Musician and conductor James S. Kahane is nearing the top of his first season as Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. He additionally holds the place of Principal Conductor with the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestre de Chambre de la Drôme in Die, France.
Naturally, he spends a bit of his time today travelling, together with criss-crossing the Atlantic. LvT caught up with him after a current Hamilton live performance to speak.
James S. Kahane
Kahane started formal music research at age 14 on the Conservatoire à rayonnement communal du 13e arrondissement de Paris in his native France. By about t17, although, his consideration had shifted to conducting.
On the age of 19, Kahane was admitted to the conducting class on the fabled Sibelius Academy the place he studied from 2015 till 2021. One among Europe’s largest music academies, the Sibelius Academy was established in 1882, and has turn into famend for turning out a protracted checklist of former college students who are actually among the many world’s outstanding musicians. Significantly lately, that features many acclaimed conductors comparable to Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Klaus Mäkelä, and Santtu-Matias Rouvali, amongst many others.
Along with his coaching in Finland, James pursued his research by invitation on the Menuhin Pageant in Gstaad, in Bernard Haitink’s conducting masterclass on the Lucerne Music Pageant, and the Tanglewood Music Pageant. Throughout this time there, Kahane studied with Atso Almila, Sakari Oramo, and Hannu Lintu.
In 2018, he was invited by Kristjan Järvi invited to conduct the Baltic Academies Orchestra in Berlin. He has since gone on to conduct most of the world’s main orchestras, and would assist to re-establish the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, the place he now holds the title of Principal Conductor.
Kahane formally took up his place because the ninth Music Director of The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra at the beginning the 2024/25 season.
The Interview
What made him make that change from piano to conducting as a young person?
“It was a mixture of a number of components,” Kahane says. As he explains, as a younger music scholar, he was extra inquisitive about performing and dealing with teams than he was spending time in a solitary piano studio. “I didn’t actually benefit from the solitary facet of piano,” he says. “Until you do chamber music, its all by yourself.”
It was additionally an important query of style. He was listening virtually solely to orchestral music, and enjoying piano transcriptions of orchestral works.
“The combo of these two issues form of led me naturally to conducting,” he observes.
The Finnish Approach: The Sibelius Academy
What makes The Sibelius Academy such an distinctive place to find out about conducting?
“I can slender it all the way down to a mixture of three issues which are all crucial,” Kahane begins.
First, he factors out that in his research, an orchestra was out there so that every of the 5 to seven college students in a cohort might work with the musicians straight twice per week.
“It signifies that each week you’ll be able to conduct an orchestra for about 40 or 50 minutes, which is lots.”
It’s an infinite benefit to realize all that have even earlier than commencement.
“They’ve this fairly attention-grabbing and fairly efficient philosophy of educating,” he continues.
Basically, it boils all the way down to: the liberty to develop your personal model.
“The trainer doesn’t intervene very a lot.” It’s akin to letting youngsters discover ways to work out methods to steadiness and experience on a bicycle on their very own, the place intervention solely takes place if one thing clearly isn’t working.
The third part was a copious quantity of suggestions. “All our classes had been recorded on video.” After a category, the scholars would sit with the trainer, and undergo the video to replay the lesson and what was discovered. “There, we’d get an enormous quantity of suggestions.”
The duality of complete freedom in entrance of the orchestra whilst you had been conducting, juxtaposed with detailed suggestions afterwards, creates a uniquely productive atmosphere for studying, he believes. The proof, as he notes, is within the proverbial pudding.
“You’ll be able to see it of their skilled life,” he factors out. “There are not any two Finnish conductors which are the identical.”
Europe vs North America
The atmosphere for Western artwork music is totally different in Europe versus North America. The roles he occupies with varied organizations are additionally not the identical. With the HPO, for instance, as Music Director, he’s accountable for programming, whereas as Principal Conductor elsewhere, he could make solutions, however the needs of a committee and the Inventive Director in the end decide what’s performed.
“Sure, the philosophy of programming could be very, very totally different,” Kahane says of his varied roles. In France, with the Orchestre de Chambre de la Drôme, the ensemble is devoted virtually solely to up to date music.
“We program new music virtually each live performance,” he says, drawing similarities to his current work with the Hamilton Philharmonic and their Intimate & Immersive live performance collection.
He remarks that the classical music market is a superb deal extra crowded in Europe than it’s in Canada, as a rule. In Helsinki alone, for instance, there are 5 orchestras. “I believe the audiences in Finland anticipate possibly a bit extra selection than audiences in Canada,” he says. “If you’re […] any orchestra in Helsinki, it’s a must to set your self somewhat bit aside.”
European applications will have a tendency to incorporate rarer and lesser heard works, in different phrases.
Coming Up…
Kahane shall be again in Hamilton to conduct the HPO with visitor soloist James Ehnes on Could 3 in a program that features Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and the premiere of a brand new work by HPO Composer Fellow for 2024/25 Massimo Guida.
The HPO then ends their season with neighborhood concert events and a pops live performance of online game music. For subsequent season, Kahane can’t say a lot, however he’s promising an method that can take the orchestra in some new instructions.
“We try to variety somewhat bit our providing,” he explains. Meaning, there shall be some additions to the anticipated symphonic repertoire and mainstage concert events. “We’re dipping our toes into opera, somewhat little bit of ballet,” he says.
- Discover our extra in regards to the Could 3 live performance and the HPO season [HERE].
Are you trying to promote an occasion? Have a information tip? Have to know the most effective occasions taking place this weekend? Ship us a observe.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the day by day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox HERE.
Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
