Violinist Leila Josefowicz, former child prodigy and catwalk model, has bounced back after a period of personal anguish. And, she tells Peter Culshaw, her passionate new album is all the better for it
As an ex-Chanel model who is one of the leading American violinists of her generation, Leila Josefowicz, 27, has had her fair share of media attention, although the impression sometimes given that she gave up a life on the catwalk to take up the fiddle is wide of the mark.
Josefowicz was a child prodigy, steeped in the intense Suzuki violin method from the age of three. She played her first concerto (by Bruch) at the age of eight with a local Californian orchestra, and was introduced by Lucille Ball on a TV tribute for Bob Hope at 10. She had made her debut at the Carnegie Hall at 16 and had a recording contract with Philips in her teens. Chanel signed her up as a part-time model at 20. "They wanted someone from the classical world, and I fitted the bill".
The music world is littered with child stars who burned out (there are, in true American style, therapy groups for those suffering from "Prodigy Syndrome"), and as adults they can often be socially maladjusted. When I last met Josefowicz, four years ago, she did seem rather lost and depressed. A large part of that was for personal reasons, as she was divorcing the conductor, Kristan Jarvi, father of her two-year-old son Lucas. But she also gave the sense of being unsure of her path as an artist.
At the end of our interview this time, she says: "I'm so much more centred than a few years back, more stable. There are times I'm ecstatic and times I'm down, but who says life should be rosy all the time? I sometimes think all artists need to have their hearts broken to become real - I have more self-understanding, and that comes out in my playing."
Certainly, meeting her at her Upper West side apartment in New York, the transformation from our previous meeting is startling. I've rarely met someone so full of enthusiasm and inspired by her work. She has a new partner (a composer she prefers not to name) and is about to release a double album on Warner Classics that is passionate, lyrical and adventurous.
There are two premières of new music - Finnish composer Esa-Pekka Salonen's Lachen Verlent ("Laughing Unlearnt") and Californian Mark Grey's San Andreas suite, a solo violin piece that was written especially for her. The album includes Messiaen's Themes and Variations ("an early but amazing work," she says, "which starts undercover but erupts into an unstoppable, ecstatic style") and a lesser known Beethoven piece, the Sonata No 10 ("one of his most serene and deepest works"), as well as some Brahms and Ravel.
The selection was conceived as an evening of music for recital, which she will be performing later this month at the Barbican. "It is music that stretches me emotionally and cerebrally, and I really didn't think anyone would want to record it. But Warners got very enthusiastic when I told them."
The record is far removed from the crossover music big companies love to push "classical babes" into. "I find that kind of record insulting to the intelligence of the audience. And I don't know about everyone else, but I am so bored with CDs where the same repertoire is repeated again and again. I love challenges and my aim is to go further, more intensely and put myself on the line to the best of my ability."
She partly attributes her current happiness to the "incredible minds" she has been lucky enough to meet and work with. They include the composer John Adams, whose Violin Concerto she has recorded and performed to great acclaim "I've had a profound and fantastic relationship with him. He jump-started me in finding my path.
"I dreamed from a young age of having this kind of relationship with a living composer, rather than just being in awe of dead composers' work."
She has continued this productive relationship with Adams (who, incidentally, introduced her to her new partner) recording the title track of his Grammy-nominated Road Movies and is about to record his Eastern-influenced Dharma at Big Sur in California, where she will play electric violin.
Other contemporary composers she is working with include John Harbison, John Zorn and Oliver Knussen. "Most people haven't realised just how lyrical so much of this new music is," she says.
Josefowicz says that she, like the composers she is now working with, is searching for her own voice. "I was trained so intensely at such an early age, I was taught to override my own judgments and thoughts, whereas now I feel I can do what I want, having been immersed in the language and traditions of music." She says she has been recently having fun improvising with a salsa band. "There's a chasm between improvised and written music that shouldn't be there".
When I ask her how she'd describe her own style, Josefowicz says: "I would say searching is a good word. It's not enough for me to play the notes written on the page. I'd sooner take a risk, and I am fascinated by how tiny little changes in accentuation can completely change the music.
"I'm always thinking of the meaning of the music. I'm very careful about what repertoire I choose. I work very hard, and, unlike most musicians, I like to memorise the music, which takes countless hours."
Does she feel her parents were too pushy? "No, but it's a fine line. It was sort of fun, otherwise I couldn't have done it, but it was also a kind of brainwashing."
She wouldn't put her son through the same process: "I'm a little bit scared of that world. If he wants to do it I'll support him, but he hasn't expressed interest in it yet, even though he loves music."
I tell her I'm glad she seems to be enjoying herself. "I want to get the most out of everything," she says. "I'm going to be looking out for music and composers who intrigue me and speak to me. There's so much fear and anger in the world, and music is a way of transporting people to a spiritual realm. I really feel I can make a contribution to the culture - there have to be new turns in the road."
- 'Leila Josefowicz' is released by Warner Classics. She performs the album at the Barbican on April 23. Tickets: 020 7638 8891
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