[Online] Cellist hopes to pass passion for performance on to his students

Asking a musician whether he prefers teaching or performing is
like asking a first year student his major. It’s one of those
questions everyone tries to avoid having to answer.

But Antonio Lysy, a new cello professor in the UCLA music
department, is not scared by the question, as he finds the two
skills equally essential.

“I can’t do without either,”

Lysy said. “Performing is getting me close to the music,
close to the instrument and to discovering more about myself, about
my limits. Therefore it’s a great incentive to then be able
to pass on. Performing difficult pieces and under pressure of the
public eye gives you humility which as a teacher you
appreciate.”

Lysy joined the music department this fall with 15 years of
experience teaching as an associate professor at the McGill
University in Montreal, Canada. His teaching will be structured on
three components which will lay a strong foundation for
UCLA’s cello students. Emphasis will be placed on the
intellectual aspect of music studies such as history and theory,
and on the physical and emotional requirements of playing the
instrument.

Lysy’s unique music philosophy is rooted in his own early
childhood musical experiences. At Yehudi Menuhin School in England,
Lysy was taught by renowned musicians such as Yehudi Menuhin,
Maurice Gendron and William Pleeth, who nurtured his talent and
love of classical and chamber music.

Yet the 45-student boarding school made Lysy feel cocooned.
Lysy’s father, violinist Alberto Lysy, took his son touring
and performing when he was young, which allowed him to develop on
stage and exposed him to world cultures.

His education and performances have paid off. Lysy is a renowned
cellist who has performed as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic
and Philharmonia Orchestras of London, Israel Sinfonietta and many
other orchestras and conductors in Canada, Finland, China,
Switzerland and Italy.

Lysy is also founder and director of Incontri in Terra di Siena,
a program which has brought together worldwide musicians to perform
chamber music in a small medieval town of Tuscany annually for the
past fourteen years.

On Canada’s “Music Day,” Oct. 1, Lysy
performed before a live audience the piece “Wood that
Sings” to mark the 300th year anniversary of his prized
Tononi cello. The 18th-century cello, named after master violin
maker Carlo Tononi, has been played for three hundred years for
Russian czars and French nobility in Geneva, Buenos Aires and the
United States. The performance will be accompanied by a retelling
of the history of Tononi’s cello written by Marie José
Thériault and read by Jean Marchand.

Lysy feels extremely privileged to be among the many
accomplished musicians who have played his Tononi cello.

“I feel a lot closer to it now than ever before just
because of the time that goes by,” Lysy said. “Even if
we change the strings, the bridge or certain small things, the
instrument is still that instrument. Its own history is so
fascinating. It’s a product of great artistry.”

The recital chronicled the history of his instrument by playing
the classical pieces of Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and
others.

“A lot of people think (performing is) just from the heart
and you play what you feel,” Lysy said. “But of course
there is a lot of structure, and a lot of knowledge that has to be
mixed with your own instinct.”

As part of the music department’s faculty, Lysy hopes to
bring his passion for playing cello to his new students. He has
already met some of his cello students and will provide them with
one-on-one guidance to help them continue their careers as
musicians after they graduate from UCLA.

“If I can see that there is a passion in what they do and
an interest or a talent that has been developed and they are having
difficulty, I’m there to help that come through and make that
flower,” Lysy said.