When you think farmer, you might not think baroque violinist. But musician Conor Jacobson has a foot in both worlds.
Born and raised in Pavillion, he picked up the violin as a kid and went on to study music at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, a world-renowned conservatory in the Netherlands. Now, Jacobson manages his family’s alfalfa farm and continues to perform and teach around the state.
He’s getting back together with his Parisian harpsichordist friend Ronan Khali for a special reunion concert in Cody on June 6. The two were in an early-music band called No-body’s Jigg while at conservatory, and the entire four-person group has plans to get back together and play in Wyoming next spring.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Hannah Habermann asked Jacobson how he got his start in music.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Conor Jacobson: My family were all classical music lovers. They were always listening to music. I remember listening to music, some of my first memories. I always had a real appreciation. I'd listen to operas – Mozart's “Magic Flute” was my favorite thing as a baby – and then lots of violin music. I just got an ear for it.
When I was four, my grandpa asked me, "Do you want to play music?" And I said, "Yeah." He asked, "Which instrument do you want to play?" "Well, violin of course,” [I said.]
But I remember being very disappointed that I couldn't sound like what I was hearing on the stereo. Parents do a lot to keep that going, and certainly if you show talent for it and you don't get frustrated and mad and you can handle the dedication, then it works. And it did work!
Hannah Habermann: You've got this show coming up in Cody and it's a bit of a reunion. Tell me a little bit about this friend that you're gonna be playing with and the band you two were in.
CJ: His name is Ronan Khalil. We were both first-year students at the conservatory. He's a harpsichord player, just a fantastic musician. I'm honored to be able to play with him.
One of the things about that particular conservatory or European conservatories, [they] differ from our educational system. Here, ours is very structured. You've got the class here, you may have chamber music class, you've got orchestra, and this and that, all these different courses.
There, there's these lectures you can go to if you want to or not, and then you're really expected to find other musicians and just start playing and just form groups and play.
HH: It's been a little bit since you two have seen each other, right?
CJ: Nearly 20 years. It'll be really cool to get back to playing again.
HH: Could you describe a little bit about the pieces that you two are going to be performing together?
CJ: One of the main pieces that we'll play is a Bach sonata, BWV 1014. There's a lot of them, but this one's written for violin and harpsichord, so that's great and it's a really beautiful piece.
It starts out with this harpsichord introduction, and then the violin has this really, really long note. You have to play with one bow, and you just hold it and hold it and hold it. It lasts forever, but it's just so, so cool.
We're going to probably play a couple things from Biber. Heinrich Biber, not Justin [Bieber]. He was a very virtuoso violin composer.
It's going to be a little bit of a challenge because the “accompaniment,” in quotations, for baroque music wasn't just a keyboard. It was also a bowed bass instrument like a cello or a bass gamba.
It's going to be a little bit bare bones and it's putting a lot of pressure on Ronan. He'll have to improvise filler, basically, to make sustained sounds, where [the] harpsichord is just a very “boink.” My grandpa always called it the tinkle box.
[Ronan] is coming in five days before the concert, so we'll just spend five days trying stuff out and see what works.
HH: We love a good marathon practice right before a show. How would you describe baroque music and early music? What does it sound like?
CJ: The violin really hasn't changed a lot since the mid-1500s. It has its shape and it's got its four strings, but some of the accessories have changed. The neck has changed angles. [Baroque violinists] don't use a shoulder rest or a chin rest at all.
The biggest thing for sound, as far as that part of the instrument goes, is the gut strings. These are unwrapped, so they're plain strands of sheep or bovine intestine. They just have this really natural sound. It's a quality that you don't get with the modern synthetic strings.
The bow is what's really changed a lot. The old bows look more like an archery bow. They're curved and shorter and lighter, and they just behave differently. They respond differently and the technique changes.
Basically, we’re a bunch of nerds. We use instruments, either original instruments or instruments that are set up as original. That means harpsichords rather than pianos, as the harpsichord is a precursor of the piano. The keyless flute [and] there were a lot of recorders then, not just for kindergarten classes.
Progress with the pianos and the changing of the mechanics of the violin was geared towards, in a sense, making things louder. As the concert halls grew, it was not just that they were performing for nobility. It was the broader public. The concert halls got bigger and they needed more sound, so they modified the instruments to get more sound.
A lot is gained that way, but a lot is lost, because if I'm playing even a duet with a piano, a grand piano where they've got the lid opened all the way, I'm playing full bore. I've got it turned to 11. And same thing if I'm standing in front of an orchestra playing a concerto. All the time, even when you're playing soft, you're playing at full volume.
One of the things I love about early music for the violin is that there's multiple layers of volume and tone color that you can get when you don't have to shout to be heard, so to speak.
It's just all this wonderful, warm, fuzzy nuance that you can play with and be a little bit more playful with in a sense, but it's also very serious.
HH: Are there ways that you think playing the violin and farming are similar? And what are some ways in which they are totally different?
CJ: [With] farming, you're prepping a field and planting, and then watering and watching it grow, and then harvesting. It's sort of like the arc of picking up a piece of music and finding out all its secrets and learning what you want to do with it and how you want it to sound.
For me as a procrastinator, it's very much like when you're harvesting. It's just “Go, go, go,” and you’ve got to get it done. You're at the mercy of the weather, obviously. I'm often like that before a show. I'll just be like, “Doo, doo, doo,” taking my time, and then all of a sudden, "Woo, I gotta get this done! I’ve got to crack this out!"
HH: What words of advice do you have for someone who wants to start playing an instrument, or for a parent who has a kid who's just picked up the violin?
CJ: Be prepared. Keep a box of Kleenex handy!
No, I would say probably the biggest thing is to be listening to music, to have them listening to music and develop an ear for it, and hopefully an appreciation for it.
When we're learning, we're just imitating what we're hearing. A teacher can explain somewhat the mechanics of it, but really, you can't try on their skin and move their fingers for them. They have to figure it out themselves.
You need to practice every day, at least most days. It doesn't have to be long and that's what I always tell my students. You don't have to practice for a long time. Just practice for 10 minutes very carefully and I guarantee you you'll see progress.
Editor’s Note: The audio version of this story uses a clip of a recording of “The Magic Flute” from the Royal Ballet and Opera, a clip from an interview with Ronan Khalil on “Qobuz,” a recording of the band No-body’s Jigg (Conor Jacobson, Ronan Khalil, Thibault Viviani, Anton Baba) performing the tune that the group is named after and three personal recordings provided by Conor Jacobson.
