Carissa Klopoushak and Friends.

Seeing an old friend and former classmate succeed gives me a vicarious pleasure and pride. Even though I dreamed one day I would be rock star fronting a girl band with all the associated coolness that would entail, I won't. So it's great to know a musician who did work so hard to get where she is.

Carissa Klopoushak and Friends gave a rousing performance of mostly folk music at the Toronto Summer Music Festival. I would say it was a great performance with one caveat: I'm a total dunce when it comes to music.

Yet, I would say that I can tell good music from bad based on the "cringe-anticipation factor." It's my own scale, first developed while watching figure skating with my older sister. If I begin to tense up in anticipation of cringing at some massive screw-up, then the performer isn't very good. An excellent performer puts me at ease; she convinces me that she is performing well. And I believe her.

While she was playing, Carissa (and friends) convinced me. I believed in her pleasant voice and in her dancing violin. I am not really a big listener of Ukrainian folk music and was pleasantly surprised. I thought though that the really tasteful chairs at the Heliconian Hall should have been cleared away for a dance floor. Prompted by the music, the listeners would have been kicking up their heels instead of sitting politely and quietly. But then again, I feel the best way to listen to music (and understand it) is to dance.

Her credentials back the performance. She has been hired by the Ottawa symphony orchestra (I believe, please forgive if I have gotten this wrong), recorded several albums with her band Tyt i Tam and is the head artistic director of Ritornello Music Festival. Impressive.
nelson higher educational
The only criticism I would dare throw in her direction is more contextual than musical. For the uninitiated like me, we could have used more of an introduction (and a smoother one) to the music. They did an original arrangement of what I believe was a classical work. I didn't hear the composer's name clearly and now will have to harass her for it.

Carissa also didn't play her violin alone. The friends, Alexander Sura and Jean-Christophe Lizotte, played the cimbalom and the cello. It's completely unsurprising that Sura studied the piano, since the cimbalom, in principle and in sound, seems very similar to the piano. His soloist work was entertaining to watch and provided a nice break from the tone of the other pieces. Celloist Lizotte remained in the background as a strong player but didn't showcase any solo pieces of his own.

Watching Carissa play violin last Thursday reminded me of another time I heard her play. Around 20 years ago, she played for a group of us in the school basement as a part of show and tell. When I think about that performance and about a room in her parents' basement filled with instruments, I could almost call her career path, her destiny.

When I think about my own parents' basement, it was filled with books instead of instruments. It's no surprise that I didn't become that rock star and that Carissa is still rocking that violin.