Photo by Michael Slobodian
James Strecker: What important beliefs do you express in your work?
Karina Gauvin: Staying true to the composer’s wishes and paying special attention to style. Style defines every era in music, and I try to mould myself to this as much as possible. Some singers like to put their own stamp on the music they perform and oftentimes, I believe, it distorts the original message and what the composer intended. I like to think that the composer was the best one to know how he wanted his music to be performed.
JS: Name two people, living or dead, whom you admire a great deal and tell us why for each one.
KG: I can’t tell you how often my colleagues and I have wondered what it would have been like to meet and work with either Handel or Mozart. Such fascinating human beings who wrote so magically for the human voice. What it must have been like to be in their presence, be guided by their requests and be given music that was being created right then and there, on the spot -the music of the time.
JS: How have you changed since you began to do creative work?
KG: I have changed immensely over the past two decades and mostly in my vocal range and my ability to stretch my limits. I constantly strive to improve what I do and try to stay open and fresh. Singing at a high level takes years and years of painstaking work. Listening to oneself and constantly taking a finer and finer grain of “sand paper” to refine what one is doing. My teacher used to always say, “cent fois sur le métier remettez votre ouvrage”. Which basically says: take what you have woven and put it back on the loom and weave again. A concept that many find hard to grasp in this day and age of fast, easy and discardable!
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
KG: There are many challenges one faces in this career. Being a singer, we “live” with our instruments in our bodies 24/7. Being sick with a sore throat or cold, having indigestion or working long days on little sleep is part of what we have to deal with on a regular basis. Oftentimes, the biggest challenges an opera singer has to deal with do not have to do with the creative process at all. In this business, lots of travelling is required of us. Touring sometimes under very difficult conditions, rehearsing AND performing all on the very same day. Then we are required to set everything aside and to perform like angels. So before entering the stage, it’s about letting all of those extraneous worries behind and concentrating on the task at hand.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life.
KG: My work with [the late] Alan Curtis and the many recording and concert projects I did with him. When I met him, he changed my life forever and I will never forget it.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about what you do?
KG: Sometimes certain people do not understand the work that is required to get to this high level of performing. They think all we have to do is basically get up, open our mouths and sing! I say, you try it sometime and let’s have a chat afterwards….
JS: How and why did you begin to do creative work in the first place?
KG: Creativity was in the family. My mother has always been a creative person. She was a singer herself and was interested in many forms of art. This of course stimulated 2 of her 3 children to venture on the creative path.
JS: What are your most meaningful achievements?
KG: Besides all my work and recordings with Alan Curtis in particular, I would have to say how I pulled myself out of a very difficult divorce some years ago. After going through deep depression, I emerged a stronger, better person and definitely a better singer. Stepping out of darkness definitely makes you appreciate the light!
JS: What advice would you give a young person who would like to do what you do?
KG: It takes time. A lot of time and then some. More than you can ever imagine. One has to be very patient in this business. There are many factors that contribute to a successful career and many, many sacrifices have to be made. You have to be ready to accept that or you will be very unhappy. To be a performer is very demanding and you have to be able to leave all your cares behind before you get up in front of an audience. No one wants to see a sour face. They have paid good money to hear you sing. You have to be joyous and the audience has to hear it and see it!
JS: Of what value are critics?
KG: Any musician will tell you, when criticism is constructive, it’s useful. When critics can guide and inform people about music they know little about, it’s useful. When critics can make a liaison between the audience and the artist, something can be learned. However, when it gets personal and vindictive, that’s when we have to step out of the arena. Malicious and nasty comments have never helped anyone.
JS: What do you ask of your audience?
KG: I am happy they have come to hear me. It’s wonderful when people are open and receptive to what is happening on stage. A couple of requests though, please don’t pull out your bag of chips or your cell phone during a performance. It’s annoying. We can see so much when we are up there on that stage!!!
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world?
KG: We all need to listen more to one another. In this day and age of social media, everyone has an opinion. Opening a doorway to compassion and exchange is how we can heal ourselves and others around us.
JS: Tell us what it feels like to be a figure who is presented somehow in the media. What effect does this presence have on you?
KG: Being a classical musician is definitely not like being a Hollywood celebrity. It’s not invasive, I have my private life and it’s not being discussed in the tabloids. So, all is good as they say.
JS: Name two places you would like to visit, one you haven’t been to and one to experience again and briefly tell us why.
KG: I would like to go to India for the colours, the people, the food, the silks, I would love to visit a workshop where they do hand block prints and experience the utter culture shock of it all. I would also love to go back to the Highlands of Scotland. When I lived in Glasgow for a year during my postgrad, I got to see them only once and it was pouring rain that day. I’d like to be able to take my time the second time around!
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed. Why do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
KG: I have several projects on the horizon, a few with a wonderful European orchestra. I don’t know if they would matter to anyone, but they certainly matter to me because I feel I am in such a good place in my life and in my voice now. I am at that place where my life experience can deliver a meaningful message and that I have the vocal strength to deliver that message. This matters to me and, who knows, maybe it can “speak” to someone out there as well.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
KG: The classical world has definitely “glammed” up in the past two decades. This has been good to clean up and modernize the image of musicians at large and make them more approachable to the general audience. Our classical world definitely needed a dusting off and getting up to speed. However, I fear that now, it’s a lot about that, and certain artists (singers) are being looked over because they don’t have that Hollywood/ supermodel glossy appearance that so many presenters are looking for nowadays. Yes, we need to present artists that are appealing to the public but we all need to hear and see people that have something to express through their art. I want to be moved and stimulated when I go to a concert or the opera. It is first and foremost about music, not a fashion show!
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising thing about you?
KG: How resilient I have been all these years, working at this career. Someone told me once, very early on, that I was too much of a fragile flower to aspire to this business. I would be lying if I didn’t say that there weren’t many frustrating moments and many tears along the way, but lo and behold, here I am over 20 years later, still going strong.