{"id":42202,"date":"2017-01-26T15:17:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T20:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=42202"},"modified":"2017-01-27T08:18:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T13:18:14","slug":"qa-30-questions-for-adam-sherkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/01\/26\/qa-30-questions-for-adam-sherkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A | 30 Questions For Adam Sherkin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Composer\/Pianist
Composer\/Pianist Adam Sherkin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every so often MT poses 60 questions to a local or visiting artist in Toronto who has made our classical music community that much more interesting. They pick and choose. The minimum response is 20 answers. A kind of Rorschach personality test, if you will.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Composer and pianist Adam Sherkin<\/a> is a dynamic musician who commands a multi-dimensional approach his music. A native of Toronto, his works have been premiered everywhere from the Luminato Festival to The Warehouse and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Adam has appeared in performance all around the world, including St Martin-in-theFields, Covent Garden, and the Royal Albert Hall. Sherkin\u2019s debut solo album, As At First,<\/em> was released in November of 2012 on the Centrediscs label.<\/p>\n

You can see Adam in Toronto on the first Thursday of every month at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto. \u00a0Themed \u201cWrite Off the Keyboard,\u201d this series highlights great pianist\/composers of our not-too-distant past who not only interpreted with formidable mastery but wrote exceptional music from the piano\u2019s vantage point: Haydn, Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Liszt, Brahms, and Chopin are all included. \u00a0For further details, visit:\u00a0stlc.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Name the musical equivalent to junk food.<\/h3>\n

Jason Robert Brown<\/p>\n

Default drink\/cocktail of choice?<\/h3>\n

A classic Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Name your favourite concert hall\/venue in Toronto.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts\u2019 Jane Mallett Theatre.<\/p>\n

Name your favourite concert hall\/venue anywhere.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Southbank Centre, London.<\/p>\n

Your role models?<\/h3>\n

Aaron Copand, John Adams, Leon Fleisher, Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9quin, Glenn Gould… oh and Jamie Oliver.<\/p>\n

Your favourite sound?<\/h3>\n

A celesta.<\/p>\n

Your least favourite sound?<\/h3>\n

A harpsichord.<\/p>\n

First thing that comes to your mind when you think about Toronto?<\/h3>\n

A sense of place.<\/p>\n

The historical personalities, both good and bad, that fascinate you the most?<\/h3>\n

Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Gustav Mahler, Catherine the Great, Domenico Scarlatti and Joan of Arc.<\/p>\n

The dumbest thing that you\u2019ve ever done to your hair?<\/h3>\n

Frosted tips, circa 2007 \u2014 ouch.<\/p>\n

Your first three record store purchases?<\/h3>\n

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, What Hits!?<\/em>, Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 26 with G\u00e9za Anda (Deutsche Grammophon); Beastie Boys, Paul\u2019s Boutique.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you could board a plane this afternoon, where would it be taking you?<\/h3>\n

Winnipeg! to catch the Winnipeg New Music Festival in late January. This is a festival I\u2019ve always wanted to attend.<\/p>\n

The strangest place you\u2019ve ever been to?<\/h3>\n

Dimmuborgir, North Iceland.<\/p>\n

The three books that you read that made an impact on you in your formative years?<\/h3>\n

1) The Catcher in the Rye; <\/em>2) A Moveable Feast<\/em>; 3) Fathers and Sons<\/em><\/p>\n

Where did you go to school?<\/h3>\n

The Glenn Gould School (Toronto); subsequently, the Royal College of Music (London).<\/p>\n

What did you major in as an undergraduate?<\/h3>\n

Piano Performance.<\/p>\n

The strangest talent that you possess?<\/h3>\n

The odd ability to park my car anywhere in town, at almost anytime of day, often right in front of the intended destination.<\/p>\n

The different career path that you could have gone on?<\/h3>\n

None other: a life in music is it! (this time round).<\/p>\n

Your ancestry?<\/h3>\n

\u00bd Russian Jewish + \u00bc Welsh + \u00bc Italian = very Canadian!<\/p>\n

Your three favourite films?<\/h3>\n

Being Julia<\/em>, Good Will Hunting<\/em> and Shakespeare in Love.<\/em><\/p>\n

What was the luckiest moment in your life?<\/h3>\n

I survived the capsizing of my little speedboat, aged 13. I was known thereafter as \u201cFlip Sherkin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talent that you wish you possessed?<\/h3>\n

Perfect pitch.<\/p>\n

What sport did you give up and why?<\/h3>\n

T-ball. I started a food fight after we lost a tournament when I was eleven years old \u2014 not my finest hour.<\/p>\n

The thing that makes you the happiest?<\/h3>\n

My dog, Orfeo.<\/p>\n

The thing that makes you the angriest?<\/h3>\n

My dog, Orfeo.<\/p>\n

The strangest road you\u2019ve ever travelled?<\/h3>\n

The dark and sinister Devil\u2019s Alley in King\u2019s Lynn, Norfolk, (England). I travelled there for a celebration of Captain George Vancouver (at his birthplace) and a concert featuring my own music.<\/p>\n

The first album that made you love music?<\/h3>\n

Vladimir Horowitz, Favorite Encores<\/em> (CBS Records, Masterworks, 1987).<\/p>\n

Three pieces, songs, or arias that you could listen to on repeat for an hour?<\/h3>\n

Beethoven\u2019s Op.109; Richard Strauss\u2019 Op.27; Iannis Xenakis\u2019 Eonta.<\/em><\/p>\n

The one place that you have the least interest in ever visiting?<\/h3>\n

Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The first three things that you do every morning?<\/h3>\n

1) Look west and thank my lucky stars; 2) Drink coffee: 3 shots of espresso, to begin with; 3) play a contrapuntal keyboard work by J.S. Bach.<\/p>\n

To read more from our Q&A Series, click HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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