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 Adams Innatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Phil,
but today I'm your host, and I'm here with Laurent
Grier Kim, principal violist of the CPO. Hi,
Laurent, how are you? Hello. I'm good, thank
you. Thanks for coming on the show. To cut right
to the serious materials here, one thing I didn't
know about you until you rolled in here to my
place is that you're a dog person. I mean, I
grew up with dogs. I don't have I don't currently
have a dog. We have a very old cat. He's 19 years
old. Wow. Yeah. And he's about to travel to France.
So I don't know how this is gonna go. But boy,
oh, boy. Yeah. Well, that's sort of the the news
of the hour, right? You're you got yourself a
new job. I did. Yes. Quite a journey. But I am
very excited. A little a little scared. because
I've been here for 10 years in Calgary, for almost
10 years, I think, and in North America for close
to 15 years, I think. I studied in the US before
coming to Calgary. So even for me, going back
to France is a bit an experience every time,
you know? I haven't seen it long term for a while,
so we'll see how it goes. So what was it like?
Leaving France. How old were you when you when
you left France to come to North America? I left
When I was I think 26, okay, but before I left
to go to University at Indiana University I worked
on cruise ships for Over it was ten months, but
it was spread out over two years I had two contracts
there and one of six month and one of four months
And that's when I actually decided that, okay,
maybe it was time for me to try something else.
And I met, it was an American cruise ship company.
And so everyone was speaking English, obviously
there, I didn't speak English. So it was a very
steep learning curve. So I met a lot of people
there and the string quartet I played with on
the cruise ship, they were all students at Indiana
University. And they told me about it. And at
the time I was like, oh, that's interesting.
I was a little lost in France. I didn't know
what really I was going to do. I didn't have
any teachers. I was not pursuing any degrees
or anything. So it was a little strange time.
I didn't know yet what to do. And so I thought,
OK, that's a good idea. So I applied and I got
into the university. And then I do remember a
few days Before going to the US, I was getting
ready and packing all my stuff and thinking to
myself, this is amazing. In a couple of days,
I will be there, just having to do my own things
in a completely different country, a different
continent and all this. Two days later, that
was it. I remember being on a parking lot after
doing some grocery shopping and being like, well,
that's it. Here I am. Now you have to figure
it out. And that was a very liberating moment,
I remember. Youth was over, you know, I was free
to decide and do whatever I wanted. It was really
cool. And that's when I really started practicing
and working hard. I was not a very serious student.
Not terribly bad, but not very serious. And that's
when I really decided it was time to do it seriously.
So I stayed... four years at Indiana University
and they were some of my favorite years. I really
enjoyed it because the campus there is huge.
It's really like a small town. You never see
that kind of stuff in Europe or in France. It
was a culture shock, I guess, but a good one.
I very much enjoyed it. an enlightening experience
for me and really a big turn. It was great. Wonderful.
And you came straight from Indiana to Calgary.
I did, yeah. I auditioned, yeah. I was playing
during my last year at Indiana University. I
was playing quite a bit with Chicago Symphony,
which was great because it was my first real
experience of playing professionally in an orchestra.
So it was good because it's obviously a very
big and great orchestra. So it was a very good
experience. I played with some great conductors,
some really hard music at time. The one I really
remember was Janáček Sinfonieta. Oh, yeah, yeah.
It's a great piece. Yeah, I know about that one.
A lot of trumpets there. And it was really cool.
It was very difficult. And so yeah, it was my
first glimpse of what I would have to go through
then. And yeah, then I won the job here in Calgary
and yeah, moved here and that was great. Yeah,
wow. So what part of France are you from? I'm
from Bordeaux. It's in the southwest on the Atlantic
Ocean, close to Spain, about two hours away.
from the Pyrenees mountains which separates France
and Spain in the south. It's a very beautiful
area. A lot of wine obviously. I'm sure people
know the area because of the wine and it's a
big appellation for wine and I do love wine,
I should say. I grew up there. The city itself
is beautiful because it looks a bit like a small
Paris. The architect who we did Paris, his name
is Haussmann. He was from the region, I think,
from Bordeaux. He has a house there that we used
to visit when we were at school when we were
kids. And so he did the architecture of Bordeaux.
And it's all these white stones, you know, that
you know Paris for, you know, all the big boulevards
and all this. It's a really beautiful place here.
Wonderful. Yeah. So where's the new job? The
new job is quite the opposite place. It's in
the north of France, in Lille, so very close
to Belgium, actually. I think it's about an hour
away from Belgium, even less than this. So it's
in the north. The climate is quite different.
It's quite rainy and grey. So we'll see about
this. It's not as cold as here, for sure, which
will be the main difference. It's a good orchestra.
It's quite famous in France. It's a pretty good
orchestra and I'm very much looking forward to
it. It's a very different experience from working
here in North America because of the culture,
I guess, I don't know, and the way it's always
been. It's a full size orchestra and they only
play classical music. You know, that's all they
do. So it's a different experience from the one
I've had here. I'm very much looking forward
to it. Wonderful. Now long -term listeners of
the podcast will know that cycling is my sport,
so that area of northeastern France is like,
that's my jam. Oh yeah. I don't do much of it.
I do some skiing here, but that won't be possible
there. That's too bad. Yeah, we'll see. In your
time here in Calgary, I know that you've done
a lot of skiing. I know that you like to get
out with many of our colleagues. What are your
favorite things? What are the things you're going
to miss about Calgary? Oh, actually, many things.
I did not always enjoy Calgary, but probably
because I was new and didn't know many people
and all these things, I guess. But with time,
I really grew to liking it. So of course, I will
miss the skiing. But I think one of the things
that I will miss most is probably the Sun I really
don't mind so much the cold sometimes I do when
it's a very long period of cold of course, but
But I really enjoy waking up and every day seeing
the Sun and the blue sky. That's really something
I I noticed from the the very first days my very
first days here in Calgary and That I think I
will miss. I really enjoy this and and of course
the mountains Skiing is great. And all the people
that I met here, of course. And I'm sure I will
miss parts of the job here, because you know
how it is. Not everyone is always happy in what
they do. A lot of people sometimes complain.
But I think in the end, I was probably one of
the happiest people in this orchestra. I was
always trying to talk positively about it. And
I did end up enjoying it a lot. I always enjoyed
that it was a bit of a smaller orchestra. I liked
that it felt like a very malleable environment.
We're still building this orchestra, it felt
like. And that I really enjoyed working in committees
and thinking of ways of improving the experience
for the audience, but also for the musicians
and all these things. I really enjoyed that part
of... of work. You know, I wanted to highlight,
and this is one thing that I did have in my notes
that I really wanted to highlight was that, you
know, you're saying that you've tried to be a
positive influence on the workplace, both in
the day to day and by doing lots of committee
work and things like that. And I wanted to thank
you for all the committee work you've done, and
you've done a lot of it. And I think that my
personal opinion is that when you're in a meeting
and you have something to say, people listen.
And I think that you have a reputation, certainly
among your colleagues, as a thoughtful, constructive
colleague who's willing to talk about the difficult
things in such a way that might be a bit uncomfortable
now, but will help us down the road. So thank
you for that. Well, thank you for saying this.
I did enjoy that part, as I said, and I was very
happy to do all these things. Yeah, thank you
for saying this. I appreciate that So with your
departure from the orchestra, not only are we
losing a principal violist, but you married a
colleague So we're losing two players. That's
right. Yeah, my wife Hey one is coming with me,
of course the press Along with our two kids and
our cats That will be also quite the experience
for her. She She is a Korean, but she lived in
North America quite a bit longer than I have
she She does not speak too much French a little
bit because she hears me speak it to the, to
the kids. So she's catching on and, uh, she understands
most of it, but. I mean, she's learned, she's
become fluent in a new language before. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh yeah. I learned English in part from
her. Yeah. We, we met at Indiana university.
We've been together quite. a long time now, almost
15 years. It's our 10th anniversary in April.
Congratulations. Thank you. So yeah, it's a new
page in our story, I guess, now. Going to France
and trying something completely new, and I hope
she will like it. She always enjoyed going to
France, so hopefully this time she will. like
it as well yeah well you'll both be looking for
new connections in a new part of the country
and all that yeah yeah for sure yeah being so
close to belgium and the netherlands those are
big centers for early music yeah is that something
that you have any particular interest in i do
not as a performer so much i never tried to really
to play on period instruments or anything like
this my interest in it is more i mean i've always
listened to music from any period. I'm not exclusive
to anything, really. Something that really struck
me recently was the music of Josquin Desprez,
which is actually who is from this area. There
were no borders at the time, really. And so he's
like a Flemish. So it's both the North of France
and Belgium and sometimes the Netherlands, all
these areas. And I really love his music. So
I guess in that way, I'm very, very curious to
explore that that area. I also like some of the
painters like von Hohen, all these guys. So yeah,
the cultural aspect of this move is definitely
interesting. When you live in a country like
I did when I grew up in France, It's just part
of everyday life. You don't pay attention like
you do when you've been away so long. And now
I'm really looking forward to exploring museums,
countries around France and the rest of Europe
and all these things that I was not able to do
at the time. Thinking about the time you've been
here in Calgary, you know, of course, I want
to ask you about your highlights, but I got to
say that one of my highlights was in February
2020 when everything was going fine in the world
and nothing bad was brewing. You played the Bartok
concerto with us at the CPO. What are your memories
of that? Good, mostly, but that was a difficult
one, I have to say. It's a very tricky piece.
I was playing a version slightly different that
As you may know, the piece was not finished.
Bartok wrote the viola part of it, but didn't
write the orchestration. There was very little
written in the orchestration. Even the viola
part, he had written all the notes, but articulations
were missing, a lot of tempo markings weren't
there. So the version I played was... edited
by my teacher Atara at Indiana University. And
it's a very tricky version with different notes.
Sometimes the tessitura is very different. Articulations
are completely different from the main edition.
So that was difficult. I enjoyed it, but I think
I was... I would like to do it again, let's put
it that way. Sure, sure. I think we all have
that feeling when we do something big, right?
And I think that that's a hallmark of great music,
right? Yes. You know, whenever you perform a
big piece like that, you put so much of yourself
in, it's sort of a snapshot of a time and you
hope to execute it well. But you know, we as
musicians, we were always looking for ways to
grow and ways to develop. So even as you perform
a concerto, you walk off stage and even if it
went great, you're like, you know what, I want
another shot at it. because I'm finding new things
in it all the time. I know that feeling. It's
good. It's frustrating, but it's good. And Bartok's
music, I enjoy very much listening to it. But
somehow, as a player, it was not as instinctive
to me as maybe the music of Mozart or Beethoven,
for example, Bach. I remember when I played the
Sinfonia concertante with Diana during my second
season, I think here, so it must have been 2016
or 2015, something like this. And that I enjoyed
thoroughly because, I mean, the music is at times
miraculous, I guess, you know, it's really something
extraordinary. And it is something that I feel
closer to and that it's more instinctive when
I... plate. I don't have to think as much. In
Bartok, I remember having to draw every single
phrase and mentally decide on how to shape them,
which I enjoyed doing, but I thought at some
point it became too much. The work I did in the
Bartok maybe became a little too brainy. Whereas
in Mozart, I can let go more and by instinct
I will play something that is closer to what
I hear so that I enjoy very much. Yeah, that's
really interesting, you know, and the way that
different people either instinctually or intellectually
make these decisions about phrasing, that's sort
of the joy of live music. That's why, you know,
there's not one recording of the Mozart Sinfonia
Concertante that is how it is and that's how
it is forever. It's always different. It's always
even one player. two nights in a row performing
it the little things are going to be different
because you feel a certain way differently or
something different happens on stage and you
know things just move a bit differently and that's
sort of the joy one of the joys of live music
i think that's also how so many of these pieces
have such life over a long period of time right
that one still gets played because there's material
there and there's something deep happening in
that piece that lets people discover new things
in it and makes it worth hearing. Absolutely,
yeah. And even from a physical point of view
or a technical point of view, every day you play
your instrument, you know, you might feel, so
for us, violinists, violists, even cellists,
bass players, the way you feel about your bow
hand that day or your left hand, you know, might
have a very strong influence on the tone that
day, you know, and you might feel very free about
this phrase, you know, this very lyrical phrase,
for example, where you can really dig in that
day and you couldn't really the day before because
some reason physically didn't feel as good, you
know. That's what's really interesting in what
we do is that even physically changes every day
and we can, we have to adapt with all of it.
And it has a big influence on on the pieces we
play as well. That part I really enjoy. Thinking
about the way that our changing bodies, which
is to say our changing instruments, affects how
we play. When I was younger, I used to think
I'm going to approach being a perfect trumpet
player and that there was some sort of fixed
thing, but there isn't. Everything changes all
the time, and that can be a source of immense
frustration. Or if you approach it, I think,
with a healthier mindset, it can open up such
a world of discovery. Yes, for sure. I agree.
So what other CPO memories stick out to you in
your time here? Many, many. I, of course, enjoy
very much when we play pieces like Mahler's symphonies.
That's great. And you're finishing with the Mahler
too then, so that's a good way to go out. That's
a really good way to go out. Yeah, that's right
at the tail end of May. I think it's the 30th
and 31st of May. Correct. Friday and Saturday
night with our music director, Rune Bergman,
who is also wrapping up his tenure here at the
CPO. Those will be can't miss concerts. That's
right. Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to
this. But all these, the Bruckner's, all the
big pieces, of course, and I remember one that
I really enjoyed because I didn't know the piece
and it was an opera bar by Korngold. Oh, yeah.
The Totenstadt, I think. The Totenstadt, man.
That piece. Such a glorious piece, yeah. Oh,
and that was with Bram Waltovi on the podium.
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was a very, very special.
You remember, too. Yeah. Oh, career highlight.
Absolutely. That's some of the most beautiful
music that's ever been written. Yeah, it's incredible.
And you can hear Mahler, you can hear Wagner
in it. I had no idea this piece existed and that's
what i love about it you know like i didn't pay
attention when when it was programmed and then
i learned the music i listened to the recordings
and i realize realize sorry how amazing the composition
is and and then playing it it was so hard i remember
it was one of the hardest thing i've ever played
But so rewarding, like that's one of these times
when you spend so many hours by yourself learning
the part. And then when everything comes together
with the singers and the staging and the whole
orchestra, it's a very fulfilling moment. Yeah,
that's for sure. It's nice when all the work
fills up to something transcendental, right?
Especially when it's so difficult. Yeah, it's
so beautiful. Yeah, that was. That's one I still
remember to this day. Are you going to be playing
any opera or ballet in Lille? I will, yeah. Great.
And one of the first concerts I do are going
to happen at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
So that's really amazing because I've never had
the opportunity to play there. So it's a legendary
hall. Yeah, I'm really looking forward. I think
the Rijksmuseum is right there, too. So you can
do two for one. That's amazing. So Laurent, one
other thing that I always appreciate about you
is, if I run into you backstage, I love seeing
what you're reading. Yeah. Well, let's start
with this. What are you reading right now? Right
now, I'm in the middle of The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula Le Guin. Ah, the greatest, my favorite
author, Ursula Le Guin. I was also talking about
Le Guin with Emily Melendez earlier this season.
Yes. So, yes, we're big fans of Le Guin here
at Notes From the Stage. For me, it started with
The Dispossessed. That's the first book I read
by her and it really struck me. It spoke to me
very strongly. I don't usually read science fiction.
I don't remember doing it, actually, before reading
The Dispossessed. But there was something in
that book that I really loved. The thought experiment
is so... It feels very present in what we live
these days even almost, you know, it feels like
we're at a point where we have to think about
alternative ways and Is there something else
possible, you know to make it better and this
book and she's obviously a very smart person
It's a very thorough thought experiment as well
There were times when I was reading it and so
she go on about this anarchist Society that they
built on this moon And at times I would be reading
and asking myself, well, okay, this is all good,
but what if this? And the page after this, they
would actually talk about this, you know? And
I was like, whoa, this is amazing. And then again,
and then again, you know? It was so good. It's
such... Such a beautiful book. I read it only
once but I think I would like to read it a thousand
times if possible Oh, yeah, there's so much in
that one for those who don't really know this
book It's a work of political philosophy kind
of packaged as a science fiction thing. It's
it's really interesting and really wonderful
I would say it's on the the denser side of Le
Guin's writing right now You're reading left
hand which I think is a bit more approachable
But also very interesting and also I think very
relevant to what's going on in the world these
days I always recommend, if you're interested
in Le Guin, she's one of the few who writes great
science fiction and great fantasy. If you're
interested in science fiction, try Lathe of Heaven,
a great short little book that is full of imagination.
And if you're interested in the fantasy, start
with A Wizard of Earthsea, which is a book that
I love recommending to people because they always
come back to me later with this look on their
face of joy and discovery. Yeah, it's one of
my very favorites. Yeah, and her prose is also
so Straightforward, you know, there's no it's
beautiful in that it's so simple and to the point
every time Yeah, it really gave me this this
impression of something Complete, you know the
book like there's no no slower passages or everything
builds up to something really complete Yeah,
it's really a book that I I think it's one of
my very favorites and I didn't read any science
fiction before this. Wonderful. Really incredible.
Wonderful. And I remember seeing you reading
some Neil Stephenson not long ago. Oh, yeah,
that was cool too. Anathem, it's called, the
book I read. That is very heavy. I guess it's
about a thousand pages and very technical writing
at times. I don't love the writing always. It's
very technical, as I said, but he has a talent
to build worlds. That I'll give him. It's very
compelling. But you need to go through the first
200 pages to really get into the book, you know?
Yeah, I haven't read anything. I read Seven Eaves
and it was fabulous. Good. Yeah, I would recommend
anything to anyone as well. But if you have the
patience, I guess. Yeah. But it's a really, really
amazing book as well. Yeah. Well, Laurent, we're
going to miss you. You've been a wonderful influence
off stage. You've been a great leader on stage.
as well. And I will admit I am a former violist
from a past life. So I always have an appreciation
of what you guys are all doing up there. Just
as I've appreciated your playing over the years,
you've heard our colleagues play day in, day
out for 10 years or so. Who are some of the players
in the CPO who have really inspired you? What
I really enjoyed here was playing with friends.
I already had friends from university. who got
jobs in this orchestra. And so I really enjoyed
playing with them. So for example, Jeremy Gabbard
was a friend I had at university in Bloomington.
So was Josue Valdepeñas, our assistant principal
cello. And of course, I met my wife at the university
and that was great playing with her. These are
a few people that I knew. uh from my time in
the US and I played with and always enjoyed playing
with them when I was at university we played
in quartets and in chamber music and for me it
was really something I I enjoyed to to come to
work and and see my friends and playing with
them and that's that's what made it like uh feel
like um playing with a group of friends in the
end you know not so serious at work but just
coming to work and enjoy What I'm doing because
I'm doing it with my friends and my family because
my wife is here, too Anyway, I think it was enough.
I guess I don't need to add into this I guess.
Well, that's lovely Laura Well, I think I speak
for all of us when I say that we've really loved
having you as a colleague for these years And
we wish you all the best in your new endeavors.
Well, thank you. Thank you for having me that
was great 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
on this episode was from L 'étranger by Nidal
Jabali, performed by Laurent Griez Kim on viola
and Isaac Friedhoff on piano. On our next episode
in two weeks, I'll be talking with assistant
principal horn, Heather Wooten. Talk to you soon!