Interviewer:
That is Adrian Anantawan giving his fingers a workout on the violin with an excerpt from the Carmen fantasy by Sarasate. He is from Toronto. Adrian is in his mid 20’s and he is making a career as a classical violinist even though he was born without a right hand. Adrian Anantawan is in Saskatoon to perform with the symphony tomorrow night and he joins me from our CBC Saskatoon studio. Hello Adrian.
Adrian:
Hi Joanne. Thanks for having me.
Interviewer:
Oh I’m glad you were able to step in and talk to us before you head off to a rehearsal. How did the violin come to be part of your life?
Adrian:
My parents actually got me into the instrument. I really didn’t know what the violin was when I was 9. You definitely have to have pro-active parents especially for disabled kids I think just because we are sort of clueless of what we want to do. My father was an amateur violinist a long time ago. He had a “Stradivarius” he calls it from a pawn shop that cost him like $5.00 and his great love of his life. So, he really wanted his son to play the instrument and that is where we left off.
Interviewer:
How did you learn to play it when you didn’t have a right hand to hold the bow?
Adrian:
My mom actually went to a prosthetics maker in Toronto, a place called the Bloorview Kids Rehab centre, and they usually work with myoelectric arms which are arms that help amputees like me hold things through mechanics and it opens and closes with my muscles. So, they were given the challenge by my mom who told them I have a son, he wants to play the violin just do something and of course they were a bit shocked.
Interviewer:
I would think so.
Adrian:
Yup, and wide eyed and they came up with something called the spatula.
Interviewer:
The spatula.
Adrian:
Uh huh. That is essentially a cast that wraps around my stump so then the tong, which is like a tong from a spatula, attaches itself to a bow.
Interviewer:
Okay
Adrian:
And the bow has an aluminum attachment to that so it’s..
Interviewer:
Do you have it with you?
Adrian:
I do. It’s actually on me right now.
Interviewer:
Ah, so did you take one arm off in order to put this, put the spatula on, or does it just attach to your regular artificial arm?
Adrian:
Yeah, I have to take an arm off and I’m adding another appendage. It’s sort of, I don’t know, very robotic in its own sense.
Interviewer:
Yeah.
Adrian:
For something so organic as well.
Interviewer:
So you’ve got the arm on, you’ve got the spatula on
Adrian:
Uh huh
Interviewer:
You’ve got the bow in it.
Adrian:
Yes, yes
Interviewer:
What does it sound like, play a bit?
Adrian:
Okay, uh so I have my violin right here and essentially just draw across the strings and here we go.
Interviewer:
Very nice. Thank you. Thank you.
Adrian:
Not a problem.
Interviewer:
So you’ve been able to develop over the years and your various arms ways of dealing with this instrument that most people would think wouldn’t be yours in the first place. Did anyone ever try to dissuade you from it?
Adrian:
I think that my success was a product of peoples’ ignorance just because it seemed so unlikely for an amputee especially to take up an instrument like the violin because there are other musical instruments like drums or trumpets that would have been more feasible but people were so shocked into saying “well okay we’ll just give it a try” that you know it just worked out.
Interviewer:
Now you referred to yourself as an amputee and yet your hand was not amputated.
Adrian:
Yes, well that’s a general term.
Interviewer:
Okay.
Adrian:
For people who are missing their limbs in general but I was born without a right arm and doctors theorized
Interviewer:
The whole right arm or?
Adrian:
Uh, well pretty much my hand is missing I would guess. I still have my elbow and I do have like a sort of palm where you know a full arm would be but my fingers are very truncated and everything, but the doctors theorize when I was in my mother’s womb the umbilical cord wrapped around my right arm and it prevented it from growing. I know that there were a lot of other babies in that generation who are missing right arms because of other issues but that’s what they thought it was.
Interviewer:
How did you decide that you wanted a career in music, not just playing the violin because your parents loved the sound of it but you wanted a career?
Adrian:
Well, I always loved playing the instrument but it wasn’t something that I was going to pursue as a living and one year when I was about 15 I was finishing my second last year of high school and decided to audition for a school in Philadelphia called the Curtis Institute of Music.
Interviewer:
Very well known school.
Adrian:
Yes, and very competitive and almost impossible to get into, there may be graduate 40 students every year or so. So, I decided to do the audition at the behest of my second teacher who went to Curtis as well. It was basically an experience sort of thing where I would just go and play and get nervous and just learn the ropes of being able to perform under pressure and lo and behold I get a call a month after the audition saying well you’ve got it and it was a complete shock to my parents..
Interviewer:
What about to you?
Adrian:
Yeah, exactly, it was definitely a shock to me and by that point I didn’t really know what I wanted to do like most teenagers with my life. I was very interested in science as well but my parents told me you know an acceptance to Curtis comes once in a lifetime you may as well just try it and see what happens and then I got in and I just played away and I think my colleagues and teachers really inspired me to go down the career path.
Interviewer:
So you had an opportunity to work with other violinists and people who are as enamored with the music and with the instrument as you were. What can they do, they have their right hands, what can they do that you can’t?
Adrian:
Well, I think that there are certain mechanical issues especially with the bow that happen when you have a truncated arm. I can’t keep my bow completely straight all the time which means that I don’t have as much range using the tip or the frog of the bow, which are the top and bottom of the bow, but I can always compensate by just switching bow and just using more. So, there isn’t really anything that I have come across that has been almost impossible for me to do if you just sort of adapt or try doing something differently and produce the same sound. And I think that it is good when you come to a point, especially someone with a disability, when you can say you have the same problems as people who are abled as well
Interviewer:
Now, is there anything you can do that they can’t?
Adrian:
Well, I have been relatively adept at doing left hand pizzicato for instance, which is a virtuoso technique where someone just uses the left hand instead of the right hand to pluck at the instrument. For instance I am going to be playing the Tchaikovsky violin concerto in Saskatoon tomorrow and there is a section where I have to pluck these few notes and I did that all with my left hand. Usually it is done with…
Interviewer:
The right hand holding the bow.
Adrian:
Exactly, and that is a technique that I have developed throughout my career and because I do it all the time that virtuoso technique I am far more at ease with it.
Interviewer:
So it is great in the concert hall and probably a good party trick as well.
Adrian:
Yes, as far as classical music parties go.
Interviewer:
Now you have performed with orchestras across North America, you have even played at the White House in Washington DC. How did you get that gig?
Adrian:
Well, this is through a.. I won an award in the States called the Very Special Arts International Competition and I have had a great relationship with that organization which is based in Washington. It was through one of the members of the McKenzie family who sponsored the award. So, I was invited one time to perform at the White House with one of my friends and it was a fun experience. We had to wake up at 6 o’clock, the concert was like 10:30 or something, we had to get through security
Interviewer:
In the morning
Adrian:
in the morning, yeah
Interviewer:
Okay
Adrian:
And it’s just nice to be in that sort of history and in that sort of environment, so my friend and I stole a lot of presidential cookies. I don’t know if I should say that on air.
Interviewer:
Oh well they can’t arrest you now, new president.
Adrian:
And starving artists you know how we are.
Interviewer:
That’s right. So was that the most memorable part of the performance.
Adrian:
Well, probably not. This was for the First Lady’s global cultural initiative so there was a lot of press, a lot of very important people there. When I get up on stage a few seconds before I am about to play I hear a cell phone go off and I am telling myself oh those people, the audience members don’t really know anything and lo and behold I stop for a second I think this is coming from my pocket which was very embarrassing. I mean I put my phone on vibrate and usually even if I do get calls it won’t sound but it was actually an alarm clock that I had set to go off at 10 o’clock and luckily it went right before I was about to play but I mean I took out the cell phone, then we see you know all the people from the AP clicking their
Interviewer:
Cameras.
Adrian:
Yes, exactly. It was an iconic moment in my life.
Interviewer:
And you have certainly never set an alarm again.
Adrian:
Not for 10 o’clock.
Interviewer:
No, not for 10 o’clock,
Adrian:
Six o’clock would be better.
Interviewer:
Adrian, what is your next dream to pursue in music?
Adrian:
Well, I have a lot of goals. I think I want to continue playing and doing a lot of travelling and going to places like Saskatoon and around Canada and the world just to play with orchestras and play recitals but these days especially I am very interested in education. I love teaching, working with kids up to pre-college. I am really hoping to research more how music can be taught to be kids with disabilities in general not only my specific disability but people with mental disabilities or people who are blind for instance. And it has been very fascinating to..
Interviewer:
To go that route.
Adrian:
Yes, exactly
Interviewer:
And to find the next step and to see how you can contribute to the world.
Adrian:
Exactly, because I think at this point I am old enough to really feel as if I have had a lot of fun and to have all these experiences but to be able to not only give back but to give forward whatever I have received as well.
Interviewer:
Well, thank you for giving to the people of Saskatoon. Have a great concert tomorrow night.
Adrian:
Thank you and the concert is at the TCU Place.
Interviewer:
It certainly is, 7:30 tomorrow night. Thanks very much Adrian.
Adrian:
Take care.
Interviewer:
You too. Good bye.
Adrian
Bye.
Interviewer:
Adrian Anantawan will perform a Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Saskatoon symphony orchestra tomorrow night 7:30 TCU Place