Joan Blackman leads Vetta Chamber Music in kicking off third annual mentorship program
Five mentors guide six emerging artists through rehearsals, workshops, and performances
Joan Blackman.
Jae-Won Bang.
Yiyi Hsu.
Vetta Chamber Music presents Serenades & Divertimenti on December 1 at 2 pm at West Point Grey United Church, December 2 at 7:30 pm at Kay Meek Arts Centre, December 3 at 2 pm at Pyatt Hall, and December 4 at 2:30 pm at ArtSpring
VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC’S annual mentorship program is well underway this winter, with five veteran musicians at the company mentoring six up-and-coming artists.
The program is now in its third iteration since Joan Blackman, Vetta Chamber Music’s artistic director, first launched it back in 2021. Blackman says that in her own experience, having a mentor when she was a young musician in a string quartet was a pivotal stepping stone in her career.
“It just opened me up so much to the possibilities of finding my own voice, and being my own musician, having my own musical style,” Blackman shares. “You know, not just following the pack, or feeling like I was not good enough because maybe I played a different way than another person. So it just really changed my perspective on how I wanted to be as a musician in the world.”
Now, Blackman is providing that same opportunity of guidance and support to other emerging musicians. She leads the mentors as first violin, accompanied by second violin Jae-Won Bang, violist Emilie Grimes, cellist Hannah Addario-Berry, and bassist Meaghan Williams. In a unique situation, Bang was a mentee in both previous iterations of the program. She now plays in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s first violin section, and is returning this year as a mentor (almost like a graduation of sorts, notes Blackman).
The mentors provide both group rehearsal training and instrument-specific guidance to their mentees, who have all completed post-secondary training, and are at the beginning of their professional careers. This year’s mentees include violinists Rebecca Ruthven, Alicia Venables, Yiyi Hsu, and Samantha Kung, plus violist Justin Almazan and cellist Shang Jung (Kitty) Chan.
The musicians get to showcase their diligent practice in the upcoming concert Serenades & Divertimenti, which is touring to four different venues at the beginning of December: West Point Grey United Church, Kay Meek Arts Centre, Pyatt Hall, and ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island. They’re set to play an exuberant lineup of works, including Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K 136, Béla Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra, and Antonin Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E major Opus 22.
For the first time, this year’s edition of the program also includes workshops for the mentees, including one on performance anxiety led by Vancouver Symphony Orchestra cellist Olivia Blander, who is also a registered clinical counsellor.
“It’s something that’s kind of invisible, and we don’t talk about it,” Blackman says. “I don’t think there’s any musician that doesn’t have some form of performance anxiety. It’s how we’re brought up.”
Above all, Blackman says, the mentorship program gives up-and-coming musicians a window of opportunity in a scene where jobs can be scarce. It’s also a chance to uplift female musicians, who Blackman notes are often underrepresented in leadership roles.
“It’s possible to create your own work,” she shares. “It’s possible to find your own place in this kind of soup of the classical music scene. You don’t have to just be a cog and fit it. And in fact, finding your own voice will actually make you a better orchestral player, or better at whatever you do, a better teacher for instance. All of this personal development will serve the music in the end.”
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