Volume 29 Issue 3 | December 2023 & January 2024

change throughout the culture.” She gave as an example the kinds of
damaging comments made repeatedly by the Soviet-born conductor
Yuri Temirkanov, who died this month at age 84: “Women are the
essence of weakness, and conducting is the essence of strength, so
women shouldn’t conduct,” he was quoted as saying. In St. John’s
experience in the performing world, this mentality is pervasive. “I
think the only way to get rid of this is to start screaming from the
rooftops which is basically what I’ve done.”
Creating change
One hopeful and positive sign she spoke of is the Boulanger
Initiative, an organization in the USA committed to promoting music
composed by women through performance, education, research,
consulting, and commissions. This includes publishing music by
women from earlier centuries that has been long buried. She also
cited examples of women being appointed composer-in-residence for
orchestras in Chicago and Philadelphia. Hopefully this will spread to
other major leading orchestras (as it already has here in Toronto).
Creating change in attitudes is also at the heart of her upcoming
film documentary. After the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer was
published, it was read far and wide and St. John received hundreds of
letters of support, along with multiple stories of other women’s experiences
in music. She decided to go on the road with her camera and
conduct interviews with some of the people who wrote to her and it is
these stories that will form the narrative of the film. She does all her own
post production as well, having started video editing 14 years ago, initially
because she couldn’t find anyone who knew how to synchronize
violin properly. Many of her performances are available as music
videos and can be viewed on YouTube, which I heartily recommend.
Thursday, December 7 at 8pm
GRYPHON TRIO
Echo: Memories of the World
with Marion Newman Nege’ga,
mezzo-soprano and
čačumḥi aaron wells, actor
Czardashian Rhapsody, from St John’s 2015 album Shiksa
COURTESY LARA ST JOHN
In her 21C concert on January 20, she will also be performing a
solo Bach Sonata: as she says, “there’s no way anybody writes for solo
violin without some kind of influence from him (i.e. Bach)”. She highlights
this in the program notes she has written, pointing out similarities
between Bach’s approach and how those techniques end up in
the contemporary repertoire she is performing. “It will create a lot of
interesting juxtapositions”, she said.
Other upcoming events include a few firsts for her. She has been
invited by one of Estonia’s orchestras to perform Scottish Fantasy
written in 1880 by Max Bruch. “It’s a piece you often play in your
teenage years,” she said, “but I never did. Now I’ve been asked to make
it more Scottish.” She’s decided to insert traditional Scottish tunes in
between the movements and change some of the cadenzas in response
to this request. Another first will be a performance of a Schoenberg
concerto in June in Buenos Aires. And finally, back to the 21C festival,
she will be performing in a work by Turkish pianist Fazil Say in his
January 19th concert, along with her brother Scott St. John and others.
Thursday, January 18 at 8pm
VERONA QUARTET
All Roads Lead to Rome
Tickets: 416-366-7723
option 1-1
27 Front Street East, Toronto
| music-toronto.com
The Feast Continues
The feast of new music continues after the 21C Festival when Esprit
Orchestra present their program on January 24 titled Three, with
thewholenote.com December 2023 & January 2024 | 11