Ep 24: The Exhale with Gwendolyn Masin
about gwendolyn
Gwendolyn Masin is one of today’s significant concert violinists. She is regarded as, “a formidable talent that demands attention,” (The Irish Times) “appearing to merge with her instrument and in so doing, enchanting her audience” (Thuner Tagblatt). “She is celebrated for “setting first-rate standards in concert performance with her technically superior, refined, intensive and richly contrasting expression” (Der Bund). Masin is descendant of a lineage of classically-trained musicians and remembers playing violin as naturally as having a conversation when she was a child. Her family, imbued with musical insight, helped her to avoid “the pitfalls of child prodigy status” (Figaro.hu).
Her formative years were shaped by musical instruction, world travel, performing for audiences in reputable concert halls, and collecting accolades internationally – all by the age of five. At eleven she gained national exposure in Ireland after appearing on The Late Late Show. She has been a regular guest on TV and radio shows and has performed to critical acclaim in Asia and throughout Europe, Russia, South Africa, the Middle East, and North America as a soloist with renowned orchestras and as a chamber musician.
Masin holds degrees with highest honors from the Royal Schools of Music in London, England; the Hochschule der Künste in Berne, Switzerland; and the Musikhochschule in Lübeck, Germany. Her teachers include Herman Krebbers, Igor Ozim, Ana Chumachenco, Zakhar Bron and Shmuel Ashkenasi. Masin began to actively cultivate her own style of violin-playing, her identity as an artistic tour de force, and received numerous international awards and prizes while carrying out formal studies. Not only is she an esteemed soloist and chamber musician, Masin also writes, transcribes music, and advises composers. Collaboration with contemporary artists is a large part of Masin’s repertoire.
In an effort to make music more accessible, Masin commissions artists – closely working with them and performing their music or integrating their art form into her interpretations. Masin is also greatly involved in curating and producing music festivals. Most prominent for Masin is her role as Artistic Director of GAIA, an annual festival held in Switzerland, recognized as one of the country’s most important. It brings together acclaimed musicians for a long weekend of concerts and community. Masin also co-directs and produces the audio and visual media that is showcased as part of GAIA in collaboration with Naxos, the world’s leading classical music group.
It is a disservice to all other facets of this modern-day Renaissance woman to regard her solely as a musician. Research and application of music methodology are an inseparable part of Masin’s undertakings. Her doctoral thesis from Trinity College examines the similarities and differences within 20th-century violin pedagogy. In 2009, the award-winning, Michaela’s Music House, The Magic of the Violin, was published. Authored by Gwendolyn, the book serves to instruct beginner violinist. It is in three parts and includes her studies and compositions. Michaela’s Music House is available in English and German and is part of the ESTA Edition collection available via Müller & Schade. Written by Masin, the book serves to instruct beginner violinists and includes her personal exercises and compositions. Presently, Masin teaches violin and chamber-music master classes at institutes and festivals throughout Europe and North America and gives lecture recitals and talks concerning her areas of expertise. She is Professor of Violin Studies at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, Switzerland, since September 2013.
Recent seasons for Gwendolyn have included solo appearances with orchestras, recitals and chamber music performances in South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Lithuania, Italy and France. Chamber music partners have included Kit Armstrong, István Várdai, Hannes Minnaar, Christoffer Sundqvist, Lars Anders Tomter, Natalie Clein, Pascal Rogé, and Alexander Lonquich.
This autumn, the 2019 season will begin with a four-concert series at The Casino, the great hall of Berne; the series affords Gwendolyn carte blanche to work with some of her favourite artists from around Switzerland and beyond including collaborations with Andreas Schaerer and Barbara Dennerlein. Other concerts include recitals with pianists such as Caspar Vos and Cédric Pescia, as well as major collaborations with the writer Lukas Bärfuss. Gwendolyn will also have solo performances with orchestras such as Concerto Budapest.
The 2019/2020 season also heralds the continuation of Gwendolyn’s collaboration with pianist Finghin Collins. Following their six-concert series in the National Concert Hall of Dublin, summer 2020 marks the second edition of the National Concert Hall International Summer Academy, which they founded in 2019. In addition to teaching masterclasses in Europe, Gwendolyn has designed and will begin offering “The Exhale”, a masterclass that aims to inspire well-being in musicians through a holistic approach to playing. The inaugural iteration of “The Exhale” will take place at Lake Biel.
Following the release of three recordings in three years: ORIGIN (2016), FLAME (2017) and TROIS (2018), Gwendolyn is in pre-production for the follow-up to ORIGIN. Unlike FLAME and TROIS which are recital programmes with her long-standing duo partner Simon Bucher, the ORIGIN follow-up is designed around her ensemble of rising stars – gifted students from her own class and from a myriad of institutions across Europe – and features music from film, opera, and folk music that has been reworked for the players.
Masin’s intrinsic ability to play the violin is not simply inherited, but founded in her voracious curiosity to understand human nature, musical expression, and the psychological connection to said expression. She explains, “I feel that music is a perpetual companion and my life feeds and informs my love for it and vice- versa. The experience of live music is everything. To me, it’s the ultimate form of communication, moving us into dimensions that language, for example, cannot reach. A word is not a sentence, but a note can be an entire story.”
in this episode
I loved this conversation and I wish I could have talked to Gwendolyn for hours!
Gwendolyn’s musical background, from growing up in a musical family to beginning teaching at an early age to building an international career as a violin soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, educator, and festival director
Gwendolyn’s observation that perhaps the biggest obstacle that classical musicians face today is pain, injury, and other physical issues
How pain can sneak up on us almost imperceptibly over a period of many years
How pain is something that musicians experience physically, emotionally, and psychological and that these things can be difficult to tease apart
Gwendolyn’s experience with some subtle movement habits that eventually led to such severe migraines
Her journey towards healing which ultimately included both a radial shift in her physical approach to the instrument and some significant lifestyle changes
How the fact that many musicians are not particularly active (perhaps having grown up practicing rather than doing sports) can lead to a pervasive lack of body awareness and co-ordination
Why it was important for Gwendolyn to consider how she was using her body in all aspects of her life, not just playing
Gwendolyn’s thoughts on why it is important for musicians to sustain themselves through finding pleasure in music rather than simply pushing to be the best — “It’s a not a horse show — we’re not horses.” — and how we need to rethink how musicians are trained
How Gwendolyn charted her own course through healing and rebuilding her technique, in large part because there were so few musicians who had been through a similar process who could serve as examples
Modalities that Gwendolyn explored: Alexander Technique, spiral dynamics, yoga
Why it is important to consider the whole organism when considering pain and injury because the root cause of the issue is often not in the part of the body where the discomfort is experienced
Gwendolyn’s observation that young musicians are often not open to change that would ultimately lead to healthier playing unless they are experiencing pain and why it is therefore important that musicians develop good habits early
The difference between making it look easy and developing the skill such that it actually is easy
That many musicians are more comfortable practicing many hours each day with inefficient movement pattern than they are with the temporary disorientation that can result from changing a movement pattern, even if that pattern would likely be assimilated quite quickly and might ultimately lead to greater ease
How the language we use — both with ourselves and with our students — can have profound effects
Why the instruction “relax” can be problematic
Problems with patience, pressure, and lack of forgiveness in teaching
The difference between practicing more and practicing better
Gwendolyn’s upcoming course, The Exhale
Why it is important for musicians to balance the energy they must bring onstage with more softer and inward-looking experiences
Gwendolyn’s bafflement that there still seems to be so little widespread understanding of the health needs of musicians and that it still seems to be taboo to talk about injury among musicians
learn more
Gwendolyn’s website
The Exhale Master Course
The video of Maria Joao Pires playing the “wrong concerto” that Gwendolyn referred to
