An Interview with Jana Luckey
by Nancy Skinner-Oclander
When Jana Luckey was nine years old, her public school gave her the opportunity to choose which instrument she would play in the orchestra. She chose flute. She was handed a cello instead, and although she had no way of knowing it at the time, her school had made an excellent decision for her.
“I had no idea I would become a musician,” says Jana,
“but it's a good thing that I didn't get my first choice,
because I would've been a terrible flutist!”
Although 1996 finds Jana in her fourth season as Principal Cellist of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra in Ontario, teaching cello at the Flint School for the Performing Arts, and performing chamber music whenever possible, she maintains that in high school she was “not focused on cello. I felt pressured to go on by my teacher - and I rebelled.” Jana decided instead to attend Bryn Mawr College to study psychology. It was not until ten years later that she finally enrolled in the master's program at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Convincing people at music school to take seriously her desire to play professionally was a challenge.
“Conservatories are pretty youth-oriented, and it was awful getting stuck in string quartets with players who were ten years younger than me. At that point, though, I wasn't about to let anyone hold me back.” After advancing in several major orchestra auditions, Jana won the Windsor position immediately upon graduation. “My more skeptical colleagues from music school would be shocked that I'm now performing concertos and playing chamber music at such a high level,” Jana admits, “but I've worked hard to create these opportunities.”
She reflects, “I think that when you're ready to be a musician, that's the time to pursue it. Going to music school right after high school wouldn't have put me ahead of where I am now; the motivation just wasn't there at the time. Luckily for me, I had great musical training while growing up in Rochester, New York. My elementary school music teachers were Eastman graduates, and my high school had two orchestras, three bands, and three jazz bands.” This musical upbringing eased Jana's return to cello: “The process was more a question of relearning all the things I used to know how to do.”
Jana bought her cello from Curtin & Alf in December of 1995. It is a 1980 Joseph Curtin instrument with a new top built in 1995. Italo Babini, Principal Cellist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, knew of her search, and told her about the cello. “He helped me so much during a critical time,” she recalls. “I had been traveling to New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, and I had seen enough instruments to know not to let this one get away. I never expected to end up working with a maker, but it's been a fascinating experience.”
In the first months after the purchase, Joseph and Jana spent quite a bit of time adjusting her new cello together. “Clearly, the maker's ego is going to be tied up in the instrument, but it also has to be exactly right for the player.
I've learned that there are many subtle factors that have a huge influence on playability - the bridge, string height, fingerboard curvature. When I first started looking for an instrument, I didn't know what questions to ask. Working with Joseph really opened up in my mind the range of possibilities for my instrument.”