Hi there, and welcome to Notes from the Stage,
a show for 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 Chris
Sighs, our brand new principal percussionist
of the CPO. Hi Chris! Hi Adam. So great to be
here. Awesome. Well, I'm glad to have you here.
You know, I wanted to make sure I had the whole
set. of new musicians to the CPO this year. With
this, the last episode of this season of Notes
from the Stage, I got the set. It's great. It's
amazing and I'm honored to be taking part as
a musician of the Calgary Phil and also as a
colleague and friend. Yeah, well, I wanted to
talk to you about this because Chris, you are
someone who subbed with the orchestra. You played
as an extra with us for a little while before
you won your audition here. I wanted to ask you,
how does the job feel different? In what ways
is the job different when you're subbing versus
when you're a contract member of the orchestra?
And quick sidebar, Chris's audition was fully
screened. It was all through there. We had two
people in for trials and Chris won that trial.
But on the day of the audition, we didn't know
who we had picked for those trials until that
was all said and done. Yeah. Great question.
And I've been thinking about it a lot because
there are differences, of course. I remember
rolling into the first big concert this season.
I don't think Beat Beethoven counts because Was
really I was working through some nerves that
week Beethoven was an outdoor concert at the
band shell at Prince's Island in a partnership
with Ron Calgary Yeah, and I mean it was it was
fun and but it was it was probably like the it
was actually a really good first concert to do
because oh my gosh, I mean when you're doing
a runouts there's so many variables that You
obviously can't control and just to kind of experience
that as the first thing was good to get the kind
of those New job jitters out of the way for sure,
but then rolling into home turf at Jack singer
with Carmina Burana big section right there's
Tiffany plus I think it's six six percussionists
so lots of notes lots of people and I remember
the acute awareness I had that was very different
than subbing and it was an attention and Almost
a higher level of listening not just within my
section, but across the orchestra. And I was
just noticing that the focus is just, it's very
different because there's part of the planning
that goes into this where it's kind of from the
ground floor up in terms of the instruments chosen
and the assignments and all these things. And
I was just noticing how all of those decisions
that I'd made were coming into play and watching
them kind of play out in real time. there were
things like what kind of instrument we chose
for certain passages and how that was blending
or not, specifically some of the triangle partials
clashing with the woodwinds. And then also the
placement of certain instruments in proximity
to other players of the orchestra, just because
chimes are very loud. Maybe we pull those a little
further away from Tom so he's not getting blasted
by these clangorous metallic things. And, you
know, there's a tremendous moment of like wow,
you know, this feels, you know, the stakes are
higher for sure, but also like my intention and
all of the planning process was just happening
in real time. And it was, it was very cool to
see all those things kind of come out. And certainly
I learned a ton just in the first rehearsal of
Carmina Burana this season. And then it was a
tremendous sort of like foundation to build upon
and it informed me to, you know, make different
decisions. And I think. in my point of view,
somewhat better decisions in terms of all those
things that go into, you know, getting the section
together. So, I mean, the pressure is certainly
on for sure, but it's cool because I can see
the much bigger picture of many of these things,
even from a production standpoint, like understanding,
you know, when the crew needs to be there and
these sort of things and all the pieces that
go into getting us on stage. I mean, truly, my
job is entangled with all that. It's been really
satisfying to get to see the bigger picture.
I forget who I was talking to, but they were
kind of like, it was probably David Sussman,
honestly, because he sometimes comes up and checks
in on me. And I'm so grateful for that. So pleasant.
He was kind of like, so how's it going? You know,
how are you doing? And I'm like, doing good,
you know, trying to find balance. He's like,
yeah, it can be relentless sometimes. And truly
it can. I mean, there's just constant attention
to the little details that have implications
on. your people of the section coming in to do
their job well for sure because not all of us
have the instruments at our homes. Many of the
players are depending on the instruments at the
orchestra to show up and make sure they're in
good working condition. Also put in a good spot
on stage so that they can get from one thing
to the next. If Shawn is listening to this, she'll
chuckle because I reference everything to Coco
now because the performance of Disney's Coco
back in October was such a huge logistical lift.
Again, a great thing to have in my first season
to really see the extent of how far it can go.
I mean, we had hundreds of instruments on stage.
I remember you were trying to source a certain
type of dry bean pod. Yeah, and I found them.
I found the bean pods, several bean pods, so
it all worked out. Now, one time when you came
into sub with the orchestra, I think it was the
first time that you and I really worked closely
together, was for Professor Bad Trip by Fausto
Romitali. Oh my goodness, so great. Do you remember
this? Oh, it's been a highlight of my career,
absolutely. I always like, so I did that piece
a while back and the version... did then was
very different than the version we did here just
because like I was much younger and the state
of the state of mind when kind of Tackling a
piece like that was just a little different.
You know, I was much less experienced in terms
of intense spectralist music and This past time
around was just it was such a joy because I knew
what was coming and also at the same time like
I knew that like I can really rest on some of
my more intense kind of new chamber music experience
to really make this an enjoyable experience.
For anyone who doesn't know the piece, can you
just give us a quick rundown of Professor Bad
Trip? Sure. So, Professor Bad Trip is a work
by this, how do you describe, Italian post -spectralist
composer Fausto Romatelli, who's unfortunately
passed away at this point. Yeah, he died young
of cancer. Yeah, I think it was like early 40s.
Yeah, something like that. But he has a really
awesome body of work. And one of the standouts
is this piece, Professor Bad Trip. The best way
I can describe it is if psychedelic rock, harsh
noise and spectralist music all got mushed into
a blender and turned on at puree, then you get
this. really wild piece for mixed ensemble and
electronics. It is a tour de force. I mean, it's
an absolute onslaught of texture and like really
intense sounds, but it's heavily inspired by
psychedelic experiences of Henri Michaux, who
is this poet who was one of the early folks in
the 20th century to write on these things in
a sort of exploratory manner that wasn't so caked
in, I guess, propaganda and misinformation. So
dealing with altered states of consciousness
and certain states of mind within psychedelic
experiences definitely played into the effect
of this piece, which could be very disorienting.
And part of that is the point. But I mean, I
think it's a masterpiece, honestly. It's serious
experience. Oh, yeah. And I do remember that.
experience well because i think that was my first
season in town and i saw that on the bill and
i was like oh my goodness this is great i can't
believe they programmed this i wonder if i'll
get hired yeah the cpo program that we did a
late night concert at the grand theater carl
herzer conducted yes That was very memorable.
Yeah, incredibly memorable. And that was a sold
out show, too, which was really exciting. And
we did it with cool projections. We did. That
was with Axis Z Media Arts. They go by Asma and
they did the live projections with that piece.
Very memorable, very memorable experience. But
also just like I felt very lucky to have had
a lot of intense contemporary music experience
in that moment. And just to be able to bring
that to the table and I feel like I was doing
the job well. I remember our good friend Mark
Lamacher. He couldn't whistle. Oh yeah. And you
had to whistle for him. Oh, you're going to out
him on the podcast for not being able to whistle?
The virtuoso tour de force, Mark Lamacher. I'm
sorry, Mark. I won't tell the kazoo story. That
would really embarrass me. I remember, but we
don't need to go into the kazoo part. Yeah, I
had to cover Mark's whistling. Yeah, and it sounded
great. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It sounded really
nice. That was that was just such a cool thing
because like I just kind of shown up I barely
knew anyone and What better way than to get to
know someone than playing really intense music?
You know, I mean there's I've heard this, you
know spoken about on the podcast up to this point
like we do We do share experience through sound
and like it can be incredibly profound now, of
course, you know people have their tastes and
aesthetic dispositions and you know a piece like
that is not for everyone, but For me, it was
just like, oh yeah, we're here to do the work.
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Well, Chris, you said it
was your first year in town. You came to Calgary
as a trailing spouse. Yeah, I did. So my wonderful
partner in life, crime, love and sound, Janie
Parsons. Shout out to Janie. She and I were living
in Waco, Texas, where we were both teaching at
Baylor University. This is heavy pandemic times.
So of course, you know, your prospects change.
And I was also working on a doctorate at the
same time. The job came up at UFC, University
of Calgary. The job being? Yeah. Head of piano.
Okay. And so my wife, Janey Parsons is the professor
of piano at the University of Calgary. Very proud
of her. And she recently got her tenure too.
She did. She did. And which is unbelievable.
Well, it is very believable, but we rejoice.
We rejoice in that fact. over and over and it's
unsurprising she works so hard and I really owe
so much of my my life career and things to her
just because some opportunities that I've had
you know she's she's met me there and then opportunities
she's had um I've met her and this is one of
those opportunities where she's also Canadian
so to deny a Canadian a home turf position is
just like you can't do that right and of course
doing a a big move for me as an American moving
to a different country. We had visited Calgary
a lot over the course of our life just because
she grew up not far from here. So in a lot of
ways, it was a lot like a big homecoming for
her. And the position was, I mean, she's so good
at her job and it just ended up being an amazing
move. And I remember, again, this is back in
pandemic times where we were allowed to actually
get on a plane and we thought, where's the farthest
we can go? Without leaving the country and it
ended up being Alaska and so like the first chance
we took we got out of town and went out to Fairbanks,
Alaska and did some hiking and we're staying
in this valley and it's like the moon is on one
side the Sun is on the other because you know
summer midnight Sun kind of deal and it's like
just this amazing sort of astrological event
that you're just witnessing and it's you know
one in the morning and still light outside and
we were really contemplating like what does this
move mean and of course over the course of our
our life together we've moved in a number of
ways to you know find different opportunities
and so for us it was kind of like okay well it's
just another one of those but the implications
were a little bigger just because it's a different
country and that means paperwork and you know
status for me and also like what is the scene
like in Calgary at that point I knew very little
but my goodness uh we're so grateful to be here
it ended up being such an amazing life choice
and um we think about it a lot we think about
how lucky we are to be here and to to do our
work here and it's beautiful in a number of different
ways I mean we love the people we love the the
scene We love the nature. It's been wonderful.
Oh, Calgary's music scene is thrilled to have
you both. I think there are very few places that
you can just kind of show up and be welcomed
in such a way that we have been. The real question,
though, being a percussionist and making these
moves over time, what has that meant in terms
of Rototoms? Oh, that's a funny question. I'm
sure you're referencing a good story. Yeah, so
Adam is referencing a story when Janie and I
first got married and we were moving from Ann
Arbor, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois. Four hour
drive, just down the road a piece. Very easy,
but we're packing the truck and, you know, of
course all my instruments are just like in the
front yard of this house I was living in and
she picks up these sets of these peculiar instruments
called rototoms. They're kind of the butt of
every joke right now. But they have their moments
and she picks them up. She's like, do we really
need these? And I said, Janie, I will never ask
if you ever need your piano. And it was a great
moment because, I mean, we had literally gotten
married, like, I think weeks before or something.
So it was very funny. But the first test. Yeah,
that's right. And then lo and behold, we did
a duo concert later that season. And I said,
guess what we need? So it all worked out. Wonderful.
Yeah. But I mean, yeah, I mean. Gosh, it's like
moving across the country with your collection
of instruments. And it's only gotten bigger over
the years just because that's just seems to happen
when you're a percussionist dedicated to the
life of sound. And the next time you play Coco,
you already have that specific bean pod you need.
Yeah, we're good. We're totally good. Yeah. And
sometimes you even make instruments for specific
things. That's right. Like I'm thinking specifically
of Bluebeard's Castle earlier this season. Yeah,
this job runs the gamut of many different things
required for it, whether it's building or sourcing
or... Yeah, like for Bluebeard's Castle, you
built this. I don't know what you would call
it. The Bartacophone, or as we've called it,
the Death Star. It's fully operational. That's
funny. Yeah, it's like this funny redesigning
of a xylophone to make the passage work because
the original part was written for it. Fairly
different instruments used with fingers like
a keyboard. Yeah, it just has to be adjusted
For it to be possible by the percussionist. Yeah,
you can look at the Calgary film musicians social
medias and go back to I guess April ish To find
video of this crazy instrument that Chris made
for for our performance of Bluebeard's castle
with Calgary Opera One other thing that I was
just fascinated by I had flagged you before the
season started. In the past, one time we played
Symphonie Fantastique and there was an intonation
problem with the bell plates that we had in that
they were too flat. Right. And it was a problem.
So I wanted to make sure that you had a heads
up that that might be a potential pitfall. So
I know you you did the work, you got those bell
plates out and sorted things out, but you were
telling me that you can actually. make adjustments
you can to those and now part of the half of
this seemed intuitive to me right because if
you need the instrument to go higher in pitch
you can make it smaller you can make it shorter
right right and you know making a piece of metal
like a bell plate shorter is a challenge but
possible you know yeah but you can actually you
you told me that you could actually make it lower
as well which blew my mind totally um and that's
how By and large, xylophone and marimba and vibraphone,
all these keyboard instruments we use quite a
bit, you cut length off of the bar, pitch goes
up. But in the middle of the bar, if you take
material out of the center, that'll actually
fine tune it downward. And sometimes keys are
deliberately overcut just slightly so that they
can be very finely tuned by removing material.
And of course, there's a limit to that. But that
makes the surface longer. Yeah, it's amazing.
Isn't that sweet? It's fantastic physics. It's
funny. Like I've had to build these things over
the years and like I just did a wonderful event
with some of our patrons a couple weeks ago where
I was playing a setup of all homemade instruments
17 specifically tuned slats of wood and I chose
white pine because has such a warm sound but
like it's the same thing I had to figure out
how to cut that, tune it. And I spent a lot of
time. I mean, this is like years ago now when
I built those instruments, but I spent a lot
of time researching, you know, what are those
physical properties I need to be aware of, like
to the point where I was like looking into, you
know, some of the mathematical formulas to understand
this stuff. And there's also a couple of really
cool like DIY instrument building books and resources
out there that some of us know of. And it's pretty
cool because like, I don't know, tune slats of
wood, tune pipes. These are things that they
come up. It's a pleasure. I have a really amazing
father who's incredibly handy and growing up
with that kind of person in my life was really
cool because he could do anything. Something
was broken or needed to be built or fixed. He
just had the ideas and so many tools. I grew
up with that kind of role model and that's certainly
come into my job as a percussionist. I'm always...
seemingly building or finding solutions for these
things. Yeah, it's fun to make stuff. It is.
Well, aside from instruments, one other thing
that you and Janie make is you make things happen
musically. Yeah. Some of you out there may have
heard me rave about this before, but here we
have right in front of us the authority on the
Sound Atlas Music Festival. Yeah. Which this
summer will be in its third year here in Calgary.
Very true. Very exciting. It's kind of mind blowing
that we're already in year three, like we're
becoming a toddler. Yeah. So what is Sound Atlas?
What's the sort of the mission of the festival?
The Sound Atlas New Music Festival is basically
an offshoot of this mixed chamber ensemble I've
been playing with since 2012 called Latitude
49. And the mission with that group is to champion
and hold hands with living composers of today.
So that's a lot of commissioning. That's a lot
of collaborations and project building and We
always had this dream that we wanted to have
a festival of our own We've lived in several
different places and it never really just felt
right until we moved here and it was cool because
You know Janie and I lived apart for a year I
was finishing my doctorate and she had moved
here for the job and in that time She was getting
a real feel for what's going on and then as soon
as I moved up here This is now 2022 Then we started
really doing some serious inquiries of what is
possible to make a festival that celebrates living
sound. The work of composers here, the work of
composers from elsewhere, performers in Calgary,
performers from across the nation and across
the continent and beyond. So that's really an
offshoot of Latitude 49's mission to champion
the work of living composers. And it's really
a celebration of local, national, international
sort of levels of different artists who we think
do this exceedingly well. And it's been an amazing
thing to do. We look forward to it every year.
It's a lot of work, of course. So Janie and I
have been partners in making this thing happen.
The first year it happened, it was, it all happened
so quickly. We didn't know, like, could it happen?
Maybe, maybe not. And then it did and... it was
beautiful it was so much fun and we were like
okay this works we're going to keep doing this
as best we can so usually what happens is we'll
have a featured composer whose work we'll have
throughout the festival so the first year it
was a wonderful singer songwriter folk inspired
fiddle and vocalist Anika Sokolovski she just
wrote these beautiful sets of songs for us called
Don't Say a Word, and she called them Feminist
Rager lullabies. And they were re -tooling and
re -workings of classic sort of lullabies that
you may have heard as a young child, but pinpointing
the inherent sort of misogyny and sexist, blatantly,
you know, sexist content of some of these. And
this sidebar That specific piece is available.
Latitude 49 made a recording of that with Sokolovski.
Yes, exactly. So that's Don't Say a Word available
on New Amsterdam Records. So Annika was our first
featured composer. And then in the second year,
we had a Canadian -American composer, Jared Miller.
His body of work is just so cool. And we've known
Jared for a long time, and we've gotten to see
his body of work grow in really beautiful ways.
He's written wonderful works for orchestra. I
hope we get to play his music sometime. the CPO,
because he just writes really wonderful music.
And so he was featured in the second year. And
then in this third year, we're going to be featuring
the music of Jerry So, who's a really zany, interesting
composer who just has so many different inspirations
coming into her sort of sound world. She also
teaches composition at Princeton University.
And we met her a number of years ago when we
were there for a residency. So it's really cool
to bring her music back and to feature her music
in a really substantial way this time. So not
only is, of course, Latitude 49 will be performing,
but we'll have instrumentalists like this wonderful
violinist, world -class violinist, Jinju Cho,
performing a really large work of hers called
Toy Store for violin and electronics. And then
we'll have a performance of a duo for percussion
called Spoons, in which the percussionists are
playing actual spoons. And that'll be played
by two of our wonderful colleagues, Sean Buckley
and Nia DeVetsis. And then, of course, we have
all the music that she wrote for us over the
years. So it's really exciting to feature these
people and to feature our colleagues in the scene
at the local level and feature some of our colleagues
that we've gotten to know over the years who
are coming in from out of town. It's been really
wonderful to to build this thing. And, you know,
we already have the next two seasons pretty much
mapped out. Oh, exciting. It's really exciting.
And it's cool to have these visions of what could
be. And then you start thinking you work backwards,
like, OK, well, what do we need to do to get
there? Most of the time, it's like finding resources
and money. But it's been a really wonderful sort
of lab of not just like what are some cool pieces
to bring to the table, but also like to celebrate
all this stuff with our colleagues. here and
beyond. And I think it's really important for
us to consistently be having representation of
our local scene. I mean, in the second year,
we had, of course, the wonderful Adams and Nateli
with Akiko Tomonaga play selections from your
album. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we played a
piece by Dorothy Chang called All the Glitters
that was commissioned. for our album, 15 Feet
Closer to the Sky, and we played a world premiere
of the piece that was written after the album
by Arthur Bachman. Our one and only Arthur Bachman.
Yeah, he was on this podcast not too long ago.
So, you know, it's so interesting because among
our colleagues, you know, You and I are probably
two of the most active people in terms of commissioning
music and going out of our way to champion new
music. And I was so excited to be featured at
Sound Atlas because I love Sound Atlas. Yeah,
we do. Right. Like after that first year, I was
at every concert and I just I just loved it so
much. And I was so thrilled when you asked me
to play. But, you know, like I can't tell you
how happy. that makes us feel seriously like
it's really cool it's the best you know this
sort of thing is like the biggest thrill of of
what we do i think that's the beauty of sound
atlas though like it's that laboratory where
we can bring all these different artists and
kinds of music together and put them next to
each other and the cool thing is like each set
is not going to overstay its welcome. And we've
designed it that way. So each artist performs
about 30 minutes. You know, you get a taster
of all these different kinds of music making.
And we've had, of course, like, like more installation
sort of sound design things. And then we've had
more traditional, like chamber music, sort of
notated music aesthetics. And then we've had
free improvisation sets from you know, some of
our wonderful improvisers and free players here
in town. I'm thinking specifically of Circular
Sparrow as part of the Bug Incision series, and
it's really cool to bring these different circles
of the scene together and form this weird quadruple
Venn diagram of... sonic aesthetics. New music
is so big. It really is. It's such a big tent
of things that people are writing now and Sound
Atlas really embraces all of that. It is the
Atlas in which you are navigating that soundscape.
We're trying to reflect that. Composers have
so many resources these days in terms of inspiration.
wiggle our thumbs a little bit on our phone and
listen to music from the other side of the world
and You know, there's a lot of consumption of
music. Yeah, and I think that certainly plays
into Music that's being written now and certainly
plays into some of the things we do in the orchestra
whether it's a newer piece or Maybe it's a movie
score. I think composers are really Taking a
lot of inspiration from a lot of types of music
And it's really important, I think especially
for me and my job. I just feel really lucky that
I've had that experience of working with composers
who really are looking for a new kind of sound
world because I can have an idea of what they're
going for, kind of the movies in a lot of ways.
There's always like effects or sort of non -conventional
instruments and I just had a lot of really good
experience in like figuring out what that could
be And then of course you try it out And then
if it doesn't work you adjust, right? Yeah. Yeah
So sound atlas is at contemporary calgary And
what are the dates this year? The dates this
year are june 27th 28th and 29th. So last weekend
in june Contemporary calgary has been an amazing
partner. They welcomed us open arms open ears
open hearts, um when we had this idea in the
very first place and It's been a wonderful, wonderful
partnership with them to make Contemporary Calgary
the home of Sound Atlas. And the space is very
much part of the festival. Not only did you christen
the newly restored concert hall in there, which
was built a long time ago. It was torn out and
then made back to its original specifications
with a few modern upgrades. Sure. And we saw
pictures of the old version of that from like
the 60s. It was just so cool to get a sense of
the history of that building and what they were
doing to kind of bring engagement of performance
back into that space. Because as I think a lot
of us know, it was the old science center. But
now it's really just a beacon of performance,
art, and community. It's been a really, really
special place. And of course, they've had wonderful
news and developments, receiving some very serious
funding from the Alberta government. to expand
and not just the physical parts of the building,
but expand their mission. So we're very fortunate
to have them as a partner and just so grateful.
But you're right. You mentioned that the space
is part of it and we use the different spaces
in Contemporary Calgary as part of the festival.
So there's a more traditional concert space that's
a small kind of recital hall and then there's
the Atrium, which is a sort of gathering place
for all the patrons. And we do performances in
both of those. And then the other space down
in the lower level is the grotto, which is much
more open and modular space. And we've been able
to use these different spaces in interesting
ways. Yeah, the festival is amazing. Short sets,
flip -flopping spaces in the building. Come for
a whole day. Come for the whole festival. It's
three amazing days of amazing music. I know I'll
be there. It's not to be missed. It's such a
treat. It's one of my favorite things in the
summer in Calgary. It's really cool to hear.
You can find out more information on soundatlasfest
.com. Fabulous. Sound Atlas is not your only
summer activity, though. Like Alex Cohen, you
are involved with spin. That's right. That's
right. The Summer Percussion Institute at Mount
Royal University. That, I believe, is also in
its third year. So it's kind of a big first summer
for me showing up here, you know, started a new
music festival and then started a percussion
institute with some of our percussion colleagues
in town. And it was cool. Like, I remember one
day in rehearsal, I was talking with Malcolm,
that's Malcolm Lim. And I was like, hey, are
there any percussion camps here? He was like,
no, not yet. We should start one. I'm like, yeah.
And then we had the spirit. That's the spirit.
And like it's so cool like I love Malcolm because
like you'll give him an idea and then he just
immediately just like goes for it you know like
it's happened a number of times and it's been
really cool and I just think like rarely do you
find a person as just like open and willing to
just try things as Malcolm and just so grateful
to know him and to learn from him but turns out
there were other people having the same thoughts
like what would it be like to have a percussion
camp of sorts, a day camp for young people to
come explore and develop their skills as, you
know, young percussionists. And as it turns out,
our wonderful colleague, Nia Devetsis, was having
the same thoughts. So then we all kind of got
together and thought, this is a great team. Let's
do it. So the team has been the last couple of
years, myself, Malcolm Lim, Sean Buckley, Nia
Devetsis, and of course, Alex Cohen. And it's
been really fun. We do all sorts of different
things, including sort of specialist classes
on specific skill sets like snare drum, two mallet
playing, four mallet playing, timpani, and then
accessory playing, all sorts of different things
that you might come across as a percussionist.
And then we do more exploratory classes dedicated
to music from other parts of the world. In case
you don't know, Malcolm's an amazing samba player.
He spent time in Brazil and his wealth of knowledge
on that music is really, really fabulous. So
he leads us through a series of Samba performances.
And then we've also had guests, indigenous drummers
come in and teach us traditions of drum making
and songs that come from their people. And that's
also a really wonderful way to do a land acknowledgement
for us. We have someone come in not only to acknowledge
that this place is a place that has had many
people over the years, but also there's traditions
of music that accompany that, right? And it's
really important for us as percussionists to
be not only like aware of these things, but like,
I mean, it's a thing we constantly negotiate
is where do our instruments come from? And for
us, they come from all over the world. what the
process has been for that instrument to travel
from one part of the world to another and to
find itself on stage at the Calgary Phil, for
example. There's a big conversation there and
it's really important for us to acknowledge what
that conversation is and to be aware of what
it means to take up our instruments and what
it means to be kind of musical linguists. You
know, we're constantly navigating different languages
of music as percussionists because our instruments
are coming from different cultures. And it's
really important for young people to understand
that. And so that's a really wonderful way for
us to have an incredibly deep and meaningful
sort of conversation around the whole week. But
it's fantastic. And we always end the week with
a concert that features the faculty members,
the students in a number of different ways, of
course, smaller chamber works. And then we have
this thing we call orchestral karaoke, which
is really fun. We put together sections of the
students and they play kind of, they play along
to recordings of bigger repertoire that maybe
they haven't experienced yet. And it's so cool
that, you know, you see the, the outcomes of
this work in really awesome ways. I mean, we
just have like a bunch of really excited young
people to make a go at this thing. And I also
think about the future of what my section is,
right? I think about 20 years from now, who are
those players? Who are the people that are going
to be coming to work with me? Who am I going
to be hiring? And, you know, as long as we're
kind of feeding the scene in this way, I mean,
there's pretty cool potential. And I do see that
as an offshoot as my work now, because it's true.
I mean, people come and go and you have to be
thinking about what's the scene like in years
from now. Also, it's just incredibly rewarding
to work with people. I mean, I've been a teacher
in my whole career and this has been a particularly
fun version of that. Of course, it's a lot of
work and we all work together really well. It's
just been super fun to build, to see it grow,
and we get to think about what it's going to
look like a little while from now. How can we
expand it and what are the things we want to
be doing? To offer more opportunities for students,
but it's tough to balance these things Adam.
Yeah when you're someone who makes stuff happen
It's easy to put a little put a lot on your plate.
Yeah, I won't say too much but a lot Yeah, right.
Yeah, and Chris you are someone who makes stuff
happen It's incredibly rewarding but I have to
say again Calgary has been so welcoming to our
ideas and making these things happen. It's never
easy but Feel like the scene here has made it
a little bit easier to make these things happen
and that's that's been incredibly meaningful
So we're again, I have to stress how grateful
we are to be here Awesome. Yeah Well Chris in
your first year as principal percussionist of
the CPO Who are some people on stage who's playing
inspires you? How do I even like? How do you
answer this question because like I know there's
so many like There's just so many people you
that you're It's I know I know I gotta pick gotta
pick okay help how many Let's say two. Okay.
Okay, too I have to give it to Alex Cohen and
I remember the first concert I played it was
Beethoven 9 My first experience with the Calgary
Phil and I was playing triangle in Beethoven
9 and most of that piece is a timpani masterclass
and he's just such an incredible musician. And
you get to see it happen in real time, how much
he can affect the energy of a group. And I've
just, I've learned so much about what it means
to contribute to the orchestra by Alex is playing.
I just, it's a pleasure. I have to give it to
him. He's, he's been an incredible inspiration
for me and a wonderful mentor, of course. I mean,
dare I, Dare I flatter you at your own podcast?
No, boy. I think I have to. But, but Adam, I
mean, of course, you know, you, you were someone
that immediately were welcoming to me as a new
player into the scene and you just, just your
demonstration of what the job is has been a real
compass point for me. And I'll never forget when
you said, you know, we play for our colleagues.
That's the thing you come in to work for. And
that's been such a strong point for me to always
revisit in this first year. And it's, I'm going
to, and that's, that's going to keep happening.
Like you come in and you play for each other.
You play for your colleagues who are there day
in, day out, conductors come and go. Right. And
there are guest conductors that are going to
be there and then they're not, and they might
return. They may not, but the people that are
there every week, I mean, When you put the stakes
on who am I playing for? Of course, we're playing
for ourselves, but the extra Acknowledgement
of all these people you play for them and you
want to like share sound with them That's been
a really strong sticking point for me to just
Try to always be on my game Week in week out.
Sometimes it's really hard, you know, I mean
As David Sussman says, oh it can just be relentless
and it's true, but you find balance and you find
ways of managing it and I know this season has
been a tremendous learning curve for me in terms
of balance and you've said it I make things happen
I also have to say I make a lot of things happen
with my friends and my colleagues I don't just
make these these things happen by myself these
are all team effort endeavors and When you have
a good team, it makes it really easy and really
enjoyable and then of course I have I have to
be working with our production team to know what
what gear is needed and what the footprint is
So yeah big shout out to our production team
absolutely unsung heroes of the orchestra. My
goodness Frank Galant Absolute legend. He takes
such good care of us. He really does he really
does and I've been very lucky to have him as
our production manager in my first year on the
job But it's always a team effort But this this
season has been a big learn for me in terms of
finding balance And I think next season will
look very different in terms of what are the
projects I'm doing outside of work Because I
mean as you can guess I didn't know what the
outcome of my position would be when I was doing
the audition process. Oh, you already filled
up your calendar for this year before you were
offered the job. Exactly. I had said yes a number
of times and, you know, I prided myself on having
enjoyed a pretty awesome freelance career with
a lot of opportunities and you always say yes
and then you double down and say yes again. So
that has been a tremendous shift for me in terms
of what can I actually dedicate my time and energy
towards? And I think next season will be a little
bit different on that front, just because it's
been tough to balance. I won't lie, but nonetheless,
amazing. And I feel incredibly grateful to have
all these opportunities and to be able to come
into work and just look around and see all these
people who have worked their butts off to be
there and to take part in a life of sound. I
think it's tremendously special. It's profound.
It is. I'll reiterate that it is profound to
experience sound together on stage. Week after
week, sometimes the experience is one way and
then sometimes it's a very different way. And
I think back to Professor Bad Trip, that was
a very peculiar way of experiencing sound. And
if you had never experienced a piece like that,
then it's just like, Whoa, what is going on?
And for me, experiencing Beethoven nine. for
the first time with the CPO. That was a profound
experience. It just happened to be my first concert
to play with the ensemble, which was, you know,
couldn't have asked for a better experience.
It's just incredibly powerful to do this thing
together. And again, I show up to work for my
colleagues, you know, because those are the people
I'm going to be I'm going to be sharing the most
time with musically and sometimes otherwise,
like we see each other a lot just because we
are a community. And that's the cool thing, like,
yeah, the music is just the conduit to bring
people together, right? Like, if anything else,
like, we just get a bunch of people in a room
and then they can all experience this thing together.
And that's a huge, huge part of community building.
And I think these days, community is just, it
is important and it will become increasingly
important. But if you can put your faith in community,
then it makes things a little bit easier. And
I think that's what we do especially well as
colleagues and as orchestra members that are
offering something for people to come experience.
Yeah. Yeah. Well said, Chris. Yeah. Well, it's
been great playing with you this season. Oh,
it's been a thrill. My goodness. Yeah. And I
love that. Like you and I get to nerd out like
we get to nerd out on really funny things. It's
true. Yeah. True. Yeah. It's been a thrill. Absolutely.
Awesome. Thanks for coming on the show, Chris.
Honored to be here. 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 in this episode was from Split Selves
Like Crystalline Waves, for drum kit and electronics,
written and performed by Chris Size, and The
Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by Anika Sokolovsky,
also performed by Chris Size. And this is a wrap
on Season 1 of Notes from the Stage. I know I've
had a great time making the show this year. I've
had so many great conversations and learned so
much from my friends and colleagues. I hope you've
enjoyed and learned too. I'd love to know what
you've thought about the show. Leave a comment
on our social media or go to CalgaryFilmmusicians
.ca and use the contact form there. Questions,
comments and requests are all welcome. I'll be
back with more interviews in September. Talk
to you soon.