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/