Inner Space chamber music concerts bring joy to homes
The happiest of unions often have story-worthy beginnings. Consider Halifax flutist Jack Chen and his wife, clarinetist Eileen Walsh, who first met playing in the Vancouver Youth Orchestra. After not speaking to each other for a full year (clarinet sits directly behind flute), one day 20-year-old Chen turned to 16-year-old Walsh and said, “You’re sharp.” Walsh promptly tuned her instrument, they both smiled—and the two began dating not long after. As for the place of music in their lives, it has remained front and centre since then.
“Music has given me practically everything in my life, including my family,” says Chen, now 43. He has been on faculty in the School of Music at Acadia University for 10 years. He is also the general manager of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, a position
he cherishes.
“I have always loved youth orchestras. It’s where I was comfortable when my English wasn’t fluent and it’s where I met my future wife and many life-long friends,” he says.
Married since their 20s, the couple live in Halifax’s west end and have two sons, Hansen, 10, and Hendrik, eight, who are learning the violin and piano.
“I can’t wait to watch their interests broaden as more opportunities for music ensembles are offered to them,” says Chen.
His own love of music began as a boy. Born and raised until age 14 in Hualian, Taiwan, he came under the spell of the Chinese bamboo flute. Instead, his parents suggested he start with the Western concert flute, which ultimately became his passion. “I love the flexibility of the flute: its colours in the sound, its agility, and its history, which gives it such a broad repertoire from so many cultures, spanning so many centuries.”
Vancouver-born Walsh didn’t choose the clarinet, it chose her. “I asked to play the French horn,” she laughs, “and they put me on clarinet instead.”
Performance remains a joy for both Walsh, who has held the position of Second and Bass Clarinet with Symphony Nova Scotia since 2007, and Chen, who has appeared frequently with the symphony, Scotia Chamber Players, Conundrum Duo, and Fifth Wind, a Halifax-based woodwind quintet. He has also appeared in numerous PBS television music specials and tours.
The very first Inner Space House concert in 2014.
Chen and Walsh also perform with Inner Space Concerts, a chamber concert series he founded in 2014 (innerspaceconcerts.ca). They have produced eight seasons, with the ninth launched on September 11, 2022.
“Friends of mine had just started their classical house concerts in Toronto,” explains Chen, “and we thought, ‘Why not in Halifax?’ There wasn’t such a series where people could enjoy excellent chamber music in very intimate settings. Concerts, where, over time, you get to know many of the audience, hosts, and performers.”
While the term “chamber music” might seem lofty to the uninitiated, its origins are relatively simple. First established in the late 1700s and early 1800s, chamber music began in an era when making music was a social activity. The instrumental ensembles were impromptu, companionable, and artistically fulfilling to the players. These aspects have led some to call chamber music “the music of friends.”
It was first brought to the fore by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven during the Viennese Classic Era, and is presented by trios, quartets, quintets, sextets, and so on, depending on the number of players—all of whom had to fit into a palace chamber or a large room. Later composers all created this genre of music. In simplest terms, chamber music includes any art music performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part.
It was Walsh who came up with the name of the Halifax series.
“We were sitting in the kitchen of our house one day,” says Chen, “and Eileen looked around and said, ‘Inner spaces, like this, that’s where the concerts will be held.’”
In the beginning, Inner Spaces Concerts had only three people helping with social media and the selling of tickets. Chen and Walsh performed, hosted and greeted, while Chen, as artistic director, decided on the music to be performed.
Support for the event was immediately taken up by regular hosts Joe Popovitch and Cindy Murphy, Clayton Park residents, who did the graphics for the Inner Space website. Then other Haligonians offered to host concerts
in their homes around the city.
St Andrews Presbyterian Church has also hosted concerts featuring quintets.
“It’s amazing how many people have helped,” says Chen. “We have had so many different venues over the years—condos, houses, churches.”
“It takes a village,” says Walsh. “It’s really more of a community effort than anything else.”
Pianist Simon Docking, who is managing and artistic director of the Scotia Festival of Music, believes that community building is one of Chen’s great strengths.
“I have such immense respect for Jack,” says Docking, who has performed at Inner Space concerts himself. “He has built a concert-going community, which is what we all want to do. The people who go to the concerts are a separate group. They are both curious and fascinated by music. And the receptions are wonderful!”
A unique aspect to the Inner Space concerts is how the audience interact with the musicians, and vice versa.
“I know if I can talk to an audience before I perform,” says Docking, “I play better. It’s all about a deeper connection between the two groups.”
Walsh agrees. “Musicians love this kind of performance,” she says. “The Fourth Wall comes down [the space which separates a performer or performance from an audience]. People shout out questions afterwards—it’s great!” She adds that they were surprised and delighted to discover that less than 50 per cent of initial audiences had been to a symphony concert. “Some still choose not to go to the symphony because our concerts are their preference.”
To attend, a patron simply signs up on the website to receive concert notifications. You can attend a single concert or buy season’s tickets.
“There are lots of perks to the season’s passes!” laughs Jack, who is known for his sunny smile and sense of humour, which also finds its way into the concerts. “You receive a cushion to save your seat, a pin, and slippers!”
Tickets for the concerts include a glass of wine or a non-alcoholic beverage. A perpetually re-creating cheeseball, provided by someone in the community, is always on hand to sample, along with other treats provided by the host. The musicians are paid a professional fee from the pot, says Jack, “because we believe that people should value the arts.”
In 2020 Chen created yet another musical offering called the Musical Advent Calendar—an online event that presented different music for each day of the Christian season of Advent.
“It was a COVID-19 project,” says Chen. “It was originally an idea from violinist Étienne Chenard, the symphony’s assistant principal viola. We wanted to have a platform for our musician friends to express creativity during the lockdown. It became a wonderful place for many of the musicians and audience to connect during the COVID lockdowns. We have a lot of fun.”
Proceeds from the Musical Advent Calendar concerts go to charity.
“It’s very meaningful,” says Walsh. “Each concert donates money to the charity of the musicians’ choice.” These charities are often local, she says, such as Feed Nova Scotia and Adsum House, a shelter for those in need.
Suzanne Lemieux, known as the “Jewel of the Symphony” during the 35 years she served as principal oboe, is now retired, but has played with Inner Space Concerts in a quintet. “Apart from Jack’s skill as a flutist, it is his awareness of others around him that sets him apart,” she says. “It’s in his character. He remembers things. He has a good capacity to interact with people and this relates to his playing. He’s so accessible.”
Chen has other unique qualities related to teaching youth, says Lemieux.
“Jack was fortunate with his own experience of being in a youth orchestra,” she says. “Not everyone will go onto be a professional after playing in the youth orchestra and he understands that. But he still wants everyone to play with the same purpose, which is remarkable. He also wants them to be brave. One time, he organized a flash mob for the flutists at Pete’s Frootique in downtown Halifax!”
Asked why he created Inner Space Concerts, Chen responds with typical enthusiasm: “First, to play more music with our colleagues! Second, to connect to community and to connect people and community.” His smile broadens. “I am always grateful for my adventures with music.”