Cellist Luka Coetzee returns to Calgary Civic Symphony 10 years after debut that changed her life

Cellist Luka Coetzee was 11 years old when she performed her first professional concerto with an orchestra. It was Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, backed by the Calgary Civic Symphony at Jack Singer Concert Hall under conductor Rolf Bertsch. She'd won the 2016 Calgary Concerto Competition, and the experience shifted something fundamental.

"Honestly, it's one of my favourite memories because it was the first time I ever played with an orchestra as a soloist," Coetzee said in an interview with Postmedia from her home in Berlin. "I can't believe it was already 10 years ago."

That performance sparked a decision. "Maybe it sounds way too cheesy to say this, but it is the truth," she reflected. "It really was after I played with the Calgary Civic Symphony 10 years ago because it was just so inspiring to make music with an orchestra. After being there myself, even though I was quite young, I just enjoyed it so much. I really do remember at around that age thinking, 'This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.'"

She kept that promise. Now 21 and born and raised in Brooks, Coetzee has become an internationally renowned cellist. In 2023 at 18, she became the first Canadian and youngest musician ever to win the International Paulo Celle Competition in Helsinki. Since early September, she's performed concerts in Switzerland, Latvia, Portugal, and Spain. She returned from a two-night stint playing Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Orquesta de Cordoba just before this interview, and she's flying back to Calgary for Sunday's performance.

It's a full-circle moment. On Sunday, she returns to the Jack Singer Concert Hall stage with the Calgary Civic Symphony for the first time in a decade, with Bertsch conducting again. Instead of Tchaikovsky, she'll perform Edward Elgar's melancholy Cello Concerto, completed in 1919 and considered the English composer's final major work.

"It's a very special piece for cellists, and it's a very special one for me," Coetzee said. "I've played it several times and it's very personal and has to do with Elgar's feelings toward the First World War and all the tragedy and pain that this caused him personally and the world. It's very special in the way that he makes the voice of the cello sing so much and also be so vulnerable. It's really the cello speaking as one person telling their deepest feelings."

The concert is part of the Calgary Civic Symphony's 50th anniversary season launch, called The Golden Opener: Brahms, Elgar and Estacio. The evening will also feature the world premiere of Golden Overture by Canadian composer John Estacio, commissioned to mark the orchestra's milestone.