Artistic Accelerando

“My mother’s a violinist, so I’d go to her student recitals, and apparently I would be a real disturbance. I would just scream. And that wasn’t like me. I was usually very calm and well behaved. So she thought. why don’t I just give him a violin? And my focus. apparently, was insane. It was my happy place. We would do 30 minutes a day, and I would insist that I do more. I was in love with it from the beginning, and I think it’s just increased ever since.”

Accommodating prodigious talent at such a young age would make it difficult to lead a traditional school life, which is why Forestier’s schooling was anything but. At first, he would stay home three days a week in the morning to practice. Then he started acting, in which he also excelled, landing a role in The Citadel Theatre and Theatre Calgary’s productions of Mary Poppins. That ran for six months, which meant he had to move his classes. entirely online, while still keeping up his violin habit. This was all before he was 10 years old. By the time he was 12. he started going to Calgary weekly to take a course for gifted musicians at Mount Royal University.

Plenty of people have seen Forestier perform since then, starting with his pro debut with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra when he was just 11. Since then, he’s gone to festivals, programs, competitions and residencies in Ottawa, a half-dozen American cities (he’s currently enrolled in the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia), Poland, Israel and Hannover, Germany, where in 2024 he became co-laureate of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition.

So how does a mom convince a school that her talented toddler should be exempt from attending in-person classes? Like all things artistic, it’s better to show than tell.

“From what I recall, there was no pushback, but there was some confusion, Forestier explains. “Some of the teachers didn’t really understand. So I remember one day, there was a show-and-tell presentation. I decided to bring my violin and my grandmother, who plays piano, and we played a five-minute work for them. The teacher basically came up after and said, OK. now I totally understand. Once people saw, it just made more sense to them.”

That competition, held every three years, garnered him 25.000 euros. But he says the exposure alone changes a young violinist’s life, which in his case includes receiving a three-year loan of a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in 1765. The instrument, which Forestier is “enjoying getting to know,” is worth well over $1 million and somehow doesn’t come with a bullet-proof case. (What happens if he breaks it? “That’s not gonna happen,” he laughs.)

The violin may be a loan. but all that travel costs money on top of the monthly costs of private lessons, instrument upkeep and recording sessions. But until bars start hosting open-mic nights for young classical musicians, the festival and competition circuit provides their only exposure, and travelling that circuit costs money which is where Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF) helps young artists like Forestier flourish.

For over two decades, ECF has awarded the Ranald & Vera Shean Memorial Scholarships, Winspear and Alexandra Munn Scholarships, and the John and Andrea Wallin Awards to provide opportunity, exposure and the money needed to help talented young musicians reach their literal next stages – in Edmonton, and around the world.

Munn, who passed away in September 2023, was a musical prodigy in her own right, graduating from Juilliard at the age of 21, where she completed a four-year program in just two years. This was the start of her 60-year legacy of teaching and performing music across Alberta including conducting the Richard Eaton Singers as well as Da Camera Singers.

Ranald and Vera Shean, both members of Edmonton’s Cultural Hall of Fame, were highly respected teachers as well, and were known to help students, out of pocket, with tuition and travel. Each year, the John and Andrea Wallin Awards provide up to four students with financial support of between $1,000 to $8,000.

“It’s been such a delight to see Jacques achieve so much,” says Anna Opryshko, ECF’s Student Awards Associate. “Our donors’ dream of supporting future generations of Edmonton musicians is coming to life before our eyes, and it’s truly wonderful.”

Forestier’s received all three of ECF’s music awards over his still-less-than-10- year career, and thanks to years of obsessive practice, and plenty of ECF support, it’s about to take off.

“For example, here at [The Curtis Institute], every student is tuition free. But room and board, which is required, is close to $30,000 Canadian. My parents are both also classical musicians, [so] it would be very difficult to sustain that financially, without taking out a loan. All three of these scholarships have all played a pivotal role in where I am today. They’ve made this all possible for me, at the stage that I’m at now.”

The stage he’s at now requires a manager, which he got for an upcoming European tour, and a recording booth, which Warner Classics has provided for his debut album, to be released in 2026. “The artists who have recorded with Warner are really the best in the world,” he says, adding that, without ECF’s support, he wouldn’t be recording and touring right along with them.

Wherever the future takes him, Forestier says Edmonton will never be far from his heart – or his virtuoso hands.

“I feel like I’m still very much a part of [Edmonton’s classical music scene]. I came back in October [2024] for a concert, and I’ll be coming back for two more concerts [this] year. I come back all the time, and there are many presenters in Edmonton that I really hope to work with in the future. Because where I come from, and I owe a lot to the city, ECF and to my family.”