Critically acclaimed classical performers Jane Coop and Henry Shapard are on their way to headline the next entry in the 2024-25 Whistler Chamber Music Society (WCMS) Concert Series.
Hailing originally from New Brunswick, Coop is one of the nation's most revered pianists. She has travelled across Asia, Europe and North America to liven up famous concert halls like the Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Salle Gaveau, the Kennedy Center, Roy Thomson Hall, the Singapore Cultural Center and the Bolshoi Zal of St. Petersburg. In 2012, she was appointed to the Order of Canada.
Furthermore, Coop is well-acquainted with the local arts scene. She ran a summer camp for Sea to Sky teens in the 1990s called the Young Artist Experience.
Shapard, meanwhile, became the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's (VSO) lead violinist in 2021 at just 21 years of age. He too has racked up frequent flier miles across the continent, with a history degree from Yale University under his belt. The Cleveland, Ohio native formerly served as assistant conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of both the Berkeley College Orchestra and Saybrook College Orchestra.
Together, they're more than capable of bringing Beethoven's cello sonatas to life.
"We started working together almost a year ago," Coop states. "I played some pieces with the VSO in both the full orchestra and in a chamber version, and we both felt that we were of like minds musically. We kind of gravitated toward each other.
"Henry's got a two-pronged approach. He's very smart, very thoughtful. He knows about style and understands the details that need to take place in this music, but he's also a fabulous challenge to himself. He's just got the whole package, and he is a lovely person to work with, too."
A mini-orchestra
Coop and Shapard have spent many hours practicing with one another: getting proficient, but also allowing for time and space to marinate on different ideas. They seem to complement each other well, as their instruments do.
"The cello has the ability to make big, huge, rich sounds and very soft, whispery sounds—and so does the piano. If you really work at balancing these two, they together can feel almost like a mini-orchestra," Coop explains. "They don't seem like similar instruments and they aren't really, but they can meet just like two totally different cultures can meet together in one concept."
The pair will only have time to play three Beethoven sonatas during their upcoming performance, but intend to record eight come springtime.
"We find that the music of Beethoven is … I hate to sound kind of cheesy about it, but it keeps on giving," Coop says. "There just doesn't seem to be any end in the satisfaction of looking through this music and trying to see what Beethoven meant by it … and that's a wonderful thing."
In a similar way, Coop sees no end to her personal journey of musical self-improvement. She's taken lessons since childhood and studied under the great Austrian-born Canadian composer/conductor Anton Kuerti in Toronto, yet there's always something else to work on.
After all, music can be viewed as a language, and it's Coop's job to take a given set of notes off the page and translate them into some meaning that can unlock a listener's imagination.
"I've certainly learned that audiences in different parts of the world can be quite different," she remarks. "I felt that the people in Eastern Europe—places like Poland and Hungary—were so attentive, so quiet, so intense in their listening that it made me want to give them as much as I could. That's so important for anybody to learn if they're going to perform, because it's a nerve-racking business."
Whistler's cohort of classical music fans is knowledgeable in its own right, but by all indications they can expect Coop and Shapard to deliver. Their concert begins at 5 p.m. on Nov. 24, with tickets and more information available at whistlerchambermusic.ca/concert/jane-coop-piano-henry-shapard-cello.
