In the contemporary Eckhardt-Gramatté competition, a competitor’s repertoire must consist of works made no sooner than the 1950s, at least half of them composed by Canadians. So when young pianist David Potvin played exclusively Canadian music, his exceptional effort tying the repertoire together did not go unnoticed by the judges, who awarded him the first-place prize from among six finalists.
“I tried to pick a program of contrasting works but present them in an order where they complemented each other well,” Potvin said. “There’s so much wonderful Canadian piano music so I thought, why not? I think I got just as much out of exploring the repertoire as I did learning and performing the pieces I eventually did decide on.”
Some of the composers featured in his program were Vincent Ho, Keiko Devaux, Cris Derksen and Potvin’s composer friend Edward Enman.
“Playing their pieces makes me feel more closely connected to the creative process, because there are no definitive recordings to imitate. It’s just me, the composer, and the score,” Potvin said.
The young musician began group music lessons when he was 3 and private lessons when he was 6, studying with his pianist mother all the while.
“We had a piano in the house so my exposure to the instrument is obvious there,” Potvin said. “My first connection to music probably came from time spent at my dad’s church, since there was singing every week, and I loved to sing as a young child.”
When he finally moved from a small town in Nova Scotia to the “big city of Toronto” to learn music on an academic level, Potvin met his most influential teacher, Marietta Orlov.
“I was very intimidated at first. She was demanding, but she always believed in me. She taught her students how to really make our interpretations speak, and she taught us how to express our own voice while at the same time respecting the score. She knew how to build us up while making sure that we kept high musical standards,” he said.
Spurred on by his award, Potvin will perform at the University of Calgary, the Canadian Music Centre, Brandon University, the Regina Musical Club, and many more Canadian institutions for a national tour featuring his competition-winning repertoire.
But he won’t stop there. Potvin is working on recording projects with works by Jean Coulthard and early 20th-century Canadian musicians, and he will be featured on Enman’s new album “Breathe In, Breathe Out.”
“I’ve also got some other recitals here and there,” Potvin said. “I’m going to try and continue to play live music for people, because that’s the dream!”
www.david-potvin.com
