10/7/2019 6 things to know about violinist Kerson Leong | CBC Music

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6 things to know about violinist Kerson Leong

Robert Rowat · Posted: Sep 07, 2018 12:00 AM ET | Last Updated: April 10

Violinist Kerson Leong is artist in residence with Montreal's Orchestre Métropolitain for the 2016-17 season.
(Bruno Schlumberger)

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Take a glance at violinist Kerson Leong's engagements for the 2018-19 concert season and
you might get a little overwhelmed. The 21-year-old Ottawa native will perform on stages
from California to the Canary Islands (with many stops at home in Canada), playing works
ranging from solo Bach to chamber music to full-blown Romantic concertos.

Leong is living the dream — and putting in all the hard work that goes along with that —
while raising the bar he already set so high for himself last season.

With so much going on, we contacted Leong to get the latest. Here are six things to know
about the busy young violinist.

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1. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in May

Most musicians can only dream of performing in Cargegie Hall's 2,800-seat Stern
Auditorium. How many can say they made their debut there playing a new concerto written
specifically for them by a major composer? Leong can.

On May 28, he walked onstage at Carnegie Hall to play Visions, a new violin concerto by John
Rutter. "For me, this was a very powerful moment," recalls Leong during a recent phone
conversation with CBC Music. "That hall has lived in my childhood dreams ever since seeing
clips of Heifetz and all the great musicians who've been recorded playing there. To be able
to stand there and absorb the atmosphere and experience the acoustics of the hall first-
hand, it was surreal."

Commissioned by the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition to mark the 100th
anniversary of Menuhin's birth, Visions is a four-movement work for solo violin, treble
voices, harp and string orchestra, conceived as a musical depiction of Jerusalem. Rutter
composed the work for Leong, who won first prize in the junior division of the 2010
Menuhin Competition. "It's very well suited to the lyrical capabilities of the violin," Leong
says. "Overall, it's a very intimate, cathartic and powerful piece."

Following the world premiere at Temple Church in London, England, in 2016,

Leong recorded the work (with Rutter conducting) and has since performed it in Brisbane,
Australia, Hong Kong, and most recently at two sold-out performances in Leong's
hometown of Ottawa.

Enjoy this performance of the third movement ("Lament for Jerusalem") of Visions, filmed
during the recording sessions.

2. He's got Louis Lortie in his corner

At 21, Leong is still a rising star of the violin. But you'd never know that by looking at the
established musicians he regularly works with. In addition to Rutter, veteran Canadian
pianist Louis Lortie is a frequent collaborator.

"We first met at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium because that's actually where
I've been based as an artist in residence for the past three years, working with Augustin
Dumay, the French violinist," explains Leong. "Louis Lortie came in two years ago as the new
pianist master in residence there, teaching students, so that's where he and I met."

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When Leong and Lortie performed together for the first time at the opening concert of the
Music Chapel's 2017 season, they evidently hit it off. (Watch below.) Leong was soon invited
to play at Lortie's LacMus Festival on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. "That place
is gorgeous," says Leong, who is full of admiration for Lortie. "He's very passionate toward
his vision, so it always makes for stimulating rehearsal sessions."

Earlier this summer, Leong and Lortie teamed up with cellist Stéphane Tétreault for a trio
concert at the Domaine Forget Festival in Saint-Irénée, Que. That concert was recorded by
CBC and will be broadcast on Sunday, Sept. 9, on CBC Music's In Concert, hosted by Paolo
Pietropaolo.

Coming up on Sept. 30, Leong and Lortie will give a recital of music by Beethoven, Brahms
and Debussy at Teatro Calderón in Motril, Spain; in January, they'll play chamber music by
Fauré at Montreal's Bourgie Concert Hall.

3. He's artist in residence with l'Orchestre Métropolitain

For the 2018-19 concert season, Leong is artist in residence with Montreal's Orchestre
Métropolitain.

"For me, it's an incredible honour," he confides. "It's almost like going full circle because I've
worked with the Orchestre Métropolitain a lot of times before, especially when I was much
younger, and the relationship has sort of continued over the years."

Leong's most recent performance with the Orchestre Métropolitain and music director
Yannick Nézet-Séguin took place in May at a gala concert. "That went very well. I feel like
there was a chemistry there, which I really enjoyed. I'm really thrilled to work with him [and]
the orchestra again, more in depth."

For his upcoming residency, Leong will play Korngold's Violin Concerto in November. Those
concerts will be conducted by Kensho Watanabe, assistant conductor of Nézet-Séguin's
Philadelphia Orchestra. In March, Nézet-Séguin himself will lead Leong's performance of
Bartók's Violin Concrto No. 1.

"To be able to work with Yannick in depth on a concerto like Bartók 1, on a musical vision,
I'm really excited for that. I've always been impressed every time I've seen him conduct live.
He's definitely one of my favourite conductors today."

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Violinist Kerson Leong (left) poses with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin following a gala concert with
l'Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal in May 2018. (Kerson Leong)

4. He plays a premium violin

For the past year, Leong has been playing a 1741 Guarneri del Gesu violin on loan from
Roger Dubois of Canimex Inc.

"This particular instrument has a timbre that is closest to what I have in my [mind's] ear," he
explains. "It has a very deep, kind of alto-ish timbre, but also very balanced. There's this
same power that you get from the G string on the E string as well, which is not very
common, even on great fiddles. In terms of registers, it has the low end but also the high
end, so every melody line can come out really well, so that, for me, was a big appeal about
this violin."

Leong is effusive in his gratitude to Dubois and his late wife for their unwavering support.
"I've had the fortune of knowing Monsieur and Madame Dubois — both have been such a
wonderful support since I met them when I was 11. When I was 13, they started lending me
instruments — a few over the course of these years."

Watch Leong play Wieniawski's Caprice No. 4 (with himself!) on his Guarneri del Gesu violin:

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5. Solo violin repertoire is his latest obsession

Lately, Leong has been playing all six solo violin sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe in a single concert.

"Of course, these sonatas are very hefty. It's very emotional, probing, and in a way also very
dark music, and that's what makes it very powerful and satisfying for me to approach these
pieces," he reflects. "Doing all six in one concert is almost like playing all 24 Paganini
Caprices in concert: it's a technical challenge. But for me, the music is so powerful, and
deserves to be heard more, I find."

The total duration of all six Ysaÿe Sonatas is around 67 minutes, and the set contains a lot of
variety. "Every one of them has such an individual, powerful character, and I wanted to do
this project for how great the music is, and how satisfying it is for me as a performer to
play," he says, crediting his Guarneri del Gesu violin for inspiring him to tackle the solo
repertoire. "It's my first real dip into something substantial for solo violin and I can't wait to
do more."

He played all six Ysaÿe Sonatas at St. Barnabas Church in Ottawa in July, and will repeat the
project in March for Halifax's Cecilia Concerts. "The audiences have taken very well to these
pieces, sticking by me throughout the whole cycle." Leong will also give a recital of solo
violin music by Bach, Ysaÿe, Milstein and Ernst on Sept. 23 in Brussels.

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6. He's killing it on social media

Leong maintains an active presence on social media, regularly posting short videos from the
practise studio and his travels. "For me, putting myself on camera is very much like
performing," he says. "Most people will know me in formal attire, onstage or in videos, and
of course that's a big part of what I do. But also it's fun to put yourself in a more casual
environment, where you're able to catalogue something of the moment, and you're able to
look back on it to have it in your archives. It serves as a good timeline."

In this recent video, he plays a short passage from Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1, which
Leong will perform with London Symphonia and guest conductor Gordon Gerrard on Sept.
15.

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