Tour : CBC, CMC & more !
Dear Readers,
Last week’s CBC-Radio concert in the Virtuosi Concert Series, University of Winnipeg, was a treat. I enjoyed performing again in the series and Paul and Elizabeth played beautifully as always. We were warmly welcomed by an enthusiastic public and by the committee members, especially by the director, Harry Strub and his wife, Cathy, who invited us with such generosity. The CBC crew was very efficient and it was quite wonderful to play a CBC concert again considering the major budget cut of the past years… I remember most concerts being radio broadcast at the time I started to perform in Canada. It used to be a great way for the public to discover and follow musicians nationwide, throughout the years and encourage culture as well. But this is unfortunately another topic…
Stay tuned on June the 30th 2013, on CBC-Radio !
There was a snow storm during the night following my concert in Winnipeg and I’m now traveling to Rimouski, Quebec, where snow is welcoming us tomorrow again ! Where is Spring 🙂 ?
I’m joining the jury of the Canadian Music Competition for the second time. The first time took place on a two months national tour. I got invited to join the jury for the national tour again this year but my other artistic activities and responsibilities didn’t allow me to do so. Therefore, I’ll be touring the Province of Quebec this time !
The competition is celebrating its 55th edition which started officially on April the 1st, in Montreal. We spent an intensive week. My colleagues are all wonderful, very helpful and they are doing everything in order to support young talents in their musical development. We heard some very good candidates in Montreal. The general level is excellent and I’m always thrilled to see young people already devoting an important part of their activities to Arts, Music and Culture.
As a member of jury, our responsibility is challenging. A typical day would start around 9am and finish…12 hours later ! We are asked to write all the detailed comments on each work while listening to the candidates. They all keep the jury’s written comments. We need to be coherent, which isn’t always easy while listening, analyzing and following bar numbers in the scores !! We are commenting on artistic and technical elements, always in a constructive manner as the mission of the competition is to support young musicians. The CMC offers also the rare opportunity for the candidates to meet with the jury after their performance to discuss the comments and ask questions. I enjoy this part a lot as it is very pedagogical (and human !). Such an experience brings a lot into my teaching activity and even into my own playing !
We need our maximum concentration, adding to it frequent traveling hours. We all try to be very careful with sleeping hours and healthy diet. One can easily lose control of a healthy natural rhythm due to irregular schedules and heavy fatigue !
In all this, I’m trying to fit in some violin practice hours as I’ll be performing concerts soon…and my students who will be presenting their exams, masters and doctorate recitals in a few weeks ! Days are too short !!
Next stop : Rimouski Conservatory of Music ! Can’t believe I used to travel 14 hours from Montreal every week at the time I was teaching there…!
Looking forward to Quebec City !
Until next time, be well and continue to encourage classical music ! We all need your support !!
Laurence from the road.
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