What I was doing could only compete with that if the audience were open to it, which, based on my experience, they were not. Now, I have to confess that I wasn't open to a few things myself! I didn't know how to develop my career, I didn't play programs that were easily accessible, I didn't play the political game and so on. In other words, I played musically challenging concerts and expected the audience to get into it. Well, mostly they weren't interested! I could probably have found more willing audiences in Europe, or perhaps even the US, but my self-deprecating Canadian character wasn't so ready to take that step. The one time I toured Europe, audiences were wildly receptive and when I did my international debut at Wigmore Hall in London, critic John Duarte, who had heard everyone, was very positive. But moving to Europe or the US always felt like a bridge too far and audiences in Canada were just not so interested. Hey, they had the fabulous Liona!
This is what I had to offer:
So one of the obvious functions of role models is to show you what is possible in your environment.
2 comments:
Lovely Albeniz! Alas, had never heard of Liona Boyd (or Super Dave Osbourne, either, tsk)-- but, apart from anything else, she was quite clever to obtain the url www.classicalguitar.com. :-)
Thanks so much, Marc. I posted that Liona Boyd link to show, first of all, what kinds of things you had to do to get known in Canada in the 80s (most of which I was unwilling to do) and second, to show what kind of musicianship a successful Canadian guitarist displayed.
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