Tsawwassen violist Kendra James has a busy few weeks ahead of her.
She is in Toronto for the Canadian Music Competition's Stepping Stone. It's described in a press release as a "prestigious, elite-level classical music competition that helps propel top talent onto the world stage."
The grand prize is $10,000, a three-week residency at the Banff Centre and a chance to perform with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec at a July 5 gala concert in Quebec City.
The competition runs from May 21 to 29.
After Stepping Stone, James, 26, will spend a week at home in Tsawwassen preparing for another competition, the Primrose International
Viola Competition in Los Angeles, from June 8 to 14.
The main difference between the two competitions is that James will compete against musicians playing different instruments in Toronto while the focus will be on viola in L.A. "One of the major challenges in both of these competitions is having such a sheer volume of notes memorized, and in my fingers, ready to play, over several rounds within the space of one week," she says in an email.
She notes that because the competitions are so close together, she tried to overlap the repertoire choices as much as possible. "I think I've found a good balance between works that show off flashy, virtuoso technique and other more lyrical pieces where I can express my musicality and a wide palette
of sound colours." The South Delta Secondary grad, who got started on the violin at
four years old at the Delta Community Music School and then soon joined the Delta Youth Orchestra,
graduated from Yale University last May.
She moved to Munich, Germany in October where she will be studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München for two years.
She's in a program where she takes private viola lessons in English but then often has to rehearse or receive chamber music "coachings" entirely in German.
She shares an apartment with another Canadian, a violinist from Calgary, who is also studying at the Hochschule.
"It is really encouraging to feel a sense of camaraderie as we figure out life in a foreign country together. Music is such an international language, however, that it is easy to identify with the other musicians I meet," she says.
She will spend a week at home with her family after the competitions before returning to Germany for more performances and to finish the school year.
