Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo performs for the first time with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Dunedin this month. Rebecca Fox discovers how she went from regular kid to focused musician.
Karen Gomyo spent her first 10 years of life going to school, playing with friends and learning the violin - in that order.
It was a life no different from that of any other Canadian child growing up, until her violin teacher sent a tape of her playing to the late Dorothy DeLay, a world-leading violin teacher who taught many well-known players such as Nigel Kennedy and Midori.
From there, everything changed. Gomyo was offered a full scholarship to study at Juilliard in New York.
''I was only 10 when we moved to New York. I gave it all up but I was focused and very excited.''
While some might wonder about ''stage parents'', Gomyo insists her career path was her choice alone.
''I'm very privileged. Music was very strongly my choice. It was not something I was pushed into.''
Her new life in New York was completely different. Instead of going to school, she was home-schooled, practising the violin for hours every day.
By 15 years of age, she was playing the violin professionally.
''It was a complete change in my life but I don't regret it.''
Gomyo (33) grew up in Montreal living in a small apartment with her ''tone deaf'' family.
''I come from a completely non-musical family. My mother is a visual painter and always loved the jazz piano.''
As the family stories go, Gomyo could sing before she could talk, so her mother thought it was something she should pursue.
''Initially she thought the piano because she liked it, but we lived in a small apartment and she thought maybe [the] piano [was] more expensive and big.
''When I said I wanted to play the violin, she thought, `Great, a violin won't be too expensive'. Little did she know eventually violins are a lot more expensive than pianos.''
At the time, the new music sensation was violinist Midori, a Japanese-born American violinist who made her debut aged 11 at New York Philharmonic's New Year's Eve Gala in 1982.
''I saw her, and thought, `Wow'. I wanted to do what she was doing. She was a big influence.''
As her family was not musical, playing the violin was just a hobby, although she loved the idea of performing.
''I'd line up my stuffed animals and sing to them as if I were an opera singer.''
She started learning through the Suzuki method and her teacher was ambitious, wanting her to play pieces that were too difficult for her.
''I took them on as a challenge.''
It was being selected for a Suzuki masterclass in Chicago that set the wheels in motion to change her life. Her teacher had sent in a tape of her playing without her knowledge and she was selected to play for DeLay.
''It was then my mother and I realised I could go further with the violin, but it was a big decision - I was only 10.''
At Juilliard she had the opportunity to study under DeLay for seven years before her teacher died.
''It was a very special opportunity. She was an exceptional lady; other than a violin teacher, she was really a teacher of life. I feel I learned so much from her and am still learning. She continues to live inside me somehow.''
The violin is a very ''singing'' instrument so she loves when violinists incorporate slides into their vocabulary because it is something that cannot be done on a piano, she said.
''It is very, very particular to string instruments and comes closest to human voice; you slide into notes. Violinists from the past really used sliding as an expressive tool rather than a practical one.''
Gomyo was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2008 and has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as ''a first-rate artist of real musical command, vitality, brilliance and intensity''. In recent years she has been in demand as a soloist internationally, performing with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the LA Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Danish National Symphony and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
She said her heroes are violinists such as David Oistrakh, Jascha Heifetz and Nathan Milstein.
''They're all violinists I'll never see in concert. What I love of violinists of that era, they have such individuality, a very distinct tone; that they had a strong personality but it's never forced.''
The lack of ability to listen to each other in those days created those ''strong individual voices'', she said.
She loves her life travelling the world playing the violin - an ''Aurora, ex-Foulis'' Stradivarius violin of 1703 that was bought for her exclusive use by a private sponsor - although she admits the lifestyle has its challenges.
''It's inhuman; it goes against what the natural body is designed to do. The biggest challenge is to overcome jet lag, to be on a plane for so long and be in top shape. It only gets harder as you get older.
''I try to exercise and try to stay disciplined.''
That means doing half an hour of cardio exercise every day to get her blood flowing and tell her body ''it's time to wake up and be moving''.
To perform, her brain has to be ''very sharp and focused'', as much of the performance is based on how focused she is.
For many soloists their costume is very important, but not so much for Gomyo.
''For me it's about comfort, making sure I can breathe and making sure things don't fall where they shouldn't and maybe about a colour that fits the music. For example, I don't think I'd show up in fuchsia-pink dress for Beethoven, but it might be a very appropriate colour for, let's say, a la espanol.''
She is excited about her first visit to New Zealand and to Dunedin, which is the result of soloist Hilary Hahn pulling out of the concert because she is pregnant.
''I can't wait.''
While there are many composers and pieces of music she loves, Beethoven is one of the most challenging, but she also enjoys Tchaikovsky.
She will play Beethoven's violin concerto, widely considered one of the pinnacles of a violinist's repertoire, in Dunedin as part of the double-billed Inkinen Festival.
NZSO music director Pietari Inkinen (35) said it is one of the most famous violin concertos written.
''This lyrical and virtuosic work shows off the violin's melodic range so its performance will reveal Ms Gomyo's technical prowess, particularly the cadenza in the third movement. I know it will bring people to the edge of their seat.''
Gomyo has performed with Inkinen before, including performing Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No.1 with the Colorado Symphony in Denver, in 2012 and in 2010, she played Sergei Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1 with the Oregon Symphony at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
NZSO chief executive Christopher Blake said Gomyo is an inspiring artist who has amassed a multitude of artistic achievements in her career to date including a recent debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and a successful tour around Australia with the Sydney, Queensland and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.
''It will be a real privilege to hear this exciting artist perform one of the most loved works in the violin repertoire, Beethoven's only violin concerto, live with the orchestra.''
Inkinen bows outThe concert is the final opportunity for concertgoers to watch Inkinen conduct the NZSO as music director after eight seasons. He will become NZSO honorary conductor from 2016.
Since joining the orchestra in 2008, Inkinen's work with the NZSO has been internationally acclaimed, with critics lauding his ''bold, sure-footed intelligence'' (Guardian) and describing him as having ''confidence and talent to spare'' (Gramophone).
Highlights include leading the NZSO on its 2010 international tour to Vienna, Lucerne, Geneva, Frankfurt and Hamburg, when the orchestra received a standing ovation at the hallowed Musikverein; conducting Wagner's epic music drama Die Valkyrie in full; recording the complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies (Naxos); and conducting all nine Beethoven symphonies consecutively over four days in both Wellington and Auckland.
''I'm thrilled to become the honorary conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra,'' Inkinen said.
''It is a privilege to continue my artistic relationship with the NZSO in New Zealand, one of my favourite international orchestras. I look forward to sharing my future experiences with this very special orchestra in New Zealand.''
Internationally, Inkinen will assume the role of chief conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra from September this year. He will also become the chief conductor of the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestpiele in Germany. Inkinen is also in his sixth season as principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and last year he was honoured for best music direction for Opera Australia's Ring cycle at the Helpmann Awards in Australia.
The new NZSO music director will be announced soon.
