in a physique
Her subsequent massive theme is the physique. Three years in the past, she attracted consideration with the Sádlo podcast, which was broadcast by Radio Wave throughout the pandemic restrictions. It was one of many first Czech initiatives devoted to physique shaming, or insults based mostly on look. In it, Ahmed confirmed how a number of silly feedback in childhood can basically have an effect on one’s complete life. The message was easy – each physique deserves respect.
The lard created such a response that increasingly more folks started to share their tales together with her. That is how the My Physique is Mine undertaking was born, which right now is a big platform organizing exhibitions or workshops for varsity kids. In the mean time, a podcast sequence can be being ready below his banner, for which a marketing campaign is being run on Hithit.
Ahmed herself discovered her option to her personal physique after the tip of a dysfunctional relationship together with her kids’s father, when she “fell to items and put herself again collectively,” she says. “I’ve come to the purpose that I can like my physique. I am not saying it is good or the healthiest on the planet. However it’s alive, useful and brings me lots of pleasure. I’ve the fitting to dwell in it,” she states.
At this time, the singer is aware of that she has the fitting to dwell in her physique, even when it isn’t good. | Picture: Honza Mudra
The truth that we’re not aligned with our personal voice, in line with her, isn’t dissimilar to when we don’t settle for our physique. Each of those come up, amongst different issues, from the merciless feedback of these round us and the unrealistic function fashions we settle for. In response to the singer, for instance, we hear so many studio-edited voices right now that we create misconceptions about how we should always sound. “I am particularly irritated by Instagram movies the place somebody is sitting in a meadow with a guitar. However I hear that the sound is from the studio. Then we really feel that we ought to be singing within the meadow simply as effectively,” he says. “Seems to be do not outline our value. Likewise, the standard of singing does not decide if we have now the fitting to do it,” he provides.
The uneducated one
She herself has been singing since early childhood and has by no means stopped. “Our folks have been good to me, however I feel it should have been annoying once I was singing on a regular basis,” she recollects with a smile. She developed her unmistakable model by jazz improvisation. She was not deterred by the truth that she was by no means accepted to the conservatory, though she utilized many occasions. However, she carries a bit of broken self-confidence from these failures – though in 2016 she was nominated for the Anděl award with Petr Tichý, with whom she shaped the unique duo Hlaskontrabas.
She speaks of Tiché as her “musical husband”, who can assist her when she doubts herself. “He’s satisfied that it is not concerning the faculties in any respect. However the individuals who have all of them can say that,” he thinks. “All however certainly one of us within the band have a better musical schooling than I do. This generally makes me insecure, I doubt if I get in the best way,” she provides.
This insecurity doesn’t diminish even with age, so Ahmed learns to just accept it. “It does not scare me a lot anymore, I take it as a part of me. My interior critic could be very sturdy and there’s at all times work to do with it,” he says. However many different issues get higher with age. “I used to assume that by the point I used to be fifty, I’d already be written off as a senior citizen. I succumbed to the ageism that society is imbued with. Society stigmatizes ladies’s getting old loads, so I imagined it bleakly. However the actuality is totally different. I nonetheless have lots of power, I’ve gained expertise and grounding. I am residing the life I’ve at all times wished. Lots of people inform me I look loads youthful, and I feel it is partly as a result of I take pleasure in singing,” she concludes.
Video: Mašková talks brazenly about bulimia
“What you eat, you vomit. Add to that twelve hours of dancing every week and you may’t deal with it anymore,” singer Tereza Mašková described her battle with bulimia within the Highlight program in March. | Video: The Highlight Crew