At just nine years old, Murasaki Matsutani of Waterloo, Ont., has already taken home second place in two international competitions. The young talent will now be performing in a concert centered entirely around the music of child prodigy composers, with a symphony that was headed for bankruptcy just last fall.
Last September, the news that the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony was headed for bankruptcy disappointed many in the community including Matsutani. “It made me sad when they announced the bankruptcy so I wanted to fundraise for them,” she said. Matsutani and her mom reached out to former members of the symphony to see if they could collaborate. With Matsutani having also trained in violin with another former member, they had connections with the group, who have managed to remain together as they await their fate together.
One of those connections was Lori Gemmell, who has been a harpist with the orchestra for more than two decades, got the ball rolling from there. “ We’ve been organizing concerts all year, mostly chamber music concerts or smaller groups,” Gemmell said. “ “That just that gave me the idea to to create a concert based on music by child prodigies,” Gemmel explained of the show which is titled Young Brilliance. “So, all the composers that will be playing in the concert were a child prodigy.”
Included in the mix will be Mozart, who was writing masterpieces by the age of 8 and and Sophie Carmen Edkhardt Grammaté who began her career as a published composer at 11. “Precocious talent as very young children, and then became composers as well as great musicians of their instruments,” Gemmell explained.
Matsutani will perform with all 52 members of the KW Symphony under the direction of conductor Andrei Feher at the at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener on May 11. “ I really like the KWS. So, I’m very happy to do it with them,” the nine-year-old Waterloo native said. “And, I’ve been doing a full concerto so, that’s why I’m very excited to play with them.”
But this will not be the first time that the prodigy will be performing before a live audience. When she was just seven years old, she competed in the under-12 category at the prestigious Jeune Chopin international competition in Lugano, Switzerland. “Some of the juries were like, pianists, I really liked, like, Martin Garcia Garcia and Martha Argerich,” Matsutani explained. Despite her tender age, she managed to finish second, a remarkable accomplishment for a child who had just begun to play the piano two years earlier.
“ At the time, she was seven years old and it was under-12 category. Yeah, she was the youngest contestant in the final round of this year,” her mom Megumi said. Her father, who works in theoretical physics at the Perimiter Institute in Waterloo, says he could tell she had a gift for it almost right away. “ She loved listening to music and enjoyed watching ballet performances, DVDs and so on,” Beni Yoshida said. “Ever since she was a baby,” chimed in proud mom, Megumi. “I noticed that she has a very good ear,” Beni Yoshisa said. “And, she can tell pitches of different kinds of sounds. And also sometimes she can easily tell, what is going on. So, she wanted to advance to more difficult and challenging pieces. So I let her explore more and more of them. That is how it started.”
The apple actually fell far from the tree in this case, as neither parent has a background in music. “We don’t have any musical education background,” Megumi explained, noting that her background is in engineering while her husband’s is in science.
Murasaki Matsutani also competed in a large competition in Nashville last year. She was eight at the time, she still managed another second-place finish at the Nashville International Chopin Competition, despite being one of the youngest in the field once again.
The show at the church, which is titled Young Brilliance, will see her and the symphony perform a variety of pieces from composers who conducted music at an early age. What could make this performance extra challenging is that the musicians will have just a couple of rehearsals to prepare for the show. “ So basically everybody has their musical at performance level ready to go. And then we come together for a few rehearsals and pull it together to make something great,” Gemmell said.
But this will not be something new for members of the symphony who have been hanging together to keep the music flowing in the area since news broke about the bankruptcy last September. There were 52 members when the symphony went under and the whole gang will reunite for the show at the church. This will be the first time they will have all been together in almost a year.
“ We’re just working hard,” Gemel explained. “All of us are working hard to stay present in the community and stay vital and play great music.” While a church might seem like a small place to hold the show, she says that the church will clear a couple of pews from the front, which will still allow 450 people to attend the concert. “ So there’s a chancel and then a whole big area on the floor where we’ll be able to fit, and there’ll be a piano with Murasaki playing piano,” Gemmell said. “And Andre Fehr, our conductor, is coming to conduct the show. So we’re looking forward to being together again and playing great music.” Gemmel said the church is a great place to play a show.
“ It’s a really, great concert space. And the acoustics are wonderful in there,” the harpist noted as members of the symphony have put on smaller shows there before. While it will be an exciting time for the group of musicians to return to action, none will likely be more stoked than Murasaki. “ I’m really excited because I’m playing even a full concerto. I’ve never played a full concerto,” she said. “And this is my orchestra debut.” But this could be the start of some great things for the little nine-year-old as she has big dreams going forward.
“I want to be a pianist. And, a conductor. And a composer,” Murasaki explained. “ I take composing classes, too.”
