JANICE PRICE: Lighting up a city

When I was told that Janice Price CEO of the Luminato Festival had confirmed her interview with The Creative Exchange, I started reading past interviews that she had given to various publications. In most of them she is portrayed as a vivacious, dynamic leader –one even called her a “czarina”,

What does one do in the midst of a czarina? I wondered -would I need to curtsey? Would her imperial ermine-trimmed robes be caught in that ancient elevator hoisting her to our studio?

Having met Janice Price on several occasions over the years, I know her to be one of the most engaging people I have ever met. She is a striking combination of passion, charm and incredible drive. Always radiant and impeccably dressed. Her laughter always fills any room she’s in. Aloof Russian empress she is not, but a hardworking, fun and talented woman.

After a decade at the helm of some of the world’s leading performing arts institutions (Lincoln Centre in New York City and the Kimmel Centre in Philadelphia), she came back to her native Toronto last year to launch a ten day international multi-arts extravaganza: Luminato, billed as a festival of “arts and creativity”.

Our interview centered on her extraordinary career and the impact of the Luminato Festival on the cultural landscape of Toronto.

Janice Price has enough charisma to lead an army. She spoke of the daunting feat of launching a $12 Million start-up in nine months. The extraordinary success of the first year of the festival and the lessons learnt from that experience.

When we spoke of the late great Beverly Sills, her colleague and mentor at Lincoln Centre, I noticed a slight change in the timbre of her voice, she was more affectionate and somewhat nostalgic. She recalled scenes in Ms Sills’ kitchen where they would be working on speeches together and attending to Lincoln Centre business. She credits Ms Sills for teaching her a great deal about fundraising.

The conversation turned to the topic of women as leaders: is their leadership style different from that of men? Janice Price seems to think so, but she tempered her answer with a reference to her education. She studied political science at Trinity College, University of Toronto and that has contributed to preparing her for the politics of running large arts organizations and connecting with the communities that these organizations serve. In addition, she felt that women tend to take mentoring a bit more seriously and keep in contact with the people they mentor. This worked out great for her when she moved backed to Toronto, she had an empty office and one person on staff, she went through her rolodex and got hold of the people she had mentored over the years and got them to come work for her in this new start-up. They trusted her.

We spoke of artists she admires, one of them is the twenty-something Chinese piano wunderkind Lang Lang.

Janice Price will announce the launch of Luminato 2008’s programme at a special briefing on December 5th – one of the highlights of the festival will be the Toronto debut of Alberta Ballet’s The Fiddle and The Drum, a contemporary work inspired by the music of Joni Mitchell and choreographed by Alberta Ballet’s Artistic Director Jean Grand-Maître. Luminato 2008 is June 6-15. Mark your calendar!

WEBSITE: http://www.luminato.com/
Great website, with a fast-paced opening video promo showcasing last year’s festival. Top notch stuff.

EVE EGOYAN: In the key of Eve

Last Monday, I had the pleasure of recording an interview with concert pianist Eve Egoyan, who is well known for her daring sense of adventure, through her empassioned exploration of new piano repertoire. Her specialization is living composers, a bold move for a classical musician seeing as the entire “classical” tradition has been obsessed with dead composers, mostly from central Europe.

When I arrived at the studio she was calmly sitting on a sofa, in almost serene contemplation. I was very taken by her aura of calm.

We chatted before the interview, charting the general direction of our on air conversation. Eve Egoyan comes from a very artistic family, her brother is Atom Egoyan the celebrated Canadian filmmaker. She grew up in Victoria BC and in our interviews sheds a bit more light on her family background, her parents and why they chose to settle in Canada.

The interview went on for a full hour, conversation interspersed with excerpts from her recordings. She is no mere pianist, but a powerful communicator and advocate for living composers. A reviewer in the International Piano Magazine once wrote of her playing: “Eve Egoyan’s pianism has strengths in abundance, fully justifying Michael Finnissy’s testimony that ‘she illuminates the music she plays; an alchemy, authenticity and fearlessness’.”

Her most recent project is composer Alvin Curran’s six hour Inner Cities -a series of 12 works, rarely performed live in its entirety.

Curran says of his work:
"This music is open, unhurried, brutally lyrical, quiet, private and tonal as it is raucous, aggressively impolite and obsessively meticulous in making the simple relations between tones and durations an unending adventure of personal wonder. My goal, as always, was to reduce the musical elements to their ultimate essences, to repudiate and embrace dualism, and to emulate, even in permanent notation, the feel of spontaneous music-making." - Alvin Curran.

Eve Egoyan and I also talked about another interesting project she is launching titled Asking featuring the music of Spanish/German composer Maria de Alvear. The CD will be released internationally by New York-based Mode Records this fall. She will be in New York City November 8, 2007 performing at the Mutable Music series, details at http://www.interpretations.info/

MORE INFO ON EVE EGOYAN: http://www.eveegoyan.com/
Website includes touring dates, current projects, bio and music clips.

JILL BARBER: Fabulous Jill

I was enjoying a leisurely cup of green tea after a festive lunch (Africa meets haute cuisine) at Manyata in Yorkville with friends. Figuring I had plenty of time before I was needed, I started on some other business, returning calls, making appointments and got a bit carried away.

I was in a busy coffee shop (with horrendous music) took a look at the clock and discovered I barely had ten minutes to pack up my makeshift office and run down Bay Street like a madman to meet an amazing artist.

Got to the studio, turns out she was late too. I waited in the corridor wondering is she was not stuck in that antique manually operated elevator I had just come up in. Felt sorry for the guy who emerges dutifully from the basement to operate that contraption every time someone rings the bell.

I was about to reach for my mobile to call the person who schedules these interviews and sure enough there walked in a beaming Jill Barber, winner of the FACTOR Recording of the Year and Female Artist of the Year at the 2007 East Coast Music Awards.

She is charming, beautiful and very down to earth. We instantly hit it off, musician to musician. I found her refreshing and very easy to talk to.

Before we recorded our chat, I did some fact checking and shared a few jokes. I discovered that she is a devoted fan of her brother’s music (singer/songwriter Mathew Barber). She even got us to play one of his songs. With a sister like that, who needs an agent?

During the interview she gave us a sneak peak into her creative process (yes, she does on occasions compose music in her bathroom, the acoustic are good there). Most of her songs come from personal experience, she told us, and they are a form of emotional catharsis for her.

I asked her about the title track of her latest CD For All Time (Described as “modest but powerful” by Now Magazine). Jill Barber has a very rich tone and her sound-world straddles jazz, folk and country. She is a very personal songwriter; her music is achingly honest and etched with personal experience. For All Time, she told us, was her way of moving on from a failed relationship and the ephemeral nature of young love.

I did ask something quite ungentlemanly –how old she was. I was prompted to ask this by the emotional depth and maturity of her music in contrast to her youthful radiance. You will have to tune in to the pod cast for an answer to that question.

She tours extensively and has just comeback from a major tour with the legendary Ron Sexsmith.

As an artist, she cares deeply about the state of the world today and thinks that music is a common language for all humanity, a bridge builder that can help us communicate beyond the barriers of spoken language. She has released three albums, each one marking a key phase in her artistic evolution and maturity.

FOR THE LATEST INFO ON JILL BARBER: visit her superb website (with video content, music, tour dates and a teeny tiny bio) at http://www.jillbarber.com/

ELIZABETH ADDISON: Ex Africa...

Ex Africa semper aliquid novi (Out of Africa, there is always something new) —Pliny (AD 23-79).

Today we started recording The Creative Exchange, a series of podcats for the online portal of The Women's Post. Taping started at 10AM –luckily I live around the corner from the studio. The first guest was Elizabeth Addison, former Marketing Director of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art in NYC) and former Director of External Affairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

We talked about her career, her role in these two leading international arts institutions and her recent foray into African art through Addison Imports. She reminded us that African art and in the Twentieth Century was a big influence on Modern –the obvious example being Dali’s Cubism that drew from West African masks of the Dogon. During her time at MoMA there were several exhibits illustrating various connections between African art and European “fine art.”

Elizabeth is passionate about art. We had a great conversation about what drew her to Africa. She has established her art import company on the philosophy of “a hand up, not a hand out.” If you are in Toronto I strongly recommend you attend her showcase of fabulous African art titled Out of Africa II running Nov 8-11 at The Richmond (477 Richmond St W. Toronto). Proceeds from Out of Africa II are invested into local village economies and support talented indigenous artisans and craftspeople, many of whom are women who are sole breadwinners for their families.

Elizabeth brought some of these pieces to the studio. I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful these pieces are. She was wearing one the pieces, a very fetching necklace made from reclaimed glass crafted by Ghanaian women. It seems Africa is way ahead on this recycling thing. What was so touching for me was seeing the tags with the artists’ names on the labels of each piece –it made the various pieces more personable, and brought me closer to Africa. (Pictures of the various pieces to be posted soon).

The interview was streamed live on www.ThatRadio.com and will be available on The Women’s Post Portal November 15.

Some examples of the women’s cooperatives and businesses from which Elizabeth Addison currently buys are:

The Monkeybiz Bead Project - Cape Town South Africa
( http://www.monkeybiz.co.za/)
Monkeybiz is a non-profit company established by three women in order to create employment and empowerment for disadvantaged women in Cape Town. These artisans create gorgeous hand-beaded decorative dolls, animals and tableware. Monkeybiz provides skills training and work for about 450 women. The women can work from home and are paid for each item. The revenue from the sale of the goods is used for community projects such as the HIV/AIDS hospice they have built. While Monkeybiz has had good success exporting to Europe and the U.S., Addison Imports is the only company selling in Canada at this time.

Kpando Women’s Pottery Cooperative – Ghana
The women in a rural village in the area known as Kpando make beautiful pottery using the same technique that generations before them have. Originally intended for everyday use, this ceramic-ware was bought and used by local Ghanaians. However, once cheaper plastic containers became readily available, the demand for the pottery declined and so a main source of income of employment for these women was lost. In recent years the U.S. Aid to Africa and Aid to Artisans Ghana projects have provided support for them to re-start this craft industry with a view to developing an export business. It is in the very early stages and only a small number of women (about 20) make the pottery, but as the market for their products increases, more women will work there. Addison Imports is one of the first to import Kpando pottery and the only one in Canada thus far.

CONTACT: Elizabeth Addison, Addison Imports, liz@addisonimports.com

Great things come out of parties

It's a month before we launch The Creative Exchange in November. This will be a lively forum where I will be talking to leading creative minds about their work, their vision, and the importance of culture and creativity in the world today. This will be a journey of discovery for all of us and I look forward sharing it with you in this blog.

I should tell you how this whole thing came together: About a month ago, I was at a party chatting to some very interesting people when I saw the ever ebullient Sarah Thompson, publisher of The Women's Post.

We rushed towards one another, thrilled to see each other again. We had not spoken since a fundraising dinner for my opera The Passion of Winnie in June. We had spent the entire dinner talking about art, music, her newspaper and of course, Winnie Mandela. Mrs. Mandela (the guest speaker on that occasion) was refused permission to enter Canada and had been replaced by the filmmaker & actor LeVar Burton whom we all know from the epic series Roots and also Star Trek: The Next Generation. After LeVar's moving speech that evening, Sarah got to hear me swear (out of shock) as LeVar, without warning me, announced in front of all assembled for dinner that he is inviting me to write the musical score of his next movie being shot in Africa. These were the exciting circumstances of our last encounter.

So, back to the current party, we rushed to each other and hugged. I could see she had some special news to share, she could hardly contain her excitement. I learned she had just done a naughty thing, bought an online radio station. I was thrilled and I enquired further. It was going to be an extension of the paper, exciting new topics to explore, engaging with a whole new audience.It also turned out she's looking for someone to do a cultural segment, would I know anyone? Despite the heat and the wine fogging my mind, a light bulb dimly switched on in my head, I used to be on South African Broadcasting’s radio network back in the day, reading the news and also doing arts interviews for a classical music station before I left for the New World.
I really enjoyed it and would be thrilled to do it again, music schedule permitting.

So here we are, a month before the launch of the first interviews for The Creative Exchange. Sometimes, great things come out of parties.