When the PGSO opens its mainstage season, they couldn't hit a much higher note than Jane Coop.
She is one of the nation's most applauded pianists, she tours the world as a performer and teacher, she has 16 recordings to her credit and gotten three Juno Award nominations among them. For her combined efforts she recently received the Order of Canada.
As much as solo recitals and chamber ensembles are her passion, she also felt a lifelong urge to teach. She was head of UBC's piano program until a year ago when she retired. It was there she met the man who secured her upcoming appearance at Vanier Hall with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.
"It is largely to do with your conductor [Kevin Zakresky]," she said. He grew up in Prince George and pursued music in the UBC program before going on to Yale and then being hired for the PGSO. "I remember his audition to get into UBC and I was very impressed by his musicality and his intelligence, and that has only blossomed. You have a real talent there, Prince George."
It helped solidify her decision, too, that she had been to the city long ago to work with the PGSO and was looking forward to doing it again. It was one of the orchestras that provided a spotlight on her early in her career and helped her remain a Canadian-based classical star whereas many of her peers moved to Europe, Asia and the United States. Coop and her husband have a second home in Harlem, in the thick of New York City's music scene, but they have never had to make it their permanent base.
"It's wonderful to be a Canadian-based performer, I feel quite lucky," she said. "I have stayed in Canada becasue I felt that I had a lot of interest from this country in me and my playing and I wanted to explore the country and meet different people and played in different communities. I feel when I'm here, I'm very much home," no matter which province or territory the show might be in.
Over that busy career course, she has never become a specialist in a particular era of music or a particular composer, nor has she insisted herself become dominant in chamber music or solo performances with orchestra.
"They all require different things; they give different things back," she said. But now that she is retired from the teaching ranks, she is allowing her performance imagination to wander. She is doing a recording with Canadian opera soprano Donna Brown of some Brahms works. She is focusing on some Mozart concertos. And then there is the three-concert set she's doing at The Ironworks in Vancouver, a chic industrial conversion space for performance and art in Gastown.
"I'm doing some contemporary music with multimedia visuals. This is the sort of thing I can do, now that I have some time."
First, though, Coop is coming to Vanier Hall on Oct. 4, smacking her lips over the piece she and the PGSO get to play together.
"I feel incredibly honored to have Jane Coop, one of Canada's most influential and beloved performers, opening our season here with the symphony," said Zakresky. "Her interpretation of the great Schumann concerto will be something to savour. How wonderful to be able to bring an artist of her stature to our audience."
"The Schumann concerto is a big favourite of mine," she said. "Sometimes an orchestra asks for a particular piece and sometimes I get to choose, so when Kevin came to me to ask if I'd play this one I was so pleased. It's such a warm, passionate piece."
Also on the menu that night, the PGSO will take on Brahms's Symphony No. 3 in F major.
