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Classical violinist Lara St. John is suffering through "my worse hangover ever" but you wouldn't know it from the energy in her voice. St. John’s voice
and attitude a
symphonic original
By Tim Ryan
Star-Bulletin"Oh, it was a very good thing," she says with a giggle about the previous night's celebration. "But it's going to be quite awhile before I do that again."
Canadian St. John, 28, may be known as much for her good looks, free-flowing comments and Bohemian outlook on life as for her violin playing.
The CD cover of St. John's "Bare Bach -- Works for Violin Solo" she pretty much bares it all with the violin strategically hiding body parts.
"I am who I am, whoever that is," says St. John who performs with Sunday and Tuesday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall in her Honolulu Symphony debut.
She began playing violin at age 2; performed solo at 4 with the Windsor Symphony; and made her European debut in 1981 with the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon, Portugal) at age 10. A year earlier, she was the Grand National winner of the Canadian Music Competition. She's been picking up awards ever since.
On stage
What: Honolulu Symphony tribute to Leonard Bernstein, with guest violinist Lara St. John
"Age 2 is a little ridiculous to start playing violin," St. John says. "But my mom was getting a bit pissed off at me and my brother, I think. We were driving her crazy."
So mom decided son Scott, two years older than St. John, should take violin lessons.
"He came home with this little violin and I was so jealous there was no way I wasn't going to get one, too," St. John said.
But playing violin and later touring caused a pre-teen St. John some grief.
"When I was like 11, I was pretty pissed off because I couldn't spend more time with my girlfriends," St. John said. "We kept doing these European tours and I didn't want people to know what I was doing because it made me so different.
"Then I moved to Philly at 14 with my bro" to attend the Curtis Institute of Music.
"That was illegal you know and I'm not supposed to tell anyone," she says of having dropped out of high school before age 16 without her parents' permission.
"My mom was sick and my dad was working (in Canada) so they couldn't come to Philadelphia but my brother and me decided we should go to Curtis anyway."
Sister and brother told anyone who asked that their mom was living with them. "We made a lot of mistakes living on our own," she said. "I put Spic & Span in the dishwasher once and then went out for ice cream -- I pretty much ate ice cream for two months. When I came back, the kitchen was roof high in bubbles."
St. John made it through Curtis although the school wouldn't award her a bachelor's degree.
"I never graduated from elementary school and I dropped out of high school," she said. "So when I graduated from Curtis (at 16) I got a diploma or something because I had so many missing high school credits they wouldn't give me a degree."
After "graduation" St. John headed to Moscow to find out if there was more to life than music. She settled down in New York City, traveling up to nine months a year for performances all over the world, including with the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony and Hungarian Philharmonic.
Though it doesn't leave much time for a social life, two years ago St. John married; it lasted "a disastrous" three weeks.
"I kinda don't really count it," St. John says. "Everything went wrong from the beginning."
About the time her short-lived marriage died so did her beloved 4-year-old iguana, Ludovico, who perished while she was on tour.
"I was really so sad, but my schedule wasn't really fair on the iguana," she says.
Ludovico -- at 2-1/2-feet long and weighing 4 pounds -- wasn't as much of a he as St. John thought. "He got pregnant, there were complications, and he had to have a Caesarian."
When the conversation drifts back to music St. John says she's never played "The Bernstein" she is performing here.
"I've listened to several of his recordings to hear what he did and he is so full of rhythm," she said. "It was very cool that (the Honolulu Symphony) asked me to play it because I don't have time to learn some things unless there's a major reason like this."
Rehearsing has been pretty much "a little bit at a time," said St. John, who is known for meshing pop culture with classical music, superb technique, vitality, intensity and a "take-no-prisoners approach" to her art.
"I enjoy getting a bit carried away on stage," she says. "But you never ever go on stage thinking like 'I am soooo ready.' "
St. John returns to the subject of reptiles, explaining that her "obsession" began as a child when she had turtles. "I've seen 'Jurassic Park' and "The Lost World' like 100 times," she said.
Told that the Honolulu Zoo has a breeding pair of Komodo dragons and new babies, St. John lets out a scream.
"No way! I am so there!"
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