ClassicConcertsNS

By pwalt | October 1, 2016 |

MUSICIAN OF THE MONTH: SHIMON WALT

It’s finally fall, and leaves are changing – and so is our musician of the month. We’re thrilled to welcome Shimon Walt on as our October MOTM!

Shimon Walt is the Assistant Principal Cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia (SNS). Since arriving in Nova Scotia in 1976, he’s been an integral part of this province’s musical life. A founding member of Symphony Nova Scotia, Shimon was appointed by the provincial government to a steering committee entrusted with rebuilding symphonic life in Nova Scotia after the demise of the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. He was SNS’ first Personnel Manager, a position he held for six years. Shimon was educated in Tel Aviv and Boston, where his teachers were Uzi Wiezel and George Neikrug. He’s performed with major orchestras under noted conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Pablo Casals. Today he shares his time between Symphony Nova Scotia, Dalhousie University, Rhapsody Quintet and Walt Music (www.waltmusic.com). A dedicated teacher, many of his students have gone on to professional musical careers. He’s adjudicated for music festivals in Toronto, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and served on juries for FACTOR and the Canada Council for the Arts. Shimon is the Artistic Advisor for the Mahone Bay Concert Series.

As a musician and contractor, Shimon has provided musical services to many artists including Michael Bublé, Kanye West, Anne Murray, Sarah Brightman and John Denver. He’s made six recordings with Rhapsody Quintet and organized music for royal visits, the Prime Minister of Canada and other visiting heads of state. As a collaborative musician playing chamber music, accompanying choirs and singers, or making a guest appearance on a jazz or pop recording, he is totally dedicated to the art of music. He was Artist in Residence for the Saint Cecilia Concert Series in 2012-13 and received an Established Artist Award from the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council in 2012. Shimon enjoys giving lectures on music to university students and library patrons, and master classes to music students at Ottawa University.

1.What is your idea of perfect happiness? Family, music, health, food, wine, a nice Scotch, movies… intimate dinners with my wife and large meals with friends. BBQing, traveling to see my family, be it in Ottawa or far away in Israel.

2. Which living string player do you most admire and why? And which string player from the past? Oh my… this is a hard question… there are so many of them. The world is full of amazing string players, new faces pop up on YouTube and on orchestral stages constantly, and they have so much to offer… In Canada alone we have such great artists as violinists James Ehnes and Jonathan Crow, and cellists like Matt Haimovitz, Denise Djokic, Amanda Forsyth and Shauna Rolston (just to name a few), and I admire them all.

I’m not only impressed by someone’s technique and speed of playing. What is memorable to me is a beautiful sound and heart-touching phrasing. Music, as one of my teachers told me, is not what’s printed on the page, but what is NOT, the white space. Everyone plays the same notes, but what happens between them is where the artistry lies.

From the string artists that touch my soul, the first few names that come to mind are violinist Janine Jansen and cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia (coming to play with SNS this season!). British cellist Steven Isserlis is another one… AND the famous 12 cellists of Berlin Philharmonic (check them out on YouTube!).

And from the past? My cello heroes: Emanuel Feuermann, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Rose and Pablo Casals; and violinists: Oscar Shumsky, Michael Rabin, Efrem Zimbalist, Henryk Szeryng, Nathan Milstein. I’d better stop now, I’m getting excited and the list is too long already.

3. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Hmmm…. bringing up two wonderful children is one, being able to share my experience and knowledge with my students is another.

4. If you weren’t a musician, what would you like to do, all things being possible? I truly don’t know… I can’t even imagine doing anything else. I like being with people, helping people, so maybe something in medicine, but then I like computers/Apple products, so maybe something connected with technology. Neh… I’ll stick with what I do.

5. What is your favourite city? Again a hard question… Halifax, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, New York, Boston, Montreal, and many more.

6. Which composer (dead or alive) would you most like to have dinner with and why? Johann Sebastian Bach! I would really like to know how he feels about his music being played with vibrato, and not in the baroque style of his day. I think that he would be delighted to learn about contemporary instruments and what they’re capable of, the power, dynamic levels and the vibrant sound they can produce. I think he would like to check out the contemporary bows with their “singing” qualities, and the left-hand vibrato, expanding the palette of colours and shades from what he is used to. Or maybe he would say he still prefers the sound created on period instruments. It would be nice to find out. Bach wrote his music for churches and small (by our standard) parlors, blessed with great natural acoustics, so adding artificial reverberation was not necessary. Today’s concert halls, many of which are big and lack natural acoustics, need the extra help in sound, hence the vibrato, fixing what the building doesn’t offer.

7. Do you have a favourite recording? Just look at my shelves… LPs, CDs, videos… they’re all my favourites. I would say the recording I hear at any given moment is my favourite one, that’s why I play it.

8. What is your favourite thing about fall? For sure not the weather (too cold), although the leaves turning deep orange are spectacular. The thing I love about fall is that it signifies the beginning of the orchestral season and the start of university classes, getting back to teaching and learning (yes, I learn a lot from my students!), seeing my returning students and meeting new ones.

And of course the quality time with my beloved Rhapsody Quintet, rehearsing new repertoire, getting ready for upcoming concerts and occasionally recording new CDs.