you Hi there and welcome to Notes from the Stage,
a show from the musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic.
We're the people playing our hearts out every
week of the orchestra season. I'm Adam Zinatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Philharmonic,
but today I'm your host and I'm here with cellist
Kathleen DeConn. Hi Kathleen! Hi Adam! Thanks
for coming on the show! Thanks for having me.
Well today, as we sit and record about a week
before release, we've got our first big dump
of snow here in Calgary. How's that for you?
Well, the drive here was a little interesting.
You know, lots of people without winter tires,
lots of sliding, lots of ice, but. Were conveniently
scheduled, uh, like right during rush hour, basically.
Exactly. Yes. But you know, it also makes me
excited for winter. I love to ski. I love to
be outside. I like the brightness and my dog
loves the snow. So I can't complain either. Wonderful.
Wonderful. Yeah. I know that you and Antoine
are big, uh, outdoorsy people. Uh, and your dog
is how old now? Two years old? Yeah, Patat is
two and a half now. Oh, wonderful. Has he taken
to your outdoor activities? You know what, that
a lot of people ask that because we do spend
a lot of time outside and we often bring him
with us on our camping trips and biking trips
and stuff like that. However, he he's a labrador,
yellow lab, and he is fine after his first walk
of the day. He really likes to curl up and nap
and sleep. And so we just kind of let him do
his thing. Sometimes we'll bring him on little
hikes, but we we did bring him on a hike when
we had him. After one year or so, he was about
a year old and we took him to Pickle Jar Lakes
in Kananaskis. And once we finished the hike,
he got in the car and was comatose for kind of
the next two days. So after that. Oh, two days.
Oh no. Yeah, poor guy. He was exhausted. So,
uh, we, we don't bring him on all those adventures.
Sure. I guess you have to know sort of what size
of, uh, undertaking it is to calibrate to him.
Exactly. And, and he enjoys napping. So I don't
want to take that away from him. Yeah. It's one
of life's great joys. So we kind of got off book
right at the beginning there, which is great.
But you know, talking about the dog is of course
a high priority here. But you Kathleen, you've
got Alberta roots. That's right, Adam. I, you
know, unfortunately for our hardcore Calgary
fan listeners, I am not from Calgary. I grew
up in Edmonton, but I do have a Calgary connection.
My parents both grew up in Calgary, and they
actually met in the Calgary Youth Orchestra.
Oh, wow. Yes, a really cute little story. My
dad is a violist. My mom was a trumpet player.
OK, I didn't know that. Yes. Yeah, you guys should
meet sometime. Like already. And yeah, so they
grew up in Calgary, met in the Youth Orchestra
and then. moved away and came back to Alberta
via Edmonton. So great place to grow up, a really
nice music community, really great scene there.
I grew up surrounded by music at home. My sisters
all played instruments and it became a big part
of my life. right away with cello lessons from
the age of five. And I also did band, I did French
horn for years. I didn't know that either. Yes,
I used to play French horn quite a bit. I have
a recurring nightmare, perhaps, that I am asked
to jump into the French horn section last minute.
That happens kind of a couple times a year. Okay.
Wow. Unfortunately, I don't think the horn section
would actually want me to come play Max Stein,
the third horn player. He has heard me play horn
and he, you know, gracefully declined my subbing
offers. That's right. That's too bad. So are
your parents professional musicians? That's a
good question. They are not, but they are both.
very high level amateurs. Both have continued
music into their adult lives alongside their
careers as well. My dad is a doctor and my mom
trained as a physio and they both still play
music quite a bit. They have their weekly groups.
My dad plays in a Borealis Orchestra in Edmonton,
which is a community orchestra. I just heard
their concert last week. It was very good. Wonderful.
And my mom plays in Mill Creek Colliery Band,
a British brass band in Edmonton. Oh, wow. Wonderful.
That's great. Yeah. Fun. Yeah. You know, those
amateur groups are such an important backbone
of a city's music scene. You know, so many people
love playing their instruments and love performing,
but they are professionals. And that's totally
fine. Those community ensembles give so many
people a chance. to appreciate music, to love
playing music, and to just have fun doing something
that's, you know, a nice challenge. And actually,
some of my first experiences doing a lot of chamber
music repertoire was actually with my dad and
a lot of his friends. So he has this whole community
of string players that are none of them are professional,
but they're all pretty high level amateurs who
have been playing chamber music together for
years. They get together, have parties and kind
of once I started to be a little bit more proficient
in cello, I started to join them. So I'd be playing
Brahms, sextets and quintets and just a lot of
repertoire that you. Nowadays, I realize it's
kind of special. You don't always get to play
that bigger chamber music route. So some of my
first summer camps were going out to Vancouver
Island with my dad and his friends and playing
in these chamber music groups at a camp out there
for amateurs. And, uh, really lots of good memories
from that. And then a lot of these people, you
know, they'll, they'll come to our concerts once
we become professionals. I still see them and
it's nice to have that, uh, that community. That's
so wonderful. You know the community is such
a big part of music at all levels I think you
know I was talking about all those great things
that happen from people playing in community
bands But the friendships the relationships that
you build through that are incredible. I know
that probably everyone in the orchestra has friends
that we've known for a long time from youth orchestra
or from a music camp or things like that. Those
bonds really, really run deep. That's, that's
really well put. And I know for, for me specifically,
everyone comes to their, uh, their position in
the orchestra in a different way and they have
a different musical journey. And I think a lot
of the reason that I'm a professional musician
today is because of some of those experiences
I had as a teenager and younger student where
I was playing music, making friends, building
community. And it was one of the more like really
positive places in my life. I felt like I really
belonged. I loved the music making. I loved meeting
people from all over. I started playing cello
in the Suzuki program. So for those people who
haven't heard heard of this before, this was
a kind of a pedagogy, a way of teaching that
originated in Japan by this violinist Suzuki,
and it's based on learning stuff by ear. So you
listen quite a bit. You play stuff from memory.
That's how you learn music. And another component
of that in the program I was doing in Edmonton
is we would play in ensembles. So we'd play in
little string quartets, string orchestra. We'd
have group classes every week. And then as I
got a bit older, I started to do the Suzuki camps
in the summer. So Edmonton had quite a big Suzuki
camp and I got to study with teachers from all
over from France, from the States, from Canada,
some really, really great pedagogues, an experience
which I think really, really shaped my kind of
growth in cello playing was an exchange that
was done between the Edmonton Suzuki program
and the Montreal Suzuki program. So we got put
together in string quartets with people from,
there was kind of two people from each province
and some of those Musicians are people who I
then like encountered in university or National
Youth Orchestra, and it was just so fun to be
able to travel and meet people from everywhere.
It was experiences like that that really made
me want to keep on going with music because I
had friends there and it just felt good all around.
Absolutely, absolutely. And you know what you've...
Really sort of taken that to another level here
in Calgary, Kathleen. Yes, Adam. Because, Kathleen,
you are part of one of the handful of married
couples on stage at the CPO. That's true. I'm
married to Antoine Saint -Homge, who's the principal
bassoonist of the Calgary Phil. Luckily, my parents
put me in French immersion, too, because being
bilingual, I can talk to my in -laws, which is
great. Oh, yeah, yeah, that goes a long way,
I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, Antoine and I actually
met in the orchestra. We both studied in Montreal
around the same time, and we found out later
on that we actually lived a block away from each
other. Never know who you're going to meet or
not meet, but there was a group of about 10 of
us who started in the orchestra six years ago,
back in 2018. Yeah, the rest is kind of history.
It's great being married to someone in the orchestra.
Yeah, I mean, that's got to have... a certain
sense of solidarity within the household, right?
You know, you're up against the same challenges.
You know, you have the same schedule. You know,
you can, you probably spend a lot more time together
than a lot of married couples do with one person
in the orchestra, one person not in the orchestra,
as is the case in my marriage. What's something
that you didn't expect about that experience
of sharing a workplace, sharing a schedule with
your spouse? Well, the first thing that comes
to mind when I think about the positive things,
because, you know, there can be negative things
about doing absolutely everything together. But
something that is really positive is kind of
what you're alluding to before having the free
time together is really, really special. And
I didn't think I really thought much about that
beforehand, how unique that really is. So. I
started downhill skiing during the pandemic.
I was kind of late to that sport, and that's
a sport Antoine has done. He's a snowboarder
for years. We can go to the ski hill on a Monday
when there's no crowds. That's really nice. We
can take our trips together at the same time
when we have kind of weird weekends here and
there. When I, when I see my friends who are
in, you know, wonderful relationships as well,
but their partner works Monday to Friday, nine
to five, it's, uh, it can be really tough when
you don't get to spend that time together. So
we have the, the opposite end of that, where
we spend all our time together and, uh, going
to work and activities and it's. Well, I think
maybe you can say that you have the luxury of
being able to choose what time away from work
you spend together. Yeah, definitely. But it
is really nice being able to work together as
well. We can debrief about the week, what we
thought of the conductor, how did the rehearsals
go, what was the vibe at the concert, and it's
nice to be able to relate to each other in that
way. It seems very high school. but like each
section of the orchestra can tend to be in a
little bit of its own bubble a lot of the time.
So I think that like it's really nice to have
like, you know, there's a built -in bridge between
the woodwind section and the string section right
there in your relationship. And I think that
it's often easy to sort of stay in your little
corner of it. And I think that when we communicate
better across the orchestra and reach out to
one another more, I think that we Well, of course,
we build better relationships and we can enjoy
each other's company more. But also, I think
we play better because I think we're more intuitively
responsive to people when we when we know them
a bit better. Yeah, I totally agree. I think
the the more that I've gotten to know different
people in the orchestra, the more that I maybe
listen in a different way. And I'm thinking,
oh, is that is that Jim playing that trombone
solo or Chris and I'm I'm tuning in to listen
to different people and you get to know they're
playing and you know more about them. And it's
really a cool part of the orchestra that we're
all this big family. And you're right, having
this built -in connection between the cello section
and now I'm married to one of the wind players
and that much more maybe connected than I was
in my first couple years and listening to it
in a different way. So in addition to your on
-stage duties, Kathleen, you recently started...
taking on some offstage duties. That's right.
I have joined the rank of pre -concert chat host.
I feel very lucky. I am joining the bassoonist
Mike Hope, bassist Matt Heller, and also longtime
supporter of the orchestra, Jeremy Clark, in
doing the pre -concert chats. And it's really
cool. So some people who maybe arrive... closer
to concerts might not know that before a lot
of our classical concerts there is a pre -concert
chat so at around 6 30 the pre -concert chat
host will come out and they will interview some
key people who are part of the concert that evening
so the a concert that we did recently, we actually
even had the composer. So the soloist was interviewed,
the conductor, and the composer. And it's a nice
way of being able to get a little bit more of
an insight into the concert beyond just what's
written in the prelude and what you experience
on stage. That's great. Yeah, it's a perfect
primer for what you're going to sit in the hall
and experience, right? And I think that classical
music is one of those things where you know,
you can go in cold and really enjoy it. But the
more you know about what you're going to hear,
the more you're able to get out of it. Right.
I think classical music is one of those things
where like your enjoyment of it really snowballs
quickly when you when you start getting into
it. Right. So these pre -concert chats are such
a great way to like put that bug in your ear
right before the concert about what you're going
to hear and give you some context. It's like
a very inviting, very friendly, spontaneous program
note right before the concert. Yeah. And also,
some people will connect a little bit more to
a concert as well, not only having more information
about the background or the player, but getting
to know that having the human aspect as well,
because there's this natural divide between the
audience, they're in the hall, and then the musicians,
performers are on stage. it can be cool to know,
oh, is this this person's first time in Calgary?
What has the week been like? Maybe there's some
interesting stories that people will think about
as the concert's happening. And it just kind
of adds to adds to the experience, I think. Yeah,
absolutely. So have there been any surprises
for you so far in in taking on this new role?
Well, I definitely maybe didn't anticipate the
amount of prep I wanted to do just to make sure
I really could get a sense of the person ahead
of time but it's all been really interesting
which I like the my very first pre -concert chat
was a little bit unique in that the conductor.
was the soloist. So that isn't something you
see all the time. So that was kind of unique
to be able to get into some of the details of
how that started for him. This was a concert
with Geoffrey Cahane, who was playing the Ravel
piano concerto and also conducting from the piano,
which is pretty unique. It was just really nice
to get to have a laid back conversation with
him ahead of time and get to know the, you know,
more human side of him as well beyond just the
rehearsal setting. Yeah, that's great. That's
great. And yeah, I mean, it changes how you see
the concert, too. Not just not just the people
listening to the chat, but you're someone involved
on stage with the real making of the sound. So
that context will sort of affect how you perform
as well. That's really nice. Yeah. And I think
it's a, there's definitely a following, a group
of lots of people that come early to see these
chats and just learn and be excited about the
program. And I would definitely encourage people
to check it out. It's listed on the website,
which concerts will have the pre -concert chat
and being able to experience that before one
of the concerts, I think is really, it's just
really kind of interesting. You get the inside
scoop on everything. And what's the very next
concert that you're hosting a chat for? The next
one that I'm hosting is on Valentine's Day. It's
the Tchaikovsky in Love program, and we have
a violin soloist for that one, Julian Rhee, and
it's being connected by Runa Bergman. For that
one, like I just, for example, looked at, started
following the violinist on social media this
morning, and it looks like him and Runa performed
together this summer. So obviously there's more
connections to be unraveled and talked about.
Yeah, that's great. So we've been talking about
the relationships that we have with our colleagues
professional personal But you also have a very
personal relationship with your instrument. Tell
us about your cello So the the cello that I play
on now it took me a while to actually go into
the process of looking for a good high -level
cello because I Loved the cello that I was playing
on so much before my teacher for my undergrad,
Tanya Prochocka in Edmonton at the University
of Alberta. She was not only an incredible teacher,
but she was incredibly generous and supportive
of her students. And she loaned me one of her
cellos, a German cello for the second half of
my undergrad and also into my master's as I started
at McGill. However, she said, don't get too attached
to this. You have to find your own instrument.
Did you get too attached to it? I did get too
attached to it. I couldn't imagine trying to
find another one. But my last year of my masters,
I started to put out feelers. I was talking to
professors at the school who could maybe give
me an idea of where to start, what to look for.
And there was a teacher, Liz Dolan, who was a
cello professor. at McGill University, and she
had a luthier that she would always go to in
New Jersey, Alejandro Bassiller. She said, oh,
you should go check him out, but driving eight
hours from Montreal felt like a bit of a chore.
But serendipitously, I ran into her on the street,
March of my final year, and she said, I was just
thinking about you, Kathleen. I was down in New
Jersey, and Alejandro had a cello, which is incredible.
you have to get on a plane like tomorrow and
go, go try it. Yeah. Get it, try it before someone
else does. So two, two days later I was in New
Jersey with a return ticket back for me and a
cello, hoping that it would go well. I spent
about three hours in a studio playing it and
just fell in love. It's a, it's a Belgian cello
by Louis Dauphin from the 1920s and this luthier,
he refurbished it and made it sound incredible.
And that's that's the story of my cello. It came
back and haven't looked back since. That's wonderful.
My cello did not enjoy the move to Alberta, though.
Oh, yeah. It's not not a great place for string
instruments here. I see my colleagues talking
about. humidity and cases against the cold and
all sorts of things. Some of our colleagues find
that the perfect humidifying device for a viola
is a piece of romaine lettuce. Yes, Marchion.
It's great. I haven't tried it on the cello,
but... Yeah, I don't think it would work the
same on the cello. Maybe not. But something worth
trying, perhaps. Within six months of moving
back to Alberta after my masters, I opened up
my cello case one cold January day and there
was a massive crack down the front of my cello.
And I think a lot of people have stories like
that because the instruments, if they're coming
from other places, these wood instruments, they're
not used to this big crack. change in lack of
humidity, and it takes a while to adjust. But
I think my cello's kind of finally gotten there,
luckily, so no big cracks recently. Oh, that's
good. That's good. Yeah. I mean, the Chinooks
in the winter give people headaches. They also
give these string instruments headaches with
these large swings in temperature quickly as
well. Yeah, totally. So it feels like the beginning
of winter here now. Is there anything coming
up soon, maybe before the new year that you're
really looking forward to at the CPO? Well, I'm
really looking forward to there's a couple concerts
which I've been looking forward to Since our
season got announced last spring and I am really
looking forward to playing with James Ennis.
Oh, he's amazing He's incredible just in a whole
class of his own and he's also just a very nice
person too I've met him a couple times briefly
and listened to him on the radio and he's just
a classy classy guy So really excited to hear
him perform. And then of course, as all cellists
are, I'm excited to play with Yo -Yo Ma in May.
I've actually never worked with him, but I've
only heard positive things about orchestra's
experiences playing with him. He'll often come
into the cello section for the second half too.
Not positive that will happen or not, but that
would be super exciting if all of a sudden I'm
Stan partners with Yo -Yo Ma for the second half.
Yeah, no, he has an amazing way of elevating
everyone around him. You know, everyone just
wants to really bring their very best. And it's
a magical vibe when he's around at the orchestra,
that's for sure. Yeah, so I'm really looking
forward to that one. There's another concert
in March, which I'm really looking forward to,
which I have a bit of a personal connection to.
We're performing with the vocal group Rhyaton
and they're doing a concert where we're playing
the music of ABBA. So before coming to Calgary,
I played in Symphony Nova Scotia as principal
cello for a year. And this was so exciting. It
was my first job. So my family came out a couple
of times to hear the orchestra perform. And one
of the visits out, my mom brought her dad, my
grandfather, who still lives in Calgary actually.
And it was a weekend where we were doing a classical
concert and also a Pops concert. And my grandfather
initially wasn't super excited about the idea
of the Pops show, but he said, okay, sure, I'll
go. And he was dancing in the aisles to ABBA.
He went and bought a CD. He got it signed. It
was just the highlight of the trip for him. So,
um, I've got tickets for him and, uh, he's going
to be 90, 91. And, uh, and I'm really excited
for him to hear the show again in Calgary and
for us to perform the show and him to get to
be in the audience. Fantastic, fantastic. Yeah,
they've been here before. They put on a great
show. They sound wonderful. Yeah, they're a really
special group and they just do such a variety
of stuff. Everything from just a cappella to
playing with orchestra. So it will be quite the
show. Wonderful. So Kathleen, we've been talking
a lot about the relationships on stage within
the orchestra. You've been here for six years
now, you say? Yeah, six years. Yeah. So within
those six years, you've had a lot of time to
listen to a lot of playing from everyone on stage.
Who's someone on stage who's playing you really
admire? It's really hard to narrow it down to
just one. I really love the playing in our woodwind
section. overall, but I really love hearing each
week the playing of Sarah Honsonoko. She always
surprises me. Also, the way the cellos are positioned,
I'm often right in front of the flutes. And there's
just such lyricism and originality and musicality
in her playing. And I'm always excited to see
what she comes up with next. Yeah, no, Sarah's
a wonderful player and she's very consistently.
I find her playing consistently revelatory. You
know, sometimes someone will play Phrase, you
know where something is like, oh, that's an interesting
way of playing that phrase I've never thought
of that or like oh they executed that in a really
wonderful beautiful way whenever Sarah plays
something It's like, oh, of course, it goes like
that. It just seems like duh. Of course. That's
how you want to play it Totally sounds so natural
and and so obvious There's such ease and then
it's it's also different than how you've heard
it before Well, thank you so much Kathleen. This
was really wonderful to chat with you. Thanks
Adam. It's been fun Notes from this stage is
an independent production of the Calgary Philharmonic
Players Association. The opinions expressed here
are our own and do not reflect those of the Calgary
Philharmonic Orchestra. Our thanks to Nathan
Chandler for his technical expertise. The music
you heard on this episode was the Hungarian Rhapsody
by David Popper performed by Kathleen De Kahn
and Janet Scott Hoyt. On our next episode in
two weeks, I'll be talking with Assistant Principal
Trombone Chris Leslie. Talk to you soon!