{"id":107806,"date":"2024-09-23T16:01:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T20:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=107806"},"modified":"2024-09-24T08:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T12:00:06","slug":"interview-pianist-stewart-goodyear-talks-bbc-proms-new-recording-busy-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/09\/23\/interview-pianist-stewart-goodyear-talks-bbc-proms-new-recording-busy-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Pianist Stewart Goodyear Talks About The BBC Proms, His New Recording, And Busy Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pianist
Pianist Stewart Goodyear (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto pianist Stewart Goodyear is having a year, you might say, one that is building on a distinctive career in the international classical music scene.<\/p>\n

Earlier in September, he played a well received performance at the BBC Proms<\/a> with the Chineke! Orchestra. Along with Duke Ellington\u2019s jazzy version of Tchaikovsky\u2019s seminal The Nutcracker, and the composer\u2019s \u2018Path\u00e9tique\u2019 Symphony, Goodyear performed his own Callaloo, a suite for orchestra and piano that celebrates Caribbean culture.<\/p>\n

His recording of Prokofiev’s\u00a02nd and 3rd Concertos, along with the 7th Sonata, with Andrew Litton and the BBC Symphony Orchestra was released on Orchid Classics on September 6, the same day as the concert.<\/p>\n

A star alumnus of the Royal Conservatory of Music, and its inaugural artist-in-residence, Goodyear has fashioned a busy performing and recording career.<\/p>\n

His concert schedule is a full one. Just back after performances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto no 3 with Music Director Otto Tausk, he\u2019s off to Reading, then Wichita, and then Indianapolis to perform Gershwin\u2019s iconic Rhapsody in Blue. That only covers the next three weeks.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, he\u2019ll be back in the UK to help the Chineke! Orchestra celebrate their 10th anniversary, and perform his own suite for orchestra, titled \u201cLife, Life, Life\u201d, a work commissioned by the Chineke! Foundation and dedicated to the memory of Stewart’s late mother.<\/p>\n

We caught up with him to talk about recent projects.<\/p>\n

\"Pianist
Pianist Stewart Goodyear (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stewart Goodyear: The Interview<\/h2>\n

The BBC Proms appearance came as the result of an invitation. \u201cChineke! Orchestra and I collaborated many times,\u201d Goodyear says. \u201cWe first recorded my suite entitled Callaloo in 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

He calls it a \u201cwonderful relationship\u201d, one that spawned a tour of Callaloo in 2019 through the UK. He\u2019s also performed the work with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Stewart grew up listening to classical music, along with other genres. \u201cEvery composer broke the mold,\u201d he says. Endless reinvention is part of what inspired him to become a composer as well as a pianist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt compelled me to find my own voice, and pay homage to my own background,\u201d he says. That background is part British, and part Canadian, along with its Caribbean roots.<\/p>\n

The concert was a high point in the life of the work. \u201cAn honour,\u201d he calls it. \u201cIt was a wonderful, warm response. The audience went wild,\u201d he adds. \u201cJust performing in that space…\u201d He recalls his first trip to the UK at age 13 with his mother and aunt, taking in several Proms concerts at the storied venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just this electricity in the air,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be at the receiving end of that was, at first, overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get over the feeling, he says he took the advice of one of the members of Chineke!, which entailed going up to the highest seat of Albert Hall and looking down at the stage to gain perspective. It helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just wonderful to feel their enthusiasm. What the audience gave me, I just gave back. It was probably the best, and the hottest performance of Callaloo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chineke! Orchestra performs Goodyear\u2019s suite for piano and orchestra Callaloo in 2019:<\/p>\n