LOS ANGELES — It was 19 years ago that Canadian conductor Boris Brott came upon a young violinist named Susanne Hou and hired her to play a special concert series for his Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Hou was just 12 when her father, a famous violinist himself who escaped to Canada from then Communist China, brought her to audition for Brott.
“She was very young, but showed astonishing talent. I knew immediately she was going far and hired her,” said Brott.
The famous conductor and Hou, all grown up at the age of 31, were together again last week in Los Angeles.
Instead of sitting in the last chair in the orchestra, however, Hou was the featured soloist at sold-out performances here for the local New West Symphony.
Brott, who has served as director and conductor for dozens of orchestras around the world including the Toronto Symphony, the McGill Chamber Orchestra in Montreal and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, is also director of the New West Symphony.
“My job is to find and present the best musicians. If that musician also happens to be Canadian, all the better.”
Hou, whose parents during her teenage years drove her nine hours each way once a month from Toronto to New York for a lesson at the Julliard School of Music, is now travelling the world touring as a soloist.
“Boris has been very important in my career,” said Hou. “When I first played for him when I was 12, he was very nurturing and I could relax and do my best.”
How does it feel to be performing with the conductor 19 years later?
“It feels like home,” she said.
Candyland can’t: Toronto actor Dean McDermott's mom-in-law, Candy Spelling, hasn’t lowered the mind-boggling price of $150 million she put on the Spelling family home nine months ago, despite a lack of offers.
According to Forbes.com, the 4.7-acre estate remains the most expensive residential listing on the continent.
McDermott has yet to see the opulent mansion: Candy and daughter, Tori, have been on the outs since Tori left her first husband for McDermott.
The price is finally right: I tend to cringe when I see prices on a book jacket, greeting cards or cosmetics that have both U.S. and Canadian dollars. It's usually something like this: U.S. $4.95; Canada $6.95. Even with the falling greenback, Canadians still seem to be charged exponentially more for these types of goods.
Give it to the Cirque du Soleil to play equitable. Items listed at their big tent in Santa Monica show prices in U.S, Canadian, Euro, pounds, etc.
But the greenback and Canadian dollar are being listed as the same and it's the first time I've seen it. A shirt, for example, is $29.95 in both U.S. and Canadian.
Go loony!
Linda Massarella, a Canadian writer in Los Angeles, writes every Sunday about notable Canadians living in L.A.
