JUNE’s Child…

Is Four Years Old!

2009-2010 will be Music’s Children’s fifth season celebrating remarkable lives in music! In the July/August double issue we’ll have a special retrospective quiz for you!

Here’s  Our JUNE contest!

Please tell us whose photos should appear in our 2009-2010 contest season.

Send your best ideas to musicschildren@thewholenote.com

Please provide your mailing address, just in case your candidate is chosen.

We might have a prize for you!

Congratulations to our MAY winners!

Lorrie MacKinnon and Shawn Kazubowski-Houston each win a pair of tickets to hear Jon Kimura Parker and James Ehnes play the opening concert of the Toronto Summer Music Festival at the Carlu on July 21 (Mozart, Prokofiev, Kernis, Ravel) with reception to follow.

Joan Colquhoun McGorman and Antonia Lostoridis will receive Korngold, Barber, Walton: Violin Concertos. This recording with the Vancouver Symphony conducted by Bramwell Tovey won the 2008 GRAMMY and JUNO Awards for Best Classical Album of the year, and the Western Canadian Music Award for Outstanding Classical Recording, This is James Ehnes’ sixth CD for CBC Records.

Sandra Whittall will receive Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, (Volumes 1 and 2) featuring James Ehnes and Luc Beauséjour: all of J.S.Bach’s known sonatas for violin and harpsichord on this lovely pair of recordings from Analekta.

Araxie Altounian and Eileen McArthur win Parker’s Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart CD: pianists Jon Kimura Parker, James Parker and Ian Parker perform concertos with the  CBC Radio Orchestra under Mario Bernardi (K467, 1 piano; K365 2 pianos; K242 3 pianos). This CBC Records release was nominated for a 2007 Juno (Best Large Ensemble with Soloist).

Music’s Children gratefully acknowledges Moira Johnson, Liz and Keiko Parker, Barbara Ehnes, Randy Barnard, the good people at Analekta, Myron Kozak and Cecelia Paolucci.

MAY’s CHILDREN ...

were pianist Jon Kimura Parker and violinist James Ehnes, who will open the Toronto Summer Music Festival and Academy with a concert on July 21.

Jon Kimura “Jackie” Parker: born and raised in Vancouver, now lives in Houston with his wife, violinist Aloysia Friedmann and their daughter Sophie.

Earliest musical memory?

I remember sitting at an upright piano having a lesson at age 4 with Jessie Morrison, my first teacher. She used the “Kelly Kirby Kindergarten” method, and I can still picture “Baby Middle C.” This isn’t just my first musical memory, it’s my first memory, period.

Musicians in your family?

My mother Keiko Parker is a very well-known piano teacher in Vancouver. We grew up with a classroom in the house where she prepared students for Royal Conservatory of Toronto examinations. My father John Parker isn’t a musician, but has wonderful musical taste, especially in pianists.

His brother, Edward Parker, was my principal piano teacher for 10 years. My brother Jamie Parker is a concert pianist and Piano Department Head at the U of T. My sister Liz Parker works in music publicity and my cousin Ian Parker (Edward’s son) is a concert pianist. It’s a musical family!

At the time the photo was taken?

I just knew that I was meant to play the piano: I’m not sure I thought about it as “music” at the time. I entered many local competitions and festivals from a very young age, and enjoyed the attention.

Making music with others?

I remember playing “On the Tree Top” with the Vancouver Youth Orchestra when I was 5. I remember the rehearsal but I don’t remember the actual concert! Apparently I walked onstage in a white suit and got lost in the violin section. Eventually the concertmaster led me to the piano.

Ever think you’d do anything else?

Not really…I always wanted to be some sort of performer, and I wasn’t good enough at anything else!

Anything you’d like to ask the child in that photo?

I want to know why and how he was able to practise so consistently. I’m having a terribly difficult time encouraging my 10-year-old daughter to do the same!

James Ehnes was born and grew up in Brandon, Manitoba, and currently lives in Bradenton, Florida, with his wife Kate. James plays the Fulton “Ex Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

Early musical memories?

That’s hard for me to remember – music was such a big part of family life.There was always music playing in the house. To keep me out of trouble my parents would prop me up on one of the radiators in our living room because one of the stereo speakers was right there. I listened to music for hours! (And it kept me warm during those long, Manitoba winters... .)

Your family?

My father (Alan Ehnes) has been the trumpet professor at Brandon University for many years. My mother, as a former ballet dancer, is pretty close to being a musician! I have two siblings who studied music; my brother played the violin, viola, and trumpet. My sister played violin, piano, and French Horn, and is now a professional musical theatre performer. My uncle is the French Horn professor at Ball State University in Indiana.

Where did music, both formal and informal, fit into various aspects of your life at the time the photograph was taken?

Violin was my first instrument. I received a violin for Christmas, about a month before my fifth birthday. I think I started taking formal lessons around that time. I started playing the piano at about 8.

First experiences of making music with others?

Group playing is a big part of the Suzuki method, so from a very young age I made music with other kids. I had my first ensemble at about 9: a quartet with my brother on viola.

Do you remember the point at which you began to think of yourself as a musician?

In a sense, from the very start! I knew that I was good at the violin, and that gave me a certain amount of pride and a sense of identity.

Ever think you’d do anything else?

There were (and are!) lots of other things ... astronaut, baseball player, spy... .

Anything you’d like to say to the little guy in that childhood photo?

I would tell him to not be so sad! It took 18 more years… but of course the Sox won in 2004, and again in 2007!