Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Brian Boychuk
Article 2 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the October 4, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Orchestral Heartbeats
Brian Boychuk, now in his 29th season as a violinist with the National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra, remembers the day of his audition in 1978. Nineteen years old and fresh from the Regina Symphony as its youngest concertmaster, he was already being courted by the Edmonton and the Atlantic Symphonies. It was the NAC that he wanted.
"Mario Bernardi, founding conductor of the NAC Orchestra, came to the podium, raised his baton and brought it down with a sudden swoosh. There was this breath-taking moment of silence when no one played - a palpable delay. As a listener it seemed so incongruous to me but over time as a player I came to understand. You wait for a heartbeat. You let it settle and then you play. You gather and breathe together as an orchestra. And then the music begins."
For Brian, the music began as a child. His mother played the violin, she too was the concertmaster of the Regina Symphony in her time. Sitting on the stairs, he would look down through the bars and watch her practicing. "The music was so beautiful, it seemed to sing. She made it look so effortless. I remember telling her, 'When I grow up, I want to play just like you.' I started when I was six; by thirteen I was in the symphony."
Studying with Dr. Howard Leyton-Brown, a former concertmaster of the London Philharmonic, Brian went on to win yearly awards at the Kiwanis Music Festival. By 1975, he had become one of the youngest concertmasters in the history of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Then, at the age of 19, half way through a pre-law program at the university, he came home one night from a frustrataing rehearsal. "I announced to my parents that I had to make music my career. I wanted to play with the pros, to go where I would be the worst player, the weakest link, so that I could always keep growing."
Within months, Brian was on his way to Ottawa, suitcase and guitar in hand, to accept a coveted position with the NAC. "Experience is everything in art, especially in music. You immerse yourself in your craft, absorbing and integrating pieces of music until you can give them your own strength and style."
Over his 29 years with the NAC Orchestra, Brian has recorded regularly with the CBC, joined the faculty at the Conservatoire du Quebec for a time and been concertmaster of l'Orchestre Chambre de Hull. He has just recently retired from 25 years with the internationally acclaimed ensemble Thirteen Strings of Ottawa.
He likes to compare playing in an orchestra to a Stephen Spielberg movie.
"As a new musician you become aware of all these beams of light crossing and crisscrossing, communicating witb each olher. Every movement affects another - at first it's hard to lock into lhe pattern. You have lo learn how to exert yourself musically and personally yet not stick out, not get in the way of the music but always to enhance the musical experience of the group.
"Now that I consider myself one of the beam-makers, I can control some of my destiny. In knowing the music so well, I can transcend the physical playing and just enjoy all the subtle nuances - there is such tremendous pleasure in the smallest details."
Every night Brian listens for that moment of silence - the collective heartbeat before the music begins.
On a lighter note, as one of the Chuckle Bros, Brian Boychuck plays with slapstick humour in a weekly cartoon. After a long four-year journey, born of a lifetime of laughs with brother Ron, Brian has seen their work syndicated with the artistic wizardry of Ottawa's artist Ronnie Martin. A whole new world of possibilities is opening up.