Episode Podcast and Video
Leah Roseman:
In this conversation with the really inspiring cellist, Rachel Mercer, we discuss the arc of her career so far as a chamber musician, soloist, principal cellist, the late Yehonatan Berick, an amazing violinist and pedagogue, who was her life partner, "Our Strength, Our Song" with her sister, the wonderful violinist Akemi Mercer-Niewöhner and many other chamber music collaborations and unique projects, as well as her way of approaching music. Rachel very generously made a special recording of the prelude from JS Bach's fifth solo suite and her heartfelt introduction to the power of this music is right after our conversation, so please keep listening till the end! There's also a timestamp for the Bach and in the podcast version, the Bach with her introduction is also a separate bonus episode. Good morning, Rachel Mercer.
Rachel Mercer:
Good morning.
Leah Roseman:
You are such an incredible cellist and inspiring colleague and I'm so glad that you agreed to have this conversation with me. Some people, not very many, ask if I have a list of questions before we speak and I always say, "No, I don't," and it might interest you. I was thinking, "This is my 28th such conversation in the last nine months." I've done a lot and it's really interesting because the themes that have come out, like in season one, the first 20, a lot of things, because we're living through this pandemic, how people are dealing with it as performing artists and also the nature of creativity and improvisation came up a lot. And in the second season already, I'm noticing things keep coming up about the music business and actually, that's a big part of what you've been able to do in terms of grant writing and getting support for all your many wonderful commissions so we'll dive into that a little bit. But you might be curious, Rachel. I don't have a list of questions. What I did when I got up at 5:30 this morning, I drew this ridiculous like-
Rachel Mercer:
Oh cool.
Leah Roseman:
... drawing. It's just different thought ideas, things we might get to so that's-
Rachel Mercer:
That's neat.
Leah Roseman:
... the way it's going to go. I knew a little bit about you, for sure, and I remember a couple years ago when they opened up the new part of the National Arts Centre, where we work, they wanted people to play in the new space and I played with my string quartet at the time and you had said, "Oh sure. I'll go play solo Bach for an hour. No problem." I think you did it a couple times and I remember meeting you downstairs and I said, "Wow, that's really generous of you to offer to do that. It's so much work. Is that stuff in your fingers?" and you said, "Well, I recorded it and I'm happy to do it," and I was so impressed.
Leah Roseman:
And actually, when I got up early this morning, I was listening to your recording of the solo Bach, which I've heard before, so incredible, which you recorded on the very famous Strad that you borrowed from the Canada Council. You've had this amazing opportunity to play on a series of great instruments.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
That particular instrument... That must have been incredible to play Bach on that. What was it? The Bonjour Strad?
Rachel Mercer:
Oh yeah. That particular time, the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank is this bank of now, I think, over 14 violins and, at the time, three cellos and now there's five, at least, I think and they have this 1696 Stradivarius cello nicknamed the Bonjour because it belonged to Abel Bonjour many, many years ago. And of course, it was alive when the Bach Cello Suites were written, which would've been 1717, I think, the later ones so to play an instrument from that time already is very interesting idea that you wonder if the Bach Suites were played on it but just any really old instrument from that time... In Italy, there were those incredible famous makers and this instrument has lived through many, many years and many, many players and many, many times in music. It's also transformed. I think the instrument that we play on doesn't look exactly like what it was then and of course, the whole setup with the strings and the bridge and everything is totally different.
Rachel Mercer:
I think the wood retains something after all these years and so you definitely feel that history and of course, all these incredible instruments by these great makers, they're works of art and they have their personality of their own. To me, the greater the instrument, the more complexity and depth and layers of possibility they have and whether you get to that depth within your three years of the loan or not, I don't think... For me, it was impossible. I'd play for it for six months and I'd be like, "Okay, I'm starting to get a feel for it," and then a year later, you're in a performance and you do something and you're like, "Whoa, I didn't know that was possible."
Rachel Mercer:
That's amazing when that happens when in the moment in a performance, you just go a different way physically and this instrument responds. You're like, "Oh my God, I didn't know I could do that," and then you explore more and playing an instrument in different spaces and different formations of ensemble and on recording, hearing it back, because, of course, it's very different what you hear under the ear from far away and then adjusting to that. I think it was that when you get a loan, you know it's going to end. You know it's going to end in three years so you always have in your mind, "Okay, this is a three year relationship. It's going to end at this point," so when it got to the three years, I knew it was going to end so I wasn't crying or anything. I think I played some Bach on it to say goodbye the last day that I gave it back. To have those loans, it's just a luxury, really.
Leah Roseman:
Do you know anything of the history of how the Canada Council obtained that instrument?
Rachel Mercer:
That particular instrument? Yes. Wait. I'm trying to remember how they got that one. That one was an anonymous donor.
Leah Roseman:
Wow.
Rachel Mercer:
Some of them, the Canada Council have bought. Some have been donated. That one is an anonymous donor.
Leah Roseman:
That's incredible.
Rachel Mercer:
Yes.
Leah Roseman:
I was thinking about what you were saying, how the instrument was different and for non-string players out there, they may not realize how little our instruments have changed over the years, but certainly the tension on the instrument was a lot less. You studied in the Netherlands as your last formal education and that's a big center for original instrument performance practice, whatever you want to call it. That must have influenced you, hearing that playing.
Rachel Mercer:
Maybe. I don't know if particularly there because my studies at the time, I was doing two years at the Conservatory and I was studying with Dmitri Ferschtman and so it wasn't focused around that kind of music. I have to say, growing up in Toronto, going to school in Toronto, Tafelmusik was there and then I went to Boston and to the NEC and there was a really great early music department there and I got to play with them sometimes and then when I went to Holland, it just wasn't part of my studies but I did once... I don't know if you know Colin Jacobsen, the violinist, who's based in New York. Now he conducts too. He created The Knights, that chamber orchestra, and he was actually living in Amsterdam and taking lessons privately with Vera Beths at the time, who's the great early music violinist whose husband happens to be Anner Bylsma, the late Anner Bylsma.
Rachel Mercer:
I was playing some chamber music with a student of hers and he was also there at the time and playing for Vera Beths. So we're in their house and playing for her and then the door opens and a man walks in and it's enter Anner Bylsma and so he just walked in and I think he was just listening and he was like "I'm listening", and so that was really neat. But also actually when I was in Toronto, Anner Bylsma came to play and, of course, I heard him play the Bach Suites in Amsterdam too in the big hall one one year. But he did give a masterclass and I got to play for him in a masterclass so I remember that class. I remember what he said. I remember what it was like and, of course, hearing him live. For me, that's a big influence, just what he's put out, all his recordings, hearing him live. Meeting him a little bit in person was a very big thing. All the places that I've been, I've been very lucky to get to experience really incredible period music.
Leah Roseman:
So what did Anner Bylsma say in that masterclass?
Rachel Mercer:
I played the prelude of the sixth Suite and I think the biggest thing I took from that was this idea of throwing and catching the bow. That was his idea for the movement of how... Obviously, I was playing in a modern way with a modern instrument and I wasn't trying really hard to emulate period performance, but of course, the aesthetic was there in my head, in my ear and that idea that it's not a fixed kind of playing on the string but that you release and catch and that's of course how we work on the string anyways to keep the vibration going. And when you would watch him play, I can still picture the whole six Suites in the big hall, watching him play and just seeing what he was doing with the instrument and there is that idea of really drawing sound out and, of course, when they play, usually there's no end pin so there's just much more movement with the instrument, constant balancing so-
Leah Roseman:
Do you think-
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Is that akin for violinists using a shoulder rest? That stability is lacking? Have you tried-
Rachel Mercer:
Do you mean where they-
Leah Roseman:
When you play without an end pin.
Rachel Mercer:
I've never really. I jokingly pull the end pin out sometimes and try to do it but I feel like my legs are too short to do it. I can't even imagine how but, of course, people do that and it's obviously a technique you have to learn and figure out. I imagine if you're playing some big concerto where you have to shift around the instrument, it in a way makes it a very different experience, but I'm sure it's... Like violinists without the shoulder rest, there's just more movement or you do a different kind of movement. It's not just this fixed and then the hand's moving.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I think it must be similar in that, as the repertoire progressed, like for violinists, depending on your physical setup, but to have a big vibrato and be shifting really high and all this stuff is a totally different type of technique than playing Baroque music. So it-
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And so you said you heard him play in Concertgebouw, solo Bach. Wow. That must have been amazing.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. I lived in Amsterdam doing my studies, two years, down the street from the Concertgebouw and you I went to every single concert I could. So, they have concerts every day and then some in the afternoon and so at least three concerts a week and everyone came there and the halls are beautiful. The sound is amazing. So, yeah. That was an incredible experience.
Leah Roseman:
And you won a competition, I'm probably going to pronounce this wrong, the Vriendenkrans.
Rachel Mercer:
Oh, Vriendenkrans.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Rachel Mercer:
Vriendenkrans. Something like that.
Leah Roseman:
And as a result of that, you got to do a solo recital in the Concertgebouw or the smaller hall?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. That is a competition for people in Holland who are Dutch or studying there or living there and I played with Jelger Blanken who's a great pianist with a great chamber solo career and at the time we were both studying and working together a lot, playing a lot of recitals together. Was the final round in the Concertgebouw too? I think it was and then you got to play a little bit there too. I have to say, it wasn't the first time I got to play in that hall because I did a masterclass the summer before and we got to play our final concert in there too and that hall... And I also went to concerts there. You walk in and all the doors coming in are surrounded by these huge, heavy red velvet curtains.
Rachel Mercer:
If you've been there, you'll know, and you walk through that and then everything is plush red velvet and then there's the wood on stage and then around the hall in the small and big hall are the names of great composers. So you walk into this environment and there's this kind of hush because of the soft, but you really feel like the air, I've said this before, it has vibrated with the music of all these people and the breath of all these people from years and years. It's a very magical atmosphere and definitely being on the stage, you feel that aliveness, but a warmth because of the wood and the plush.
Leah Roseman:
As a result of that competition, was that why you were able to do your debut solo recording, "Room", or is that a separate opportunity?
Rachel Mercer:
No, that was a totally separate thing. Do you want to hear about "Room"?
Leah Roseman:
Of course. I do.
Rachel Mercer:
I was-
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Yeah.
Rachel Mercer:
Oh, so that came a bit later. After my studies, I joined the Aviv String Quartet. They're an Israeli quartet who happened to be studying in Holland and in Germany at the time and their cellist left and they ended up with me. They played with a lot of people and I was really lucky to join them at that time. We started our time together and we spent a lot of time in Israel. So in Israel, I met a record producer who had worked with many in Europe and all of the world and he was interested into doing something together and so that was the result of that, "Room", which was a solo album of just short things. He produces all kinds of music, not really classical, actually, more like rock, folk, out there stuff. I guess it was an experiment to work with me and see where it would go. We ended up just doing really that together and I did some collaborations but the output on his label entity is really an interesting, eclectic mix of neat things and artists.
Leah Roseman:
There was a piece on there I wanted to ask you... Passaggio by Ernst, I'm probably going to say his name wrong, Reijseger.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. Ernst Reijseger.
Leah Roseman:
Reijseger. He seems really interesting. Do you know him personally?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. He's actually Dutch and cellist and he came to Chamberfest in Ottawa, actually, a few years ago. Roman brought him and he did a whole cello ensemble thing because he writes his own stuff. He's an improviser, of course. The piece that I played of his is kind of a more... What would you call it? Poppy, folky improv. It would be somebody he would just sit down and improvise it. He wrote it out for us that don't do that, like me. The stuff that we played on that concert was really neat atmospheric, wild, fun stuff. He's a really interesting artist to check out.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I'm curious because you had nine teachers in your youth ending with Shauna Rolston and then you went to all these different universities and you've played for so many famous people in masterclasses as well. So I'm curious what the different institutions were like in terms of Royal Conservatory, U of T, New England Conservatory, Conservatory in Amsterdam. Are there things that stick out for you in terms of the contrast between the institutions and that learning experience?
Rachel Mercer:
Sure. My experience was different because of the programs that I was in and my age and where I was in my own development so I think that really shapes it. I grew up just outside Toronto so I went to the Conservatory for their Young Artists Performance Academy, which is a pre-college kind of program and there I got all the history and theory classes and then I got to play in a regular string quartet. We were actually pretty serious. We rehearsed a lot and ear training and orchestra, chamber music, chamber orchestra. So it was a kind of all round experience happening during high school so that was my Conservatory experience. You'd go once in the week and then on Saturday, all day, that kind of thing.
Rachel Mercer:
All my friends were there and that was my really happy growing up experience with music all around that and then I went to the University of Toronto, which was a great experience for me working with Shauna Rolston. It was just the right person for me at the time. She's just so inspiring, so unique and encourages people with their own voice. You do get really influenced by her because she's just such a incredible musician and player and we would all try to, I think, emulate her in different ways and that was the way we learned from her, I think. And I got a lot of incredible opportunities because I stayed there and I stayed with my string quartet. There was a program in Graz in Austria that sent a bunch of musicians from all different places in the world, young musicians, and we got to perform together.
Rachel Mercer:
So my quartet went and it was the Belcea quartet from London who have a huge career. They were there at the same time and then there were young artists playing concertos so to get an experience like that probably wouldn't have happened in other places so I'm really glad. I always wanted to go to Europe or the U.S. or both so I went to the U.S. first and I went to NEC in Boston with Laurence Lesser who was my teacher and just the cello class there was incredible. It was huge. First of all, the school was huge. There's three orchestras and there were many cello teachers. Colin Carr was teaching there also and there were two other cello teachers as well so there's just lots of people and Laurence Lesser's class was just amazing.
Rachel Mercer:
The people that were in that class at the time, like Amit Peled... Oh I'm not even going to remember all the people. Mickey Katz, who's now in the Boston Symphony, Gabriel Lipkin, lots of people who have big solo careers now and just to be around and they were all different too. Laurence Lesser also, you couldn't see his teaching in all the cellists. It was just everyone had their own personality so that was encouraged. He was there to just give you his artistic ideas and guide you along your way and, of course, the orchestra experience there was amazing. The orchestra would meet three times a week and some days it was just reading sessions where we'd read Heldenleben and the winds and brass, of course, they're so focused on giving a great workshop so they know these pieces.
Rachel Mercer:
And the concert masters, there's a whole bunch of violinists who can play those solos just like that and just to read through repertoire, I was swimming. I was just like, "Whoa, this is amazing," but yeah, that made an impression. Definitely. And being able to go to the Boston symphony all the time and hear them play and all the soloists that come there. I have really incredible memories of that, being in the hall, hearing them play. In Holland, because I was doing a diploma so I wasn't as involved in things at the school. I did some orchestra but it was mainly about getting my lessons, going to a lot of concerts and I started performing more. If I hadn't joined the quartet, I probably would've stayed in Amsterdam and freelanced because I would've just gone that direction. Stayed there longer...
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So you landed this job with a young quartet that was already established, touring, recording contracts and you must have done some really interesting stuff. You mentioned in one, I think it was one of your interviews, how this memorable concert you played with them in Soweto, in a township in South Africa for kids. Can you talk to that?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. We had this really incredible experience of being connected with an agent in South Africa who organized tours there and so he brought us there. We played in many different places down there including bringing us to Soweto, to the townships, where we got to interact with kids. They brought us to do a youth presentation and it's all... Everyone's seen pictures of what it looks like there so it really does look like that. That's how they live and we were brought into a school, which was just a U-shaped building, I think, and then in the middle there's a courtyard and we just played on the edge of the courtyard. I don't know how much English they spoke, but we did present in English, but it was mostly the playing and we played all kinds of classical music and just the joy and openness of the kids. Kids are like that.
Rachel Mercer:
They're open. They're waiting. They're sponges. They're waiting for us to just show them and give them incredible things. So just the response of the kids to everything, they're just so alive with the music and there's this one video my colleagues took of as we were leaving, they just all wanted to come up and hug us as we were leaving, just this outpouring of joy and energy was really incredible.
Leah Roseman:
And then you worked quite a bit in Israel with the Aviv Quartet and got to know a part of your family you didn't really know, on your dad's mother's side.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. It's amazing how that happened. I had never been to Israel and my grandmother, my father's mother, is from there. She left Israel in her twenties, I think, to be married to my grandfather, who's British and so I hadn't ever been there and we did have lots of family there, a little bit distant, but lots of family. So I finally got to meet them when I went there and they just embraced me. They were just really happy to know more of the family. Israel's such a special place. I rented a place right in the middle of Tel Aviv and just to be able to walk to the beach and just the energy there. A really special place and they love classical music. There's a really big, intense classical music following. For chamber music too, I think. Of course, the quartet was very well supported by that too and known there.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. And you met Yehonatan Berick there as well, the first time, right?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. Yehonatan, we weren't living there at the time, but we went to teach at a summer festival called Mizra. You live on a kibbutz and it's all happening there and there was chamber music. He was teaching violin, of course, and we were put together to play a couple things together. We were in a Mendelssohn octet and he was part of that and he also played that... Is it the Bottesini Gran Duo with bass and violin?
Leah Roseman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Rachel Mercer:
So that was my, I think, first experience of really seeing him play. Actually, that's not true. I had been to a concert of his before, but this was seeing him play like right in front of me while I'm accompanying him and he was just such a goof. He made so many jokes playing that piece. He was dancing around and doing funny movements as he is playing this crazy virtuosic piece and he is just... That's his personality. Making people laugh, making people happy as much as possible.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I remember the first time I heard about him, because he was my age exactly and I had just left McGill where I'd done my undergraduate and then he... Well, it must have been just after that because my teacher left, Mauricio Fuks, and then he replaced him essentially but he was so young. He was 26 or something when he got -
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. Maybe even 25.
Leah Roseman:
He was really young.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And then when he came to U of O, I heard this incredible concert he did in Tabaret of all the Ysaÿe solo sonatas in one go.
Rachel Mercer:
Oh, yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And I have to say, I was just so shy to ever speak to him because I was just-
Rachel Mercer:
Oh no.
Leah Roseman:
... so in awe of this man, just such an amazing violinist and such an incredible loss to the musical community but you must have learned so much from him. Of course, he's your life partner, but as a musician and I'm sure, just understanding about teaching music.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. I can't say how much I learned from him. Things just even come up now when I'm like, "Oh, okay. I get that now." Of course, I would see him teaching, hear him teach and I would ask him questions to help me with things and playing with him and now, of course, when you watch him play and you kind of understand how his brain is working and if you're on social media and you see the kind of things that students post, they made a table of elements of his ideas. He had these catch phrases that would instigate the thing that he wanted with his students. So he'd just say this one word and they'd be like, "Oh yeah," and do it and it sounds better. Obviously, he had the goods behind it, but also all these tricks that immediately worked to make things better. So if you can use that as your part of your tools, it's really amazing. Now when I can watch videos of him playing and just seeing the energy and how the music is being communicated, I think we all get so much from that.
Leah Roseman:
I was listening again to his "This Is My Music" on CBC and he talked about that students underestimate what they can achieve and often as teachers, we also don't even realize what they can achieve. But he also mentioned, of course, he studied with this famous teacher, Ilona Feher, is that how you say her name? For 12 years and such a contrast to you. You studied with so many teachers. What do you think that's like for someone, studying with one amazing great teacher, as opposed to all these different influences?
Rachel Mercer:
I can't really say what it's like to have one teacher for a long time. The longest I had was maybe five years when I was five to 10 so that was a very early period. I probably could have been with any of them for longer, but it was just usually two or three years and you just... Anyways, with any teacher, it's not up to the teacher to develop you unless you're really young and you're starting and you're just absorbing rather than thinking for yourself as much, but then at some point it starts turning around and you have to take the information you're getting and interpret it for yourself and understand it. So I usually found that I'd get all this information for two years and then about four years later, I would be like, "That's what they meant."
Rachel Mercer:
It just took time to sink in because every teacher has their priorities, their values that are the top, "This is what I believe you need to understand," and so they give you that and I just found that I'd be trying to do it while I was studying with them and learning repertoire and doing all the other things you have to do but it would be later that I'd be, "Okay. That's what you meant," and it would sink in and click. So now I feel that I have all these really strong ideas from all these different great teachers that I've hopefully absorbed and incorporated as part of my way of presenting music. So I feel really lucky to have all those different influences.
Leah Roseman:
But did Yehonatan talk about studying with her at all?
Rachel Mercer:
Oh yeah. For sure. He was quite young when he started with her and she was a tough teacher. The specifics of what she taught him, I don't know that as much. What I get is that she was demanding and she had really great teachers and he does say that she was one of the biggest influences on him, musically. I don't know the specifics of what she gave him but he also worked very hard on his own, especially after she passed. I think that was a year or few years where he just practiced a lot and worked really hard on his own and figured all that stuff. You know?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. Because I'd heard her name floated around. She taught Pinkas Zukerman and Shmuel Ashkenasi, so many Shlomo Mintz. So all these people in Holon... Is that the town?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
I'm saying that right? I was thinking because when I talk to James Ehnes, he's saying, "People say, 'What are the chances of someone coming out of Brandon?'" He said, "Actually pretty high because there's this great community, this great teacher," and then he was talking about other musicians as well. It's interesting. You get this sort of wonderful, positive, hot house in certain places with just so much inspiration.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So we talked about one grandmother. Now you lost your other grandmother this year. Your mom's mom, right? Your Japanese grandmother.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. We call her Bachan, like obaasan, Bachan. She was 103 and, of course, both my grandparents lived through the Second World War, so it's just so different what we lived through compared to even our parents and then grandparents. That generation, there's not very many of them left now and it's... So hopefully, we've absorbed their stories and what they went through and that we have some understanding of what they lived through.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So a lot of people listening to this won't be Canadian and they won't know that Japanese Canadians were interned and all their property was seized during the Second World War. So your grandmother lived through that.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. My grandmother was the second oldest of eight children and they were living in Port Moody, BC, which is just outside of Vancouver. That's where they were born and grew up. They were second generation Canadian. My great grandparents came from Japan on my mom's side and when the Second World War started, the Japanese Canadians in the West were taken from their homes and sent to internment camps in the internal BC and Alberta and I think in Ontario also, there was a work camp. So my grandfather and my grandmother's brothers, they protested families being separated because they were going to separate the men from the families and so they ended up getting sent to a work camp.
Rachel Mercer:
So they were apart for the whole three years of the internment and it was like ghost towns. They were sent to ghost towns. So there were people who were living there who ran businesses and things so they were put in these ghost towns and had to just figure out how to survive for those three years and then at the end of the war, most of them didn't have homes left to go home to. They had been sold or people had taken them over. So many went east and ended up in Ontario. So my grandmother's family and my grandfather ended up in Hamilton. So there's a huge family there now and that's where my mom was born and...
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So you've got a lot of strength and support from your family.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. I'm really lucky to have-
Leah Roseman:
Just go for it, you know?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
And your sister, you have such a close relationship with and professionally too. Well, as much as you've been able to play together, separated by the ocean.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. My sister and I, we have always been really close and of course we grew up hearing each other play and playing together sometimes and we ended up studying at different times in different places so we weren't together all the time. But whenever there's a chance to be together, period, or play together, even better, is really a treat.
Leah Roseman:
And in terms of your Japanese heritage... I'm worried I'm going to mispronounce your sister's name. How do you say Akemi?
Rachel Mercer:
Akemi.
Leah Roseman:
Akemi. So she studied the koto for eight years?
Rachel Mercer:
Oh, was it eight years? Oh.
Leah Roseman:
You said this in another-
Rachel Mercer:
I'm sure that's true. I'm sure that's true. She must have told me that. I don't know. I don't know if she wanted to or my parents felt like that would be a good idea, but yeah. She studied with Teresa Kobayashi in Vancouver for many years and the real thing, with all the picks that you have to make with rice sticky stuff put on your fingers and the koto's still at home and I'm sure she could still play it. That's a really neat experience that she went and learned that traditional instrument.
Leah Roseman:
But you weren't interested in that or you just were too busy with everything else?
Rachel Mercer:
I feel like at that time I was already really into the music and cello stuff so I was left to do that and not given more things. Probably that's why. I was a bit older.
Leah Roseman:
When you left the Aviv Quartet and you came back to Canada, what I find interesting is that you were just launching so many projects on your own, figuring out how to write grants, managing, doing publicity, doing it all yourself after having been with a group where things were more taken care of. Is that correct?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. I was thinking about that the other day. Even at the time, being in a string quartet was changing. Now, I don't think there's almost any string quartets who make a living from just quartet activities. It's impossible. It's the way the music business works now. It's not like that. So already during our quartet years, we were already starting to branch out and do other things. It wasn't possible to really survive just playing concerts and really, in reality, in music... There's going to be... I don't know if you can hear that beeping.
Leah Roseman:
Do you want to just wait a minute?
Rachel Mercer:
Sure. It'll be a minute.
Leah Roseman:
I'll just come back to the interview to say we have to stop because there's all this construction outside Rachel's apartment and there was explosions and horns and if you're wondering what the knocking sound is, she's living next to a construction site so there's no way around it. And you say it's just constant. You have to try to sleep with this early in the morning.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. They start pretty early.
Leah Roseman:
Poor you.
Rachel Mercer:
There are worse things.
Leah Roseman:
Well, back to what we were talking about. It had to do with managing and doing publicity, grant writing, which you're obviously really gifted at. You've managed to secure touring grants and recording grants and so many commissions from so many composers. Do you have any idea of how many pieces you have commissioned for your chamber music groups and also solo pieces over the years?
Rachel Mercer:
I think I wrote something over 25. That, of course, includes the "Mosaïque Project", which is 14 on its own. Outside of that, would be over 10 pieces for the chamber groups or solo that I've been involved in the commission.
Leah Roseman:
Well, since you mentioned it, actually, that Ensemble Made in Canada, that "Mosaïque Project", it was really cool how you incorporated visual aspects and also even audience participation that they could colour in these tiles. It's such a very innovative way of thinking and the way the concert was presented. Can you speak about that a little bit?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. The project, if you don't know about it, was born after the Canada 150 year and it was by Ensemble Made in Canada, the piano quartet that I was playing with and we commissioned 14 composers across the country to write very short piano quartets inspired by a different province or territory and then we toured that piece, that big suite, across the country and audience members could doodle or draw on little cards while they listened to the music. And so it became also this art piece that goes along with it and on their website, you can pull out all the pictures from Newfoundland or all the pictures by people under a certain age, if they wrote their age, you were allowed to or not, and all kinds of categories that you can look at the art from different perspectives from across the country.
Rachel Mercer:
And it was definitely a collaborative group effort in asking the composers and dealing with all the practical production side of it. The visual piece, I think that mostly came from Elissa. Elissa Lee, our violinist, I think that she might have been the first mention of that idea and growing but, of course, we were all involved in making that all happen. It was definitely a group effort and it was amazing to be in a group like that. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses so we would work in that way. If you were good at this, you'd do that aspect and if you're good at this... So it was really just a very organic way of working together.
Leah Roseman:
And then when you started doing orchestra auditions... First of all, not just any orchestra auditions but Principal Cello, what was that process like for you to prepare?
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. Playing auditions is its own world. I hadn't come out of school preparing for that. Of course, every place I was, I did do the orchestra rep class with really great teachers. In Boston, it was people from Boston Symphony and in Holland, I worked with someone from the Concertgebouw so I did have that background of learning about the excerpts from people who were in great orchestras, but actually preparing an audition is a whole other process. I took a few auditions and saw how much work I had to do. I got really lucky being able to join the National Arts Centre Orchestra and that audition process, because the more I sit on panels and the more I hear auditions and remember my experience and see people preparing for them, really great young musicians, I see how much the particular circumstance of that day and hour and there's just so many factors involved in who actually ends up with the job.
Rachel Mercer:
The more you learn, the more you realize from the other side, what you could have done differently but I can't complain because I'm very lucky in my position, but preparing an audition is a really special thing. When I work with people now and they come to play for me, I really try to communicate that you have to believe in what you're doing. And, of course, some people are just like, "I need to win a job. I need to win a job." It doesn't matter how well prepared you are and how fantastically you'd give an audition. You just might not win the job for other reasons.
Rachel Mercer:
You have to be aware and there aren't that many jobs. There's a limited number and actually, these days especially, if you win an orchestra job, it's not the be-all end-all. As we see, no one's job is secure and in most places it's actually not enough to just survive on that. So you actually have to do other things like everyone in the music world. No one does just one thing to survive. So there's that aspect and then it's also you have to believe in the way you're playing. If you try to mold into a certain way and then you win a position where that's what's expected of you, I personally don't think I could go 20 of years playing in a way that I just don't... It feels wrong to me.
Rachel Mercer:
I always think that, for me, the most important is the music and the more that you focus on what the music is and its style and it's depth, the more you're going to be taken away from, "Oh my God. I have to play perfectly," because you're going to be trying to communicate the music the best way possible, which will include playing it well. That's what I did for myself, at least. Trying to take the focus away from playing things well and not making mistakes to presenting the music and communicating that, which is the whole point of performance.
Leah Roseman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). What kind of preconcert routine do you have to calm yourself down and focus. Not necessarily auditions, but just pre-performance.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. It depends on the performance but when it's something solo or a solo of Bach or something or a bigger thing like a concerto or if there's a huge solo in the orchestra repertoire we're playing, I would say I do use meditation focus techniques sometimes, if I have the time and the head space to do it. Just one of those where you, even for 30 seconds or a minute or two, sit quietly and focus your breath and just let go of anything and be in the moment. And actually for practice too, that's one of the most valuable things because only by being in the moment are you truly listening to yourself while you're playing, which is the essence of practice. If you're not really listening, you're just not getting anywhere.
Rachel Mercer:
That's the number one thing. So just bringing myself to that space, whether it takes 10 seconds of just closing my eyes and finding it or a few minutes of just calming it down. And I think when there is a performance that there is more pressure for, just being nice to yourself before it, taking care of yourself as you would for someone you love, making sure they're as comfortable as possible, if you have the time and it's possible.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. I was thinking sometimes when you told me about your beautiful duo album with Akemi... I can't remember the name of the album right now. You can remind me.
Rachel Mercer:
Okay. "Our Strength, Our Song".
Leah Roseman:
Right. And you were so excited because you said, "I've had this idea for so many years and it's going to be so amazing," and you could talk about the album now. But before that actually, because this is what I was wondering about because you're always so full of ideas and inspiration and putting people together, are you a notebook kind of person or is it more computer file spreadsheets or you just have random notebooks or you know what I mean?
Rachel Mercer:
Both.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Rachel Mercer:
I've always had a dream journal, in a way, for music dreams and actual dreams. I used to sometimes write those things down and then just leave it and then years later, see what I... And sometimes you've done some of those things. Some things, it's like, "That's not important anymore. I don't want to do that," or it will just be in my head, ideas that you... Especially on long drives or when your mind has the space to let it be open, which it doesn't happen all the time when you're so busy, right?
Leah Roseman:
Yeah.
Rachel Mercer:
When you finally have time to let your brain or you see something that inspires you. You see someone else's project that, "Oh yeah. I wish I could do that," and then it's just waiting for the right opportunity to make it happen and, of course, over the years, you learn how to make things happen. You have the tools more and it's possible. Now, I understand how to make certain projects happen. I know the steps that I'll need to take and how much time it's going to take and how much work.
Leah Roseman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So "Our Strength, Our Song" is a really incredible album. Very special.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. That was a very special project to me. I think that came first. I wanted to do something with my sister, really. I've played with so many great violinists. I'm spoiled with all the really amazing violinists I get to play with but playing with my sister is just a very special experience and she's an incredible player and musician and she lives in Germany now and I was like, "Okay, well we got to do something together so she can come and do it with me." And, of course, I had all these composers that I've wanted to commission for many years so it was a combination of those two things and I still feel like I love all composers and music, so many different things, but to me, playing an album of all women's music felt like a good thing to do and I still feel like that.
Rachel Mercer:
When I can, I like to be able to perform women's music and play with women performers. Of course, not exclusively and it's not a fixed thing sometimes it's... My last group was all women, but it's not exclusive. It felt good at the time to do that. It felt like the right thing to do. And so we ended up commissioning three different composers, Jocelyn Morlock, Alice Ho and Rebekah Cummings and it's Rebekah Cummings' piece which was called "Our Strength, Our Song" and it ended up being the title of the album. And then we played three older pieces by Violet Archer, Jean Coulthard and Barbara Feldman and they don't get played a lot. That was the other thing, finding pieces that just don't get played that are really strong pieces of music.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. And as we increase diversity and representation with the music we play, unfortunately, sometimes it's like people all hook onto one piece by one composer. You know what I mean? I find that a bit of that is happening now and there's just so much to discover and new composers to encourage too. I'm curious about your practice routine or if you have a routine, in terms of your warmups or just things you... I'm sure you're just playing at such a high level all the time, you don't need to do... Well, normally, non-pandemic times, you're just playing so many concerts all the time.
Rachel Mercer:
Yeah. It's changed over the years and, of course, right now with the way things are going. A lot of activity and then nothing for long periods. So for me, over the years, it's really been I want to focus on the music that I'm working on and that I am preparing and at the beginning of the pandemic, I took out a whole bunch of music that I wanted to learn and work on, but then I actually ended up being so busy making videos, there was actually no time to work on any of that music. So I had all these ambitions of learning all this repertoire that I hadn't learned before and this just didn't happen. And now, of course, there are enough demands that the music that I have to learn is stuff that I'm really interested to work on.
Rachel Mercer:
I think at some point I felt that playing scales was not helping my music making because it was so rigorous in the way I was doing it. It just didn't relate to because I really want to have every possibility of expression available to me and that does not come from physically playing my instrument. That comes from my imagination and then I hear or feel a sound in my head. How am I going to make it? And I don't learn that from playing the studies and scales. I learn that from hearing it and figuring out physically how to make it. I have a piece of music I need to learn. First, I study the score. If there's a recording, I listen to the recording because I want to hear the big picture and what it really means and what I'm trying to for. I never take out a piece of music and just start learning the notes and rhythm unless it's something...
Rachel Mercer:
Actually, no, I don't do that because it just gets me into too small a focus. I want the big picture of the end game, what I'm going for and then it's learning that and then focusing in and making sure the details fit as much as possible by the day of the performance. That's how I work now and, of course, now I've learnt how much time it takes me to learn something usually and that's usually my guide of how to work. Of course, as I get older, I feel that when I approach the instrument, I know I can't go from no playing to six hours a day. You have to guide that but I really do believe in taking time off because I find that it clears my mind and my ears and then when I approach the instrument, it's just fresh.
Rachel Mercer:
Because we so physically get fixed in certain ways of playing and especially, of course, playing in orchestra where you just don't hear yourself and you want to be comfortable. You don't want to be injuring yourself. So you get used to certain movements and certain physical ways that are great if you need to play a lot of repertoire and for a lot of hours sitting there. But then when you go to be more creative with your own music, being fixed in that way is just, I find, not helpful. I need to free my ears, free my body and find the ways and, of course, number one is getting out what I want in my head with maximum efficiency and I think the maximum efficiency is what helps me from getting the injuries, just being always aware of your body and that you're not getting stuck in ways that are just going to hurt it, listening to that.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. So when you take time off, is it time off completely from music or just time off from playing? Or will you just clear everything?
Rachel Mercer:
Music is always a part of my life, but not necessarily classical music. I listen to music all the time. I use all kinds of different music for different reasons to help me in my life and inspire me or just relax. For me, when it's possible to take time off from playing, I don't think it's a bad thing and, of course, I could see that in the future, as I get older, I have to be more careful with it, for sure. Already, I have to be more careful coming back.
Leah Roseman:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. You mentioned making all those recordings. I was very touched. Early in the pandemic, you made these beautiful cello choir virtual recordings with members of our cello section and the people who regularly play with us who don't have a contract. I think people not in our business don't realize what a huge part of the classical music world are freelancers and no less respected and it's no guarantee that you have any kind of security in our world, for sure. What are your perspectives, if you're going to give advice to people who are 20 years old or even looking back on yourself?
Rachel Mercer:
I think it's not any different from when I was in my twenties or even a teenager. I think it's just a reality that you'll probably do a lot of different things in your life, even not music. I never thought I'd have to know all the business side of the music and my dream, growing up, was to play in a string quartet and so I did that for eight years, touring the world. Then I was like, "Okay, now I've done that," and I was ready to move on to something else. Yes, it's possible to have one specific career line for all your working years, but it's not the norm, I don't think.
Rachel Mercer:
That's why I do those dream books. It's like, "What are your dreams and ambitions and how would you make them possible, whatever it is?" I think there's so many young creative people these days. When I start looking online at what people are doing, the next generation after me, and now there's another generation, it's so inspiring. The ideas they have and the things they're doing...
Rachel Mercer:
Of course, it's not about making money or making a living. Of course, you have to figure that out too, how you're going to survive but the passion and inspiration I see in younger generations is just amazing and I just sit back and think... It doesn't make me think, "Oh, I've got to do something." I just think, "Wow, that's really amazing," and I just have so much respect for the next generations that are coming and what they're doing.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah. It's really beautifully said. Well, on that note, I want to thank you so much for joining me today. It's been really interesting.
Rachel Mercer:
Thanks so much, Leah, for doing this.
Rachel Mercer:
There's a reason why the suites for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach are some of the most recorded and played pieces for solo cello. Somehow in those simple dance movements and preludes, he managed to touch upon so many different aspects of human emotion and experience from joy to sorrow, dark, to light playfulness, elegance nostalgia. When I went to record something, at that time, the only thing I could imagine playing at that moment was this prelude from the fifth Suite. It just fit exactly where I was in that moment and I'm someone who,
Rachel Mercer:
I always believe in playing for the audience and sharing the music and that's the whole point of what we do but as I played through the piece over for the recording, I realized that as I let myself just be carried along with the music in the moment by myself in that space and in that moment in time, as I let myself flow with that, it was almost healing. It was an act of healing, the playing of the music and I don't think there's any human being in the world who could not benefit from some kind of healing in some form and I wish for all of us that we are able to receive that in whatever form it comes, whether it be big or small. Here is Bach's prelude from his fifth Suite in C minor.
Leah Roseman:
Season One of this podcast had 20 episodes and Season Two continues with a really interesting mix of musicians talking about their lives and careers with perspectives on overcoming challenges, finding inspiration and connection through a life so enriched with music. Please follow this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts to be informed about each new episode.
