Mt. Airyite makes heavenly music with Phila. Orchestra

Posted 4/22/16

Daniel Matsukawa, a Mt. Airy resident since 2011, has been principal bassoonist of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000. by Len Lear Daniel Matsukawa, 48, a Mt. Airy resident for the past five …

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Mt. Airyite makes heavenly music with Phila. Orchestra

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Daniel Matsukawa, a Mt. Airy resident since 2011, has been principal bassoonist of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000.  Daniel Matsukawa, a Mt. Airy resident since 2011, has been principal bassoonist of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000.

by Len Lear

Daniel Matsukawa, 48, a Mt. Airy resident for the past five years, has been principal bassoon of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2000. Born in Argentina to Japanese parents, he moved with his family to New York City at age 3 and began studying the bassoon at age 13.

The following year he won his first competition and was featured as a soloist performing the Mozart Bassoon Concerto with a professional orchestra in New York. He was a scholarship student of the pre-college division of both the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music.

He went on to study at Juilliard for two years before attending the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a pupil of retired Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Bassoon Bernard Garfield, graduating in 1992. Matsukawa has been a recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including a solo concerto debut in Carnegie Hall at the age of 18. He has also been a soloist with several other orchestras, including the National Symphony, New York String Orchestra, Curtis Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Auckland (New Zealand) Philharmonic and the Sapporo Symphony in Japan.

According to a Washington Post review of a solo concerto: “As an orchestral player, Matsukawa can be relied on for a burst of rich maroon and dark crimson in the collective sound. His playing is elastic and agile and thankfully accurate … He is an invaluable asset to the orchestra.”

Matsukawa is a divorced father of two daughters. He maintains a “very amicable relationship” with his ex-wife. They share custody of their children, who live half the time with Daniel in Mt. Airy and half the time with their mother, Hiroko, in Chestnut Hill.

We caught up with Daniel recently and conducted the following interview with him:

What are the pros and cons (if any) of living in Mt. Airy?

I love living in Mt. Airy. It is the best of many worlds. It is beautiful and has many trees and old houses with so much character and charm. It is rural and cosmopolitan at the same time.

I also find Mt. Airy to be diverse in a positive way, and growing up in New York, there is a nice, similar feel to a mixed ethnicity here. I especially love that Mt. Airy is very cultured and artsy. I was just in Weavers Way Co-op the other day, and I overheard two people talk about a concert they went to hear and were comparing it with another concert they saw in another place in the world with Zubin Mehta conducting. It just made me smile.

I also from time to time bump into people who recognize me because they are regular concert-goers and subscribers to the orchestra, and I am flattered. I blush when they know me by name just from being fans.

You began studying the bassoon at age 13. Why did you select the bassoon? Not many kids do.

I was always drawn to music as a kid. I started as a choirboy at age 6. In my early teenhood, I was in a punk rock band and played lead guitar and was the lead singer. When I was 13, I heard the bassoon on the radio. I fell in love with the sound of the instrument and ran to my parents and asked if I could play the bassoon. You could imagine their delight when they heard me say this, especially compared to the loud rock music I had been playing inside a very small apartment in Manhattan.

Why did your parents move from Argentina to New York?

Right after I was born in Argentina, my father went to New York to try and study some more and then find work there. After he found a job, my mother, two brothers and I all finally moved to join him there.

How many hours a day did you practice when you were a teenager?

Hard to say with school work and all. I would say one to 2 hours. When it was a busy school day, I would sometimes practice 30 minutes, which was all the time I could find, and I would put in maybe more like two hours on weekends. Also, the Juilliard Pre-College Division, which took place all day on Saturday, would involve orchestra rehearsal, chamber rehearsals, etc. And on Sundays, I had New York Youth Symphony Orchestra rehearsals.

How many hours a day do you practice now?

I practice less now, but it really depends on what I have going on. For example, if I have a solo recital or solo concerto coming up, then I would practice more to learn the compositions.

Do you still teach at both Curtis Institute and the Boyer School of Music?

Yes, I am blessed and very lucky to teach at both places. I have great students, and I absolutely love teaching. I heard someone once say that “teaching is a sacred duty,” and I couldn’t agree more.

What teacher had the most influence on your musical development?

I am grateful to the many teachers with whom I have had the honor to study. I would say, however, that Otto Werner Mueller, who was the conducting teacher and orchestra leader at Curtis when I was a student, had the most influence on me. He had such integrity and incredible discipline.

Do you still conduct regularly in Japan? If so, how often?

Yes. I return every year to conduct in Japan at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, which was founded by the great Leonard Bernstein. I have also conducted a number of groups and ensembles at Curtis.

What were your favorite concerts and why?

Wow. The list can be quite lengthy. One was doing an American tour right after 9/11. The Philadelphia Orchestra was trying to decide if we should cancel the tour, which took place literally right after 9/11 happened. We decided as a group to do it anyway, and we visited many American cities. In every single concert, people were weeping in the audience, and I got to feel even more the power and healing aspects of music more than ever before.

Another time was when our former Music Director, Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch. retired and conducted his final concert. He was so beloved by all of us in the orchestra, and there was not a dry eye on stage.

Who are your favorite composers?

It depends on what we are playing during the week. In other words, one week we are playing Mozart, and I would proclaim that he is my absolute favorite. And then the following week I would say the exact same thing about Beethoven. And then the same goes for Mahler and Brahms and Bruckner and Schubert and Wagner, and … I guess the answer is whatever we are playing that week.

-- Continued next week

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