Marcus Award Winners Updates

2024 winners Cian Bryson and Kelton Hopper reflect on their progress in the Fall of 2024

Cian reports:

As someone who spent the past 15 years living in Toronto, primarily studying with one bassoon teacher, it becomes very difficult to anticipate the amount of change that happens once you move to a different school, in a different country, in a different continent, which is just what happened once I began studying as an exchange student at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.

Once the semester began, the first thing I noticed was that my overall approach to playing simply wasn’t working for the environment I was in. That summer, I had began exploring a more delicate approach to bassoon playing, mainly trying to be less forceful and allowing for more resonance and colour in my sound which was something that had been introduced to me while studying with Drew Pattison that summer. However, while these weren’t elements of my playing that I wanted to abandon, I found that when playing in the ensembles I was a part of, I was put under different requirements or demands compared to what I had experienced in ensembles in Canada or the United States. My focus began to move towards trying to play with a much “bigger” sound, or something with more depth and that could act as a stronger foundation for the other musicians I was playing with. This was a huge struggle for me, and led to a few performances I’m not terribly proud of (and an terrifying amount of failed reeds) but I found that near the end of the semester, I finally was getting to a point where I could play in a style that both worked with my colleges, and that I liked. I still definitely have a lot more that I’d like to explore during my time here, but for now I’m very satisfied with the progress I’ve made.

I’ve had the opportunity to play a number of concerts so far here. The first was an orchestral project at Sibelius Academy, performing Elliot Goldenthal’s Othello Symphony under Elisar Riddelin at the Musiikkitalo, Helsinki’s main concert hall. This was followed by a number of others, including playing with the Kuopuo Symphony, Helsinki Chamber Soloists at the Porvoo Cello Competition, the Sibelius Academy’s opera, and a number of others. I’ve also had the opportunity to perform a few solo pieces, such as the Saint Saens Bassoon Sonata, Dutilleux’s Sarabande et Cortége, and Dai Fujikura’s Contour, which I ended up playing on contrabassoon (which was another big struggle, considering I didn’t know the fingerings for half the notes beforehand!) However, I’ve still got a lot to look forward to; I’ll be performing with the Helsinki Guard’s band next semester, playing Augusta Reed Thomas’s bassoon concerto, Carnival (Originally written for Nadina Mackie Jackson!), featuring bassoonist Kari Tikkala as soloist; and will be playing in a number of projects with Sibelius Academy, including Stravinsky’s Pulcinalla conducted by Olari Elts, and Mahler 2, conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Before coming to Finland, I remember reading the post “Finnish Dreams”, written by bassoonist Samuel Rouleau, about his experiences coming to Sibelius Academy as an exchange student from McGill, and then coming to stay for his masters degree and for his career. Some of the things he wrote was about included trust that Finnish orchestras give to students, and the unique connections we’re able to make with our teachers and peers. After living here for 5 months, I have to say I couldn’t agree more. The experiences I’ve gotten playing and learning everyone here have allowed me to grow so much more than I imagined, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the next semester takes me!

Cian Bryson performing with Kuopio Symphony Orchestra.