SIBLINGS IN PERFECT HARMONY
Calgary cellists reuniting for concert
It’s not a conscious ritual per se, more something that just happens every time Estelle Choi plays the last note on her cello in front of an audience.
“I look out into the crowd and think, ‘Wow, I get to do this for a living,’ ” says the 30-year-old native Calgarian.
On Wednesday morning at the Woodbine home where they were raised, Estelle and her older brother Arnold share delightful stories about growing up in a musical home, their now internationally successful careers and the hard work it took each to get there.
The above anecdote, while just one of many told, highlights their friendliness and refreshing gratitude for their current life situations.
“Our parents sacrificed everything for us,” says Arnold, a cellist like his sister and since last year the principal cellist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.
“Because of them, we have great careers that have taken us around the world.”
These days, Estelle calls New York City home, where she is a member of the Calidore String Quartet, which has played to sold-out crowds at Carnegie Hall and Berlin’s Konzerthaus.
This week, though, she is back home to prepare for a special performance with her brother, at an event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Canimex Canadian Music Competition. It takes place Friday at the University of Calgary’s Rosza Centre (tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show can be purchased at the door, or go to facebook.com/cmcnational).
“I’ve never performed with Estelle’s quartet in Calgary before,” says Arnold, 32, who began winning music competitions before he reached the double digits, playing his first out-of-country recital at age 14. “They’re world renowned, so it’ll be an honour.”
While both are reluctant to beat their own drums, they are unabashed when it comes to bragging about the other.
“My brother is pretty famous,” says Estelle. “I’m excited to play with him, especially in Calgary, where I feel so much more relaxed as soon as the plane’s wheels touch the ground.”
While musical child prodigies sometimes have pressure-filled parents in the wings, the Choi siblings say the motives of mom Jemma and their late father Jinsoo were pure ones.
“They grew up very poor and didn’t have the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument,” says Arnold of his parents, who married in 1974, the same year they arrived in Canada from South Korea.
“I always wanted to play the piano,” says Jemma, chiming in on our conversation just before she darts out on a morning of errand running. “I wanted my kids to have that experience. Music is so good for people. It helps you deal better with life’s stresses.”
Naturally, then, all her kids — which includes older siblings Edward and Rosabel — first took piano lessons, benefiting from the fact that at one point there were no less than six pianos crammed into different corners of their suburban split level.
When Arnold was five, though, his mom decided he should try the cello, her other favourite musical instrument.
“I have to admit, it wasn’t love at first sight,” says Arnold. “When I was eight, though, I saw Yo-Yo Ma perform with the CPO. From then on, I was hooked on the cello.”
Estelle, who followed in her brother’s footsteps learning under Mount Royal Conservatory instructor John Kadz and later, Aldo Parisot from Yale University, and studying at the Colburn School of Music in Los Angeles, says her introduction to the cello was likely a matter of logistics and economics.
“I’d get all of Arnold’s smaller cellos as he grew,” she says with a laugh, “and my mom didn’t have to drive us to different places for lessons.”
For Friday’s performance, Estelle will be on a Charles Jacquet cello, circa 1860s France, on loan from her American friend Ronald Leonard, also a renowned cellist. Arnold likes his French cello, from an unknown maker in the 1850s, noting the wood instruments often improve with age.
He says that moving back to Calgary a year ago, after several years living in the U.S. and performing all over the world, has been a welcome completion of a life circle.
“I still have friends I knew from my days at Western Canada High School,” he says. “It’s nice to have relationships outside of the music world. At the CPO, I am now working with many of my former mentors.”
So, is he like his little sister when it comes to continually pinching himself, to ensure his happy life and career is real?
“I’m so grateful to my parents for making this possible for us,” says Arnold, who not long ago had the opportunity to perform with his childhood hero, Yo-Yo Ma.
“Playing with my sister’s quartet has always been a dream — and now it’s about to come true.”