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INTERVIEW | Rashaan Allwood — On The Waves Of An Uplifting Musical Experience

By Jennifer Liu on April 6, 2017

MSO organ winner Rashaan Allwood
OSM Manulife Competition winner Rashaan Allwood and the organ in the basilica of St. Joseph’s Oratory, Montreal

Mississauga’s Rashaan Allwood burst onto the Canadian classical music scene in 2013 when he earned 100% on his ARCT piano exam. Since then, he has tried his hand at other keyboard instruments, taking home first prize in the organ category at last year’s OSM Manulife Competition held by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The good-natured musician shared his performance aesthetic with Musical Toronto, built around experiences that engage the mind and body. 

You play piano, organ, and harpsichord. Does your mood change depending on which of the three you’re sitting at? 

Interesting you ask, because I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this lately! When it comes to my mood and the feelings I try and project through the music, I’d say it stays the same on each instrument. However, I have been experimenting with using each instrument idiomatically to create the maximum “affect [emotional intention].” This sometimes means really going against performance practice! For example, when playing a Bach Prelude and Fugue on a harpsichord, I’ll use all the technical devices I can to create a certain mood, over-legato, agogics, rolled chords, etc. But when on piano, I suddenly have a lot more technical devices I can use! Added range, extreme dynamic contrasts and shadings, the sustain pedal and more. So why not employ all these new devices with the same Bach Prelude and Fugue? Add some octaves, for big moments, use the pedal to get different sounds! It might upset a few musicologists, but rather than changing my mood on each instrument, I try and keep the same level of emotional impact by using each instrument as idiomatically as possible!

You transitioned from piano to organ over the course of your undergrad. Take us through the motions. 

I was always a big fan of Bach, and when I was in first year my would-be organ teacher, Kevin Komisaruk, was looking for some volunteers to be mock students for a fourth-year organ pedagogy course. I decided to give it a try because I knew Bach was an organ virtuoso, and I figured it would help me understand his music a little better. I ended up being completely drawn into the organ world! I was blown away by the nuance of the organ, the ability to be so powerful and daunting, but also so sweet and beautiful. I also found it very exciting to be able to explore keyboard repertoire in another medium. Many composers like Franck, Bach, Messiaen and Liszt to name a few, have repertoire for both piano and organ, and just as studying the string quartets of Haydn helps you to understand [his] piano sonatas more, playing the organ music of these composers helps with the interpretation of their piano works and vice versa. Though I played a lot of organ in my undergrad, I still continued to do many piano and piano collaborative recitals, and now, doing my Master’s in organ performance, I find myself still booking these same kinds of piano recitals. It’s impossible to just choose one, and I don’t plan on ever narrowing myself to one or the other.

You won the organ category at the OSM Manulife Competition last year. What elements do you think make up an ideal organ performance? 

The same elements that make an ideal performance on any instrument: doing everything possible to inspire beauty and poetry from the music. When it comes to organ specifically, I think too many organists apologize for the repertoire, thinking a lot of it is too dense, or long-winded for an audience. Although consideration for an audience is very important, I think organists should embrace all of the great music written for our instrument! If you put love into an interpretation, audiences are willing to invest themselves emotionally in your performance, and enjoy even the most contemporary or complex music!

Jean-Willy Kunz really chatted it up with you at the competition; he seemed really taken by your playing! Do you keep tabs on the MSO’s organist-in-residence? 

I do! He was super supportive to myself and all the other competitors throughout the competition, and we were all super appreciative of his work. I felt we personally clicked because we’re both a little crazy! I love that we both play jazz, and seem to have a similar taste in repertoire (he played the same Hétu organ concerto I did in the competition with the MSO a few years ago). He’s a fantastic player, and I look forward to hearing him play many more times!

It seems like the organ tradition has kept mostly to the Western musical canon. You represent another background of organists, and your playing resonates well with audiences! Why do you think it’s taking so long for non-European organists to take up the instrument?

I think the inherent issue with organ is the lack of accessibility! They’re mostly found in churches, and people without a religious background often have no exposure to the instrument. I happened to stumble on it in my undergrad (I think my grade 12 self would be very surprised to hear that I’m now doing a master’s degree in organ), but most people don’t have such luck!

How do organists practise, assuming that they don’t have an organ at home?

Again, the struggle of organ! Lots of late nights and early mornings in dark empty churches. It can be kind of scary at first, but also super fun. I remember a few months ago when I played a recital at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London [England], I had practice time late in the evening, and literally had the entire cathedral to myself. What an amazing experience it was to be alone in such a beautiful space! No tourists taking pictures, or staff getting mad at tourists disturbing people’s prayers! It is kind of a huge downside that we don’t get to have organs at home, but it is pretty thrilling to be able to travel [to other] cities, or the world, playing different organs in different churches.

 Rashaan Allwood
Rashaan Allwood

On the organ, there is a keyboard that is played with the feet. Blindly. Trippy stuff!

Very trippy! I remember spending the first few months of learning organ just drilling pedal exercises! It really takes a while to get accustomed to all the spacing on pedal boards. It also doesn’t help that organ is one of the least regulated instruments! Many organs have slightly different dimensions, flat pedal boards, curved pedal boards, longer or shorter pedals, even the amount of notes isn’t the same! There have been many times when I’ve taken repertoire on tour and had to make some crazy adjustments, playing things in different octaves or transpositions to make up for missing pedal notes!

What’s the musical scene like for organ music in Montreal? In Toronto? 

It’s quite vibrant in Montreal, with something like 18 organ students in the program [at McGill] – quite a lot for only one teacher! One of the main reasons I left Toronto for Montreal, other than of course the opportunity to study with the renowned Professor Ericsson, was to get access to the incredible instruments in this city. Although there are many fantastic organs in Toronto, the amount and variety of exceptional organs in Montreal has attracted so many competitions, students, teachers, festivals and performers to this city.

Organ music is typically heard at religious services and at funerals. Is there a lighter, humorous side to the instrument?

Organ is heard at weddings too! It’s too bad organ is often associated with funerals and scary music. The popularity of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach and Phantom of the Opera haven’t helped! […] The organ is so versatile, and there are countless examples of light, humorous music! Bach’s E-flat major Trio Sonata BWV 525 was one of the first pieces I played, and it’s truly joyous music. The more contemporary repertoire offers other great pieces, like the Scherzo Op. 2 by Duruflé that I played recently in the MSO competition! The organ can be a very serious, profound instrument but also a very lighthearted one, and all great organ composers have explored both extremes!

Quick picks

What’s on your music playlist?

Right now my top hits are Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat, Messiaen’s Des Canons aux étoiles, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Charlie Parker’s Bird with Strings and Takin’ it to the Streets by the Doobie Brothers!

How do people react when you tell them you study organ?

The usually ask me about my fancy feet.

Concert hall or church?

Churches and Cathedrals all the way!!

Is Bach the answer to organ music?

Bach is the answer to all music!

Thoughts on Cameron Carpenter?

I appreciate that he’s trying to bring organ to a new audience, I think we should all be looking for new ways to engage audiences, he just does it in a very different way than I would!

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear “He’s got a great set of pipes!”

Then I want to play his organ! …I feel like there’s a bad joke somewhere in there.

— — — —

On July 21 at the Westben Arts Festival Theatre, Rashaan performs in a nature-themed concert featuring piano music of Olivier Messiaen. “In honour of the Canadian 150, I commissioned artist Avery Kua to create around 25 images that sync up with the music, while also Canadian-ifying the settings. So when Messiaen describes the Alps musically, she has depicted the Rockies visually, which will be projected while I play. And then when I play certain bird songs, they’ll appear on the screen in their equivalent Canadian habitats.” The following morning, Westben will host a birdwatching walk where Rashaan will accompany participants on a play-along alongside the dawn chorus of birds in the natural reserve. He is planning to take this performance on tour to Montreal and the Toronto area between September and November this year.

For more info, visit westben.ca. Jan Lisecki and Angela Hewitt will be performing at Westben that same weekend.

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