Artistic Director of the National Chamber Ensemble
Violinist Leonid Sushansky, artistic director of the National Chamber Ensemble, began his musical education with his mother, Rimma Sushanskaya, in Russia. Since then he has received worldwide recognition. Known for incorporating storytelling and witty anecdotes, his performances are unique and engaging. He sat down with us to talk about his background, the end of the National Chamber Ensemble’s eighth season and what’s in store for the ninth season.
What is your vision for the ensemble?
Every year we [perform] different music, a variety of genres, not just all classical. Over the past eight seasons, we’ve done ballet, opera, tango, jazz and children’s choruses, just a variety, a variety of also artists. I founded the National Chamber Ensemble eight years ago, and my model for the ensemble was the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center. So basically the ensemble is a society of internationally acclaimed musicians who all live in the D.C. area. And sometimes we have fantastic guest artists too.
How is your approach reflected in the upcoming season finale?
We have not done Mexican music, and … there is a wealth of wonderful Mexican music out there. We’re having James Jones be our guest host, and he was the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, which also will be very appropriate. Also, we’re having an internationally acclaimed guitarist, Orlando Roman, perform a piece called “Die Vogel,” or “The Birds,” by Eduardo Angulo, one of the outstanding living composers. One of the things I find important is not just doing music of the past, but doing music of the present, so it will be a fitting conclusion to our eighth season.
Does each season have a particular theme or arc, or do they take shape as you plan them?
I feel like Willy Wonka. Each concert has a totally different feel, flavor and atmosphere, and I’ve always loved theater. What I’ve done and tried to do is combine elements of theater and musical performance. The concerts are interactive, the musicians tell jokes, they tell stories about the music, and it becomes a warm, welcoming experience. If we’re doing music of a certain culture, we’ll not only do the music of a culture, we’ll do projections on the stage. We’ll do it in the venues where that music would have been performed. Like our last concert, for Valentine’s Day, we had a packed house for “The Thrill of Tchaikovsky,” one of the most romantic composers. In the beginning we had a projection of a beautiful opera house from St. Petersburg on stage.
I don’t see [this approach] too much. We really make it a personal experience. Sometimes the humor can be topical, or sometimes not. This past concert, the Tchaikovsky one, we opened with a waltz from “Sleeping Beauty.” I told the audience the story of “Sleeping Beauty,” but I also said that she pricked her finger when she was 16 and she fell asleep for a hundred years and then the prince woke her up and they got married and lived happily ever after. –Victoria Gaffney
‘Musical Gems of Mexico’
May 9 at Artisphere
artisphere.com
(May 2015)