What: Lara St. John with the Victoria Symphony
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Saturday, 8 p.m.;Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
Tickets: $18 to $75 (including student and senior discounts) at rmts.bc.ca and 250-386-6121
For a classical violinist, Lara St. John has carved an unusual path.
“I have what’s got to be one of the stranger careers known to any classical musician,” the London, Ont., native said on the phone from her home in New York City. “But also, in my opinion, one of the best.”
St. John began playing at age two, made her orchestral debut before the age of five and shocked audiences with a nude Bach album cover at 24, even if she was tastefully covered by her violin.
She has diverged from the “strictly” classical path on many occasions, beginning in high school when her education in Moscow was interrupted by a teacher who defected (it was still the Soviet Union back then) and she struck out on her own to explore Eastern Europe and its folk music. And when she was unsatisfied with the way the classical music industry business ran things in 1999, she took it by the horns and started her own independent label, Ancalagon.
Now in her early 40s, St. John may no longer pose nude, but for the acclaimed violinist who speaks with disarming casualness, sticking with tradition still seems to go against a true zest for life.
When she isn’t performing with symphony orchestras, she’s producing music with her polka band Polkastra, working on commissions with jazz pianists and editing her own music videos.
“I’m just actually, truthfully, curious about a lot of things. I’m fascinated with other types of music.
“When I feel like something isn’t being done the way I want it, then I just learn how to do it myself,” she said.
St. John makes her debut with the Victoria Symphony this weekend, playing composer John Corigliano’s Red Violin Suite. While Corigliano is considered one of the greatest living composers, he’s also a “great friend” to St. John, who said she spent the night before this interview enjoying wine with Corigliano and his partner.
Her relationship with Corigliano began around 1998, the same year he won an Academy Award for the film score. St. John performed the Chinese debut of the Suite and would go on to perform it many more times, as well as recording it with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
While she’s still a regular performer of music by classical greats, she said there’s something nice about being able to report back to a composer, after a successful show. St. John had just returned home after performing Bach and Beethoven in Peru, as well as Corigliano’s work in Uruguay.
“It would have been really nice, as it was in Uruguay, to call up old Ludwig van and say, ‘Hey you know, it went really well. We had an almost full house and we had a standing ovation,’ ” she said.
“It’s still so awesomely cool that somebody that well known [Corigliano], who’s been producing music for so long, is still alive and in fact quite hale.”
Although St. John’s performance this weekend will be her debut with the Victoria Symphony, she’s no stranger to the area. As a long-time friend and Polkastra bandmate of local musician Daniel Lapp, she says she stays with the folk artist’s family whenever she visits. She also recently attended the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, where she ventured into the forest for an impromptu photo shoot (unsurprisingly, she’s no fan of studio shots).
And while St. John has relaxed what was once a 100-date international tour, she still keeps herself busy. While colleagues may offer two concertos each year, she said she performed 17 last year, including three premières.
But with professional independence, especially in the form of her label Ancalagon, comes professional freedom.
“What I do is I wait until there’s something that really means a lot to me — something I can do with a lot of integrity and absolutely love.”
She just happens to love a lot.
