The duo of Guy and Nadina has been together since 2006, combining the sounds of bassoon, trumpet and piano in new and inventive ways. Guy Few and Nadina Mackie Jackson recently spoke to The News Review about their Prairie Debut tour, which includes Yorkton on the final leg.
Jackson describes the tour as being stimulating thus far, playing all of their favorite flashy, big pieces for bassoon, piano and brass, meeting people as they go through.
"From my perspective, the recitals are really exciting, it's kind of a show where you communicate with the audience the whole time and you develop and grow... it's like running a marathon, it's fun," Jackson says.
They duo got together because they were inspired by each other's playing, after meeting through a chamber music performance in Montreal. Both artists had been inspired to contact the other to perform together, and Few says that's when they knew they had to work together.
"It became very clear that both of us were inspired by the other's playing," Few says.
Both Few and Jackson admit that bassoon and trumpet are an unexpected combination, and there was only one classical piece that was written for a combination of the two instruments. As a result, they've commissioned several works to showcase the unusual mix of voices. Few and Jackson both agree that they began exploring the combination of sounds because of each other's playing more than anything else, and they are constantly inspired by what the other artist is doing.
"It's not trumpet and bassoon, it's Guy and Nadina, it's our voices, and that can work for any combination of instruments," Jackson says.
Playing together has changed the way they perform, and Jackson says that when you're playing with a trumpet you can't be an assertive player, which has changed the way she approaches her own performance.
"When you play with a trumpet player there's a certain pride, because you really have to be yourself, you can't hide," Jackson says.
Few says that the program they're presenting is a story-teller's program, and he says they choose music that works with the stories they want to tell and the experience that they want audiences to go away with.
The performers have a difficult job, with the bassoon being a complex instrument and Few switching between piano, a b-flat trumpet and a piccolo trumpet, as well as a corno ba caccia, and on the encore playing trumpet and piano simultaneously. Few has been playing both instruments since he was a boy, and he says that having many options makes it possible to have a varied repertoire and make things exciting for themselves and audiences. Few says he found he could do both simultaneously after a composer made a piece that required it, and the piece was so amazing that, in spite of being intimidated, Few had to try it.
Jackson says you have to hear the bassoon to know it exists, and part of the reason she loves to tour is that it brings the instrument out to audiences who have never heard the instrument being played live before. Learning the instrument was a challenge, Jackson says, because there were no teachers in her school system in Northern B.C., and just getting an instrument was a challenge. She notes that it's the first time that Prairie Debut has toured a bassoon, and so she's excited about showing the instrument to new audience.
"I heard it just by luck, because my band teacher played the tuba but had played the bassoon a little bit. I thought it was the most beautiful sound and such a strange looking instrument."
Both Few and Jackson are teachers when they are not touring, and Jackson says that education and music are closely connected for her.
"It's really good for students to see how you actually make a living in music, and it really draws our best playing out of us to articulate it to people."
Few agrees that it's essential to give back through education, and he feels the need to give back by teaching himself. His perspective has also been changed by events in his own life, having to re-learn how to play after going through brain surgeries, which required him to re-learn fine motor skills. He says it has made him a better teacher, and able to see mistakes and bad habits that others are making.
"It keeps me humble, it shows me that every single one of us has something that is difficult for us... It just makes me realize just what there is to do and also keeps me from getting a swelled head," Few says.
Both are excited to come to Yorkton for the second-last show of the tour, and Few singles out particular praise for Margaret Cugnet and the work she does with Stars for Saskatchewan every year.
Prairie Debut presents Guy and Nadina as part of the Stars for Saskatchewan series on April 14. Tickets are $30 and available at yorktonarts.ca.
