{"id":64184,"date":"2019-10-24T14:06:53","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T18:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=64184"},"modified":"2019-10-24T14:06:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T18:06:53","slug":"interview-violinist-blake-pouliot-talks-frenergy-tour-nyo-euyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/10\/24\/interview-violinist-blake-pouliot-talks-frenergy-tour-nyo-euyo\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Violinist Blake Pouliot Talks About The Frenergy Tour With The NYO And EUYO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Violinist Blake Pouliot talks about touring with the Canada-EU youth orchestra super group, and what his experience with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) means to him today.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Violinist
Violinist Blake Pouliot talks about touring with the National Youth Orchestra and European Union (Photo : Courtesy of Blake Pouliot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI<\/span>\u2019ve been very fortunate, and I\u2019ve had a lot of success.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of an understatement for Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot<\/strong>. In the 2019\/2020 season, he’s making his debuts with the Atlanta, Asheville, Sarasota and Madison symphonies. His debut album Ravel, Debussy: Sonates<\/em><\/a><\/span> on the Analekta label garnered a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine<\/em> and was nominated for a 2019 Juno Award for Best Classical Album.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very busy \u2014 lots of work, lots of travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, that travel brings him back home to Toronto to kick off the four-city Frenergy Tour<\/strong>, a first-ever collaboration between Canada\u2019s National Youth Orchestra (NYO Canada)<\/strong> and the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO)<\/strong>, under the baton of Viennese conductor Sascha Goetzel.<\/p>\n

From November 12 to 17, the mass orchestra will hit Toronto\u2019s Koerner Hall, then Kingston and Montreal, winding up, appropriately, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The tour was facilitated by the European Union Delegation to Canada,<\/strong> an organization that has fostered ties between Canada and the EU since 1976.<\/p>\n

\"European
EUYO Spring Tour 2019 Group Photo in Oman’s Royal Opera House (Photo : Andrew McCoy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O<\/span>rganizers were looking for an NYO alumnus to take on the role of soloist. \u201cI got a phone call,\u201d Blake recalls, and it was his time with the NYO that persuaded him. \u201cI was in the NYO in the summers of 2012 and 2013.\u201d In fact, Pouliot won the Michael Measures Prixe in 2013<\/strong>, and became concertmaster of the NYO during his second year.<\/p>\n

The idea of playing with the dual youth orchestras appealed to him. \u201cIt\u2019s really fun,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s always special to have youth groups combined.\u201d Pouliot is based in Los Angeles these days, but still has strong ties to Toronto and the region, and welcomed the chance to come back and play while he visited. \u201cI\u2019m really excited by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time Pouliot has gone on a similar tour. After netting the Grand Prize at the 2016 Orchestre symphonique de Montr\u00e9al Manulife Competition<\/strong>, he toured through the summer of 2017 as a soloist with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blake has been playing with orchestras since the age of 11, and has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Neville Marriner,<\/strong> Pablo Heras Casado, David Danzmyer, Vasily Petrenko, and Hugh Wolff. Now 25, Pouliot’s memories of his time with the NYO are fresh and fond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was life changing in many different ways,\u201d he says. During the training period, and on tour, the young musicians live and work together, an experience he remembers as both eye-opening and seminal. As he points out, the tuition is free (by audition), and the student musicians are also paid for their efforts. \u201cNow, later in life, it\u2019s become one of my most cherished memories,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a beautiful, nurturing environment. What an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"National
National Youth Orchestra, string section (Photo : Courtesy of NYO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Life on tour as a soloist playing with different orchestras, all over the world, can be lonely and somewhat alienating. Yet, wherever he is, he seems to run into other NYO alumni<\/strong> \u2014 most recently in Edmonton on tour. \u201cI have friends in the Montreal Symphony<\/strong>, in the Toronto Symphony<\/strong>,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s really comforting.\u201d He says he also appreciates the level of support he got in the early days of his career, now that he\u2019s based in the US.<\/p>\n

Blake plays the 1729 Guarneri del Ges\u00f9 violin<\/strong>, on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank<\/strong>, and says the repertoire was proposed to him, focusing on two show pieces for his solo performance. \u201cI think they wanted to keep the show light.\u201d Rehearsal will happen over one or two days just before the tour begins.<\/p>\n

Blake will be playing Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28<\/em> and Ravel\u2019s Tzigane for Violin and Orchestra<\/em>. <\/i>The program will also include Wagner\u2019s Overture to Tannh\u00e4user (Paris Version)<\/em>, Rossini\u2019s Overture to William Tell<\/em>,<\/i> and the Suite from The Firebird (1945 revision)<\/em> by Stravinsky. The namesake of the concert series is Canadian composer John Estacio\u2019s Frenergy for orchestra,<\/i> a piece that celebrates friendship and high energy.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the Canadian tour, NYO violinists Teresa Wang and Cassandra Leshchyshyn went on tour with the EUYO over the summer. Likewise, Austrian violinist Janela Nini, and Spanish violinist Patricia Francia and cellist Gema P\u00e9rez Oliver trained with the NYO over the summer, and then went on tour in Canada and Spain.<\/p>\n

The EUYO<\/strong> has existed for more than four decades as a cultural ambassador for the European continent, with a reputation for excellence. Canada\u2019s NYO<\/strong> has been an incubator for many of the country\u2019s finest classical musicians, with about a third of Canada’s orchestra seats taken up by alumni. Every summer, about 100 music students between the ages of 16 and 28 participate in the NYO summer training institute, culminating in a cross-country tour and recording session.<\/p>\n

The Frenergy Tour plays Toronto\u2019s Koerner Hall on November 12, the Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston on November 13, the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal on November 14, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on November 17. Details here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us\u00a0on <\/em>Facebook<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span>, <\/em>Instagram<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> <\/b>or <\/em>Twitter<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Violinist Blake Pouliot talks about touring with the Canada-EU youth orchestra super group, and what his experience with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) means to him today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":64187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,76,19,29,4557],"tags":[31193,24677,32355,5652],"yst_prominent_words":[32345,18419,32350,32354,10453,32343,20775,19765,32344,19737,6613,32352,12857,32349,32348,11884,32351,32346,7487,32347],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/10\/Blake-Pouliot-header.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-gHe","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64184"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64190,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64184\/revisions\/64190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64184"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=64184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}