Marco Cera is the Tafelmusik oboist and visual artist behind the creation of The Harlequin Salon, which takes place Jan 16 through 20.
JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about a project that you have been working on. Why does it matter to you and why should it matter to us?
MARCO CERA: I’m the creator of the multimedia concert called “The Harlequin Salon”.
It’s a show that incorporates music, theatre (commedia dell’arte) and visual art. This show will recreate an “Accademia musicale”, a sort of private house concert that took place in Rome around the 1720s at the palazzo of a very famous artist, painter, caricaturist and music enthusiast: Pier Leone Ghezzi.
I’ll be performing as musician, but also as visual artist, drawing caricatures of the musicians involved in the concert in real time.
I feel that North American audiences have not had enough exposure to the wonderful work of Pier Leone Ghezzi, and I’m proud to be his advocate.
JS: How did doing this project change you as a person and as a creator?
MC: The creative process behind “The Harlequin Salon” gave me many opportunities to learn and grow artistically at many levels: intellectual, historical, musical.
I’m also learning more about marketing, budget, and developing new relations with artists. I had the pleasure of collaborating with a team of experts in commedia dell’ arte, music and baroque opera, and I can’t wait to see the project come to life.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
MC: I think that audiences won’t realize the amount of work, hours of study and research behind the making of a program like “The Harlequin Salon”. This isn’t necessary a negative thing. Art is artificial and it’s supposed to make complicated things look easy.
For example, during the show I will draw using a real quill pen, the tool that Ghezzi used at his time. I had to learn how to cut, carve, shape the tip of the feather. That was fun and extremely satisfying!
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
MC: My enthusiasm for the beauty that surround us.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
MC: Finding an audience that appreciates and supports your work. I grew up in a small town in Italy where people being an artist is do not considered a profession. Even if people appreciate art, they don’t always understand what it means and what it takes to live as an artist.
JS: Imagine that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
MC: Of course, I’d pay a fortune to be able to meet with my new hero, Pier Leone Ghezzi and ask him what inspired him to produce such an astonishing number of drawings. I would try to find out as much information as possible on his work, technique, and the education and training he had.
For the same reasons, I’d like to meet Claude Monet, the French impressionist who was a very prolific figure in the visual arts. Claude Monet drew also some amusing caricatures and, like his predecessor Pier Leone Ghezzi, he was one of the most hard workers I know! What was the motivation behind his work and what kept him inspired and productive? Where did he find the strength to get up at 3:30 a.m., get out and paint the same subject over and over again?
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist.
MC: On many occasions in the past I accepted work that I considered “out of my comfort zone”.
These occasions were the turning point where I learned the most. They directed me towards new paths, opening up new opportunities and boosting my self-confidence.
When Ensemble Polaris asked me to join the band, I didn’t think that my guitar skills were good enough. Not only I ended up playing many shows, but also arranged and composed for the band.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
MC: Often people comment on what I do: “Marco! You are so talented!”. This comment is interesting because I think that people don’t realize that what I do takes hard work and discipline and only a little bit of talent.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
MC: I think that every project comes at the right time. Keep your projects in the drawer, keep thinking about them, keep working on them, and one day the right moment will come, the right occasion will make it happen.
I have several music projects in the drawer waiting for the right moment to happen.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
MC: When I graduated from high school I decided to specialize in music because I was discouraged by others who felt that visual art was an impossible career.
I wish I had followed my instinct and my passion more.
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
MC: I appreciate when I get positive feedback on my work, but I am always seeking for a comment that can help me improve what I do. My father gave me the most useful advice when I was about finished my studies:
“Don’t wait for somebody to call you! Pick up the phone and do it now!”
JS: If you yourself were a critic of the arts discussing your work, be it something specific or in general, what would you say?
MC: Be more coherent with your vision, stick with an idea and develop it, find your own unique style.
I am a little too impatient and I get bored quickly when working in one direction. For this reason, I often don’t go deep into one discipline. I like to jump from one musical instrument to another, one genre of music to another. You can’t be excellent at everything!
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
MC: I have a great fear of Santa Claus and I don’t like garlic!