JAMES STRECKER: Since you are the curator of Summer Music in the Garden, please tell us what we need to know about this upcoming series of 18 free concerts on most Thursdays and Sundays throughout the summer.
GREGORY OH: I always think of the Music Garden as a meeting place – you can travel there by boat, plane, streetcar, bike or on foot – and I want the programming to reflect this as well. I want the season to be accessible, not in the pejorative sense of “watered-down”, but more that everyone has access, everyone can listen, find things both familiar and new.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a curator?
GO: I think that cultural programming has to reflect past, present and future. The danger is that if you only honour one of these streams, you risk doing a disservice to your audience, your community and the artists you rely on.
JS: In presenting the artists featured in this series, what do you in turn ask of your audience?
GO: Be open, but trust yourself. Be respectful, but enjoy yourself. Enjoy the familiar, explore the unknown.
JS: Let’s now find out more about you yourself. If you were asked for 50 words for an encyclopedia to summarize what you do, or have done, in the arts, what would you say about your purpose and creations?
GO: I have two very different artistic selves – one is curious, whimsical and prone to tantrums and impetuousness. The other is ultra-conservative, and secretly loves some tonal music, video games and standing in my garden staring into space.
JS: What are or have been your most meaningful achievements?
GO: Lots of little things. Everything else has either been a team effort, or a chance outcome.
JS: What important beliefs do you express in or through your creative work?
GO: Success and achievements are dangerous goals. When everyone agrees on something, be very suspicious. To paraphrase Ursula Leguin, the open and accumulative nature of the gatherer can be much more sustaining, albeit less sexy, than the hyper focus of the more celebrated hunter.
JS: How has living with the pandemic affected your creative life?
GO: It allowed me to raise a kid without losing my mind. Mostly.
JS: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on, are preparing, or have recently completed.
GO: The past two years I have been teaching at Memorial University of Newfoundland, which is a beautiful School of Music. I have also been working on a solo show called Lessons in Failure, which is half piano recital, half storytelling, about the most compelling of my fantastic failures as a pianist.
JS: How have you changed over the years since you began to do creative work?
GO: Yes, a lot. And, also, not nearly enough.
JS: What do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
GO: I really love 22-minute procedurals. I almost always fall asleep in concerts.
JS: Of what value are critics?
GO: They are like courtroom sketch artists and/or guide dogs. They help me understand what I cannot yet see for myself. Like teachers, they can be lovely or meanies, and sometimes it just depends who is telling the story. Probably, we all need to be better critics.
JS: What specifically would you change about what goes on in the world of the arts?
GO: I am playing around with this idea of tenyear, as a replacement for tenure. As regards academia and also orchestra positions, I think contracts should be 10-year renewable contracts rather than forever contracts. We don’t do it for marriage, and we shouldn’t do it for the most lucrative positions either. Like many things, it is about finding a balance.