{"id":68957,"date":"2020-08-24T12:49:20","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T16:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=68957"},"modified":"2020-08-24T12:49:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T16:49:20","slug":"profile-mark-rash-the-man-behind-the-lens-of-classical-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2020\/08\/24\/profile-mark-rash-the-man-behind-the-lens-of-classical-music\/","title":{"rendered":"PROFILE | Mark Rash: The Man Behind The Lens Of Classical Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Clockwise
Clockwise from top left: Moshe Hammer, Rolf Gjelsten (centre), Lydia Adams, Kerry DuWors, Strings Across the Sky (Photos: Mark Rash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

W<\/span>hen so much of classical music now lives in cyberspace through an ever-burgeoning wellspring of livestreamed digital events, pre-recorded solo and chamber recitals, and ubiquitous, patchwork \u201cZoom\u201d quilts featuring up-close-and-personal interviews with artists hailing from around the globe, \u201cphotography\u201d is having a moment.<\/p>\n

Toronto-born photographer Mark Rash, whose work has been highlighted in prior Ludwig Van <\/em>articles<\/a><\/span> is well in tune with the power of a compelling image \u2014 and how those singular, fleeting moments captured through the intimacy of a camera lens have now become memory-soaked postcards from a pre-pandemic past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an observer. I borrow the moment, then share it,\u201d the soft-spoken Rash states of his artistic philosophy from his Winnipeg home. \u201cI try to document the connection between a musician and his or her music, and as audience members, we can hear the sensitivity and feel the intensity of that connection. Being allowed to fuse those elements visually helps to further reveal the players\u2019 artistry and commitment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring these stressful times when we don\u2019t have that opportunity of experiencing a live performance, we can still see that emotional connection that musicians have with their music through an image, and that brings us along with them into their interpretative worlds,\u201d Rash adds of today\u2019s current ethos.<\/p>\n

\"Strings
Strings Across the Sky, from Festival of the Sound 2018 (Photo: Mark Rash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The humble, intensely private artist who arguably flies below the radar \u2014 preferring to let his images do the talking \u2014 has served as official photographer for the now 41-year old Festival of the Sound (FotS) since 2015, the three-week long event customarily held each July in the idyllic Parry Sound, ON, as well as shooting another four years with Winnipeg\u2019s Agassiz Chamber Music Festival (ACMF) that similarly springs to life in the Prairie city each June.<\/p>\n

He has photographed many of the world\u2019s elite, cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me artists including James Campbell, Janina Fialkowska, Guy Few, Stewart Goodyear, Paul Marleyn, and Jamie Parker, as well as internationally renowned chamber groups: The Gryphon Trio, New Zealand String Quartet and Lafayette String Quartet, among many others.<\/p>\n

However the mostly self-taught artist, now in his late 60s and also a fierce intellectual, hasn\u2019t exactly followed a typical path to the rarefied world of fine arts, with his artistic proclivities surfacing early. While in his teens, his late father Harry and now 96-year old mother Goldie, as well as older sister, critically acclaimed Toronto writer and author Barbara Rusch, purchased a working dairy farm that included 127 Holsteins, located in the now amalgamated city of Galt, Ontario.<\/p>\n

A then 15-year old Rash would travel every weekend from their family home in Canada\u2019s largest metropolis to the pastoral countryside to milk cows and clean barns, slipping off to Stratford in the evenings to catch a play by his favourite bard, Shakespeare. He also spent countless hours devouring Keats\u2019 poetic odes, or listening to the classical music he adores, citing Schubert\u2019s eloquent string quartets among his favourite works.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel
Rachel Mercer and Patricia O’Callaghan (Photo: Mark Rash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He later ventured to Parry Sound for three summers to ride horses, rope steer \u2014 he can still throw a mean lasso \u2014 even learning how to ride rodeo, while working at the Manitou Wabing Camp of Fine Arts where he taught horseback riding and water skiing. The starry-eyed teen performed violin briefly in one of the camp\u2019s three orchestras that regularly accompanied its musicals, as well as notably serving as concertmaster back in Toronto with his high school orchestra.<\/p>\n

Rash credits taking a darkroom course at the Vancouver Community College while living in the coastal province between 1986 to 1997 for first igniting his passion for photography, leading to a fledgling photo shoot with ballet dancers from Ballet British Columbia.<\/p>\n

As a quintessential Renaissance man and entrepreneur, Rash taught computer sciences at the University of British Columbia while simultaneously studying Political Science at that same institution. Perhaps inspired by his earlier Stratford days, he self-produced his own play, Viva Voce, co-written with Canadian actress and Stratford fixture, Mia Anderson, at Ottawa\u2019s National Arts Centre in 1975, commemorating the centenary of the Supreme Court of Canada. After eventually moving to Winnipeg for family reasons, Rash now earns his living in a variety of ways, including writing, business and software development projects, and keeps in touch with his 26-year old son Alex, now following in his footsteps and pursuing studies in creative writing and Japanese at UBC.<\/p>\n

Juno-award winning Canadian clarinetist and FotS artistic director James Campbell is one of Rash\u2019s biggest fans. It was Campbell who invited Rash to bring his camera to the 2015 festival. He was so taken by those mesmerizing images that it led to his formally appointing Rash as official festival photographer the subsequent year.<\/p>\n

I am an observer. I borrow the moment, then share it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically because Mark\u2019s photos are so good,\u201d Campbell reveals when asked what initially drew him to Rash\u2019s pictures. \u201cHe has a great love and understanding for music and a wonderful ear that allows him to take the photos that he does. He anticipates a photo like a musician who knows where a chord or a pattern is going, and somehow senses that in movement,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also has a deep humility and respect for artists, and is able to discover those moments that come out naturally in the performers. What you\u2019re seeing is the actual reality of those interactions either in rehearsal or onstage,\u201d the musician elaborates, before offering perhaps the ultimate compliment of all. \u201cHe becomes one of the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performing music has always been a curious alchemy of paradoxically immersing oneself into an innermost, emotional landscape while simultaneously projecting that same experience outwardly to an audience. Rash is first to admit he\u2019s been given a privileged front row seat to those highly intimate moments arising through the process of music-making. He once patiently waited silent and still for a full 45 minutes as pianist Janina Fialkowska rehearsed onstage to document a particular, candid image \u2014 he never asks artists to pose \u2014 that he could only imagine in his mind\u2019s eye, and literally took his breath away when it actually happened.<\/p>\n

\"Stewart
Stewart Goodyear (Photo: Mark Rash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEverything is done with enormous respect, and an awareness of boundaries,\u201d he explains of his approach. \u201cIt\u2019s also an instinctive process as you see begin to see how a musician reacts, or interacts both with the music and their instruments: their head position, or how they close their eyes or the shape of their embouchure. You have to build trust with the musician and that only comes with time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to create a sympathetic vibration with the artist, and when I step into the photographic moment, my camera becomes a reflection, or an overtone or resonance with the music that they\u2019re playing. What I\u2019m trying to do is reveal some of the internal life of the player that an audience wouldn\u2019t necessarily see.\u201d<\/p>\n

However he agrees that some of those moments are just too personal, too emotionally raw for his watchful lens, as artists bare their souls through their music \u2014 whether in rehearsal or during performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that happens, I don\u2019t wish to intrude with my camera, and want to become fully immersed and swept away by the experience. I\u2019d rather capture those moments in my heart, than on film,\u201d he says with reverence.<\/p>\n

One of Rash\u2019s pivotal artistic influences comes a surprise. He recalls becoming gobsmacked after seeing an exhibition of British pop legend Sir Elton John with his Toronto-born husband David Furnish\u2019s personal collection of historic photographs at London\u2019s Tate Modern Gallery in November 2016. He nipped out to Royal Albert Hall to witness an epic performance of Berlioz\u2019s Requiem with 550 onstage musicians, including five massed choirs, marking Remembrance Day that year.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m trying to do is reveal some of the internal life of the player that an audience wouldn\u2019t necessarily see.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI was absolutely astounded by the beauty of their artistry, and learned about form and composition, lighting techniques, resolution and focus from the photos,\u201d he says, spending nearly four hours in the gallery as he eagerly lapped up their eclectic imagery.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good photo is different from a snapshot in that it draws you in and speaks to you. It\u2019s like a painting that\u2019s telling a story and with a universal appeal. There are also some photographs that simply immobilize you, and you don\u2019t know why. I want to answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much closer to home, he also credits his longtime friend and mentor, acclaimed Toronto painter and visual artist, and former professor at York University, Judy Singer for honing his aesthetic sensibility and helping to further develop his photographic career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark being an incredibly, deeply curious person, and a person who loves to learn and expand his world took all those principles of composition, and how to look at \u2018art\u2019 that I taught to him, and applied it to his photography. He really got it,\u201d Singer assures over the telephone from her summer cottage. \u201cBecause he\u2019s also so smart, he understands the technical side of photography so it\u2019s a very powerful knowledge. He feels things deeply, and I find his photography emotional and really beautiful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Guy
Guy Few (Photo: Mark Rash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spend a little time with Rash, and the word \u201cfamily\u201d repeatedly pops up like a leitmotiv. He frequently calls the musicians whom he shoots regularly both in Parry Sound and in Winnipeg his second family, and that has engendered an even greater, requisite trust between artist and muse.<\/p>\n

An evocative photo of Rash\u2019s parents looms high from a living room bookshelf at his home. It\u2019s their wedding portrait, taken in 1945 at Armenian-Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh\u2019s Ottawa studio (although not by Karsh himself, Rash quickly notes), their faces shining with hope and promise. The haunting image not only represents the roots and bedrock for Rash\u2019s own artistic expression, but has also inspired him to take his own creative journey in photography \u2014 his parents\u2019 visages a prelude for his own compelling, photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s technically magnificent. That picture is capturing a moment in time that will never happen again,\u201d he says of the image that bears the iconic Karsh imprint, describing it poetically as, \u201can entr\u00e9e to the imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, when I photograph musicians, it\u2019s ultimately a sharing experience\u2026. I am merely documenting something which is always there, as opposed to something never to be repeated again,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been inspired by the work of 20th century French artist Henri Cartier-Bresson, considered a master of candid photography, as well as late Dauphin, Manitoba-born, Toronto-based musician, music critic and radio broadcaster Kenneth Winters. Winters once said of Canadian photographer Walter Curtin that he, \u201ctries to catch music in the act of its being made,\u201d calling it \u201cMusic Visible\u201d.<\/p>\n

I tell them, \u2018Look at the joy in your eyes.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, it goes even deeper than that. In an often broken world hungry for beauty in what can be dark shadows of despair \u2014 and that now includes a raging pandemic still galloping around the globe \u2014 he\u2019s keenly aware of the potency of his art form to inspire, console, illuminate, and ultimately give hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to perceive beauty, and especially now because it\u2019s still all around us. You can find beauty in the smallest image, with a powerful photograph connecting you kinesthetically, emotionally and spiritually to a certain moment in time,\u201d Rash states.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusicians often don\u2019t realize there\u2019s a physical, visual component that is also very much a part of the experience,\u201d he adds. \u201cI tell them, \u2018Look at the joy in your eyes.\u2019 Look at the excitement and how inspired you look, and how in turn that inspires others.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Winters, I am also trying to make music visible, as I believe that humanizing the efforts of these great musicians can bring the audience that much closer to them,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s all I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n

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":"

“I am an observer. I borrow the moment, then share it,” says Toronto-born photographer Mark Rash in a conversation about his art and career capturing classical musicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":68968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33451,4967,29,63],"tags":[37502,37501,5894,2646,2748,3141],"yst_prominent_words":[37498,6715,19718,37495,13397,26084,37493,37496,37492,30188,37487,6616,30170,30187,30186,37497,37486,37488,37494,37500],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/Mark-Rash-feature.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-hWd","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68957"}],"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\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68957"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68969,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68957\/revisions\/68969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68957"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}