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 Zanatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Philharmonic,
but today I'm your host, and I'm here with Jeremy
Bauman, violist in the CPO. Hi Jeremy! Hello,
it's good to be here. Wonderful, how are you
doing? I'm doing pretty well, yeah. Did you have
a nice little holiday? Yeah, it was good. I went
to Phoenix to climb for a couple days and outside
of that I was around town and just having a nice
time, yeah, in the city. Wonderful, so climbing,
hey? Yeah, rock climbing. Alright, tell us a
bit about that. That's one of your passions outside
of music, huh? It is. I have to be careful because
my... fingers are, you know, related to my job,
but I think it's good to have something to...
I've been able to avoid injuries with music,
and I think it's largely due to a pretty consistent
exercise routine or... I love running. I love
climbing. I love skiing. All things outdoors.
Climbing, right? Talk about overtraining your
hands and arms and fingers. The loads that you're
dealing with there are so far beyond whatever
you're facing on a stringed instrument. But climbing
is a lot of pulling, and playing a stringed instrument
is a lot of pressing, so they kind of work in
combination. Oh, that's really interesting. Yeah,
I love it. There's so many different styles of
climbing, and I've experimented with a lot of
of different styles and there's certain ones
that jump out to me over others. I'm curious
about that. I've never done any climbing. I don't
know anything about this. So it's a total lay
person. You don't have to give us the whole catalog,
but what are the styles that you love and why?
I love sport climbing. It's very like methodical.
It's taught me a lot about practicing, about
sequencing, about like playing a string instrument.
You have to like think about certain things in
order. with your bow arm like doing certain things
at certain times and I've never been very good
at that and in music I've always kind of gravitated
toward the creative side rather than methodical
side and sport climbing has taught me to slow
my brain down and Think about things one thing
at a time. Well, that's really interesting. Yeah
Yeah, I mean especially when you're thinking
creatively and as a musician you're often thinking
about these big ideas and these large shapes,
these big arcs of expression. Yes. But to actually
say, no, what am I doing right now? Yeah. Is
something that it's hard to do because as a musician,
we have to do both at the same time. Yeah. Well,
you do. But it's it's really like one part of
your brain firing and then another part of your
brain firing. And there's it's not really at
the same time. Like it's it's these micro things
happening. Yeah, I make it look like it's the
same time Yeah, I often think that the mark of
me being ready to perform something something
involved is Having a really clear flexible plan
of where my attention is gonna be at any given
moment Yeah, yeah, it sounds like that sounds
like you're better at that then I I yeah, it's
I I find that I'm just naturally more creative
and what's the word like disorganized but but
spontaneous. Intuitive. Intuitive. Yes. What
is that? Right brained. Chris was talking about
this in a previous episode. Yeah, I can never
remember. I think it's right brained and left
brained is the more organized. Yeah. Yeah. So
sport climbing. I really enjoy it. And there's
really amazing places in the Bow Valley to go
do it. There's a lot of great limestone rock
to climb. And there's a lot of people out there
that are developing. Areas that you know, they
put bolts in the rock and then you clip them
in your safe. So that's good. Yeah, that's good.
That's fun So I know that there are a lot of
other musicians in the CPO who are also into
this. Yeah, that's right Let's say there's someone
new coming to the orchestra who's interested
in Climbing and maybe has done a little bit and
is interested in doing more and exploring the
area here What's the first place you recommend
to them to go? Well, so they're a new climber
like they've never been outside. Well, let's
say they've done a bit of indoor climbing What's
the first place? What's the introduction to outdoor
climbing in the Calgary area? The really accessible
place that you'll often see new climbers go to
is Grassy Lakes in Canmore. And there's actually
kind of like something for all grades. Like there's
really hard climbing and there's like you've
never been on rock before climbing. Cool. And
so that's a great spot. People also love going
to Heart Creek. And there's also lots of levels
there too. There's a nice spot called the Upper
Amphitheater that if you hike further down the
creek, you kind of scramble up the right side
and there's like this beautiful cliff that doesn't
get much sun and it's really sharp rock so erodes
your skin. Yeah, it's a challenge. But it's fantastic
routes up there and those are the two spots that
new climbers would gravitate towards. Cool. Do
you have any CPO climbing buddies you want to
shout out? Yeah, I love climbing with Danny Posetta
and Marcin Svoboda and Peter Blake I've climbed
with as well quite a bit. But I do a lot of climbing
with Danny and Marcin. So is it always just the
low strings that are that are into this? Yeah,
that's a good question. I don't know. There's
been some other people who I've like gone to
the gym with, but actually come to think of it,
they're they're low string players, too. I'm
not sure what it is. Interesting. Yeah, that's
a deep dive that someone else will have to do.
I have no answers for that. Yeah, there's a there's
a doctoral dissertation waiting to happen for
someone. Yeah, I think there must be something.
I wonder if you could boil down people's hobbies
to their instrument. Like there's certainly personality
types that gravitate towards certain instruments.
Yeah, but I always wonder about this, right?
Because we have these stereotypes of. different
instruments and what sort of personalities go
with them. But I always wonder, is it that certain
types of people are drawn to certain instruments?
Or is it that the instrument that you spend so
much time with shapes you as a person? Well,
I suppose it depends when you start playing.
People typically start quite young with string
instruments and piano. I think they start much
later with brass and maybe a little bit earlier
with winds. Yeah, it's a good question. I don't
know. I think the nature versus nurture. You're
that's kind of the argument you're you're looking
at right now. But boy, we are just full of ideas
for doctoral dissertations. Yeah. Some waiting
to happen. Yeah, that's right. That's right.
So you climb a lot with your colleagues in the
viola section, many of them. Tell us a little
bit about your relationship to the viola. How
did you start playing? Well, I started on violin
when I was 10. And I didn't switch to viola until
university and halfway through university. The
original idea was because I had quit violin for
a couple years and wasn't playing music. And
my youth orchestra teacher was like, if you want
to get a job in music, you might have an easier
time as a violist. And so that's when I started
playing both. He turned out to be correct, but
For a while I was playing both and it was a struggle.
I always felt like it was easier to go from violin
to viola than vice versa and there's something
about the instrument that kind of drew me to
it. I like that a lot of composers have written
for it in their late part of life like Mozart
and Brahms and there's symphonies like there's
solos in the Mahler symphonies that Mahler wrote
for viola. Yeah, like immediately the beginning
of the 10th symphony jumps to that beautiful
section viola thing. And the 7th has some really
great individual solos. I think the 6th too,
the 9th. So it's an instrument that is more contemplative
because it's not as virtuosic and it's got a
deeper sound. It just kind of lends itself to
that sort of slower, like more inquisitive style
of writing, which I think people have later in
life. That's really interesting. Yeah, it's not
an observation I've made. It's something that
I've heard from other people, but it's certainly
true. So the mistakes of a composer's youth are
all out of the way before they sit down to really
write for the viola. And they have something
real from their heart to share, I think, that
Brahms wrote the two clarinet solos, which are
transcribed for viola. And there's a lot in there.
There's some really great works for viola. Yeah,
that's wonderful. So deep dark secret here. I
briefly played the viola. I think I knew that.
Not even super briefly, but I was it wasn't a
good fit for me. But like, I remember sometime
in there, I think I heard a performance of the
Britain Lacrimé. Oh yeah. It was a beautiful
piece. Yeah. And that really stuck with me. So
I'm totally understanding what you mean about
that when you're saying that composers tend to
write this music that sort of speaks of experience
and perspective in a way that, you know, more
jubilant youthful music sometimes doesn't. Yes.
But Jeremy, like so many members of the CPO,
you moved here for the job. Where's home for
you? I grew up in Waterloo, Ontario, and I've
been in the orchestra for about 10 years. I have
some family here that have lived here for much
longer than 10 years, 30 years, I think. So Calgary
was, I'd visited here before, but I never really
saw myself living here. I, before I moved here,
I was on trial for a job in Singapore. Oh, wow.
I didn't know that. Cool. Yeah. That was. potentially
another place that I could have spent my entire
life, which is radically different than Calgary.
But yeah, I love being here. It's a great place
to live, especially if you like the mountains.
I come from a musical background. My mom played
in the Kitchener Symphony for a long time. She
was a percussionist. She was never like a core
member, but she was like first call sub for 30
years. Sure. So you probably are especially glad.
I think we're all glad to hear that the Kitchener
Waterloo Symphony Orchestra is rising from the
ashes. Yes. Especially since I have some friends
who are in it currently. Yeah, I think we all
do. Yeah. And it's great to hear that they're
making a comeback. That's right. We support our
colleagues in orchestras across the country and
around the world. Yeah. They have a fantastic
hall there. We have a great hall in Calgary.
It's one of the best in Canada. And the, I forget
what it's called, but the hall in Kitchener is
great, too. And they need an orchestra playing
there right now. Absolutely. You're absolutely
right. Yeah. We used to do youth orchestra concerts
there. And it was a tremendous experience to
be able to play in that hall. And yeah. So climbing,
running, skiing, you mentioned as well. You're
a really active guy. But I know that not only
are you a really physically active guy. You're
also pursuing some more internal activities.
Yeah, that's right. I for the last. Well, a couple
of years, but a long time I've been doing meditation
and I go to these 10 day retreats. I practice
the Pasana meditation. I don't know if you've
heard of it. I've heard you've mentioned it to
me before, but I'm I'm I'm interested in treat
treat me like a lay person. Pretend I don't know
anything about it. Well, I like to think of myself
as a layperson, too. It's something that I come
to each day and kind of try from a beginner's
mind. I practice in the morning and the evening.
And for the last two years, I've been doing the
courses recommend that you you practice an hour
in the morning and an hour in the evening and
you do a 10 day course each year. And it's a
pretty serious path. And I think I gain a lot
from it. when you go to these courses, you don't
do any writing, you don't do any talking, you
take a vow of silence and you basically postpone
all other activities. You don't do any running
or and the idea is that when you come away from
this, if you experience any benefit from it,
if you experience a clear mind, you know that
it's coming. There's certainty that you know
it's coming from this course and the style of
meditation you're practicing. So there's a lot
of different styles of meditation out there and
I've always been intrigued by things that are
a little more in depth and that aren't just kind
of going after like, ah, you do this for 10 minutes
a day and it'll fix your problems. Like to me,
that doesn't really, I think the nature of being
a human is a little bit more complex than that.
And so I've always kind of been intrigued by
what's out there. And these courses are run on
donation alone. Like no one pays for it. you're
free to give something if you would like to afterwards,
but it's not in a, it's meant to benefit the
people who are coming in. So you're, you're not
paying for your own experience, but you're paying
for someone else's in the future. To my knowledge,
like what other organization in the world exists
like that? And that kind of, to me, that speaks
of when I, when I heard about that, when I was
looking originally looking for styles of meditation
and I heard about that, that they're able to
run on donations. I thought, wow, there's something
special here. So I did a course. My first one
was in 2008 and I've been doing them a long time
and I still feel like I'm a beginner. So I will
keep doing it. But yeah, I practice meditation.
That's wonderful. And I think that meditation
is something that a lot of people know a little
bit about. And I think that, I mean, I only know
a little bit about it. It's not something that
I've ever really practiced. Do you use Headspace
or do you use any? Someone once recommended to
me an app called UCLA Mindful. It's something
that actually comes out of UCLA. I think there's
a department or at least a professor who's studying
this stuff. It's a free app. Someone recommended
it to me and I've used it a little bit in the
past. But that's a free resource that maybe that's
a thing that you can just get on your phone.
Yeah, there's so much out there and it's worth
exploring them all and making your own decision
about what suits you. Everyone's different. It's
not a monolith. It's a huge variety of different
ways to do it and different experiences. There's
a lot of different parts to it. But I think it
helps me with practicing. with life yeah i think
even even just simply the idea of putting your
phone away and yeah not being connected to everything
for for even just for a little while sounds like
it could be very valuable yeah yeah you do that
at these courses you you put your phone away
you and i always feel like before i go to a course
things build up and like and like It can be anything.
And, and when I like step away from the course
afterwards, that thing that was just driving
me crazy in life is just like no longer a problem.
Ah, that's amazing. And it kind of clears away
some of the, I mean, there's a lot of like garbage
in all of our minds that we hash out with people
and with ourselves. And I think really just clearing
space is like. Is a good thing Sometimes you
don't have to do the battles that you do. Yeah,
I Mean I just a question about this when you're
diving into something like that be it a retreat
or even just your daily practice like Does it
get worse before it gets better? Yes, absolutely
I think you can't have one without the other.
Yeah. Yeah, there's so many analogies in in like
Zen about how you can only see the bottom of,
I'm going to butcher it, but I'll try it anyways.
You can only see the bottom of the lake when,
when the water is still or something. There is
no clarity without, without disorganization or
without whatever you want to call it. But yeah,
things come up and I think no one is exempt from,
from drama and from messiness. And like, we all
have to work through it in our own way, but.
I think it's a myth that through meditation you
can achieve some sort of perfect bliss. It's
equal parts. You find some clarity, but then
that clarity allows for things to bubble up to
the surface again, and there's this continual
process of things getting shaken loose inside
you and you battling through and finding clarity
in it. That's how it is for me and from talking
to other meditators. That's how it is for them
too. That's really interesting. And it's so interesting
if you talk about it, because a lot of the vocabulary
you're using, it so mirrors how a lot of people
talk about experiencing music. Like it's sort
of a... a cathartic, emotional, or even spiritual
sort of experience. Yeah. And to see that, to
hold those two things up and realize, oh, I think
there's some things in common there is really
interesting. Yeah. I think there's a lot of truth
in that, like, that art acts as, art music acts
as a way of, like, doing the same thing to your
mind. Like, when you contemplate something or
when you, like, sit with something, It allows
something to stir up inside you. I think there
is a difference between art and meditation though.
There's an inherent quality in art and music
and things of itself, whatever it is, will speak
to you. And when you're meditating, there's these
things inside you that you can allow to come
up. And it's a way of looking at yourself. You
can still do that with music and art, but it's
not quite as pure. Yeah, I understand. I understand
what you mean. Yeah, I think the abstract nature
of music is one step towards that, right? It's
not like literature or a movie or something where
there's like a text. You know, I think that instrumental
music especially has that abstract quality that
sort of moves it. It's emotional. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Yeah, but even that emotion is like,
it's like we all experience things. these emotions.
But there's like a narrative with it. Yeah, it's
an external stimulus. Yes. And you're like, you're
subject to that, that journey, which is a beautiful
journey. But it's still like, it's not really
your journey. Yeah. Yeah. That's so interesting.
Well, one thing that used to be an important
slow things down hobby for me is something that
I know you've gotten into as well, which is bread
baking. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love baking bread.
I do it pretty often. I've been baking for members
of the orchestra for a couple of years, I guess.
I can take you up on that, by the way. I've seen
your loaves. They look great. They smell great,
but I've never actually gotten one from you.
So sign me up. Yeah, for sure. My starter is
four years old now, I think. Awesome. It started
at the beginning of COVID. I was living with
Danny and actually he I got into it because he
did. Okay, and that's Danny Posetta, cellist.
Danny Posetta, yes. And if I could make love
like his, I would be happy. There's nothing like
the smell of like, fermenting. Yeah, no, it's
absolutely. And yeah, so satisfying to like,
like forget you've made bread, come back to your
apartment and it smells like bread. Yeah. It's
a great, it's a great thing. Yeah. And like,
I mean, the thing that was so great about it
for me was the variety. Yeah. Like there's, you
can buy great bread in Calgary. Like sidewalk
citizen sourdough is what made me stop. When
sidewalk citizen opened up in Kensington, that
was when I stopped baking bread. It's amazingly
good. It's so good. But when I do still bake
bread, it's because I want to make something
a little off the beaten path. What's off the
beaten path? Oh, like I can make a focaccia with
whatever I want on it or things like that. Actually,
I was just talking with my son today. He's got
to bring some, like, hummus and pita to a party.
And I said, oh, well, we're going to make that
hummus and we're going to make that pita. Nice.
You know, even just being able to whip up a pizza
dough, you know? Yeah. It's like for some people,
that's sort of an intimidating thing, but I would,
you know, I've read before this is really, it's
very simple. It is very simple. And you can do
it to like very sophisticated. standards, but
you can also do it, you know, it's not hard.
Like you just throw a bunch of ingredients together
and like throw in the oven and you've got bread.
Yeah. Like there's a reason why it's sustained
cultures of people for thousands and long periods
of time. Yeah. The only thing that's different
about it than I think what most people do in
the kitchen every day is that it takes time.
It takes downtime. Yeah, it does. It takes a
lot of time. It's a great thing to do involving
with practicing because you do a step in the
process and then you go practice for a little
bit. I like experimenting with different flowers.
I went on Etsy and ordered some acorn flower.
I paid way too much and got some acorn flower.
And I love pumpernickel bread and I've been throwing
acorn flower in with pumpernickel. Cool. My parents
used to do this thing where you'd like rip the
top off a pumpernickel loaf and put some spinach
dip in there and yeah, party thing. So I love.
I love doing that. That must be so earthy and
rich. It's really yeah, it's really dense and
like I don't know the science behind it. I kind
of don't think that you can develop gluten through
it through it. So you like you have to use it
in small quantities. Sure. Yeah. You don't put
very much in it. I haven't tried like a pure
acorn flower. Yeah, I know. I think it would
probably look like a hockey puck. Yeah. Brick.
Yeah. But my taste good. Yeah, maybe I made I
had a gluten free uh, guest over for dinner not
too long ago, and I made a chestnut flour cake.
Oh, nice. Was it like, uh, chestnut flour? Yeah,
yeah, rosemary. Nice. It tasted delicious. The
texture was like, you know, there's no gluten.
Yeah. It comes out being a little bit like, um,
a little bit like a moon cake almost. Interesting.
Uh, but it was really, really good. Yeah. A really
delicious, uh, mixture of flavors. I love, I've
always loved chestnuts, but, uh. You can do so
many interesting things with. with cooking and
with bread. I first started out doing whole wheat,
pure whole wheat. Pure whole wheat is tough.
It is tough, yeah. White flour is good. Yeah,
I mean, 50 -50 is even so much easier to work
with than pure whole wheat. Yeah. The book that
I really used a lot when I was doing a lot of
bread baking of all sorts was by Peter Reinhart
called The Bread Baker's Apprentice. It won a
James Beard Award. Oh, I don't know that one,
but... I feel like I know a different one by
him. There's another one called Whole Grain Bread.
Yes, that's the first one that I used. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I have that book, too. I found
it was interesting, but I had a hard time. I
had a hard time getting the processes to work
for me. And that was also around the same time
that I was sort of. phasing out of baking a lot
of my own bread, but the bread bakers apprentice
is a wonderful. I don't know that I should check
it out. It's really good. You can borrow my copy.
I don't use it all that much anymore. I was using
flour, salt, water, yeast by Ken Forkish. He's
a he lives in Hawaii now, but he's he started
a couple of places in Portland. He's great. He
also like. Shows you how to kind of do a bunch
of the different steps on YouTube and oh cool.
That's great Yeah, cuz like so many things that
you're reading in a book don't make any sense
now You can just go on YouTube and see it sounds
so old No, I mean, it's it's easier to learn
something on YouTube than it is reading a book
I think but having like this resource of all
these formulas for For different types of those
and different processes. I found that book to
just be really really really great my favorite
thing out of that book, I was making the Poilain
style French bread. Okay. I don't know that.
Poilain is a bakery in Paris. Okay. And I was
like trying to get this right and I wasn't sure,
wasn't sure how I was doing. And I was sort of
agonizing over this for a while. And then on
our honeymoon, we went to Paris and I went there
to Poilain and I tasted it and I was like, you
know what? I came pretty close. You know, probably
as close as a home baker in a different part
of the world using different water, different
flour could. It made me feel really good. But
what made me really feel really good was eating
that amazing bread in Paris. There's nothing
like an amazing loaf of bread. Yeah. Yeah. Manuel
Le Trou is another good Calgary bakery. Oh, yeah,
yeah. It's on Macleod, I think. Yeah, just south
of the hall. Yes. Yeah. Well, this has been a
very far -ranging conversation on a wide variety
of interesting topics just to bring it back to
music Oh, yeah, we didn't really talk that much
about music. That's okay. We talk about me. I
swear that I love music We're talking about musicians.
We're talking about being a musician in the world
and that isn't Entirely inspiration can come
in a lot of different forms. It's true. It's
true And you know everyone you see on stage playing
any music is just a person We're just people
and we have varied interests and we have, you
know, all sorts of different parts of our lives.
And yeah, we practice a lot. But it is a job
and we exist outside our job. That's true. That's
true. We're just people. But the people on stage
are a constant inspiration for all of us. I think,
you know, we get to go to work and hear great
musicians play great music. Yeah. So who who
inspires you on stage at work? Oh, that's a tough
question. One person does come to mind, actually
two people come to mind. Sam Locke, our former
principal bass. He's not with the orchestra anymore.
He is now principal of NACO. National Arts Center
Orchestra. Yes. This is his first year in his
new job. And I played with him for, I was in
the orchestra before him. So his whole time in
the orchestra and every day, like he's the first
person to the job and he, he's just. They're
in all his presence on stage. He makes so much
sound all the right sounds He is like an inspirational
person to be around Outside of the job too. Yeah,
and he's a great friend. Yeah, I loved playing
in an orchestra with him Yeah, Sam a lot Sam's
been a great friend and a great colleague and
a great leader on and off the stage neck I was
really lucky to have him. I think yeah, I also
love playing with Mark Lamarcker when he when
he joins us. Yeah, Mark Lamaker, jazz pianist,
but constantly musician in every genre. He plays
everything. Composer as well. Yeah, he does everything.
And he's got the most energy and just talking
to him, playing music with him. He brings it
all like one hundred and thirty percent. every
time I see him. He's an inspirational force on
the Calgary music scene, that's for sure. I think
we'll be talking a little bit more about Mark
Lamaker on an episode coming up soon with Jen
Micheletti, the artistic director of Kensington
Sinfonia, because I know they're doing a collaboration
with Mark later this season. I'm sure we'll talk
about that. Yeah, Mark does all the projects
and he's a fantastic musician. And he plays with
the trio at the Eden. in Inglewood on a regular
basis. So check the Eden website or Mark Lemacher's
socials to see when you can catch him there,
have a nice meal and listen to some great jazz.
Yeah, Sam and Mark, they're great musicians.
Absolutely. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much
for sitting down with me, Jeremy. This has been
a lot of fun. It has been. Yeah, thank you. Notes
from the 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
in this episode was American Haiku by Paul Bianco,
performed by Jeremy Bauman and David Morrissey.
On our next episode in two weeks, I'll be talking
with Jen Michaletti, CPO violinist and artistic
director of Calgary's own Kensington Sinfonia.
Talk to you soon!