While Saturday’s concert is titled Bach’s Magnificat, our Principal Bassoon Stephanie Unverricht is actually the featured guest artist on a different piece in this concert. Stephanie will be showing us a more serious side of the bassoon instead of the comedic/character instrument we tend to think of from film. By having Stephanie perform Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto in e minor it is a chance for us to showcase the incredible talent of one of our own who usually uses her talents to help others make beautiful music! It is certainly going to be an amazing concert and we think you should get tickets for Saturday now before it’s too late!
As we are with all our soloists this concert, we sent Stephanie some questions to get to know her a little better.
SSO: Where is your hometown and where are you based out of now?
SU: Saskatoon and Saskatoon J (I feel pretty lucky to be able to have a life as an artist in the same place where I grew up!)
SSO: How do you deal with nerves?
SU: My best defense against nerves is to tell myself that I’m not nervous! My dad taught me to calmly look at my music and say to myself “Hey, I can play that note! And I can play that note too!” until it’s all done.
(Yes Stephanie! You are more than fine!)
SSO: Was there an aha moment that made you realize music was the path for you?
SU: I started taking music lessons when I was 4, but never thought it would be my career. I suppose my “aha” moment was in grade 12 when I decided I couldn’t NOT play music for the rest of my life.
SSO: What made you choose the bassoon?
SU: My first instrument was the violin, but in grade 6 I had to pick an instrument for school band. I tried the bassoon and found my true love!
SSO: Why do you enjoy playing Vivaldi?
SU: When I chose the bassoon in grade 6, my dad bought me some CDs to listen to. One was a collection of Vivaldi concerti and I remember listening to this CD often before bed and wondering if my fingers would ever be able to move that quickly! (Dear reader, we assure you that they can!) Vivaldi for me is fun and flashy. Even though this concerto is in E Minor, there’s nothing sad about it.
SSO: We recently did 6 word autobiographies with the students of St Mary’s who were a part of Kitohcikewin/Listen up! What would your six words be?
SU: I play bassoon and other things 🙂
SSO: If you could work with anyone living or dead who would it be?
SU: I’d love to work with Beethoven. I think his intense passion would be exciting. He wrote so many great lines for the bassoon in his symphonic works, I’d love to try convince him to write a solo piece for bassoon.
SSO: What are some upcoming projects, or ones on the go, that you want to share with everyone?SU: When I’m not playing in the orchestra, I spend my time teaching lessons and playing with my band Minor Matter. We recently did a show at the UofS in Gallery 2 where we each chose a few works of art from their collection that spoke to us, then performed in the space. I love projects that involve the collaboration of different artists and art forms and look forward to more projects like these. Minor Matter has 2 albums released, an EP “Concept of a Knife” from 2012 and a full length self-titled album recorded in 2016 that are available on iTunes, Spotify and through our website www.minormatter.ca
See Stephanie this Saturday (7:30 pm) at Knox United Church! Tickets are available online or at the door. It’s going to be an incredible night and it is our last concert of season 87!