Rising pianist makes Kitchener debut
It was an overly busy schedule that forced young Rémi Geniet to choose music over competitive gymnastics or any of the other myriad of activities he was involved in as an adolescent.
“I had to choose, I didn’t want to but I had to,” said the French pianist who performs in his debut with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony this weekend, the first of the Signature Series in the 2017/2018 season.
Good choice because Geniet began scooping up international awards including second prize in the prestigious 2013 Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition when he was only 20.
Three years earlier he’d placed third in the Bonn International Beethoven Competition, the youngest to have achieved such an honour.
Geniet, who lives in Paris but tours Europe, Asia and North America, will be playing under the baton of TaiwaneseAmerican conductor, Mei-Ann Chen for the first time. It’s also the first time he will perform Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 25” a piece he said is “very complex.”
So many firsts but Geniet admits it’s the music itself that will pose the most challenging.
Completed in 1786, the 25th is more than 30 minutes long, a concerto where Mozart really showed off his considerable gifts.
“It’s one of his last concertos, it’s difficult,” Geniet said in a phone interview from Japan, a country that has fully embraced him as a frequent guest performer.
Geniet said his love of music came through his family and though both his parents are scientists, his father has always played guitar.
“He was playing jazz with his friends and there was a lot of music in our house,” he said, adding his two brothers have also pursued musical careers.
Geniet began studying music seriously at 13, attending the most presti-
gious academies in France. At only 21, he recorded “Bach: Keyboard Works” and more recently “Beethoven: Piano Sonatas.” Both recordings received critical praise for the pianist’s virtuosity. One reviewer simply stated “the kid’s got it.”
Geniet is now under the guidance of Evgeni Koroliov in Hamburg. Geniet’s connection with Asia, particularly Japan, happened after he was introduced to a music manager at a festival in France. He is now represented by that manager’s company, Kajimoto, with offices in Tokyo and Paris. It was this connection that brought him to Asia where he said audiences are very different than in Europe, the birthplace of classical music.
In Japan, he said, it’s still a relatively new genre and audiences tend to listen with deep thought and intent.
“I look out and see their eyes are closed,” he said. “Japanese are very different, they really like classical music (though) it’s not in their culture.
“They’re curious, attentive and they’re silent. There’s no ‘bravo.’ “It’s all very serious.” When the concert is over, and he makes time to meet his fans, there are often too many to count.
“Eighty people will come up after the show,” he said. “Some bring you presents: chopsticks, food, nice letters and origami.”
It’s a testament to his musical abilities, though also exhausting but being tired comes with being a touring musician he has discovered.
The Kitchener concert is his only event in Canada before he jets off to Spain then back to Japan and on to Thailand.
“The bad side of touring,” he said, “jet lag.”
This concert also features a performance of Dvoøák’s “New World” and the commissioned piece, “Toboggan! Sesquie for Canada’s 150th as well as Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s “Aqua” a piece inspired by Chicago’s Aqua tower skyscraper.