Patrick Jordan has been a violist with Tafelmusik since 1995. He hails from Texas, and is also a member of the Eybler Quartet, based here in Toronto.
Patrick Jordan, viola. Image: Sian Richards
How did you come to choose your instrument?
Great story here. The Grade 6 orchestra teacher gave all the Grade 5 students a music aptitude test. I’d never had any real music instruction, but did very well (despite consistently mixing up the major and minor modes). We were told that one could choose the violin, viola, or cello for the next year. I had never heard of the viola, so that’s the one I chose!
What was your first music gig?
The first time I received cash for playing was excerpts of Messiah at some church in Lubbock, TX.
Who has been your greatest inspiration?
That’s a brutal one. My teacher in Lubbock, TX, Susan Schoenfeld, basically saved my life as an adolescent — she gave me work to do, a home away from home at times, and a carefully considered socialistic outlook on the world. Tick the inspiration box there! Another of my great teachers was Eugene Lehner, who taught me how to relate music emotionally and structurally, but also about why we teach. Tick the inspiration box there! Bruno Weil has been an inspiration. Jeanne Lamon has also been one. So have my Eybler Quartet colleagues Aisslinn Nosky and Julia Wedman. Perhaps the greatest of them all has been my treasured wife, Margaret Gay (also cellist of the Eybler Quartet).
What is your “guilty pleasure” music to listen to?
There’s really just music; I think I did all my “guilty” time as a kid growing up on the buckle of the Bible Belt in Texas. What might be unexpected in my listening is Top-40 pop, R&B, and Ravel! My go-to comfort piece, about once a year, is Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel. If you haven’t heard that, do yourself a favour, and devote the 24-26 minutes to a profound experience.
What are the last 3 recordings you’ve listened to?
Well, I’m in the middle of editing a new Eybler Quartet CD, so movements 2, 3, and 4 of Beethoven’s Op. 18, no. 6. (Editor’s note: the album is now available.) If you’d like a less navel-gazing answer, I can offer The Seven Last Words of Christ by Haydn, Build a Rocket Boys by Elbow, and Senesce by Nick Storring.
What is your favourite thing to do in Toronto during your free time?
Modesty forbids answering that directly. I do love cooking, however.
What’s your favourite restaurant in Toronto?
See the answer to the previous question — I don’t eat out a lot. Chiado, however, has never disappointed me.
Where is your own, personal, oasis in Toronto?
About 40 cm to the right of my stove, where I do most of my kitchen time.
You have a night off — what do you do?
Between April and September I might go to a baseball game (Blue Jays, Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League, or more likely the Toronto Cardinals, my son’s elite-level team); as often as not, cook for a bunch of people!!
What is your great ambition?
To keep working and recording with the Eybler Quartet until the energy or money runs out.
Where do you see yourself ten years in the future?
In many professional fields, I’d be expected to have retired in the next ten years. Playing the viola means I might be able to squeeze another two or three decades out of it.
What words of wisdom would you pass to budding musicians?
Make your own fun. Whatever is being presented to you as “the way to do music” is a tiny slice of the whole picture. Play music that turns your crank, and you’ll almost certainly turn someone else’s!