JP Saxe on how his famous cellist grandfather, Janos Starker, got to 'the bottom of beauty'
Starker was a leading soloist with some of the world's greatest orchestras
JP Saxe can vividly recall the way his grandfather played the cello.
"It's the most meticulous, magnificent thing I've ever seen anyone do in my entire life," Saxe said in an interview with About Time host Tom Allen. "You saw him pick up a cello and it was breathing with 60 years of life experience and agency. It was quite something to see up close."
The multi-platinum Canadian pop artist was in studio to talk about his late grandfather, Janos Starker, a legendary cellist who was a leading soloist with some of the world's greatest orchestras — including the New York Metropolitan Opera under Fritz Reiner. Starker was renowned for his virtuosity, his attention to detail and his devotion to beauty.
"He believed so wholeheartedly in the value of getting to the bottom of beauty," Saxe recalled. "He had a reverence for the pieces he was playing, and he wanted them to be as close to what was imagined when they were written as they could possibly be."
In addition to Starker's impressive performing and recording career, he was also a highly sought after teacher. Starker began teaching when he was only eight years old, and throughout his career taught many of today's top classical musicians, including Roman Borys, known as the cellist of the Gryphon Trio, and Vancouver-born international soloist Gary Hoffman.
Saxe, who was born in Toronto, visited his grandfather in Bloomington, Ind., a few times a year. During those visits, he witnessed his grandfather practise and teach, as well as entertain what Saxe calls the who's who of the classical world. Saxe recalls the "classical music jam sessions" that would take place, where he was serenaded by string quartets, piano trios and selections from Bach's cello suites.
That said, Saxe didn't pursue classical music. "When I hadn't become a classical musician by the age of nine or 10, they already knew I wasn't going to be one," he explained.
Even so, Saxe feels his grandfather's influence in his own music, especially through his admiration for Starker's attention to detail.
"If I give it the time and the attention, every little detail of what I'm doing can have intention and can be in service of emotionally crafting a three-minute piece of music that allows someone close to a version of their human experience that maybe they don't get to feel … without the song that gets them there."
To Saxe, one of the similarities between pop and classical music is the effect it can have on the listener.
"I'm very grateful when a piece of music makes me feel a bit more human," he said. "I think our daily lives make it challenging to really look at our human emotional experience up close sometimes. There's a lot that gets in the way. And I think that great music, great art, can kind of act as a bit of a cheat code to put you in that feeling."
Saxe says that his grandfather "didn't really get to see me have a music career. [But] he certainly got to see me fall in love with music."
Near the end of Starker's life, he even began to watch The Voice to better relate to his grandson, and as a way to imagine what a career in pop music would look like. Saxe has received a Grammy nomination, seven Juno nominations and one win, plus a multi-platinum record. His latest single, "Safe," was released in January.