photo: Lucas Meachem

SPOTLIGHT 31: KAREN GOMYO and LUCAS MEACHEM

textura is thrilled and honoured to feature classical violinist Karen Gomyo and baritone Lucas Meachem in its thirty-first ‘Spotlight,' with each artist represented by a superb, recently issued album: A Piazzolla Trilogy (Gomyo) and Shall We Gather (Meachem). textura is deeply grateful to the artists for contributing to the article.

photo: Karen Gomyo

KAREN GOMYO

Who: I was born in Tokyo and spent my early childhood in Montreal. I moved to New York at age eleven to pursue studies at Juilliard at the invitation of Dorothy DeLay, followed by further studies with Mauricio Fuks at Indiana University, Donald Weilerstein at New England Conservatory, and privately with cellist Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. I'm currently based in Berlin.

What: I've spent my whole life studying the great masterworks for violin by the great composers but also have a deep love for the Nuevo Tango music of Astor Piazzolla. I'm also passionate about advocating new music being written today by composers of my generation, such as Samuel Carl Adams, Elizabeth Ogonek, and Samy Moussa.

Currently: The program on mylatest release, A Piazzolla Trilogy, resulted from the first lockdown of the pandemic. I originally intended to record with my NY-based tango quintet but instead found new colleagues closer to home in Europe. I drove all the way down to France to record Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, and on the way discovered Stephanie Jones on YouTube, with whom I ended up recording Histoire du Tango.

The pandemic has obviously disrupted concert life a great deal, but it hasn't stopped artists from exploring new ideas and projects. While the first few weeks and months were challenging and confusing for me, I also tried to take this time to enjoy being at home. Despite a slower pace of life, I was thrilled that this particular recording project came to fruition, especially making it in time to celebrate Piazzolla's centennial.

Musical philosophy: Music is simply an essential part of being human—for me, the pandemic has made this clearer than ever. Whether it's humming to yourself subconsciously or actively taking part in a concert, it feeds our souls. During the pandemic, we were fortunate to have computers and the internet and to be able to stay connected that way. But live sound, live music, and people coming together through music, whether as performers or audience members, does something profound to us. Especially during this time, music felt like the only thing that could understand our pain as much as the only thing that could take us away from it. It gave us hope and healing, even joy. And on any day, it can bring us into a new world or take us back to places in our memory. In my view, nothing but music can have such a multi-faceted power.

Favourite artists and strongest influences: David Oistrakh: To me, his playing is the epitome of humility and honesty. It is natural, heartfelt playing at its purest. I own every recording of his available! He is also the master of intensity without tension. He can play the most intense, even aggressive music while still keeping a pure, dignified sound and a compassionate spirit. For me, at the end of the day, soulful, honest playing is what touches me the deepest—I want to "feel" when I listen to music.

Nathan Milstein: The master of inventiveness and playfulness, Milstein was an endlessly curious and creative artist. No two performances of the same piece sounded alike. He was constantly searching, finding new expressions. The amazing thing is that none of it ever sounded superficial. His new, different perspectives were completely organic. As I get older I am perhaps even more in awe of his creative genius and how consistently inspired he was whatever he played.

photo: Karen Gomyo

Recordings that have deeply affected me: Perhaps because I am currently playing Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1 a lot, I can't help but feel close to the recording that drew me into the world of this music in the first place: Symphony No. 11 with the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Yevgeny Mravinsky. I was thirteen when I bought this recording. I was deeply shaken by the music itself, which vividly depicts the events of the 1905 Bloody Sunday during the Russian Revolution across its four movements, and the unyielding severity with which it is performed. This recording brought me to the core of Shostakovich's world of suppression, fear, and defiance.

Completely different from the above, the album Tango: Zero Hour was my first encounter with Astor Piazzolla's music when I was fourteen. Piazzolla himself was a phenomenal bandoneon player. Just as we talk about singing and crying through the violin, he did the same with the bandoneon. His musical temperament as a performer is like the music he writes: feverishly passionate, intense, uncompromisingly energetic and serious, almost desperately nostalgic and lonely, with the occasional hint of humour.

A memorable event, concert, or experience: I will never forget my first opera experience at the Met Opera in New York. I was twelve, sitting high up on the last balcony. Placido Domingo sang Otello. Despite looking as small as a sesame seed from where I sat, the portrayal of his character through his magnetic singing and body language was so powerful and real, that I thought he really killed Desdemona. That was perhaps my first experience of a live performer so immersed in his role that I, as the audience, was swept away from the real world for the duration of the performance—I will never forget this.

website: KAREN GOMYO

photo: Lucas Meachem

LUCAS MEACHEM

Who: I'm from the good ol' north state of North Carolina but am currently based in Minneapolis. I attended Appalachian State University, Eastman School of Music, and Yale University over the span of eight years and was then a young artist at the San Francisco Opera for two. I've been singing professionally around the world for sixteen years.

What: My music is opera. It speaks the most to my vocal style and abilities (although I do love singing R&B and grew up on it!), but the challenge of projecting my voice over an orchestra is a lifetime journey and passion of mine. The repertoire is so stunning and moves me every time I'm on stage. I was trained to sing opera through art songs, which I call mini “cheat sheets” for arias and now to have recorded an album of art songs is like a tableau of all of the music I've experienced as a professional performer. I've added lessons I've learned from my lifetime of singing to each song.

Currently: Shall We Gather, my solo debut album—six years in the making. COVID has affected all of us artists, and now I am even more grateful for a continued life in the arts.

Musical philosophy: The ideal for an opera singer is to be heard at all times. So to record art songs where the goal is to convey the text and tell a story in roughly two to three minutes was a very rewarding experience. No matter what genre we are performing, I think taking the time to master your instrument and then have something to say is the balance we each need to find.

photo: Lucas Meachem

Favourite artists and strongest influences: Whitney Houston and Freddie Mercury: they tell such a vivid story through their voices. And then the Three Tenors: when I first heard their music back in my high school days, their operatic voices captivated me completely and inspired a lifetime journey of music.

A memorable event, concert, or experience: I just went to see operatic tenor Jonas Kaufman in recital here in Los Angeles. I felt like that eager student getting to see a master at work again, and it was a very excited and youthful feeling to be in the audience for his performance. I was struck by his ability to pour his performance into his voice.

website: LUCAS MEACHEM

November 2021