Lara St. John is a soloist violinist, and she was one of the 114 people appointed to the order of Canada ten days ago. She was recognized for “Pushing the boundaries of classical interpretation as a solo violinist and for supporting diversity in the arts.” Although she now lives in New York, her story started in London playing at the annual Kiwanis Music Festivals.
St. John did not have a typical childhood, starting to play the violin at just two years old, she looked up to her older brother who at the time was a violinist. They pushed each other to be better at a younger age and as a result, Lara started playing at concerts and touring Europe at a very young age.
“We started playing music at them [Kiwanis] and I guess there was a judge at one point who said you have to do something with these kids. We ended up going to Cleveland for lessons every month, and things just went really quickly, and things were somewhat easy for us.”
“I started playing concerts with orchestras at four and my first European tour I would’ve been nine or ten. It’s sort of ridiculous [to think about].”
In 1999 St. John started her own record label, Ancalagon, because she wanted to have more say in the music she was producing.
“At the time, I heard from people that they were forced to record stuff they didn’t even know, or certainly didn’t believe in… I really wanted to avoid that and I’m really conscious of what I put out there.”
When St. John was named to the Order of Canada, she missed the initial call from the Governor General’s office.
“I forgot to turn on and they called at like 9:00 AM, but I haven’t really done mornings in years. I looked at my phone at noticed it was a 613-area code… I listened to the voice message they left, and it was from the Governor General’s office I thought “Oh my god, what have I done” then I realized they can’t deport me from here, so I called them back.”
“It was completely out of left field, and completely unexpected but it was really nice to get some really good news for once.”
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