Montreal is playing host to the 10th edition of the prestigious Jurow International Harpsichord Competition.
Montrealer Joon Oh Kim made the switch from the piano to the harpsichord this year.
His talent and dedication brought him to the semi-finals.
“I played mostly piano almost my entire life but it’s been a great joy to explore this new instrument and new composers that we don’t get to play and listen as much as pianist,” Kim said.
In this round, 14 semi-finalists from 11 countries are participating.
For the first time in its four-decade history, it’s taking place in Montreal, all by a stroke of luck.
When Luc Beauséjour, artistic director of Clavecin en Concert, was invited to be a judge at the competition in a prior edition, he said something in jest that would change the trajectory of the contest, which has always been held in the United States.
He was told that one of the challenges of holding the competition is having enough harpsichords for contestants to play.
“I said like a joke, ‘Oh, I have many instruments at home,’ because I have seven harpsichords, because I’m a little bit crazy,” Beauséjour said.
And so, Beauséjour’s harpsichords were moved from his home to a hall in Montreal’s music conservatory.
It was a full-circle moment for Beauséjour as an organizer of this year’s contest and a participant in the very first edition in 1982.
“I think it creates something really interesting,” Beauséjour said.
Harpsichord is considered the sound of the baroque era.
The instrument’s master composer is Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach is celebrated for creating many masterpieces, including some heard at church, such as the Mass in B Minor.
Nearly 300 years later, the harpsichord continues to be used in modern music.
You might recognize its brittle sound in the openings of Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady and Destiny’s Child’s Bills, Bills, Bills, to mention a couple.
Being able to interpret various styles of harpsichord music is what judges are looking for in the competition.
The contest runs until Saturday. The semi-finals and finals are taking place in the concert hall of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and are open to the public and free of charge.
The hope is to hook more people into the piano’s ancestor’s bygone world.
