High notes
K-W Symphony concertmaster grows into her role as the conductor’s second-in-command
Concertmaster Bénédicte Lauzière grows into her role with the K-W Symphony
When Bénédicte Lauzière arrived in Kitchener in January 2015, violin in hand, she was among the youngest musicians in the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.
But her new gig was more than that.
After an international search, the symphony had named her concertmaster — basically the instrumentalist boss of the musicians and the conductor’s second-in-command.
Expectations were high, and Lauzière recognized the challenges ahead. After all, she was still finishing her studies at New York’s Juilliard School when she auditioned for the post.
“I never had the experience of leading when I came in, ” she said in an interview this past fall. “It’s been a steep learning curve.”
Lauzière, who lives in Kitchener with her husband, Ian Roberts, 30, and their “violin-hating” cat, Albus, explained in lightlyaccented English that she’s had to grow into her concertmaster role, and so have other symphony musicians.
“Some people thought I was really young. Most were supportive. Others had to respond.”
Early on, she decided the best strategy was to stick to what got her hired in the first place. “I gave myself the right to be myself right from the start. That made it easier. Maybe it was harder for others to see someone younger being authoritative.”
Her working mantra: “Treat people with respect and honesty — that’s the best way to lead.”
These days, the 27-year-old — people call her “Benny” — continues to impress her orchestra mates and symphony audiences with her musicality and her leadership.
Since last spring’s announcement of Andrei Feher, then 26, as the orchestra’s new music director — his four-year term will begin in mid-2018 — there’s a new buzz on stage and in the audience about the youthful edge in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.
“We have an embarrassment of riches with her and Andrei,” longtime symphony violinist Roxolana Toews said. “I don’t know how we got so lucky.”
Lauzière’s arrival in Kitchener resulted from a bit of impulse.
“When I saw the post opening, I knew some of the musicians, ” she says. “I thought, why not try? Like rolling dice.”
The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony wasn’t entirely new to her. She had appeared as a soloist in the 2012-13 season.
Also in 2013, the CBC had named her among its 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30.
But at the time of the search for concertmaster, in 2014, the 24year-old Quebecer was still finishing a two-year master’s program at Juilliard on scholarship with violinist Masao Kawasaki.
The orchestra had already conducted a national search for concertmaster and selected three finalists, none of whom got the job. Now they had moved on to an international call. Lauzière was chosen from four top candidates.
Her impulsive streak showed up again in September 2016, when she and Roberts – a double bass player she met during their undergraduate days in McGill University’s music program — decided to get married.
“We went to (Kitchener) City Hall and grabbed two strangers off the street as witnesses, ” Lauzière said. “It was nothing special, but it felt right.”
Call it being in the moment — something she has had to learn in the concertmaster’s chair, and something that hasn’t always come easily for what Feher calls a “healthy perfectionist.”
“She knows when to push, but she knows it can’t always be perfect, ” he noted.
Lauzière said she has had to learn about gaining and staying in that moment. “What’s great about live music is that at any moment, something can go wrong. That keeps people engaged. There is something to not being perfect that just makes it more engaging and beautiful” — and not just for the audience but for herself.
As a measure of that, she said, her best solo moments are often the performances she can’t recall. “As a soloist, I know I did well when I don’t remember a thing after. I remember walking out, but I don’t remember anything else.”
Roberts describes another level of her performance.
Recalling their McGill days, he said, “Some people learn the mechanics. They know where the notes are, but it doesn’t sound like music. I’m a very good technician with the double bass, but I don’t seem to have much to say when playing.
“She’s trying to say something. It’s storytelling.”
As concertmaster, Lauzière plays a key leadership role within the orchestra, both behind the scenes and on stage.
During rehearsals, she serves as a go-between to work out interpretation, fix trouble spots and try out new ideas.
The concertmaster also belongs to the orchestra’s artistic advisory committee. For two seasons, she helped plan programming with conductor Edwin Outwater, whose 10-year term as music director ended last year.
On stage, Lauzière is responsible for tuning the instruments before a performance and for co-ordinating the bowing in the string section. More important, she’s the conduit between the conductor and the musicians.
Referring to Feher’s KitchenerWaterloo Symphony debut in early November with Brahms’ second symphony, she said, “He gives the impulse, and it’s my job to read that impulse and cue the orchestra to play together.”
That means the concertmaster needs eyes and ears everywhere, using her body to move the music along and making frequent eye contact with both the conductor and the players.
“I’m not only playing myself, but I’m listening to the whole sound. Everything is going on at once. You have to shift focus to different things. I don’t know any profession like it, ” she said. “You need people skills and playing skills.”
Principal oboist Jim Mason, who served on the concertmaster hiring committee, said, “She helps to create a sense of unity. Camaraderie within an orchestra is really important. There was a sense implicit to a lot of us that she would become an excellent concertmaster. She is always respectful and prepared, always has a smile on her face.”
Added violinist Toews: “To find somebody today so unaffected and innocent, full of enthusiasm and life: she’s very special. She really, passionately loves music. You get the sense that she plays because she loves it.”
The concertmaster role also includes solo work, although Lauzière said she was never interested in pursuing a solo career, describing a soloist’s life as a lonely one. Toews said Lauzière is “amazingly musical. You feel it’s the way it’s meant to be played. When somebody is musical, and they play beautifully, it gives you shivers.”
Lauzière began playing violin at age five while growing up just outside Montreal. She’d started taking lessons after her two older brothers began learning the instrument, although neither became a musician.
She was nine when she joined the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal alongside her regular school classes. She spent 10 years at the Conservatoire, including a couple of years studying and playing alongside Feher, whose family had immigrated to Montreal from Romania.
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony executive director Andrew Bennett figures their early collegial training helped the pair forge a bond that might not have formed a few years later in a more competitive university program.
“They understand each other musically and are still able to enjoy music-making, ” Bennett said.
Lauzière served on the search committee for a new conductor after Outwater’s departure was announced. Although she gave each of the candidates a fair hearing, she said she was rooting for Feher; she had recommended him initially to the group.
During his conducting debut with the symphony last fall — a pair of concerts that featured Brahms’ second symphony — the orchestra earned standing ovations. In his welcome remarks to the crowd, Feher spoke of sensing a kind of chemistry with the players. That feeling flowed both ways, Lauzière said.
“It’s great to know that my friend is up there, ” she said. “The support for Andrei makes the whole orchestra sound different. Every musician is a blade of grass, and the wind is the conductor who moves the whole thing.”
In turn, Feher said, the “second conductor” interprets the messages and ideas transmitted through his hands, body and eyes.
“It’s crucial for me and her to be connected, ” he said. “She understands what I want. She knows where I’m going.”
Referring to the musicians, he added, “I try to be flexible enough that they don’t know what is about to happen. It keeps it alive in the moment.”
During an encore for the Brahms concerts, in a moment of
unrehearsed inspiration, he held a pause for twice the usual length.
“No one was quite expecting that. I’m looking at her — wait, wait, wait, then go. You have to be aware.”
Feher said Lauzière has figured out how to balance the necessary emotion with mental toughness — not to mention that “she can do anything on her violin.”
That’s all echoed by Bennett: “She’s not afraid to show emotion in a controlled way. She can appear demure, almost reticent and self-effacing, and then give her a violin and put her in front of an orchestra and you realize you were completely wrong. She has nerves of steel.”
•••
A month after Feher’s debut last fall, another Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony concert brought to the Centre in the Square another of Lauzière’s former musical influences.
Even before her Conservatoire days, she and her family had begun attending the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, where her dreams of leading a symphony were sparked by watching various conductors and soloists.
Among those performers was violinist Jonathan Crow, who was appointed as Montreal’s concertmaster in 2002 at age 25.
At the time, he was the youngest person to hold such a position with a major North American orchestra.
After finishing at the Conservatoire, she began degree studies at McGill University, where Crow was teaching.
Now concertmaster with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Crow recalled the young but not-so-young student: “Even at that point, she seemed like a seasoned pro.”
The two reconnected this past fall in Kitchener during his solo appearance to play Beethoven’s concerto for violin and orchestra.
On April 13 and 14, it will be Lauzière in the Centre in the Square spotlight, playing the Barber violin concerto.
This story originally appeared in Grand magazine. Read more features from the magazine at grandmagazine.ca