Musicians Behind the Scenes: Cellist John Koen

Where were you born? I was born in Dallas, Texas.

What piece of music could you play over and over again? Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony.

What is your most treasured possession? Rather than a thing, my treasured possession is a connection to human emotion through music.

What’s your favorite food? Traveling lets me indulge my interest in cuisines around the world. I can only narrow it down to Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese, French!

Tell us about your instrument. It was made in 1890 in Munich by the Bolognese luthier Giuseppe Fiorini. I borrowed it from a shop for an audition I was taking and fell in love with it, so I managed to buy it!

What piece of music never fails to move you? The Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 4.

What is the most challenging piece you have ever played? Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata. It’s more difficult than Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante or Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain … (both cello concertos).

When did you join the Orchestra? In 1990. I won the audition in January, and I was hired as a sub to play Brahms’s Fourth Symphony the following week. Since it had been on the audition, I knew it very well and essentially played the entire Symphony from memory. [Former Music Director Riccardo] Muti was looking over at the back of the cellos from time to time and I always returned his gaze without looking down at the notes. That piece always has a special place in my heart.

Do you play any other instruments? I play piano sometimes in my students’s lessons (very badly). I can also play the double bass decently, although it’s tiring! I can play violin and viola to some degree, and if I hold them like a tiny cello I do okay! I’ve sometimes demonstrated on violin and viola when coaching chamber music.

What do you like to do in your spare time? I’m the music director of the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, which gives three series of concerts a year. Planning the pieces for the season, who will play when, and details for the venues takes a substantial time commitment, but it is rewarding to carry on the legacy left from [former Principal Clarinet] Donald Montanaro who founded the ensemble 48 years ago! I also read, play with my cats, and cook. I have a large class of cello students at Temple University and have been arranging music for them to play, or for me to accompany them so that I don’t have to play piano.

Is there a piece of music that isn’t in the standard orchestral repertoire that should be? Dvořák’s Third Symphony. I think I’ve only played it once here, with [Erich] Leinsdorf in the early ’90s.

What advice would you give to aspiring young musicians? Work efficiently on technique and control, but don’t neglect your artist’s soul. I’ll repeat advice Muti gave me after my audition when I thanked him for giving me the job: “It is yourself you must thank, for you have done the work. I just want you to have the same passion for the music in 40 years that you have now.” And this from former Principal Cello Bill Stokking: “There are a million people who will tell you what you can’t do. I want to be one who tells you what you CAN.”

If you could ask one composer one question, what would it be? Herr van Beethoven, could you reconsider your decision not to write a cello concerto? The ones by Bernhard Romberg are not nearly as wonderful as what you could compose.

What’s in your instrument case? Just the basics: rosin, a pencil, mutes, a cloth to wipe rosin dust off the cello or sweat so it doesn’t drip on the cello, and a humidifier to prevent the wood from cracking in harsh weather.

What do you love most about performing? Experiencing emotions and using my imagination to create different kinds of sounds on a wooden box.

What’s your favorite Philadelphia restaurant? We have such a wealth of restaurants and great new places popping up, but I’ll go with Suraya. A shoutout to Amá where I just ate in January!

What are you reading right now? I’m between books, just finishing Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum and a new-to-me fantasy series, The Dagger and the Coin series book II, Traitor’s Moon by Daniel Abraham. A shoutout to Buckkeep Radio podcast that is like a book club and which I find very entertaining as well as analytical.

Do you speak any other languages? Yes, to varying levels. I’m fairly fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Bulgarian. I’m currently studying Italian, Japanese, and Chinese in anticipation of upcoming travel for teaching and performances. I can get by in taxis, restaurants, and sometimes basic conversations in French, Hungarian, and Korean.

What’s your favorite movie? Hmm, I rewatch and quote many lines from Being Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, and Mommie Dearest. 

“Florals, for spring … groundbreaking.”

“Oh, Miss Lambert, I shall give it [the role] my all, my absolute all!” “Now, now, mustn’t be a little spendthrift!”

“Does this look clean to you?” “Ms. Jenkins said it was …” “Do YOU think it’s clean?!!” 

What do you love most about Philadelphia? I came here from Texas, where everyone drives, even for a few blocks, and I loved the contrast of walking around Center City and being able to buy anything you needed in walking distance.

What’s the first album you ever bought or downloaded? I remember my grandmother taking me to buy LPs when I first started playing because I didn’t have any cello or classical music at all. Although I don’t love the recording, I remember Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

What’s on your Spotify playlist? Spotify doesn’t pay artists fairly, so I prefer Apple Music. I don’t use playlists much, only in a utilitarian way like what the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble is playing for the season. Otherwise I just listen to individual pieces.

What’s your go-to karaoke song? I think the last time I did karaoke was on tour in Beijing in the early to mid-’90s. I didn’t know much music, but they had “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” which I grew up hearing because my mom had Roberta Flack’s album. If I did karaoke again, I’d look for Brazilian music, Tropicalismo, or MPB artists like Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Marisa Monte. I can sing high like Yannick can, so I’d love to try some soprano opera arias like Tosca’s “Vissi d’arte” or Butterfly’s “Un bel dì, vedremo.” I did “Voi che sapete” from The Marriage of Figaro for colleagues at a hotel bar in Chengdu on the last tour!

When was the first time you heard The Philadelphia Orchestra? The first time I heard it live was as a student at Curtis in 1985. But I grew up hearing the Orchestra on the radio in my teens in west Texas.

Other than Marian Anderson Hall, where is your favorite place to perform? There is always something very special about Carnegie Hall, and I’m sure it is the hall besides the Academy of Music and Marian Anderson Hall in which the Orchestra has played the most. We have a great shared history. There is a unique glow to the sound there.

What is your favorite memory with the Orchestra? I’ll go with a recent one: Tristan and Isolde with Yannick, Stuart Skelton as Tristan, and the legendary Nina Stemme as Isolde. She retired the role in those performances, and clearly there were audience members who traveled to witness it. Also, playing a four-and-a-half hour opera is utterly different from playing two-hour concerts, and I was in some kind of mix of hyper-alertness, brain fog from concentrating so hard, and altered reality from the length of time!