Interview with Daniel Bolshoy

By Guest on September 11, 2011 in Canadian Spotlight & Interviews, Guest Posts

This post is by Calgary contributor Murray Visscher
from a series of posts pertaining to Guitarfestwest 2011

INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL BOLSHOY
August 28th, 2011

1. Can you remember where and how you decided to be a performing classical guitarist? Where did you study and what were the early days of your career like?

Daniel Bolshoy (photo via Mount Royal Facebook -click to visit)

My guitar studies started in Israel, during high-school, I had first studied piano for about four years when I was about 7 or 8 years old, but I really hated it… In retrospect I think it was a very bad fit between the teacher and me, but I was a terrible student, I relied only on talent and hated practicing I always tried to get away with playing by ear or figuring things out on the spot… somehow I never managed to fool the teacher… but then I discovered girls, and I thought that if I could play guitar, they would notice me, too… Luckily, I found a classical teacher, quite by chance, and I fell in love with the instrument and the repertoire, suddenly I was spending all my free time in the practice room. This was a bit of a detour from my original plan, since there were no girls there…

By the time my family moved to Ottawa, I was almost at the end of high-school, and I decided to finish the last year in an Arts High-School in Ottawa (Canterbury Arts High School). By this point I was determined to pursue guitar seriously, and I was lucky to have a very good teacher, Garry Elliott, with whom I studied in my last year of high-school and first year of University at Carleton. From there I went on to the University of Toronto, to study with Eli Kassner and Norbert Kraft, and the University of Denver where I spent four years with Ricardo Iznaola, who has become the biggest influence on my development and truly helped organize my thinking about music and technique. Finally I went for a Doctorate at Indiana University, with Ernesto Bitetti, and after completing my studies there I started teaching at Concordia University in Montreal.

As far as the career goes, concerts came along the way, some as the result of competitions and auditions and some flowed from other concerts I’d played before. I think it was quite a natural process, but I did find that my love of playing chamber music (mostly with players of other instruments) gave me opportunities for performances outside the guitar world. As the years went on I started getting more and more concerts outside the traditional venues for the classical guitar, on regular concert series and with symphonies and festivals.

2. In contrast, where do you perform now, and how does your concert career fit in with your teaching and recording activities? Do you feel that balancing the three is tenuous?

These days, I feel really fortunate to have struck a good balance between concerts in the guitar world, like guitar societies and guitar festivals, and concerts in the general music world. This summer, for example, I participated in six music festivals, five of which were not guitar specific, and the Guitarfest West festival in Calgary where I got to play and teach in a guitar festival. It was truly exciting to be a part of a brand new festival, and feel that I could say I witnessed the birth of something new!

During the regular season, I typically play two or three recitals for guitar societies, and the rest of my performances would be with other organizations. Last season I spent quite a bit of time in BC, playing with both the Vancouver Island Symphony in Nanaimo, where we played the Fantasia para un Gentilhombre by Rodrigo, and a week later the Concierto de Aranjuez with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. I also played with the Windsor Symphony earlier in the season (there it was Vivaldi and Rodrigo) and in Israel, where I played the Aranjuez and a chamber music concert featuring various combinations with guitar.

Some of these trips did take me away from my teaching (until now I taught at Concordia University in Montreal) for up to two weeks at a time, but I was also able to take advantage of school vacations, so I am always able to balance my teaching and performing schedule. I believe that it is valuable to bring my performance experience into my teaching, and my students do appreciate that studying with someone who sometimes tours means that some lessons need to be rescheduled. It is very important to me that I teach all the lessons I am scheduled to give, and it works out that I am always able to give extra lessons beyond that, especially when students have competitions or recitals coming up. I try to avoid scheduling my own concerts close to jury and recital times, to make sure I am available for extra lessons.

And then there are the recordings, the way the last few CDs worked out, I used the summer time to either prepare the majority of the music or to do the actual recording. This summer I was involved in preparations for the release of my latest CD-dedicated to the music of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, that meant listening to the recording at many stages of preparation and making sure everything was on track, and writing the liner notes etc… the recording was done earlier in the season, and I am looking forward to releasing the CD in September and celebrating the music on my upcoming concert in Vancouver on October 8th.

3. How long were you in Ottawa, and what made you decide to relocate to Vancouver?

My wife and I spent the last year in Ottawa, for her training, I was happy to live in Ottawa again, where my family first lived when we came to Canada, and where my mother still lives. It’s a very nice city, and a good guitar town!

The move to Vancouver is a very exciting one, because both my wife and I are embarking on new work adventures in this town, since we both got offers to work here. I have joined the faculty of the VSO school of Music, which is an exciting new opportunity, the school is just about to open its doors for the first time. I am very much looking forward to doing a lot more teaching, and have in fact made sure that my schedule allows me to spend more time teaching in Vancouver. I am looking forward to teaching lessons to everyone, at all levels, beginners to advanced and amateur hobbyists as well as career-track students pursuing a performance and teaching career on the guitar.

4. Can you talk about the new VSO school, and what makes it unique from existing music schools in Vancouver?

I think that one amazing thing about the school is that the whole project of creating the school, from the building to the very last detail, is dedicated to music making and teaching music. It is a very unique situation, in that the symphony was able to get a brand new building built downtown, right next to the Orpheum on Seymour street, with an amazing recital hall, state-of-the-art facilities for teaching and even recording studios and practice rooms. I believe that there is no better motivation for students than seeing their peers play at a high level, and the VSO School is all about creating such opportunities. The school is committed to building a community of music lovers, with group and private lessons, a great chamber music program and classes in music appreciation, music history and music theory. In many way the new school does everything you would expect from a conservatory, but it is not only geared for students on a music career path, it is also for amateur adult player and hobbyists of all ages.

I am looking forward to playing a recital for the Vancouver Classic Guitar Society on the stage of the new concert hall (on October 8th at 2 p.m.), and sharing the new facility with guitar lovers in Vancouver. This will be the CD release concert for my “Soñando Caminos: Music of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza” CD on the ATMA label.

And hopefully the collaboration between the VSO school and the VCGS will continue long into the future. This concert is a fundraiser for the VCGS, all proceeds from the tickets will go towards the society so that more guitar concerts can happen in Vancouver.

5. Why does a school supported by the VSO have a department for guitar, a non-symphonic instrument? Are you concerned about fitting in, and does that have an effect on your plans for the department?

The VSO School does have teachers for all the orchestral instruments, but it also has a piano department, a voice department, and teachers for a great variety of world music instruments as well, from the Sitar to the Japanese Koto, to the Irish tin whistle, and in this environment, having a guitar department is a natural fit.

I am very excited that guitar students will have the opportunity to participate in concerts that feature other instruments too, and take part in the chamber music program. In fact, it is possible to participate in the Chamber music program, and get coaching for a chamber group without being registered for lessons at the VSO School of Music.

6. How do you see yourself and the new school amalgamating into Vancouver’s classical guitar community?

I think that the VSO School will fit in very naturally into the guitar scene, first of all, as a place where guitar enthusiasts can come to get lessons. Then of course, it will be a great place to come and hear guitar concerts, and concerts featuring the guitar. We will have guitar students’ concerts, and faculty concerts, but also visiting guest artists will be giving classes and concerts. I am hoping that my upcoming recital will start a collaboration between the classical guitar society and the VSO school of music.

7. When I visit eastern Canada, I feel immersed in a rich classical guitar culture. Do you think you will miss that out here in Canada’s west?

One definitely feels the rich tradition of guitar in places like Montreal and Toronto, as well as in Ottawa, Quebec City and the Maritimes. I’ve lived in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto and I know those guitar scenes well, it is great to be around all that. I definitely felt this inspiration as a student of Eli Kassner, when you enter his house and see all the pictures of the famous guitarists that visited, it is always inspiring.

However, rather than missing it, I think it is up to us in western Canada to create our own thing here. It is very nice to have an idea of what can be done, but it’s even more exciting to start something new and create a tradition that we can later look back on with pride.

I consider myself a westerner too, having spent four years in Denver, and witnessing the excitement around a new guitar scene. In Colorado, it was very much thanks to the personality and great work of Ricardo Iznaola, and to the collaborative attitude that you find in the west. I think there really is a strong west coast guitar presence in the US, and we can be inspired by that as well as by the Canadian east, so we have lots of good things all around, and lots of good things already happening here too- I am very excited about the great things I see starting in Vancouver, and by the successes I see in Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton.

I had the privilege of being involved with the guitar societies in Calgary and Edmonton for several years now, and it is truly energizing to know that new things can be done. A few years ago, we started a guitar seminar with Jose Fermin and the Guitar society in Calgary, it was a grass-roots effort. I came to town to teach because the students in Calgary had enough interest in getting several lessons each. So Jose arranged this impromptu guitar seminar, with the support of the guitar society, and I returned to Calgary three times to teach a group of highly motivated students of all levels, various ages and a mix of amateurs and university students. And now there is GuitarFest West, which has similarly sprung up as a collaboration between Mount Royal University and the Calgary guitar society. It is great to witness and participate in these kinds of projects, and I look forward to bringing this activity to Vancouver, and creating new things too!

8. I’ve had the pleasure of observing several of your masterclasses, watching you work with students aspiring to be performers and/or academics. Is this the level of student you are expecting to attract at the new school, or are you considering prep and hobby students as well? If so, how do you feel the challenges will differ between career-track and non-career-track students?

Just like I feel it is important to combine teaching and performing, I think it is extremely enriching to teach both amateur and aspiring professional performers. Of course it is easy to see the rewards of teaching someone who is willing to practice many hours a day, and is making quick progress, as in the case of the aspiring performers preparing for competitions and University juries and recitals.

But there is something about teaching amateurs which is very valuable; the fact that the root word for amateur is ‘amor’, or love for what they are doing is the secret ingredient. Being motivated by a love for the music and the instrument is very rewarding for the teacher too, it allows me to try to connect with the most wonderful aspects of music, without the stress of an upcoming exam or competition, and with a greater emphasis on music as opposed to technique.

I love working with young children, too. Because with kids, there is no limit to what you can teach, as long as you respect the basic rule that ‘play’ is key, as long as it’s fun, it works. My own learning is all based on playing games with the music and the instrument, and so I naturally enjoy teaching young students.

9. For your concert at Guitarfestwest in Calgary, you dedicated the first half of the program to one composer, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. What inspired this particular focus, where has it led you, and are you considering similar projects of this nature in the future?

Eduardo Sainz de la Maza is a composer that has been close to me since my days in Denver, studying with Iznaola, who in turn was a student of Regino Sainz de la Maza, Eduardo’s older brother. As guitarists, we are aware of the names Regino and Eduardo Sainz de la Maza, but their music is not nearly as familiar as people like Tarrega or Llobet, who came just before them. I chose to focus on Eduardo for this recording because his music is unique in the Spanish tradition: while he is immersed in Spanish culture, his music avoids all the typical Spanish clichés and draws a lot of inspiration from French impressionism and early Jazz.

These influences mean that the music is so rich harmonically and there is so much you can do with colour, tone and articulation. It is quite a demanding repertoire, but it is much less flashy than a lot of other Spanish music. Having spent so much time learning Eduardo’s music and basically working on everything by him that I could find, gave me a chance to develop a personal view of the composer and guitarist that he was, and I really loved the image that emerged. I imagine a very understated, tender person with his own interpretation of the Spanish legacy, with strong connections to literature and visual arts, and a deep understanding of the instrument and its potential.

At the same time, it can be a real challenge to create a lot of variety in the music of just one composer, luckily I feel that this music is of high enough quality to sustain the interest, and I have found that people love hearing a lot of it. I have limited myself to one half of a concert usually, but have also played an entire concert of Sainz de la Maza, and I believe it works!
I really hope people come to the concert on October 8th to judge for themselves, and you can get a CD to listen to later in your favourite way- all at once or piece by piece.

10. Now that you’re an official westerner, and assuming you can find some spare time, what non-musical activities are you looking forward to enjoying that may not have been available to you in the east?

I love this part of the country, I have already been enjoying Stanley Park and the bicycle paths all over and around Vancouver, and of course the mountains, ocean and the Okanagan with the great wines and lakes! I can’t wait for winter when the ski season starts, I’ve missed living close to the mountains since my Denver days… in the meantime Vancouver has some amazing restaurants, and I’m enjoying discovering them all…

Links:

Daniel Bolshoy
Murray Visscher
VSO School
Guitarfestwest 2011

You can see their recordings at Canadian Classical Guitar Recordings

Guitarfestwest 2011 posts: