Interviews – Page 75

(Photo: Lena Shkoda)

A resident of Brooklyn, Faten Kanaan rakes through the territory of minimalism and repetition. With a passion for keyboards, from the piano to analog synthesizers, this young composer with Middle Eastern roots is part of a third generation to follow this path laid out by Steve Reich and Philip Glass. A Mythology of Circles, her fourth album, this time on the British label Fire Records, was celebrated by music media interested in the post-minimalist corpus. PAN M 360 is one of these cutting-edge platforms, and Kanaan connected with us from Brooklyn, to explain her background and her creative choices.

PAN M 360: As a composer, you seem to have carefully studied contemporary minimalism and repetitious music from the USA and Europe. Can you explain your own path in that sense?

Faten Kanaan: I studied piano at a young age, and then very briefly played the cello, harp, and oud later on. I never studied composition, but leant towards minimalism in music because it relayed an intentionality that I admire. Every note chosen serves a purpose. And with repetition, the smallest change can have a profound effect.

PAN M 360: What, for you, are the next steps in these post-minimalist explorations?

FK: With genres blurring and artists exploring the depths of overlapping electronic and acoustic instruments, I think it’s a really exciting time for music to expand its potential as a language. It’s not just about harmonies and structure, but also pushing the possibilities in timbre and texture.

PAN M 360: Your culture in music is obviously broader than minimalism in contemporary music. What other music styles or forms are involved?

FK: Film scores are definitely a big influence on me, as is some folkloric music from various cultures. And the music I love listening to generally finds its way into my own sensibilities.

PAN M 360: You seem to use different keyboards (including piano and organ) and other electronic devices, it’s part of your overdubs and general sounds, can you explain?

FK: I like to be minimal with the gear I use, so that I can really get to know an instrument and fully utilise its possibilities. Every synthesizer and instrument has a sound that its voice can shine in. On my early albums, I used a vintage Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 – but I wanted something more compact and solid for touring, and with a brighter filter, so I’ve been using an OB-6 desktop synth for the last three years.

My set-up for live shows and for recording are two rather different things. For live shows, I exclusively use the OB-6 desktop synth, with a midi controller keyboard and an old Boss 20-xl looper guitar pedal (without Midi) that I have. The looper has a nice natural drift to it, and I’ve gotten so used to its timing. Sometimes its constraints hold me back a bit, so I’m considering getting a new looper that will allow me more freedom on stage, compositionally. Since my introduction to performance was through classical music/piano, it’s important for me to perform everything live, so the audience can take that journey with me and understand how a song is being built, layer by layer.

For recordings, I can fully explore a composition without these restraints. The looper’s drift doesn’t translate well into recordings for me, so I manually play the repeating parts without it.

I use the OB-6, then add some VST instruments, depending on what the song needs.

Each track is born differently… but most often, I overdub the main harmonies and chords of a song in five- to seven-minute single takes (yes, my hands get tired), until I have the spine of a track. I then start recording all the shorter segments for the arrangement, editing, and mixing as I go along. The mixing process is very much part of the arrangement. It’s a lovely experience to hear a song becoming more nuanced as its structure and spirit take shape.

PAN M 360: What’s your training as a musician? Where did you study?

FK: I studied piano as a kid and loved it. I’d thought about applying to a conservatory, but decided to attend a liberal arts university. I moved to America, and started off as a double major in Fine Arts and Biology (w a focus in genetics). I quickly dropped the bio/pre-med bit, and did a minor in French literature instead. During this time I continued playing, just for fun, and occasionally sitting-in informally with friends’ bands. I did my Masters in Fine Arts (painting & sculpture), but often felt more comfortable expressing myself through music & performance work. It would be years before I took the leap into considering music as a main path, and am so glad I finally did.

PAN M 360: As a listener, what are your favourite genres, artists or periods of music history?

FK: Oh I can’t really pick one favourite genre…film scores, ambient drones, medieval and renaissance choral music, Arabic music, French and Italian 60s pop that my parents often listened to, folk, industrial, no wave, electronica…

PAN M 360: Do you relate to a music community? Do you share creative activities with other artists?

FK: I’m so grateful for the music community in New York and other cities – artists and engineers alike. It’s heartwarming to see how supportive people are of each other while still maintaining their own practice. And with the internet making international connections easier, it’s been wonderful to reconnect with the music community in Beirut, Lebanon (and in Amman, Jordan) recently. It’s been very fulfilling to find colleagues back ‘home’. Also, the UK has been especially supportive these last few years, I’ve really made a connection with artists, labels, and the audience there.

PAN M 360: Do you still enjoy your Brooklyn neighbourhood?

FK: I do still love Brooklyn and my community here, but am hoping to move back to Europe next year.

PAN M 360: Your background is diversified. Can you explain where you come from, where your ancestors come from, where you have been raised, and how this specific background had an impact on your craft, consciously or unconsciously?

FK: I’m Syrian-Palestinian-Jordanian-Lebanese, born in Germany, and was living between Europe and the Middle East before moving to the U.S. for university. Sometimes it’s a strange feeling not belonging to one place, or being able to call one place “home”, but on a positive note, every place I have a connection with becomes a home. And musically, I can draw from all these experiences.

PAN M 360: Is asking you about being a woman composer relevant? Some women composers refuse to talk about it, even think it’s lazy journalism. Others think it’s relevant and say there are specific ways and sensibilities to women’s composing processes. What do you think?

FK: I think it’s important whenever talking about gender, race, or ethnicity, to always remember that within each group is a diversity of voices. No one woman speaks for all, each will have different experiences, boundaries, goals. For myself, I don’t like being lugged as a “woman composer”, as it’s only one aspect of my identity. At the forefront, I’m a human. The music doesn’t sound any different because I’m a woman, it sounds the way it does because it draws from the various experiences that make up who I am… just like every musician’s vision is unique to them. My gender has never dictated what I do musically, nor who I associate with or relate to. I believe in the spirit of inclusivity.

Whether it’s the name, the music, or the commitment through its lyrics, the group Chaos E.T. Sexual is everything and its opposite. The collaboration of Thomas, Tarik, and Yves is truly unconventional. However, the music and the love for the drone/doom style brought them together for the better. On November 20, their third album Only Human Crust was released. They spoke to PAN M 360 about what attracts them more and more to this musical darkness.

PAN M 360: What was the genesis of the group?

CHAOS E.T. SEXUAL: We met at university, but in different contexts. As far as Thomas and myself (Yves) are concerned, it was during a bossa nova class. Quite paradoxical when you know that we are two big metal fans. At the time, we used to play Pantera together at home. As for meeting Tarik, it was also at university, in the same class. However, the friendly relationship took another dimension when we all met together at the HellFest festival. It’s afterwards that Tarik joined the band, when we needed to add a rhythmic base to our compositions. He was immersed in hip-hop and was already producing a lot of sounds. We had a particular affection for these two musical styles, hip-hop and drone, which we saw fitting together logically. It didn’t take long before we all composed together, and the magic happened.

PAN M 360: It took six long years before the release of this new album, why did it take so long, and what was your state of mind when you recorded Only Human Crust?

CETS: Like everyone else, we all have our own distinct lives, and experience emotions and events that are personal to each of us. During these six years, we questioned ourselves and lived many things. We had come to the point where we wanted to take a musical turn. We wanted to create something more alive, more danceable. But our love for the drone and doom style caught up with us. In particular, the fact that we play together all the time made this album take a darker turn than the previous one. We are attracted by melancholy and coldness. We live in an increasingly anxious society and the compositions of the last two years are a bit like our catharsis that we needed to express unconsciously. So the year 2020 has nothing to do with the atmosphere of this album, as is said a lot on the Internet. The album was even finished in January of this year.

PAN M 360: This new album is very heavy, dark, with an atmosphere worthy of a horror film – how did you create such an atmosphere, and what drives you into it?

CETS: You probably already know that we are very inspired by science fiction, horror films, politics, both good and bad. The paradoxes of these worlds can be found in our compositions and that’s what makes our style and also gives this atmosphere. When we open our album with a speech by Vladimir Putin who praises democracy and freedom of expression, it’s funny. The dramatic and sinister sides of the character fit our musical style. With the guitars, we try to work on the massive side, and the drums come to sublimate the balance of power between the frequencies. The tempos are very slow. We like that, playing in slow motion and as loud as possible. The drums play an important role in the interaction with the guitars. The power of this instrument is the highlight of our style. We have songs at 50 BPM, which is very slow and also allows us to convey a lot of emotions.

PAN M 360: As such, many songs are well over six minutes long. Is it the musical style that wants this or is it a way for you to convey emotions?

CETS: To take the example of the title Asylum, it was for us an exercise in style. That is to say to retranscribe in a minimum of time the emotion and the power of a title that usually lasts six minutes. But by doing this experiment, we realised that we succeeded in transmitting emotions in spite of everything. However, the length of the songs is linked to time. Imposing an atmosphere and telling a story. Taking time for that is necessary. We pay particular attention to the story told in our albums and slowness accentuates feelings and emotions. When we play on stage or even in the studio, we like the trance-like feeling that comes from these slow sounds. You have to raise the desire and that takes time. When we compose, it’s the same thing. This state of trance is common to the three of us, that’s why the alchemy takes each time.

PAN M 360: At each introduction to your albums, a political discourse is present, is it to be seen as a commitment of some kind, and what do these personalities inspire you?

CETS: Not necessarily a commitment, more an interest in the impact of the lyrics which coincides perfectly with our musical style. Characters like Vladimir Putin arouse our curiosity. He’s a sulphurous political figure whose speeches fit very well with our style. On the previous album, we used a speech by Salvador Allende, the socialist president of the Republic of Chile in the 1970s. One shouldn’t see any political perspective in it, but rather what the character reflects as an image. It’s a way for us to denounce artistically, by turning certain political speeches into irony, as on the track “Holy Liars” from the previous album. It also allows us to create dark and heavy atmospheres.

“Tomorrow Prudence” is the speech of Houari Boumédiène, President of Algeria in the 1970s, at the UN, which highlights the interference of France and Western countries in Africa, with the theme of colonization and the fate of migrants in certain European countries. And for that, you have to learn and read about what happened beforehand. Each sample of this type is reflected upon. It’s the result of historical research, which unfortunately always fits in with current events.

PAN M 360: On this subject, beyond political discourse, what are your other sources of inspiration in film, art, culture, and even society?

CETS: We are great lovers of cinema. So, when it’s not the speeches of dictators that inspire us, it is the great science-fiction directors. For this album, there’s Emir Kusturica and the film Time of the Gypsies, from which we used an extract of the soundtrack. It’s a post-war idea, as with the film Underground by the same director, whose apocalyptic side is very interesting in terms of sound. Like the loss of a lost paradise where everything collapses. The title “Solace Exhaust” was invented around that, linked to destruction.

On “1674-Now: Many Thousand Gone”, we can hear a gospel and a slave song, also following a trip to the United States. The sample is not only used for its musical aspect, but also for the interest it arouses. There’s a search, an idea to convey a message. The sample of the track “La Française des jeunes” is taken from the French programme Strip-Tease. An edgy show that highlights people’s everyday life, but in an ironic way and always with a kind yet funny look at the same time. A vision of things that’s similar to ours, and which is also found in our albums as well as in the name of our band.

PAN M 360: You said you wanted to write a story on each of your albums, how do you conceptualise your albums?

CETS: There is no calculation in the creation of our music and the concept of the albums, we go by instinct. Once we have the beginning of a song, we’re going to make the most of it, to see how far we can go and what we can do with it. There’s always a message behind each of our songs. We always work in successive stages without necessarily thinking that we’re going to do this or that concept for this or that song. We prefer to have material and let things mature. That also explains why we worked on it for six years. Time does the work too and participates in the creation of our songs. We often find an emotional framework on each one of them, which allows us to compose more easily. Ideas become clearer with time.

PAN M 360: We were previously talking about commitment, artistic, cultural, and political; there seems to be a certain meaning given to the cover, can you tell us about it?

CETS: We already knew what we wanted, and we called on one of our friends whose artistic vision we really appreciate and share. The idea was to describe a society based on the omniscience of the powerful who are represented by towers of governance, faced with parasites represented by rats trying to revolt. La planète sauvage is another animated and science-fiction film that inspired us. As for the pastel colours, they give a sense of opposition to the dark side of the album.

PAN M 360: Your band name is quite unique and recognisable, can you give us a rational explanation as to its meaning?

CETS: (laughs) The story behind this stage name is long and peculiar to us, but in short, it comes from an expression that a Peruvian friend often used during the concerts we all attended together. It was intended to show that there was a correlation between men being overweight and their libido, and that it was not related to alcohol consumption. From there, we took this expression away and the word ‘chaos’ contrasts perfectly with sex and music. E.T. is none other than the character in Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name, which also defines the group, since we are all three of us passionate about cinema, science fiction, horror and many other genres. All in all, the name represents us perfectly, the ironic side contrasting with the dark emotion of our music.

For the first time in eight years, cellist Stéphane Tétreault will play Bach’s famous Suites for Solo Cello, over two evenings (December 3 and 4 online) as part of the Festival Bach Montréal. It was a great opportunity to talk with the artist about pandemics, the cello, and the changes in his way of playing this music that’s frankly invincible to the passage of time and tastes.

PAN M 360: Hi Stéphane, nice to talk to you! How are you dealing with the pandemic and all the restrictions?

Stéphane Tétreault: Hi, very happy to talk to you too! I’m experiencing the pandemic a bit like everyone else: it’s difficult. The deprivation of family and friends ends up affecting my morale, for sure, they have a big place in my life. And then, the deprivation of the stage, and direct contact with the audience, adds another layer. Having said that, I can’t complain either. I’m lucky enough to make several recordings, and keep busy with several things. That’s not the case for everyone.

PAN M 360: It’s true, we saw you in a Quartier des spectacles commercial, among other things, alongside many other performing artists, such as Adib Alkhalidey, Ariane Moffatt, Catherine-Anne Toupin, Emmanuel Schwartz, and Lydia Bouchard…

ST: Yes, I was very touched to be invited to participate! It’s a beautiful initiative that reflects the importance of culture. We need to talk about living art, talk about its vitality and the benefits it brings to all of society.

PAN M 360: Especially now that we’re starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Are you optimistic for the post-pandemic period?

ST: Yes, although I anticipate that it will not be easy for some time to come. Having said that, it seems obvious to me that people are super eager to get back into the venues to see and hear the artists, and vice versa! I think that when the return is official and without too many restrictions, the intensity of the positive energy will be incredible! I, for one, can’t wait to sit down at a concert or theatre and welcome the emotions that the artists will want to share with me. I’m just as eager to offer emotions to the audience in front of myself.

PAN M 360: Let’s get to the main reason for this interview: the Bach Suites that you are playing in two evenings at the Festival Bach Montréal. Is it the first time you’re performing them in one shot like this?

ST: No, I played them in two evenings as well in 2012, at the Festival Classica de Saint-Lambert, but I was only 19 at the time. It was a bit crazy to accept this kind of challenge at such a young age, because these suites are very demanding not only technically and musically, but also emotionally mature. I still took up the challenge, but never again since. Of course, I’ve played a suite here and there in various concerts, but never again in one go. So this will be the second time, but not the last!

PAN M 360: Are you planning to do them again elsewhere?

ST: I’d like to tour with them, all over Quebec and Canada, and even internationally.

PAN M 360: Let’s talk about your vision and your understanding of these musical monuments. What has changed since 2012?

ST: So many things! I’ve had to review my bowing and fingering 112 times! My approach has also changed a lot. I would say it’s more… refined, closer to the source of this music. Among others, I worked with Elinor Frey, a Montreal baroque cellist of immense talent and deep stylistic knowledge of early music. She opened my mind to the culture and thinking of this musical discipline, Baroque performance, although I don’t pretend that this is exactly what I will do. Let’s just say that my playing is now “informed” by it.

PAN M 360: What is the best advice you got from her?

ST: She taught me so much! It’s difficult to identify a single point. Spontaneously, I would say that she made me aware of the meaning of the expression “less is more”. In this kind of music, you have to convey emotions, it has to be warm and communicative, but it has to be subtle and refined. You don’t spend all your time tearing your shirt on stage, and that’s not necessary for the music to say what it has to say anyway. There is also the organist and harpsichordist Mireille Lagacé, whom I must thank, she has accompanied me in my development. She taught me a lot about the type of playing to be deployed in this kind of music.

PAN M 360: Do you remember your first encounter with this music?

ST: I remember that when I was 11 years old, Yuli Turovsky gave me the first follow-up to learn. I knew the melody of the Prelude, like everyone else, but without more depth. I practiced, I practiced, but Yuli was never satisfied with my performance. One day he said to me, “Stéphane, imagine you are Bach. You have insomnia and you decide to go to church and improvise on the organ rather than toss and turn under the covers. You have to play the Prelude as if it were in the middle of the night, improvising to lighten your mind. It’s not thought out, it’s not thought out for this or that effect, it’s spontaneous and it’s not too hard, because you’re alone in a church in the middle of the night!”

It made an impression on me. I thought about it constantly afterwards. So much so that, shortly afterwards, at the Concours de musique de Sorel, just before starting this piece, I crouched down on the cello and concentrated on projecting myself into this scenario for something like a good 45 seconds! The judges must have wondered what he was doing there! In the end, I was satisfied after playing it, which I didn’t often get to do?

What’s so great about this music? Listen to a simple and effective tutorial to better understand the fascination of Bach’s famous Prelude to Suite No. 1 (in English, with cellist Alisa Weilerstein).

PAN M 360: Both evenings are at 10 pm (if we listen live, but we can also listen to them afterwards). Is it an advantage or a constraint for you to play at this time?

ST: It suits me very well! I’ve already played a programme at 11 pm in Switzerland, with candlelight and everything. I adjust my routine accordingly, taking a nap in the afternoon, for example. I’m a night owl! If I had to give a concert at 9 am, then I think it would be a bit more difficult!

PAN M 360: I wish you all the best for these two evenings!

ST: Thank you!

Photos: Stian Andersen et Vanessa Heins

Is there a common sensibility among women artists with northern origins? With the help of our colleague and friend Jeremy Spellazon, PAN M 360 thought it appropriate to bring together two writers, composers, and performers with Arctic origins, loved and recognized south of the Arctic Circle. The great-grandmother of Ane Brunvall, better known by the diminutive Ane Brun (pronounced An-ha Broon), came from the Sami people living in the Arctic regions of Scandinavia. Elisapie, for her part, is a full-fledged Inuit and curious to talk to her Norwegian interlocutor, who has lived two decades in Sweden and is considering leaving Stockholm to settle in Oslo, where her husband lives.

Ane Brun and Elisapie courteously accepted our proposal, the other pretext being the imminent release of two albums of new songs by Ane Brun, from the same creative cycle: After the Great Storm and Ow Beauty Holds the Hands of Sorrow, on the Balloon Ranger label.

PAN M 360: Many thanks to you ladies for having accepted this invitation! The first question is at the heart of this encounter: is there a common sensibility for artists from the far north?

Elisapie: Yes, I think so! Having been in Kautokaino, in the northern part of Norway, I felt strange at that time because I discovered the humour of the Sami people, the same humour as my people in Nunavik. Oh my goodness, that was so close! I haven’t been there for performing, but for a documentary film. My biggest, biggest regret is not having worked hard enough to make things happen in the northern countries. But next time!

Ane Brun: What was the documentary about ?

Elisapie: It was a film on the polar-circle peoples, I could go to Alaska, Siberia, Greenland, Norway, and northern Canada. In Norway, I could eat reindeer recipes, I loved it! It was an amazing experience. And you, Ane, are you from the northern part of Norway?

Ane Brun: No. I grew up in Molde, halfway between the south and the north of Norway, but my mom’s family is from the north – an hour driving from Tromsø. Her grandmother was Sami, so we have a straight line.

PAN M 360: More precisely, what do Sami people have in common with Inuit people in Nunavik?

Elisapie: The first thing I really felt is the very calming rhythm. This is a different territory from the Sami territory, but the presence of the people is quite similar. I mean people being in the moment. And also when you live something with Sami people and a friendship is possible, it’s not halfway. Something is marked forever. People open up very quickly. Inuit people experience the same openness in my Indigenous community. Once you are in their world and environment, it is open. So that is really what I felt in Norway, it was family.

Ane Brun: It’s nice! We Norwegians don’t know the Sami language. There is still a barrier, we don’t get a chance to really step into the atmosphere that exists up there. By the way, The Sami language is quite present in the North, there is a Sami presence in the government, there is Sami language on the TV, but is is always subtitled .

Elisapie: It’s the same here in Canada. Inuktitut is one of the most difficult languages to learn. You know, I thought there would be common roots in our two languages, but no. The Sami langage is totally different from Inuktitut.

Ane Brun: Personally, I have never been in the Sami culture, even if my great-grandmother was Sami. Otherwise, my mother tried to rediscover this culture, she tried to connect with relatives and started digging in our family history. She discovered that when her grandmother was alive, it was quite difficult to be a Sami during her life, there was a lot of discrimination. You know the singer Mari Boine? Even for her generation, it was really hard. Until recently, Sami people were forced to speak Norwegian, to go to Norweigian school, there were religious expectations and cultural assimilation. In Sweden and Norway, there’s a really sad story about how Indigenous people were treated. That changed not a long time ago, I can imagine that some of my mom’s ancestors didn’t want to live as Sami people because it was really hard, but my mom wanted to rediscover, she reconnected with relatives and knew more about the tribe where we come from. Later, people from my generation learned about this inequality, it’s quite recent. There was a great Swedish movie called Sami Blood that also had an important impact on our awareness. And I have myself had a chance to sing with Mari Boine and also with Sofia Jannok, another Sami artist – Sofia had permission from Bon Iver to translate some of his songs into the Sami language, so she made an EP of Bon Iver songs, and I got to sing in Sami with her. With Mari Boine as well, we wrote a song together for a TV show where Scandinavian artists were coupled with Sami artists. Then we met for three days to write the song and I got to know the amazing Mari Boine better. It became a beautiful song, she used the joik singing.

Elisapie: I also met Mari Boine, I opened for her in Belgium. She is magical, her presence is almost scary!

PAN M 360: How do each of you identify the Northern aspects of your craft?

Elisapie: I think it is unconscious but… If I write a song, I can say that I have to look outside, I must have window to see the sky. Where I am from, there are no trees and a lot of horizon. I left the North when I was 23, it’s still very present in my mind. Life is hard in my community, the suicide rate is high, people try to get their shit together. There is that sense of the North everywhere I go and I am. Even now in Montreal, I’m getting to know myself in a stronger way. And I think my roots are coming back to me a lot more. I have three children now, I try to find many things since I’m a mother, and funnily, I feel I’m more Inuk than ever. I don’t live daily the traditions of my people – food, hunting, etc. – but I reflect partly on this life when I write songs. But I try to be in the moment, not intellectualize my work too much while I am creating. I think it’s a Northern way of seeing things.

Ane Brun: For me, inspiration from the North is the nature as well. I connect with nature. You and me, Elisapie, also have the same age in common… because I checked your profile on Wikipedia (haha!). So we are both in the middle of our lives. I lived in Sweden for 20 years and I’m in the process of moving back in Norway because my partner is in Oslo (where I am actually speaking to you from). Since two or three years, I could connect with my Norwegian roots. Sweden is not far away but it’s different, with a different history, so I have been longing to come back I feel that I’m connected to those first 20 years of my life, so that is kind of your same feeling of being connected with your roots. So in my songwriting lyrics, I use a lot the nature. I grew up in a very beautiful place with the fjords, the sea, and the mountains. And I know when I write about big emotions, nature is the element that come up, it’s the wind, it’s the water, the ocean, the waves, the mountains, the temperature. I remember having studied the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg when I was a teenager, they were talking about the importance of nature in his music, and I didn’t get it at that time. Now I look back on my own music and I can see it. It does inspire me, it does influence me that I had the nature so close to me.

Elisapie: It is awesome the way you talk about nature. I also have a lot of anori – wind, in Inuktitut – in my songs. The wind purifies! The natural elements can be very harsh in the North but also very beautiful and symbolic. It is the same thing for me. I am more in touch and in tune with that in my songwriting.

Ane Brun: The darkness in the North during the winter is also important. We are about to get in the darkest times of the year, the sun goes down at 3 pm…

PAN M 360: What about artists from the far north being based in big cities?

Elisapie: The North never leaves you in the big cities where we live. North is gorgeous, harsh, tough, spectacular, those very strong elements make you an outsider, in a way, when you live in the south. At the beginning, when I moved to Montreal, I was so excited to live in a big city, to meet new people, learn new languages, live new experiences, eat new food and on and on. But after a while, you ask yourself questions. Me, what am I, really? I feel I missed out so much by leaving my family, my little cousins, my friends. When it gets dark and Christmas is coming, I start to think about my family… but I’m still such an independent person. So one side of me is longing but the other side of me made a decision of living with that decision. I am happy where I am, but certainly I bring the North with me in my personal life. I am very connected, but I don’t always share it. Songwriting becomes interesting when you open this little bubble, more fragile, more vulnerable, all this ancient culture becomes my guard. For me, the North is a source of inspiration and challenge.

Ane Brun: I was 19 when I moved away from my small town. I didn’t look back until I started longing a few years ago. Nature is also different in Sweden. I’m kind of moving away from the big cities more and more because I have done it for 25 years and I still access it through my work. Oslo is a big city of course, but not as big as Stockholm is. I don’t feel the same way in Oslo. For sure, the things that I grew up with are carried around with me.

Elisapie: The first time I heard your music was a while ago. A friend of mine told me that I must hear your music. And I did, it really dit hit me then. I really love your music, I think you have a very singular voice, every time you do new music, it’s very strong. I’m just curious to know, who did you listen to? We all have many influences, but you must have one person that made your voice the way it is, that emotion that you have, that you connect to?

Ane Brun: I think there are quite a few! First, my mother is one of them, she is a musician, she sings and plays piano. She’s quite bold in her singing… and growing up like that, I didn’t sing and make my music until my twenties. I didn’t think myself about singing until I turn 20. And didn’t think about my influences until more recently, but now I know that my childhood must have influence me a lot. I think it’s a big mix of everything. Jazz singers for the phrasing in a different genre, and big stars like Annie Lennox, and also more whispering and obscure singers. So it’s a mix of many things, you know. When I first heard my voice on tape, I liked it. It has developed on its standing point, I tried to expand it all the time, always tried to explore with the microphone, reverb, etc. and explore what it could do. My sound have been developed by me listening, trying to fine something warm and connecting.

Elisapie: You made many albums, it’s amazing. Where do you think you are now with your expression?

Ane Brun: I made two albums released this fall. I really tried to do two different outputs, the second coming now (November 27) is more relaxed. I tried different things and I observe that my voice is more versatile now. I can do a lot with it, it’s something that I developed through live shows. So the two new albums have been recorded in the same cycle. At first I was going to record one album, and I had 16 songs. The songs on the first album are bigger sounding, you can move to it, lots of beats, more elaborate production. And then in the studio, a few songs didn’t want to be that big. So I let them become small. And then I listen the recordings and I wasn’t happy with three of the “big songs”. I also made them small songs, and I finally had other small songs, enough not to be released at the same time. So I decided to make two albums from the same cycle of music. We released one different song each month during the last months, so we had many singles. Releasing all those singles was an experiment, we didn’t know if it would be too much, and it finally worked out really well. It created a momentum. When the first album came out a few weeks ago, people were still interested.

Elisapie: I love that you have your own label! I also love the idea of releasing two albums almost at the same time. People are so afraid to try new things!

Ane Brun: Yeah! It’s a good thing, actually. It’s been very interesting for us as a label, we combined the old way and new way to release my music.

PAN M 360: Could we have a few more words about the second album, with those songs that wanted to be small ?

Ane Brun: My father passed away. I first shut down and took a break. When I started writing , a moment after, big life questions came up. Midlife, roots, missing my own country, my little town, etc. The lyrics are about griefs, also existentialism, I’ve been kind of my own philosopher, my own Buddha. A lot of of big issues are on these albums. Weirdly enough, this year brought up similar questions as well, so those songs are still relevant, even though they were written last year! Some journalist said that the most recent album is very empathetic and the previous one is darker. Indeed, the new small songs are more empathetic, those songs didn’t want to be big and roaring, they wanted to be like whispers. That’s what they’re supposed to be for people. It’s quite sad sometimes, but it is also comforting and soft. While the other one can be quite dramatic, it also connected with the same big issues, but with a different output.

Elisapie: It’s almost like you are comforting yourself!

Ane Brun: As you say! And yes, I tried something different. About yourself, Elisapie, did you sing as a teenager?

Elisapie: Like you, Ane, I experienced the singer in me later on, which was a good thing. I was around 23. New life for an Inuk girl, identity crisis and more… Of course, I’ve sung since I was a kid, I did it first at the church… I liked it because that was the only place where I could sing! And we didn’t have music school or other institutions to learn music. There was also my amazing uncle’s rock band, so I loved music as a teenager. But I was so shy that it took me a long time tell myself, yeah, I could sing.

Ane Brun: I just watched your Tiny Desk session. Great!

Elisapie: Thank you! It happened a year ago and my last album was out two years ago. Probably new things will be added this year in my creative agenda. Since spring, I was supposed to write new songs, but I couldn’t – many things happened, especially for Indigenous people in Quebec. A lot of awareness and also tragic things happened in the Indigeno-sphere, in the lights of Black Lives Matters. An event has been very important: an Indigenous woman died in a regional hospital after having been badly treated, in such an horrible manner. But she filmed her bad treatment with her phone before dying, so it shocked everybody here. There is now a movement called Justice for Joyce (her name) and it touches many people, even including children at elementary schools. “Hello Elisapie, I’m singing a song in Inuktitut!”, a kid told me. In my oldest daughter’s high school, teachers spoke about this tragic event and all this ugliness. Also, people get more and more aware of relocation of Indigenous people in the past, and also horrible treatment in residential schools over many years. So all this new awareness is very positive. Hopefully this winter, I will shut up and write new songs in my little bubble, inspired by the wind and other natural elements.

Ane Brun: Maybe you will also be inspired by those events.

Elisapie: Yeah! By some hope and some beauty. There is a lot of beauty that needs to come out.

Ane Brun: Will you write in Inuktitut?

Elisapie: I have a feeling that my Inuktitut is not limited as it was. Our language is very simple, very day tot day. Having a kind of Bob Dylan poetical approach is not a very Inuit way of seeing things, but… I think so much is going on, I find new vocabulary in our language. It will be much more fun for me, playing with words. So yeah, the elastic is looser.

Ane Brun: Maybe you are partly responsible for this expansion of the language.

Elisapie: Yeah, possibly! People want to hear who we are, much more than, “Okay she’s from the cold.” We are also human beings with feelings, passionate, intense. We are all much more than people from the cold and the white snow. So Ane, let’s keep in touch!

Ane Brun: Yes! I will talk to music festival organizers to invite you to Scandinavia!

Son of the mythical Fairuz and the equally legendary composer Assi Rahbani, Ziad Rahbani is an outstanding Lebanese artist: director, actor, pianist, very gifted composer… and very atypical. His original mix of classical Arabic music, modern jazz, funk, and contemporary music of Western tradition are still little known outside the Levant. Better late than never? Sooner or later, Ziad’s work will cross all borders. An opportunity to discover it arises at the Festival du monde arabe: for a while, the singer Lara Rain was his favourite performer. Living in Montreal since last winter, she is the ideal herald for Ziad Rahbani’s work to take its place in the city.

PAN M 360: How do you see Ziad’s musical revolutions? What do you think they are?

Lara Rain: I didn’t really know Ziad growing up. Born in Montreal, I was surrounded by another culture. Even back in Lebanon, we spoke French at home. My mother produced her own plays for children singing in French. My father had his own rock band and sang in English. I didn’t listen to Arabic music at all, which I didn’t like at all. Ziad Rahbani, I only knew him by name. As I grew up, and especially during my years at university, I discovered the impact and influence he had on Lebanese people of all ages. His plays are part of the cultural heritage and his music is in every home. But I knew him as a person first, before I knew his music and his theatre. Then, little by little, he showed me what he was doing… I remember the studio sessions where he made me listen to his records. I used to tell him, “It’s so beautiful!”, and it made him laugh to see me discovering things that everyone already knew. And then, it was through his fans, the people who came to listen to us, the messages I received that I realized how immense his impact is. Ziad is not only a very gifted musician. Ziad is a message, a way of being, a revolution in itself.

PAN M 360: What do you think of this allegedly atypical personality of Ziad?

Lara Rain: He thought it was strange when I told him that I was not interested in politics. “You watched my interview last night?” And I said, “A little bit, at first… you know, I don’t like politics, Ziad.” “But you sing with me!” He laughed at my (deliberate) political ignorance. I said I liked his music and that was it. The truth is that you can’t really separate Ziad’s music from Ziad’s ideology. It’s one and the same world. As I said before, Ziad is a revolution in himself. I love the way he thinks! Playing in underground bars and on the stage of big festivals is his way of saying that music is for everyone. If he could, he would have played everywhere for free. One day he gave me a bass drum full of CDs. He said, “Give them out, give them to people. Everybody has to have the chance to listen to beautiful songs.” For me, Ziad is the music, the arrangements that give me goosebumps, the lyrics so simple and true. Ziad is the artist who is a bit crazy, hyper-intelligent, unpredictable, (sometimes) stubborn, very sensitive, with his mischievous eyes and a unique sense of humour. A man with the heart of a child.

PAN M 360: How did you get to know Ziad? Were you in Montreal, or Canada, before you came to Beirut? How did you come to work with Ziad?

Lara Rain: I started my career in Montreal. I was carrying my digital piano around in bars and restaurants and singing my own compositions. I came back to Beirut in 2007 to spend Christmas with my family and play a concert. That’s how Ziad Rahbani heard my voice for the first time… he asked me to come to his studio. I played on his piano, we discussed everything and nothing and then he asked me to sing with him in his next concert. And the next one, and the one after that… I never went back to Montreal. That meeting, I think it was mostly a meeting of souls. We come from two different worlds and we are far apart culturally. But he understood me and I understood him. He fell in love with my voice and I fell in love with his music.

PAN M 360: How did Ziad involve you in his creative work?

Lara Rain: I have always been a very shy person, not very sure of myself. Ziad played a very important role in building my self-confidence. In the beginning I sang jazz standards with him in English. Sometimes I didn’t sing them exactly like the original, as jazz was a new style for me at the time. But his remarks were always encouraging. “I like very much how you made the song your own.”

His attitude towards me allowed me to explore my voice without fear. Two years after our debut, he wanted to produce my own songs. We started recording his favourite in his studio. That year, he also produced me in concert. I had never sung my songs in front of so many people before! Unfortunately, we never finished that project, but we started another one! Recording his songs with my voice! Another project that never saw the light of day. And then Ziad wanted me to start singing in Arabic… his mother’s classics. Singing Fairuz… It was a big responsibility for me! But I don’t sing quartertones and I don’t pronounce Arabic like the others. “I don’t want you to sing in quartertones, I want you to sing with your voice, with your own style of singing.” What he did in the end was strengthen my style instead of changing it. It’s making me discover it for myself and teaching me to love it and see it as a strong point, instead of a limitation. How did he involve me in his creative work? Without trying to change me, quite simply. Developing my assets to add to his. And also by asking me, very humbly, if I liked what he played on his piano. But we all know the answer to that question!

PAN M 360: What musical styles did you explore with him?

Lara Rain: All of them. All of them. Ziad is my biggest music school. It’s because of him that today I listen to Arabic music. Well, maybe not just any: only Fairuz and Ziad Rahbani. He has a unique way of mixing Lebanese music with jazz. An exchange of cultures that speaks to my heart.

PAN M 360: When did you return to Montreal?

Lara Rain: I came to Montreal in February 2020 to accompany my fiancé on his tour. He’s a musician too. We were planning to get married here with my family, and then go back to Lebanon to celebrate with his family. But circumstances did not allow it. And we ended up settling in Montreal… the city welcomed us very well. Montreal has always been my great getaway over the years. I always wanted to come back here. My husband will be playing with me on November 28. In fact, he is the one who took care of the musical aspect of the concert. He is working very hard for this show, at my side.

PAN M 360: What is your state of mind regarding the current situation in Lebanon, the youth revolt, the anti-corruption movement, last summer’s explosion, etc.?

Lara Rain: Before I came back to Canada, I was on the streets of Lebanon almost every day with my flag in my hand. I have never been a patriot, but the revolution has awakened in me this sense of belonging. We absolutely need change! Young people don’t want to know anything anymore about all these political parties that only separate us by showing our differences. It’s time to build a country on common beliefs. We have so many similarities, we want the same things: to live with dignity and to have an honest and reliable government. The Lebanese have been robbed for years. The corruption of the country disgusts me. The explosion… leaves me speechless. All I can say is that I keep hope, that one day we can all go back to this beautiful country… that one day I will produce another play there, that I will see again all those who (like me) had to leave, and that Lebanon will become again what it once was.

PAN M 360: What will Ziad’s repertoire be on the FMA programme?

Lara Rain: I will mainly sing the songs that I have already performed alongside Ziad. There are others that he had asked me to prepare but that we have never sung together. As I work on them, I always imagine him sitting in front of me and I can imagine how he would have liked to listen to them! I’ve been missing him a lot since we started the preparations! Singing Ziad, without Ziad… it makes me melancholy and nostalgic.

PAN M 360: Any Fairuz classics on the programme?

Lara Rain: Yes, of course! In addition to the beautiful songs that Ziad Rahbani wrote for his mother, I will also sing classics composed by his father (Assi) and his uncle (Mansour).

PAN M 360: Do you plan to perform your own songs?

Lara Rain: I have written a lot of songs during my career. Most of them have been transformed and are now part of my musicals. But I will only sing two of them during the concert: the first song I wrote in Arabic, and Ziad’s favourite song, the first one he asked me to record in his studio. I would like to thank the Festival du monde arabe for this great opportunity! I have always dreamed of coming back to Montreal, my hometown, with Ziad. I also always wanted to do a show at Place des Arts. Because of the current circumstances, the situation is not exactly what I imagined… an empty venue, and Ziad in Lebanon. But the festival has found a nice solution to all this… and my family in Lebanon, as well as Ziad, will be able to watch the show online.

The Festival du monde arabe (FMA) presents the concert Au royaume du tarab on November 29, as part of its 2020 online edition. Meet Montreal singer Nidal Ibourk, wh’s passionately in love with a musical genre that Westerners should know better, and learn to love too!

PAN M 360: What is tarab?

Nidal Ibourk: Tarab is an Arabic word meaning “ecstasy”. Basically, it’s a style of Arabic music that conjures a sense of emotional power. In reality, almost every traditional Arabic music, be it more intellectual or classical, and popular, is tarab. So, you could say that every music written and played before, say, the 1980s, is part of the great tarab tradition.

PAN M 360: Who are the main performers of this style?

NI: Some great names are fundamental in the repertoire: Oum Kalthoum, the great Egyptian singer from the golden age of tarab; Mohammed Abdel Wahab, nicknamed the Stravinsky of Arabic music; and Fairouz, maybe the best known Arabic artist of this era in the West. I’d say that we should also consider Farid el Atrache as one of the most important musicians of tarab.

PAN M 360: Can we make links with Western music? What kind of well-known artist here is comparable, in terms of importance, to these artists in the Arab world?

NI: Well, think of Frank Sinatra. Or, on the French side, think of Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Tarab is not to be compared to classical music, like that of Mozart or Beethoven, but rather with a kind of popular music coloured by a classical drapery, with large and generous orchestrations, very romantic and delivered in a powerful emotional expression.

PAN M 360: Is the tarab a single style throughout the Arab countries?

NI: There are huge differences! Moroccans don’t do tarab like Lebanese, which do it differently than Egyptians, Syrians, or Algerians. Let’s compare, once more, with Western music. Take Sinatra against Brel or Aznavour. There is a similar spirit, but in the details, they are worlds apart.

PAN M 360: Does the younger generation like this music?

NI: It’s difficult. They may have respect for it, because they know it’s part of their cultural roots, but they don’t really listen to it. Other music absorbs all their attention now, like pop, hip-hop, rock, etc. But it’s a worldwide phenomenon. In Europe and North America, classical music, folk traditions, and other rooted musical expressions are more or less relegated to marginality.

PAN M 360: Tell me about the November 29 concert, part of the Festival du monde arabe (FMA) – what does the program consist of?

NI: The program of the concert is focused on songs of the great masculine voices of tarab tradition. So, you’ll hear pieces from Abdel Wahab, El Atrache, and many others. I will perform with a very good Montreal singer named Wassim Kamar, and also with an orchestra made up of the best Montreal artists that can play tarab instrumental accompaniment. There are good musicians here. That being said, I would like to have more opportunities to play and perform this music in Montreal. The FMA does a great job, and other organisations also, but there should be more concerts all year long, and more venues programming Arabic music. I would like to play a role in the blossoming of this wonderful tradition here, after COVID.

PAN M 360: Would you like to make your living from this art?

NI: Of course! But one has to remain reasonable. It is hardly feasible in normal time, even more now! I must say I consider myself very happy to have my job of Graduate Program Coordinator at McGill! I know many friends in music for whom times are very hard.

PAN M 360: Well, we wish you the greatest success, for the 29th and for the future as well!

NI: Thank you.

Photo: Félix Renaud

Nourished on the rap of Alaclair Ensemble, FouKi, 21 years old, is now signed to the same stable as his inspiration, Disques 7ème Ciel. He worked for it, the proof being his four albums, including one with Koriass. Under cover of playful lyrics and catchy melodic beats, he tackles delicate themes. Grignotines de luxe, a 12-track album that’s a sequel to the EP released a few weeks ago, gives pride of place to singing, brass, and guitar, and reveals structures close to pop and chanson. PAN M 360 spoke with FouKi about his record, a work without hang-ups.

PAN M 360: You say that Grignotines de luxe is your most accomplished album.

FouKi: First of all, on the production side, we looked for more instruments, then also on the lyrical side, there’s like a guideline to the album, more than with the previous ones, which were maybe a bit more collections of songs. This time I started with three or four songs, and then I built around them. It’s been a long time since I’ve got the feels, as you might say. Sometimes I listen to Bijou again and, I still get shivers.

PAN M 360: It’s obvious that the common thread is food, can you tell me more about that?

FouKi: It’s not necessarily just like, “you have to eat, go ahead, eat the food, yeah, yeah” (laughs), I’m making innuendo, I don’t just talk about “Crêpes sirop d’érable”. I’ve noticed that “S.P.A.L.A.”, live, works almost too well, the crowd shouts “spaghetti garlic bread!” It made me think that food is a bit like music. You’re going to think of a dish and it’s going to take you back to your grandmother’s when you were young. I wanted to exploit the perceptual side of food.

PAN M 360: Concerning the track “Crêpe sirop d’érable”, it’s also a way of talking about Quebec identity. On Bijou you approach it differently, you say “I’m a fucking wanderer in my country, Canada.” Can you explain your feelings?

FouKi: I’m not a hater of Canada, I love Canada, it’s just that you have to be aware of it, I’ve been out West with my girlfriend and I met people who didn’t think we could speak French in Quebec, they just don’t know, some people think we speak English. It’s a mixture of ignorance and thoughtlessness on the part of Canadians who are not Quebecers.

PAN M 360: Is your rap music a platform for highlighting this culture?

FouKi: You know, when you’re a young artist, you look for your identity, that was part of my questioning – “I could rap in English, or more French style” – at some point it’s not just my personal identity, I want it to be Quebecois. My father comes from Baie-Comeau and my mother from Lac Saint Jean, I was born in Montreal, it’s a nice mix. I grew up in a culturally diverse environment, I still have my Quebec roots.

PAN M 360: Who did you mainly work with on this album?

FouKi: “Beigne” is a song by Richard Beynon who did “Ciel” (with Alicia Moffet) too. That beat was supposed to be for Kanye West and he slept on it. After that, Marc Vinvent composed “Table d’hôte” with me in mind. Except on “Grignotines” and “PCU”, where I made the basic beat, it’s pretty much all Michel (Quiet Mike) and Clément (the guitarist of Clay and Friends).

PAN M 360: You sampled the voice of Louis-José Houde, who did a very remarkable sketch about you at the Gala de l’ADISQ 2019 – is that a tribute?

FouKi: It’s all because of him. The 2019 Gala, for me, I won more than a Felix or two or three – Louis-José Houde’s sketch was worth all the Felixes in the world! I thought it was funny that he said that a rapper who talks about snacks is out of this world, it doesn’t make sense. It really inspired me, I wanted to follow the delirium. Apparently he likes my music, we sent him the whole thing to find out if he agreed and he was super down with it.

PAN M 360: That’s not the only vocal sample you used. On “Beigne”, you hear “As I get older I say the same shit as when I was 16 / But now in meetings I’m taken seriously.” Who’s behind it, and is it an analogy for your evolution in the Quebec rap scene?

FouKi: There’s a funny story behind it. I can’t say who it is because I tried to send him the song but they didn’t reply. It happened at the St-Jean show, the person was telling a story to Émile Bilodeau and I, and I asked to record it because it was too perfect, they said yes but didn’t say, “go ahead and put it on your album” (laughs). That’s why I high-pitched their voice by +4, so that we don’t know if it’s a woman or a man. It spoke to me so much, it’s so true! When you’re young, you’re not taken seriously, as you get older you gain recognition from your peers and you can fulfil childhood or teenage dreams. The St-Jean show was really one of my highlights of 2020.

PAN M 360: Any culinary advice for those who will read this interview?

FouKi: Dare to be spicy-sweet-salty!

In 2010, Kerson Leong won the first junior prize at the prestigious Menuhin Competition. Since then, his extraordinary progress as a soloist and chamber musician has earned him invitations from symphony orchestras in America, Europe, and Asia, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre métropolitain de Montréal, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada.

For the 2018-2019 season, Kerson Leong has been named Artist in Residence with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Kerson is also an avid chamber musician and has been invited to perform at numerous international festivals. Not to mention the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award (2015-2017), the Prix Jeune Soliste 2015 of the Radios francophones publiques, a mentorship award from the Lin Yao Ji Music Foundation of China for inspiring the younger generation, not to mention the Révélation Radio-Canada 2014-2015 for classical music. In addition, he is an associate artist of the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Belgium.

And here’s the violinist in the (virtual) spotlight of the Bach Festival, undoubtedly one of Montreal’s best-run classical events. And since users of PAN M 360 must absolutely discover Kerson Leong if they haven’t already, a conversation is in order.

PAN M 360: How have you maintained this passion for playing, from childhood to reaching an international level of recognition?

Kerson Leong: My mom is a pianist and music teacher, and my dad is a scientist who fell in love with classical music and even taught himself a bit of classical guitar. Having grown up in a musical family, it was inevitable that music would play a significant role in my life, no matter what. Although I started on the piano, I soon picked up the violin at the age of four and a half, and seemed to show a natural affinity for the instrument almost immediately. Things picked up quite rapidly after that, having won regional festivals and, subsequently, the Grand Prize at the Canadian Music Competition for five consecutive years.

PAN M 360: You’re said to have a “rare and innovative” mastery of the instrument. Your talent is indeed rare, bravo! Could you tell me more about the innovative side of your playing?

KL: I guess it would be the tailoring of my technique, over the past few years, to an all-encompassing musical approach and sound that listeners could identify as my own, and gaining quite a lot of firsthand insight into the intricacies of violin technique along the way. The sharing of this insight has become important to me, hence for example, my Art of Etude tutorial series on my YouTube channel, and the fact that reputable schools like the Jacobs School at Indiana University and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, among others, have invited me to teach.

PAN M 360: Your father has a very advanced grasp of physics, notions that you would have applied to the resonance of the strings of your instrument. How would this acquired knowledge have improved your playing?

KL: Indeed. I’ve served as a demonstrator at lectures my dad has given about this subject in the past, in places such as the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Barratt-Due Music Institute in Oslo, and various universities in California. I’m certainly no physics expert myself, but it was the way in which I ended up interpreting those concepts or ideas in a practical sense specific to my setup and needs that have greatly influenced my playing since.

PAN M 360: How do you think your own playing is distinct? Phrasing, timbre, attack, lyricism, etc., how would you describe your personality as a soloist?

KL: I’d let the listener discern what qualities they perceive in my sound and playing, and in what repertoire, but I would characterize my general approach as uncompromising, unrelenting, and intense.

PAN M 360: What was your family’s story in Canada?

KL: I was born and raised in Ottawa, so that city will always feel like home to me. On the other hand, I could say that my musical heart in Canada could be found in Quebec, and in Montreal in particular, due to the abundance of important musical milestones and memories I’ve made there. Also, Mr. Roger Dubois of Canimex and his family are some of the people most dear to me. In this sense, I’ve found myself fully having embraced Quebec and its wonderful people.

PAN M 360: Is your activity as a chamber musician most important in your current career? Do you play more often with symphony orchestras?

KL: Even though soloing with orchestras makes up the most of what I do, chamber music is an essential part of my life. For me, chamber music is where one learns to listen, to communicate, and work together in a musical context, something that means informal gatherings and good times with friends just as much as a powerful experience for everyone in a concert hall.

PAN M 360: When it comes to classical and contemporary music, do you have favourite composers?

KL: I’d say my favourite composer is always the one I’m currently playing. It’s important as an interpreter to fully embrace whichever piece you end up performing, and different pieces by different composers bring out different sides of me as well. I’ve always had a soft spot for the music of Brahms, however.

PAN M 360: Do you have any favourite periods in musical history? At first glance, it seems like you don’t, since you interpret baroque, classical, romantic, modern, and contemporary works…

KL: Similar to the previous question, I embrace each period equally, as they each bring out something different in me.

PAN M 360: Do you have favourite soloists on the violin? Role models?

KL: I grew up listening mainly to violinists of the 20th century, so for example Heifetz, Oistrakh, Szeryng, Milstein… Even though my tastes have greatly diversified since, I still have a soft spot for the artists of that era. There are also so many great musicians today I admire for different things, whether violinists, pianists, cellists, singers, etc.

PAN M 360: You play on a superb Guarneri del Gesu from 1741. What are the most beautiful properties of your instrument?

KL: Mainly it’s the timbre of the instrument. There’s a real “tenore” quality and warmth to the sound – something that I connected with immediately, as it comes quite close to the way I would imagine my inner voice. I also like the fact that there’s texture and grit to the sound as well, giving it a more human and organic quality as well. My sincere and continuing thanks to the generosity of M. Roger Dubois of Canimex for the chance to get to play and live with such a wonderful instrument.

PAN M 360: You’re interested in Gershwin, as is the case on your album recorded with pianist Philippe Chiu and released by Analekta in 2016. We know that George Gershwin was the ideal bridge between Afro-American music and French impressionism, so… would you be inclined to invest in modern or contemporary jazz? Are you interested in improvisation?

KL: Yes, of course. I used to play jazz clarinet and saxophone in my teen years, and I’d say that I’m very open to embracing new forms of expression in the form of improvisation and other musical genres. I’m happy to let this side of me develop and to continue learning considering all the free time this pandemic has allowed for.

PAN M 360: Could you comment briefly on the programme of your concert at the Bach Festival? How do you plan to interpret these works?

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750):
Sonata No. 2, in A minor, BWV 1003
Partita No. 3, in E major, BWV 1006
Partita No. 2, in D minor, BWV 1004

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931):
Sonata No. 2 for solo violin, Jacques Thibaud, op. 27

KL: The Bach sonatas and partitas are quite the violinist’s bible, so to say, and the Ysaÿe solo sonatas follow very much in the footsteps of that set, but embrace the style and expression of his own time in the beginning of the 20th century. The Ysaÿe set in particular has become a real passion project of mine recently, having really connected with the powerful language of that music. Bach is something I play daily, and it never fails to reveal me to myself, so to say. Therefore, this concert will almost be like welcoming a livestream audience into my own living room, and will surely be an interesting experience as a result.

PAN M 360: What are your next goals, professionally?

KL: One thing that I think is especially important now is outreach, to inspire new generations of music enthusiasts and to create a thriving environment where people could really recognize music and art as a vital part of life.

PAN M 360: What are your projects?

KL: The pandemic has put a hold on a lot of things, but I’ll be continuing to do livestreams and virtual concerts for the time being, as well as connecting directly with people on social media. I also have a new album coming out at the beginning of this coming year, so that’s exciting – details coming soon.

PAN M 360 met the Montrealer of Armenian origin and talked with her about music, about neighbours disturbed by her piano, and about her native country.

PAN M 360: Let’s start with your career history, if we could.

Anna Saradjian: I grew up in Armenia, in a very musically inclined family. My grandfather was my first teacher, he created a music school over there. Then my father took over the school and my music education. When I was 18 years old, I went to Juilliard to study, then to the Royal Academy of Music in London. That’s where I studied with Hamish Milne.

PAN M 360: Did your initial studies in Armenia anchor you in the so-called “Russian school” of piano? (Editor’s note: the “Russian school” is a way of teaching and playing the piano with an emphasis on large, very expansive phrases, a sense of improvisation and freedom minimized by the French and German schools, and above all a powerful underlining of the emotions inherent in the scores).

AS: I have a hard time differentiating between these concepts concerning my playing. I was trained in many different traditions and, besides, my grandfather was himself brought up in the Liszt tradition, who certainly studied in the German style, but was very independent-minded for his time. Anyways, I think it’s becoming more and more impossible to be attached to a specific style of playing in our 21st century. It may have been meaningful a hundred years ago, but everything is so interconnected nowadays that the only way to differentiate ourselves as musicians is to understand and play music in our own individual voice.

PAN M 360: Is there a breadcrumb trail running through the program of your concert on Tuesday, November 24 at the Montreal Bach Festival?

AS: There is one, kind of. We first programmed the Aria variata alla maniera italiana, BWV 989, the only set of themes and variations written by Bach other than the famous Goldberg Variations. It’s not very well known, but a must-discover piece! Then I added the Partita no 4 BWV 828, which is sometimes referred to as the “Italian partita”. Finally, because I’ve been thinking of playing the Italian Concerto BWV 971 for a long time, the connection happened naturally, being the italian thread of the concert. I added a couple of pieces that are a bit outside of this idea, but which I wanted to play very much because I love them.

PAN M 360: Like for example an excerpt from the St. Matthew Passion, which you have arranged for the keyboard. You often make arrangements, why do you do this exercise?

AS: I make more of them now, because COVID gave me more time on my own, ironically. I like writing transcriptions because each time I hear a Bach piece I love, be it for orchestra, choir or any other instrumentation, I want to play it! Many times, I hear the piano version in my head as I listen to the piece! I make my choices based mainly on my heart, with music that touches me directly.

PAN M 360: When you play Bach, it is mainly emotions that guide you, or architectural rigour?

AS: I feel Bach on a deep and very emotional level, that’s true. Since I was very young, his music has been a haven of peace and personal intimacy, and I go back to it each time with great joy. But, before I go in front of the public and share this experience, I work very hard on all the small details and study every intellectual facet of it. Then, I like playing it as I feel it, with the hope that the public will feel the same way.

PAN M 360: On your Facebook page, I saw you playing on an electronic keyboard. Isn’t that heresy for a classical pianist?

AS: (laughs) In reality, I have two real pianos at home, but some neighbours do not always agree with my playing, so I bought this electronic version that gives me liberty to practice when I want and need to. Besides, it gives me the opportunity to try Bach with a harpsichord sound sometimes.

PAN M 360: Do you sometimes play it on a real harpsichord?

AS: Unfortunately, no. I need to work much more on harpsichord playing before presenting myself to the public with that instrument.

PAN M 360: Do you have any plans for the post-COVID period (which we hope to arrive as soon as possible!)?

AS: Nothing in particular, other than more actively involving myself with a music festival directed by my uncle, which was moved from Italy to Armenia not long ago.

PAN M 360 : Speaking of Armenia, are you concerned about the situation (Editor’s note: armed conflict with Azerbaijan over a territory claimed by both countries, Nagorno-Karabakh)?

AS: Yes, I am worried, of course. I still have family over there, and obviously, this situation will only hurt music and musicians more, on top of COVID. This is happening at a terrible time. I do not wish to get involved in politics, but I think this is time to understand, all of us, the importance of music, and arts, education. I think that even if young people do not become musicians and artists, sensibility linked to music learning can build a new generation of adults who will simply not want to go to war.

PAN M 360: On this beautiful reflection, I thank you for your time, Anna, and wish you all the best for the future! And above all, enjoy the concert!

AS: Thank you!

PAN M 360 met the Montrealer of Armenian origin and talked with her about music, about neighbours disturbed by her piano, and about her native country.