What was as important as music in the life of conductor Rafael Payare?
Education.
The musical director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) would not have become a great conductor without the public education system in Venezuela, his native country. He discovered music late in life through El Sistema, an orchestra program in public high schools in Venezuela.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The OSM conductor sitting down with our columnist at the Leméac restaurant
“Without El Sistema, music would never have become a passion in my life,” a relaxed and friendly Rafael Payare told me over a coffee (and a good meal) at the Leméac restaurant in Montreal on this September afternoon, the day after the concert opening of the OSM season.
Our maestro does not have the typical background of a conductor: he never touched a musical instrument before the age of 14. Intrigued by his older brother who plays music, he enrolls in El Sistema, a one-of-a-kind program. It’s free. It is open to all teenagers (in participating schools). There are no auditions. Do you want to be part of the orchestra? You are part of it. As simple as that.
“They provided free musical instruments, teachers, and we played in an orchestra almost immediately afterwards. At first the sound was horrible! But we did something very important: we rehearsed every day at school – there was no homework in the evening – and sometimes even on Saturdays. »
Equal opportunities are a strong value of El Sistema.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Rafael Payare’s career as a conductor is not ordinary; he did not touch a musical instrument until he was 14.
No matter our level, we had the best teachers. I remember the visit of chefs like Claudio Abbado [qui a dirigé La Scala à Milan et l’Orchestre philharmonique de Berlin]. We were experiencing high-level music. It eventually gets into your system.
Rafael Payare, musical director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Musical director of the OSM since fall 2022, Rafael Payare wants to give memorable concerts in his adopted city. But he also wants to do more for music teaching in Montreal. By drawing inspiration, among other things, from what he has experienced. “An El Sistema à la Montréal,” he sums up.
Since 2016, the OSM has offered, in partnership with the University of Montreal and the Pointe-de-l’Île school service center, music lessons to kindergarten children at Saint-Rémi school in Montreal. -North. What are Rafael Payare and the OSM preparing for us? The chef with contagious enthusiasm and distinctive hair clearly has something on his mind.
“I’m not sure if I can talk about it, we’re working on the project. Maestro [Kent] Nagano did this extraordinary project in Montreal North with piano, percussion, violins and a choir. It’s a very nice foundation. [pour d’autres projets], like having a full orchestra in more than one school, like El Sistema. »
My dream would be to have different orchestras, in different parts of the city, and to bring them together in a large orchestra for children during the Classical Spree. These are my kind of dreams.
Rafael Payare
For Rafael Payare, music is part of education. But education is much more than music. It’s the thirst for learning. Work. Discipline. Humility.
Even – especially – for a top of class like him, who finished secondary school at 15, among other things because he skipped a year in primary school. He had spent the summer reading the books of his mother, an elementary school teacher.
My parents taught me work, discipline and humility. My mother always said, “Whether you find school difficult or not, you have to apply yourself and be serious.” Doing your job well, no matter the circumstances, is a lesson for me to this day.
Rafael Payare
At 15, with a diploma from El Sistema in hand, he joined the country’s national youth orchestra, but felt he had too much “free time”. So he studied chemical engineering at university at the same time for two years. If he hadn’t chosen music, he probably would have become a chemical engineer, he says. Or maybe an architect (he did a university year in architecture when he played in the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra in Caracas).
But the call of music is too strong. And Rafael Payare can count on the advice of his mentor José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema, another top of the class with diversified interests (he was a musician and professor of economics at the university). Rafael Payare still remembers this conversation during which his mentor suggested he move into conducting. “I was in his office talking about my instrument [le cor], and he was talking to me about conducting. He was a visionary, he saw 15 years in advance. »
José Antonio Abreu had the eye. Two decades later, Rafael Payare is one of the few El Sistema graduates to make his mark as an international conductor.
After winning an international competition for young conductors in 2012, Rafael Payare has a series of appointments as conductor: in Northern Ireland, in San Diego, then in Montreal in September 2022.
Rafael Payare, his wife Alisa Weilerstein, an internationally renowned cellist, and their two daughters aged seven and one and a half have lived in Montreal since the summer of 2022. The family lived for a long time in Berlin, then in San Diego for the pandemic.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The native Venezuelan has lived in the Metropolis since 2022.
I love Montreal, a fantastic city that reminds me a lot of Berlin. You can hear several languages on the street, and the people are very friendly.
Rafael Payare
What surprised him about Montreal? we ask him.
“How much Montrealers care about their orchestra! They do it more than in Berlin. It is only comparable to Vienna. »
I barely hide my astonishment at this almost too good to be true compliment. The conductor of the OSM clearly sees that I have difficulty believing that Montreal is more attached to its orchestras than Berlin, the world capital of classical music.
“In Berlin, they have nine major orchestras and three opera houses,” he explains. So there is not as much attachment to each of the orchestras.
In Montreal, there are two major orchestras: the OSM and the Orchester Métropolitain, led by our national treasure Yannick Nézet-Séguin, musical director of the Met in New York and one of the greatest conductors in the world.
“The first time I met Yannick [l’hiver dernier lors du passage de l’OSM à Carnegie Hall à New York], I had the impression that we had known each other for a long time. He welcomed me to Montreal. We text each other sometimes. There is no rivalry between us. And then I lived in Berlin [avec tous ses orchestres]. It’s much better for people to have options. It’s a bit like food: it’s better to have several good restaurants and different types of cuisine. »
Chef Rafael Payare wants as many Montrealers as possible to enjoy his soul-soothing dishes.
“The world is going through so much. If we can help people to dream a little during a concert, to live in a different world during that time, give them a little peace of mind… Music has the ability to change moods, to make people more receptive . We see it with babies, who have no bias and who don’t know how the world is. You put on some music, and their mood changes. »
Rafael Payare knows something about this. Like all parents of young children, he experienced – and still occasionally experiences – crises at home. Dear Montreal parents, our maestro has found the solution: play the second movement of the 29ethe 33ethe 34e or the 41e Mozart symphony. It works (almost) every time. “As soon as there is a crisis, I press the button on my phone to play a clip, and the screams stop,” he swears.
We could give the same advice to many adults in a society where anxiety is increasing and tolerance levels are decreasing. “Our concentration span is getting shorter and shorter. It worries me a little, but maybe it’s just a phase. I am an optimist, I believe in society. »
Questionnaire without filter
Coffee and me: I love coffee. I take it three or four times a day. A cappuccino, a cortado or an espresso macchiato.
The last book I read: I read again Laughable lovesby the writer Milan Kundera, after his death [l’été dernier].
A person who inspires me: The Dr José Antonio Abreu, founder of El Sistema
Qualities I like in others: Honesty and loyalty
People, dead or alive, that I would like to bring together around a table: Mozart was so easy to compose, it would be entertaining to ask him questions. The actor Anthony Hopkins has always intrigued me. To complete our table, we need someone a little darker like the composer Dmitri Shostakovich. I thought about Gustav Mahler, but he would probably be too neurotic, especially with Mozart in front of him.
Who is Rafael Payare?
Originally from Venezuela, he has been musical director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra since 2022. He is under contract with the OSM until August 2027.
Aged 43, he is also music director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
He speaks five languages (Spanish, English, German, Italian, French).