Classically conditioned
DANIEL CLARKE BOUCHARD doesn’t give much thought to his natural talent, but the 12-year-old’s masterful playing is turning heads
Two weeks ago, Oliver Jones walked on stage at Théâtre Maisonneuve of Place des Arts following intermission at the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir’s 30th-anniversary Christmas concert. The audience applauded wildly, figuring the iconic jazz pianist would do a little tickling of the ivories. Not on this night. Instead, Jones announced it was time to pass the baton to another Montrealer, and he introduced a 12-year-old classical pianist whom he feels is destined for greatness.
And so Daniel Clarke Bouchard — all of four-anda-half feet and 90 pounds, resplendent in formal tails — sauntered onto the stage and, with the flair of a seasoned showman, took his place at the piano.
Clarke Bouchard went on to blow the audience away with a dazzling 15-minute rendering of Schumann’s Abegg Variations Op. 1. And without the benefit of sheet music. The kid had it all memorized.
The performance resulted in one of the most thunderous standing ovations many in attendance had ever witnessed. Though Clarke Bouchard had been slated to do only the one piece that evening, concert organizers swiftly readjusted the program and brought him back for an encore of Beethoven. And once again, the kid got an ovation.
Backstage, Jones was sporting an ear-to-ear grin, his prophecy of Clarke Bouchard’s greatness having been proved correct.
Fast-forward two weeks:
Clarke Bouchard, again sporting his formal tails, is reprising his Schumann recital on a majestic Steinway that is twice his size, in a small concert hall in the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in the Plateau.
This time, the audience is just his mom, Valerie Clarke, along with me and Gazette photographer Marie-France Coallier. No matter: Clarke Bouchard brings the same panache and intensity as he did with the full house at Place des Arts. And kills once again.
During a break, the fluently bilingual Clarke Bouchard is more intent on talking about his other great passion: hockey. He is a goalie in a peewee league in his home community of St-Lambert, and apparently the focus that serves him so well at the piano also works to his advantage in the nets.
But no fears about finger damage? “I can’t worry about that,” Clarke Bouchard says. “I love both piano and hockey and don’t want to let either of them go.”
“I cannot lie,” says Clarke, a single mom and freelance journalist: “I do get a little apprehensive about the hockey, but I want him to follow his dreams. He is also taking a break from hockey now.”
Perhaps in solidarity with his favourite player, lockedout Canadiens netminder Carey Price.
Clarke Bouchard, an only child, has been playing piano since he was 5. He sees nothing extraordinary about his ability to play this well and this effortlessly at his age.
He has heard the word “prodigy” used to describe him. He knows what it means, but pays it little heed.
“Honestly, it’s just a lot of work, but it pays off at the end, I guess,” he says, quite matter-of-factly.
His mother took piano lessons when she was young, but is quick to mention she was hardly a child prodigy. Nor is there much evidence of other virtuoso players in the family. So where did this gift come from?
“Don’t ask me,” Clarke says with a giggle.
“I guess I just have this love for it,” says the nonchalant Clarke Bouchard, who allows that he can’t get enough Schubert or Mendelssohn but isn’t wild about Justin Bieber or most other contemporary music, aside from the Black Eyed Peas and, go figure, Gordon Lightfoot.
“I started playing when I was 5 and just liked it. So my mom suggested I take lessons. Simple as that. I’ve just got normal child fingers, too.”
“At the time, I only wanted to give him the gift of music, because it’s something to take with you wherever you go,” Clarke says. “So he started with lessons.”
Wild hunch: Clarke Bouchard probably plays better than most teachers.
“I can’t say that hasn’t been an issue, but I do keep an open mind and ear,” says the smil- ing Clarke Bouchard, whose favourite classical pianist is Evgeny Kissin.
“I usually don’t question my teachers. But I must admit they are not wild about me playing the part of a showman. I can’t help it. That’s who I am.”
His training is in the classics, but he also wants to play jazz. “It’s more free-form, and it’s really emotional as well,” notes Clarke Bouchard, whose favourite jazz pianist is, not surprisingly, his mentor Oliver Jones.
Upcoming gigs include another date with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir in a concert benefiting leader Trevor Payne’s Fund for Men’s Cancers, Feb. 20 at Oscar Peterson Concert Hall, and a performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain some time next year.
Oh, yeah — Clarke Bouchard also took top honours in the prestigious Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition in May. His prize: performing at a concert in Carnegie Hall. And yes, he got a huge ovation there. But no biggie. Same thing when he played at a Gregory Charles concert at Place des Arts, “although that was the first time people were waiting for me after the show and actually asking me for my autograph — which, I must admit, felt pretty cool.”
Clarke Bouchard concedes that most of his classmates at FACE school — where he is in the seventh grade — don’t quite comprehend his passion for the piano.
“I’d say that 96 per cent of them don’t really under- stand, although some of the teachers do. I can’t lie: It’s nice to get recognition, but I also don’t talk much about my piano life with the other kids. I’m just a regular kid at school.”
His classmates might not get him, but he has met other grown-ups who do. Like Lightfoot — who asked Clarke Bouchard to play his tune Beautiful — and Detroit Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, whom Clarke Bouchard met here in October.
“He told me that hockey was fine, but that I should stick to my music,” Clarke Bouchard relays. “Still, my dream is also to become a hockey player and musician — and an astronaut, too,” he says. “A kid can dream.”
No time for idle chat now. Back to the piano for more Schumann. Without sheet music, naturally.
“The beauty of this Schumann piece is that every day I play it, there’s always something more I discover about it,” Clarke Bouchard says. “It’s like a puzzle. It’s neverending. It always disassembles itself. And I can apply my personality to it.”
To mix it up a little, Clarke Bouchard then dives into Christmastime Is Here from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Splendidly, of course. Once again, he transports himself and his small audience to another dimension. All rather celestial.
“I don’t have to tell him to practise,” his mom says. “He does one to three hours a day on his own. Then he also writes his own compositions.” He composes, too! “Oh yeah, for years,” Clarke says.
“No big deal,” Clarke Bouchard says. “It comes easily.”
His mom, while in awe of her offspring’s key-tickling, is after him to pull up his socks and tuck in his shirt. Too late — the kid is blissed out again on another piece at the piano. Clarke shrugs — she knows he’s in his own space now and there’s just no bringing him back.