Full circle: Internationally renowned cellist Luka Coetzee to play homecoming concert with Calgary Civic Symphony

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Of the many turning points 21-year-old cellist Luka Coetzee has experienced in her career, one of the most powerful came a decade ago when she made her professional concerto debut performing Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Calgary Civic Symphony.

It was at the Jack Singer Concert Hall under conductor Rolf Bertsch. She was backed by the Calgary Civic Symphony, an opportunity that came after she won the 2016 Calgary Concerto Competition.

“Honestly, it’s one of my favourite memories because it was the first time I ever played with an orchestra as a soloist,” says Coetzee in an interview with Postmedia from her home in Berlin. “So it’s definitely a very special memory. I remember being quite nervous before going on stage. But I also remember really enjoying the sound of the orchestra behind me. I can’t believe it was already 10 years ago.”

In those 10 years, the former child prodigy has become an internationally renowned cellist playing with orchestras throughout North America, Europe and Africa. Her European profile got a major boost in 2023 at the age of 18 when she became the first Canadian and youngest musician ever to win the International Paulo Celle Competition in Helsinki. Since Sept. 6, she has played concerts in Switzerland, Latvia, Portugal and Spain.

At the time of this interview, she had arrived home from Spain the day before, where she played Beethoven’s Triple Concerto for a two-night stint with the Orquesta de Cordoba. She was set to fly back to Calgary the following day. On Sunday, she will join the Calgary Civic Symphony at the Jack Singer Concert Hall for the first time in 10 years. Bertsch will again be conducting.

It will be a full-circle homecoming for Coetzee, who was born and raised in Brooks. It was after her first appearance with the Civic Symphony when she made the decision to make music her life.

“Maybe it sounds way too cheesy to say this, but it is the truth,” she says. “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, and it was something I had dreamed of for years. I always watched videos of people doing that and went to concerts where I would hear the soloists play. 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 will be a part of the Civic’s 50th anniversary season launch, The Golden Opener: Brahms, Elgar and Estacio. The evening will also include the world premiere of Golden Overture by Canadian composer John Estacio, who was commissioned to create the piece to mark the orchestra’s 50th season.

Coetzee will not be performing Tchaikovsky on Sunday but Edward Elgar’s melancholy Cello Concerto, which was completed in 1919 and is 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 says. “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.”

It was the cello’s distinct sound that first interested Coetzee, although she doesn’t have clear memories of her introduction to the instrument. She remembers her mother and older sisters playing cello. Luka was only one when a teacher gave the family a viola, which she would play with a bow when her older sisters practised cello.

In 2011, Postmedia wrote a story about Coetzee’s performance of Rudolf Matz’ Lights and Shadows. It was in the Palomino Room at the BMO Centre. She performed for 300 people as part of Mount Royal University’s Feast of Sound and Song and received a standing ovation.

She was interviewed for the article, although she left most of the talking to her mother, Retha. Postmedia did run a photo of a beaming Luka in a white dress with her cello. By that point, she was joining her sisters weekly to practice as part of the Mount Royal University Conservatory Academy for Gifted Youth program.

She also studied with Christine Bootland in Medicine Hat before moving to Calgary. Four years ago, she relocated to Germany to continue her education. She is currently being mentored by renowned cellist and conductor Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at the Kronberg Academy near Frankfurt. In January, she returned to Calgary for It Takes Two: A Symphonic Collaboration with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra that featured her as a soloist on Sergei Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante.

“Of course, the sound of the cello is very special, but I have to say there is just something about music that is difficult to describe,” Coetzee says. “I think maybe it speaks to some people more than others; it just makes perfect sense. I remember being enamoured by how it made me feel. Still, I’m so enamoured by how music makes me feel when I listen to it.”

Prior to Sunday’s concert, Coetzee will be in Canmore for a performance at ArtsPlace in Canmore, playing alongside Canmore pianists Vasylisa Nikolenko and Rowan Dial and Arizona-based violinist Jayden Yoneyama. After her performance with the Calgary Civic Symphony, she will be playing in Sechelt, B.C., on Oct. 31 and Vancouver on Nov. 1. She will perform with pianist Jon Kimura Parker in both concerts, which will feature works by Omar Daniel, Johannes Brahms, George Gershwin and Cesar Franck. She has no plans of slowing down in 2027.

From November to April, she has concerts scheduled in Cologne, Kronberg, Seattle, Toronto and Quebec.

“It’s definitely an interesting life,” she says. “It’s busy and chaotic and sometimes a difficult thing to do, but it was always a dream of mine where I hoped it would be possible.”

Luka Coetzee will perform with the Calgary Civic Symphony on Sunday, Oct. 25 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall at 2:30 p.m. as part of the Golden Opener to celebrate the symphony’s 50th season. She will also play Saturday, Oct. 24, in Canmore at the ArtsPlace at 7:30 p.m.