Quodlibet
Shoko Inoue’s
metamorphoses
by Allan Pulker
Some
time ago I
wrote about the fact that Toronto’s musical
life has been enriched by the presence of musicians who initially came
to study
and, when their studies were finished, stayed here to live and work. I
talked
recently to a musician who has done just this, pianist Shoko Inoue,
who, after
studying at the Cleveland Institute, moved to Toronto about six years
ago to
continue her studies with John Perry and Marc Durand. Those studies
behind her,
she has settled in Toronto, where she currently teaches and performs.
The CBC’s
“New Generation” series and “On-Stage” Concert series have both
provided her
with opportunities to perform here. Now, her commitment to being here
is
deepening as she prepares a new recital series, “Metamorphosis”, which
will be
informed by her unique perspective on music and performance – a
perspective
resulting from her studies in Cleveland with Armenian-American pianist
Sergei
Babayan.
“In my very
first lesson with him,” she said, “he showed me colour, words
without
words, wealth of possibility in each moment, and dimensions of
music-making that I had never experienced before. From his piano came
magic
‘creature-notes’—so alive! I just burst into tears from
his magical
music, because it was beyond being merely beautiful. How far
beauty could
reach had been completely unknown to me. It was as if I was face to
face with
the universe itself.”
“From that
life-changing experience until now, he has been the
most caring and nourishing teacher I have ever had. He
has shown
me the power of the pianist to be able to reach, so to say, from
beyond
the sky and to bring that beauty back to this earth.
He has been the most important teacher I have ever studied with.”
She has invited
Babayan to perform as part of her series, on April 7, 2009. She says,
“I am so
honoured and grateful that he has agreed to come.” But before
Babayan’s
visit, Inoue will be joined by another musician who has influenced her
– Amanda
Forsyth, in the inaugural concert of her series on September 19 at
Glenn Gould Studio, where they will perform a program that includes Strauss’ and
Rachmaninov’s
Sonatas for piano and cello, as well as a Japanese folksong and
a piece
by Canadian composer Alexina Louie.
Inoue’s thoughts
on Forsyth also reveal much about Inoue’s ideas on music. Introduced to
National Arts Centre Orchestra conductor Pinchas Zukerman and Ms
Forsyth, the orchestra’s
principal cellist, by principal bass player Joel Quarrington, Shoko
accepted
the invitation to play with Forsyth at the Beethoven Festival presented
by the
National Arts Centre last year.
“When
I heard her playing at the rehearsal,” she told me, “I
felt as if I
had known her for long time. The warmth, freedom and depth of
her
music-making embraced all around her, and naturally I was
magnetized by
her vibrant openness and communication. It is as if through music
we fly
towards the sacred place we both dream of going. This concert will
be a
great opportunity for a spiritual adventure together in search of the
vision
behind our eyes.”
Can you say
something about what that vision is now, I asked. “Music” she replied,
“is
asking for its sacred voice to be heard. In reality there is no
difference
between the composer, performer, and audience—all three should be equal
in
their experience, and only by coming together can the power of music
guide us
upwards. We have to look beyond the familiar roles in society—the role
of the
concert, the role of ourselves—to realize that we can at every moment
be borne
closer to the truth of our freedom.”
A lofty vision
it is, and one which will resonate deeply with dedicated WholeNote
readers in
the way it acknowledges the role of the listeners not merely as
witnesses to
but as participants in the process of seeking moments when music comes
alive
and is metamorphosed into “creature-notes”.
Sandwiched
between Forsyth and Babyan’s visits, the second concert in the
“Metamorphosis”
series will be a solo piano recital by Ms Inoue at Glenn Gould Studio
on
January 19, 2009. While she already has an enthusiastic following in
Toronto,
this will be a great opportunity for those who have not yet discovered
her to
do just that.
This
“Metamorphosis” series should be a valuable addition to the live music
scene,
with a strong international flavour arising out of Inoue’s broad circle
of
contacts in the music world and her strong ties with Japan, and a
talented
pianist as the pivot for its choice of
repertoire and artists. (The final concert of the next series is
still
in the early planning stages, but will feature the music of J.S. Bach
and will
include a small instrumental ensemble. The concert will also be at the
Glenn Gould Studio in May.)
Background:
Shoko
Inoue was born and
raised in Tokyo, Japan, began playing the piano at the age of three,
and
studied with teachers Shun Sato and Takashi Hironaka. After winning
third place
in the 1996 Cleveland International Piano Competition, she came to the
United
States to study under full scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of
Music with
Sergei Babayan. (To put things into perspective, Canadians Angela
Hewitt and
André Lemelin—the only Canadians ever to place in the Cleveland
International
Piano Competition—were also both 3rd prize winners, in 1979 and 1983
respectively, when the prize was know as the Casadesus Piano
Competition.) In
addition to her success in Cleveland, Inoue was first prize winner for
contemporary music at the Frinna Awerbuch Competition (in 1998) and
first prize
winner at the Chopin Competition (in 1995), both in New York, where she
made
her Carnegie Hall debut.
For
more Concert Notes see
Bandstand,
Choral
Scene,
Early Music,
Hear
and Now (New Music), Jazz
Notes, and Music
Theatre
