By Shiraz Rimer, Year 10
Just before the October break, I had the honor and privilege of interviewing the world renowned musician David Krakauer. It was a humbling experience because, although he is so talented and famous, he was passionate, kind and shared his love of music so freely. Mr. Krakauer was in Geneva for a new series of concerts Isabelle Muller who runs the Art Center is organizing around World Music. The artists are invited to school to not only give a concert but they also have to spend a couple of days giving masterclasses (at La Chat and LGB) and talks to students.
Mr. Krakauer was raised in New York and comes from a musical family of Eastern European Jewish heritage. His mother, a professional violinist, encouraged him to start an instrument, he was about ten years old when he started playing the clarinet. Quickly, his family discovered that he was exceptionally talented. During the interview, I learnt that Mr. Krakauer went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, a distinguished high school in Manhattan that is acclaimed for specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts. It is there that Krakauer really immersed himself in music. After university, he pursued his career as a freelance professional clarinetist. He played mostly classical but also a lot of jazz and funk. It was only during his early thirties that he discovered the world of klezmer music. For those who aren’t familiar with this term, klezmer is the traditional music of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. It is easily identifiable by its characteristic expressive melodies and predominant use of violins, cellos and obviously clarinets. David Krakauer is considered one of the fathers of modern klezmer music and has dedicated his career to it. Modern klezmer seeks to take classical klezmer – a musical tradition that was long viewed as extinct after the 2nd World War – and fuse it with modern musical styles to give it a new life and hot, modern rhythms. As I spoke with Mr. Krakauer I discovered that he is a visionary. He is able to think outside the box and is open to many things when he composes. He tries to incorporate elements of funk music and jazz into klezmer and it is quite revolutionary. He even collaborated with the canadian rapper called Socalled to merge hip hop with klezmer!
The surprising thing is, by the age of fifteen, Mr. Krakauer had clearly decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a professional clarinetist. It is crazy to think that at my age, he already knew exactly what he wanted to do and had the motivation and determination to fulfill his aspiration. I was told that at LaGuardia High School, students were pushed and encouraged to follow their dreams. I find this very similar to Ecolint’s mentality. Here, we are taught to be confident, ambitious young people who will hopefully make a change in the world.
To conclude, David Krakauer is a phenomenal clarinetist and it was a true pleasure to meet him and to listen to his concert.
