JAMES STRECKER: What exactly do you like about the work you create, as originator or as interpreter, or as both if such is the case?
ANDREW ASCENZO: My favourite thing about being an artist and a musician is the opportunity that art creates to form a connection with your audience, whether that be in the concert hall, in a school, a hospital, online, or any space where we can share music with others. Music affects us in so many ways: emotionally, socially, cognitively, physically, and spiritually. Being a performing musician allows us to open up these different realms for the audience (and fellow musicians) and connect deeply with ourselves and others. Being a part of that experience is one of the most incredible things in the world
JS: Please tell us what you want the public to know about your work in the arts. For instance, how do you yourself describe it as a significant experience in your life and why exactly do you labour to make it exist?
AA: I approach everything I do in the arts with an audience-first mindset. I believe that the entire audience experience must be at the forefront of everything, from programming to ticket-buying, the experience of walking into the venue, the lighting, the transitions, if and how we speak to the audience, and everything in between, because without the audience, there is no performance. This applies to online content as well. How we present ourselves on camera and in photos is incredibly important, as is how we engage with our communities. If everything is done with an audience-first mindset, everybody wins.
JS: Please give us a brief autobiography, some stuff about yourself that is relevant to the essence of your work in the arts.
AA: My work in the arts is a wonderful variety of things that I think represent the “21st Century Musician.” I am primarily a classical cellist, and as such, I can be found on stage as an orchestral player with various symphonies such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Concert Orchestra, and others, and as a chamber musician with my piano trio the Bedford Trio. I am also a freelance performer and recording artist in the studio recording with artists in many different genres, and teaching in my studio at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.
In addition, I have cultivated various other skills that have been a great complement to my performing and teaching: I work as an audio engineer and video producer for many institutions such as the Canadian Opera Company, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the University Health Network, and U of T. I work as a producer with Ottawa Chamberfest, and I produce concerts virtually for OurConcerts.live, an American production company who presents many top international performers such as Mark O’Connor, Rachel Barton Pine, and the Miro Quartet. I work as an administrator for the Gryphon Trio and Chamber Factory, and was the Artistic Producer for the “Evolution” summer classical music programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. I have been the Artistic Director for Music in the Atrium at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2016, a weekly philanthropically supported concert series that has been running at the hospital since 1995.
I have worked as a music director, having directed many musicals, both regionally and professionally, most recently with Eclipse Theatre’s original production ‘Til Then in the summer of 2022. After completing my doctorate, I continue to keep my foot in the academic door as a researcher and as a peer reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Music Therapy. I have been collaborating with my wife, music therapist Dr. SarahRose Black on a project we call Pulse, in which we use our platform to discuss how music affects our lives on a daily basis from a health perspective. We have presented with the Canadian Opera Company, Union Station, the Toronto Public Libraries, and the Room 217 Foundation. I have also gained a significant following on online platforms Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, sharing my music, opinions, and educational material, which has been a fun and exciting journey into connecting with hundreds of thousands of followers from around the world.
As you can see, I take part in a wide variety of work, and it keeps me engaged in many ways and with so many different and exciting colleagues and institutions. As technology and our society evolve, I believe that musicians have an incredible opportunity to cultivate skills in different areas and apply them to create a multi-faceted career that was not possible to this degree in the past.
JS: In what ways is your creative work fairly easy to do and in what ways is it difficult to realize? Why is it so?
AA: All of my work is related to music and takes an enormous amount of creativity, which I find challenging and fun. The variety in my work keeps me engaged. Often, I have the privilege of seeing, firsthand, the benefits that my work brings to an audience or to other young musicians. All these things make it easy to stay motivated in my work.
Sometimes things can get difficult. When dealing with such a wide variety of jobs and skills, things can get overwhelming quickly if you aren’t able to manage your schedule. I have uttered the phrase “when it rains it pours” more times than I’d like to admit. Sometimes I must practice for a premiere with my trio, while knowing I have two video edits to finish by week’s end, and a 52-concert season to book at the hospital, all while maintaining a teaching studio…you can see how things can add up quickly! But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
JS: How does doing the kind of work you do in the arts change you as a person – and as a creator?
AA: I think working in the arts forces you to learn empathy, which is one of the most important skills that a person can have. In a chamber group or symphony, you learn how to truly listen and collaborate in a healthy way. You learn how to read and react to non-verbal cues, and you learn how to put aside your ego and work together for the greater good. So many skills that we take for granted as musicians are valuable in our interpersonal lives and relationships, and ultimately help us to be better artists.
JS: What kind of audience does your work in the arts interest? What new audience are you also seeking? Why to both questions?
AA: As you can probably imagine from my “bio” above, I work with a wide variety of audiences.
In my work at the hospital, I am focused on bringing “the concert experience” out of the concert hall and into a building full of people who may not be able to go to a concert due to their disease. Patients, families, and staff all benefit from the incredible musicians who come in to perform, many of whom you would usually have to buy an expensive ticket to go see at a top tier venue in the city.
In my work as a cellist, I am often playing for lovers of classical music and the traditional symphony crowd, but I make every attempt to bring music to new audiences as much as possible. My piano trio works with the students of Earl Haig Secondary School each year as part of an ongoing project, and we visit other schools to share our music as much as possible. I have also spent the better part of two years connecting with new audiences online on various social media platforms. I have amassed almost half a million followers, many of whom message me privately to tell me that they have never listened to a cello or classical music before but want to thank me for sharing my music with them and that they have become converts.
In my work with SarahRose and our project Pulse, we share stories of the power of music in healthcare settings with a number of people who you wouldn’t consider your “typical” classical music fan. We have worked with healthcare providers, schools, long-term care homes, young musicians in the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, and are always looking for new audiences to connect with.
I believe there is something in music for everyone to enjoy, and often it takes putting a creative spin or providing context for the music in order for someone to really connect with it. Someone may have never heard a Beethoven cello sonata or even know of its existence, but if you tell a powerful story of how someone with advanced dementia was able to recall memories and connect with a family member because of that piece, the audience may suddenly be eager to listen to the music simply because of that new context. There is nothing more exciting than seeing someone light up when they listen to music and truly connect with it for the first time.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work in the arts?
AA: I think my personality is largely reflected in my varied career in the arts. I like to think fast, move fast, and be efficient, but also execute at the highest level and maintain a deep level of focus when I am working. I don’t think I could do half of the things that I do if I wasn’t obsessed with efficiency and with being detail oriented. I love the challenge of moving from job to job and I believe it keeps me sharp!
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person in the arts?
AA: The biggest challenge is always dealing with some of the real-life logistics of being an artist: budgets and funding, administrative woes, things like that. Being a performer often looks very romantic from the outside, but the reality is we spend an equal amount of time (sometimes more) on planning, logistics, and mundane day-to-day tasks that are necessary so we can share our art.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that brought you to this point as a creative person in the arts.
AA: I have a very specific turning point in my life that I always come back to. In my final year of high school, I had every intention of pursuing a science degree with the goal of eventually becoming a doctor. Two weeks before applications for university were due, I went to see cellist Steven Isserlis perform the Haydn C Major Cello Concerto at Roy Thomson Hall with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I knew this piece well and had been to countless concerts, but something about that night was magical, and from my seat in the 10th row, I suddenly couldn’t see myself doing anything else with my life. The next morning, I went straight to the guidance counsellor’s office at my high school and asked if it was too late to apply for a degree in music. She said “of course, as long as you can be ready for an audition in about a month!” and the rest was history. I often think about that concert and how pivotal of a night it was in my life. Steve Isserlis is coming back to Toronto this fall to play a concert and give a masterclass at U of T and you can bet I’ll be there for both events!
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
AA: The amount of time and dedication that it takes to even dream of being successful at any level is very difficult to comprehend if you haven’t experienced it. I have many friends who have very successful careers in fields that they only decided to pursue during or after their undergraduate degrees. I don’t mean to take away from any of their successes as some of them are quite brilliant at what they do, but it is a very different story to start an instrument at 3 years old, practice for thousands of hours over the course of your lifetime, constantly refining your craft, receiving specialized education for most of your life, and still have to compete with a huge pool of talent all over the world trying to achieve the same thing as you. It can be very stressful and overwhelming but also extremely rewarding!
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts.
AA: One project that is currently in the works is writing and releasing an album of original music for cello, keyboard, and electronics. I have written music in the past, but I am attempting to write in a genre that is new to me that is a hybrid of classical, folk, indie, and electronic instrumental song writing. We’ll see how it goes!
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
AA: I would go back in time and tell my 18-year-old self to start making videos on YouTube way back in 2006! In all seriousness, I have really enjoyed my journey as a musician to this point, and I think I have learned something from every experience. I am not sure I would change anything else!
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s culture, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
AA: We are living in unprecedented times, where it is seemingly easier than ever to “connect” with one another and at the same time we are often left feeling anxious, hollow, and lonely because of the low-value nature of many of the platforms we use in our “connected” lives. Social media’s artificial nature, along with the algorithms designed to keep us addicted to the endless scroll, often leaves us feeling inadequate and subject to even more insidious things like disinformation and radicalization. This can be depressing in many aspects of life, but it also applies to the arts. A beautiful performance by a musician who has spent their life cultivating their craft may end up with a few thousand views and a few hundred likes, while inane videos of pranks, dance-trends, and other even lower-value trends receive hundreds of millions of views and likes. How society at large values the arts is mirrored in a very similar way on social media.
The fact is, however, that these platforms are not going away any time soon, and in order for artists and creatives to stay relevant, we must contribute and try to remain relevant. We are forced to be incredibly creative and engaging in order to compete with other lower-value efforts by so-called “influencers.” We must learn how to use a cello to capture the viewer’s attention in less than 5 seconds and then retain it for the whole video. We are forced to evolve as musicians and artists and continue trying to move the needle and attract new audiences. The endgame is usually not related to social media. Social media is a tool that we can use to spark interest and support the arts, with the goal of eventually being engaging enough to attract a fraction of the followers to try attending a concert or listening to an entire piece of classical music.
I have seen this work with friends and colleagues (Kristan Toczko, harpist @harpistkt) and others around the world like TwoSet Violin and Hillary Hahn. We know it’s possible, and this gives me great hope for the future of classical music.
JS: What exactly has the impact of the COVID pandemic been on your creative work and your life in the arts?
AA: I have always embraced technology in my life, and the pandemic allowed me time and energy to use my love of technology to connect with new audiences around the world. Building this online community of followers and music lovers has provided countless opportunities both online and in the real-world, and it has taught me the value of building and being a part of a community.
JS: How has the pandemic changed you as a person?
AA: I am not sure if the pandemic has changed me as a person, but it has certainly made me appreciate what I do for a living and how incredible it is to be able to share a performance with a live audience. Technology has made connection easier and more convenient, but nothing compares to collectively sharing the vibrations and sounds in the same room with a group of people.
JS: What’s next in the coming few years of your life in the arts?
AA: The plan over the next several years is to grow my Pulse project with SarahRose, build a collective of musicians that we collaborate with, and bring those presentations to wider audiences across Canada, the United States, and the world. We believe that there is huge potential and value in sharing these stories about the power of music in healthcare and how that relates to all of us in our everyday lives. We believe music can change your life and these stories and experiences, along with live performance, can show you how. Our live performances were abruptly stopped in March of 2020, and we have recently had our first child, so we are adjusting to family life and hoping to return to live performances together in the near future.
In addition to Pulse, I will be continuing to cultivate the online community that I have built and will continue to build my studio at the University of Toronto and perform as a cellist as often as I can.