Ep. 126 Lore Ruschiensky from the Cecilian Chamber Series

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Today, we’re going behind the scenes to learn a little bit more about what it takes to create an entire season of music. Lore Ruschiensky, the executive director from the Cecilian Chamber Series, joins us.

Welcome Lore.

Lore Ruschiensky: Thank you for having me, Barb.

Barb McGrath: Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about yourself and the Cecilian Chamber Series.

Lore Ruschiensky: Well, I am both the artistic and executive director currently of the Cecilian Chamber Series, a job that I absolutely love. It’s a great passion. We present a season of six world stage chamber music concerts in Regina. [00:01:00] And since it’s reopening, the concerts take place in beautiful Darke Hall.

Barb McGrath: Excellent.

So how long have you been in Darke Hall

Lore Ruschiensky: For the last two years? We’ll be getting our third season now. And as anyone who’s been there knows, it’s a beautiful place to be. If you haven’t been there, you need to get there.

Barb McGrath: Excellent. Okay. So tell us a little bit about this 24-25 season. Who can we expect to see on the stage?

And, and what is what is chamber music compared to classical music compared to something that a symphony might put on?

Lore Ruschiensky: Well, chamber music is a as a form of classical music, and that means that it’s that it, you know, it’s a very general term as a As differentiated from popular music, necessarily it can still be popular, but it’s not, it’s something that’s been around for a long time.

So, you can have classical chamber music and classical symphonic music. The difference is that chamber music is meant for a small [00:02:00] ensemble. Anything actually from a solo, complete solo, to a duo, a trio a quartet, a quintet. Octet, that kind of thing. They are without conductor. Where a symphony has a conductor, a chamber ensemble does not have a conductor.

Chamber music has some of the most beautiful music ever written because it was music that was written by composers for their own enjoyment in many cases. So chamber music, the name came from early on, it was played by By musicians in chambers, like often very often the homes of the aristocracy and the palaces, but it was music that they was their own personal thing.

It was not necessarily so much for public consumption, but they’re absolutely gLoreous pieces that are written. By composers because it was what they felt they could be commissioned, of course, to write symphony orchestras. They are symphony concert symphony symphonic pieces. Sorry.

[00:03:00] Because that helps pay the bills.

And so could chamber music, but this was stuff very, very often. That is was meant just for their own personal enjoyment.

Barb McGrath: Lore, give us a little bit of your own personal history, because as I listen to you talk about the music there’s definitely knowledge there that I think the average person probably doesn’t have.

So, so how did you develop that knowledge and that love for chamber music?

Lore Ruschiensky: Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but not really. I began as began taking piano lessons as a child and immediately fell in love with the whole music experience. I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument and the, and the relationships with teachers and with other with other musicians, students in schools, playing in the school band, all of those kinds of things.

So that was always a huge motivator for me. I knew from the very beginning that music was what I was going to do in my life, but I’m absolutely [00:04:00] no performer at all. And, but that doesn’t take away the passion for the music. I taught piano for over 40 years very happily privately in my home, had a beautiful studio with two grand pianos and I did a lot of work with the registered music teacher association, which is a national organization, which began in Saskatchewan.

Not so long story. I won’t go into it, but it began in Saskatchewan. And so over many years of working with them and traveling across the country to conventions, teachers all over the place, I was. Assigned the task of chairing a national convention, and so I got to head up a convention that had a lot of great chamber music things in it, and as well as obviously solo piano, which.

In the end led to the Cecilian Chamber Series from the concerts that had come from there. I never had a lot of opportunities to go to concerts as a young person. I grew up in small town Saskatchewan and, and, and then, you know, later on when you have small children and [00:05:00] thing, there isn’t time or resources necessarily, but somehow whenever I did have a chance, they were very, very meaningful.

And so as time became available and life circumstances allowed it, I found myself. Really drawn to chamber music. There’s a lot of wonderful chamber music festivals in the summer times In things like audubon perry sound and place various places in the united states in vancouver and I would be drawn to those and go to an Very large number of cultures in a very short time.

So that was where, so it kind of all came together. A situation arose and here we are.

Barb McGrath: So one of the things that I’ve seen in your marketing is you use a tagline that says, bringing the world stage to Regina. Presume that means that most of your performers are not from Regina. Where do they come from?

Lore Ruschiensky: Well, absolutely. They’re not from Regina and that doesn’t mean it’s bad to be from Regina, [00:06:00] but just like we all like to go, we like to travel, we like to experience different food, different culture, all those things. So true music is the same way. There Regina and Saskatchewan have a very strong history of music, of classical music and music education.

And, and, and so what we are able to do is we’re bringing in the world stage. So. These artists that we bring in are ones who are playing at a very high level all around the world. It really doesn’t matter where they’re from, but they come, we have some who are originally from Saskatchewan, who have gone on to do other things.

The interpretation of music from, through various cultures is very different. For example, Mozart, if you go to, if you go to Salzburg, where Mozart spent a lot of his time, And you hear Mozart played, it sounds quite different than what we tend to, by the way that we hear it performed here, especially in the Royal Conservatory kind of way, there’s a freshness, they own it, right?

And so it’s like, it’s like dance or any other cultural things. And that is what [00:07:00] we want to share with Regina. Not that either is good, bad or other, it’s just different. And. It also allows the many, many wonderful students in our, this part of the province to experience what great musicians can do, what, what sites they can rise to.

Barb McGrath: Yes. And I think to put a plug in for local musicians, there was in fact a lady on the stage last year who was from Regina. If I recall correctly, she was a pianist. She stepped in at the last minute.

Lore Ruschiensky: Did, she did. Yes. So real life happens in music too. Things go wrong. People get sick. We’ve had a few instances where we’ve had to delay concerts or whatever.

Anyway, in the particular instance you’re talking about, Andrew Wan, the concert master from the Montreal Symphony Orchestra was coming to play a concert and being involved in an artist’s dinner, a fundraiser following. And less than 24 hours before, or maybe, maybe 24 hours before, we had a call to see that the pianist, Shara Rashad Amalan, a [00:08:00] wonderful Canadian pianist, was sick.

The agent gave us the, the choice. She said, you can, we can either cancel the concert or I can you can have a replacement. And I, and I said, well, who have you got? And she said, Megan Malatz. And I didn’t even wait to hear the next one. I said, yes, have her come. Interestingly, Megan Malatz was a young pianist when we had the convention that I mentioned that happened in actually in 2011 at the university of Regina, she was the Saskatchewan representative for the national piano competition that was taking place at that time.

Barb McGrath: Yes.

Lore Ruschiensky: And she was also the winner.

Barb McGrath: Excellent. Wow. And then

Lore Ruschiensky: went on, she went on and, and studied in Montreal and has been doing a lot of playing and is doing a lot of playing around the world herself, in particular with her cello playing partner Cameron Crosman. And they are doing wonderful things.

So the, yes, that’s a situation where, I mean, here’s someone from [00:09:00] Saskatchewan who has really risen to, she, she did an absolutely incredible job in very, very short notice. That’s what professional musicians do.

Barb McGrath: Can do exactly. And what a good example of bringing that world stage to Regina. Yes, she may have originally been from Saskatchewan, but she’s also grown and moved on and done her things.

But probably was also very willing to. And I think it’s important for us to come back at a moment’s notice because it’s

Lore Ruschiensky: home. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, musicians want to play. They are thrilled about their playing. They have, I, it has been an incredible privilege to get to know so many of these great artists and their agents and, you know, other artistic directors around North America in particular.

And I have found that. Without fail, great people are just plain great. They are professional in every way. They have the most amazing ability to be completely present. [00:10:00]

Barb McGrath: Oh wow.

Lore Ruschiensky: On the stage, off the stage.

Barb McGrath: Everywhere they are. Yes. Excellent. Alright, let’s talk a little bit about this 24 25 season. And in fact, you kick off this Sunday, September 22nd.

So if I’m correct subscriptions are available until Sunday. So anyone who is interested will need to get their season subscription before Sunday or flex packs and tickets of course would be available for the rest of the season. You have some exciting things happening at the concert this Sunday.

So tell us a little bit about it.

Lore Ruschiensky: Well, yes, we’re starting off. The really exciting part of course is there’s a cookie reception to start So come and join to have a snack and meet with other music lovers as we get back It’s always exciting to get back into a new season, whatever you do That’s about 2 15 on Sunday at Darke Hall and 3 o’clock The music begins with the Viano Quartet who were the 2019 winners of the Banff International String Quartet competition they [00:11:00] are based in the states in the eastern United States.

And so, of course, they, like all of us, got caught in that unfortunate situation that happened around the world right after they had won the competition. As a way to deal with that situation, the 4 of them moved into a house together. So that they could practice and and it shows I have heard them a few times since And and their their concert is is entitled memoirs So the music is the personal memoirs of the of the composers who who wrote the music they include haydn smetana and dvorak to name a few so that starts off our first season as you mentioned subscriptions are available and the exciting thing about subscriptions this year I just had a conversation with someone this morning who said When I told her, she was like, Oh my goodness, full subscription includes our amazing season ending concert with Canadian pianist, Angela Hewitt.

Ou can buy a three pack, but that does not include Angela. So your very best deal to [00:12:00] ensure that you have your favorite seat is to buy the whole subscription. But I guarantee, and I guarantee that every concert in between will also be fabulous. Our second concert is Chang Square Duo, Canada’s sibling duo, who have been risen to amazing things.

I could go on forever. I won’t. Cinta Quartet, who is a saxophone quartet. Dope. We always have lots of string things in chamber music, but this saxophone quartet plays string quartet music amazingly. And I venture to say there’s a lot of saxophone players in this town. In schools lots and lots of kids want to play saxophone and here’s a chance for people to hear it played here The various saxophones played incredibly.

Well, we have A saturday evening concert in february. So most of our concerts are sunday afternoon Saturday evening february the 8th right in time for valentine’s day. The concert is entitled scandalous romantics It features None other than an accordion and a clarinet. I will mention briefly that they are doing along [00:13:00] with that, they’re doing an educational residency.

They’re doing a music mentorship program for students who are considering going into the arts and who wants to know what this is all about, including sessions for their parents and another string quartet, the Dali quartet with Latin American music in March. And then in April, of course, Angela Hewitt. With the Goldberg Variations, her 50th anniversary tour.

The really exciting thing is Angela Hewitt chose the Fazioli piano on the stage at Darke Hall.

Barb McGrath: Lore I noticed on your website you have something called the Cecilian Experience, Experience Promise. Tell me a little bit about that, because for someone who maybe doesn’t know what chamber music is or doesn’t recognize some of these names that we’re talking about this morning, like Angela Hewitt, who is extremely well known and is Canadian.

This experience promise this, this makes me think that maybe I can try it [00:14:00] without that full commitment. So what does that mean

Lore Ruschiensky: if you have never attended a concert before and you and you are have some Qualms about chamber music. What is this? You know, how will the experience be for me? How will I feel in that environment?

Come and try it out. If you don’t like it, you can get your money back it is it’s a chance for you to see does it fit?

Barb McGrath: Yes. Having attended a couple of concerts, I find them remarkably relaxing. The, and I, and I don’t even know how I would necessarily describe it. But, but your mind stops thinking about anything else.

Of course your phone is on silent and there is no big screen in front of you. And your body just stops. And, and the music fills you. And that’s been my personal experience, but, but that same sensation of the [00:15:00] music filling you, it’s almost like, it’s almost like you’re filling up with water. So, you know, I really encourage anyone who is listening today to just try it.

Try it once. Maybe you’ll be a subscriber. Maybe you’ll be a subscriber and be there on a regular basis. Okay, so, Lore tell us a little bit about how folks find you. What’s your website? What are your social channels?

Lore Ruschiensky: The website is Cecilianchamberseries. ca. All that www stuff at the beginning, of course and so that is, is, you should be able to find that online.

Our tickets are sold through Darke Hall. So, they take care of a lot of that administrative stuff for us, which makes life easy and get, they have all the answers you need. for having me. So you can ask, you can get there from our website or you can go right on to Darke Hall. They have the tickets as well.

We have a Facebook page. We have [00:16:00] Instagram. Check us out. Remember Cecilian is C E C I L I A N, not like Sicily in Italy. And the name is because we began in at St. Cecilia church the very first year. And St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music.

Barb McGrath: I think you did tell me that once, but I had forgotten that.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Lore Ruschiensky: Yeah.

Barb McGrath: Lore, is there anything else that you’d like to share with everyone this morning?

Lore Ruschiensky: I just want to say I thought you gave a beautiful description of what it’s like to be at a concert played by professional world stage artists. I find that always any concert can be inspiring and enjoyable, but where it totally transports you from where your day to day life, it changes you.

They are so in control of the music and they take us on a journey with them and we don’t need to do any work. Yeah. Find your seat and you’re going to go on a ride. It’s the music really does transport you.

Barb McGrath: The music transports you and the [00:17:00] musicians, they take you on a journey, but they’re also there to entertain.

So they don’t just stand up there, play, and then walk away. They engage with the audience, they tell some stories in some cases they’re sharing what may have happened in getting to the concert, or, you know, being in Regina, sometimes there’s some stories around that, especially around COVID and things like that, absolutely.

Okay. All right. Well, with that, it sounds like a good Google search would just be Cecilian Chamber Series, and you will find both the website, and I’ll see you next week. As well as links to get to Darke Hall. So you can purchase those tickets. Last chance, Lore, is there anything that we haven’t shared today that you’d like to talk about?

Lore Ruschiensky: Come and give it a try. We’d love to see you. A couple of hours spent in beautiful Darke Hall with amazing music enhances everyone’s life.

Barb McGrath: Absolutely. That sounds wonderful. Thank you, Lore. It was a pleasure having you join me today to talk [00:18:00] about The Cecilian Chamber Series and the 24 25 season.

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