Vision and perseverance kept alive
Greek immigrant's dream of becoming a composer
by Jim Wilkes
Toronto Star Staff Reporter
From a world of music, Christos Hatzis chose Canada.
From Canada, the Greek-born composer has reaped a world of acclaim.
STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR
COMPOSING HIMSELF: Composer
Christos Hatzis, an associate music professor at U of T, will receive
a New Pioneer Award.
"I found much more breathing room here,"
said Hatzis, 49, an associate professor of music at the University of Toronto.
"For an artist, I found Canada had a more nurturing attitude for young talent.
"That intrigued me."
He already had a master's degree and Ph.D. in music composition from American
universities when weekend visits to Toronto lured him here permanently in
1982.
But saying you're a composer doesn't open the floodgates for jobs, so he
toiled the late shift as a nightclub musician, spending his days with pen and
paper and piano.
"The reason I chose that life was because it allowed me time to compose," he
said.
"It was how I had to earn my living, but I also kept on writing and gradually
built my career as a composer."
He's been called one of Canada's most prolific and important composers, but
acceptance came slowly.
Inspired by world cultures, his music didn't strike the right note for many in
the 1980s. The following decade brought more welcoming ears for his unique
classical style as Toronto's increasingly multicultural community tuned in.
"You must have a vision, to believe in something," said Hatzis, who lives near
Uxbridge.
"You must also have perseverance. There were times when my better sense
wondered whether I should be continuing on this or settle down and do
something that normal people do."
He considered giving in to doubt, considered abandoning his dream.
`There were times when my better
sense wondered whether I should be continuing on this or settle down
and do something that normal people do.'
Composer Christos Hatzis
"Sometimes things become so impossible that you wonder whether it's a
stubbornness that keeps you going or whether there is something really there,"
he said.
"Sometimes you lose heart completely."
But still he played on.
"It's not so much the faith and the rewards, the belief that this path would
lead to success. But it was faith that what I was doing was important.
"Even if no one else would recognize it, it would still be important."
But the rewards have been great.
His work has been honoured with the Prix Italia, the Prix Bohemia, the Jules
Leger prize and the Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award.
He recently returned from a concert series in New York.
"We don't have the luxury of staring into a looking glass to see our future,"
Hatzis said. "Success now is a vindication that what I believed to be
important is seen by other people to be so.
"That's a great feeling."
It's also exhilarating to pass such wisdom on to eager young people.
"My experience in the non-academic world has been able to give me a certain
understanding so that I can convey to students what the life of an artist is
like," he said.
"Schools tend to teach you the elements of your own craft, but not much about
what life is like out there."
The New Pioneers award is his first honour from outside the musical community,
a reward, he thinks, for his efforts to connect art and people.
"This is really about how people can benefit their community, not necessarily
the community of their peers, but the community at large," he said.
"I try to bring vision to my music and convey this vision to those who will
take my place one day, the young generation of composers."
