Editor’s note: As the Juno Awards 2013 prepare to celebrate the best of Canadian music this weekend, Western Journalism students help us celebrate the best in Western Music. Read the full Music Issue.
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Howling wind and cold rain stream through a broken window in a small greenroom, but Robert Kubica is focused on only two things – his hands and the guitar they hold. Kubica is backstage trying to warm up for a performance, and the weather conditions are not helping much. It’s a December night that Kubica, 48, can now recall with humour.
“It’s handy to bring a pair of mittens,” he said.
Kubica has considerable musical experience on and off the stage. He is one half of the leading Canadian guitar duo Kubica and Van Berkel and has been instructing with the guitar studio at Western’s Don Wright Faculty of Music since 1999. He also teaches high school music classes at Sir Wilfred Laurier Secondary School in London.
His long list of professional accomplishments now has a new addition. Kubica released his first solo album this summer, after months of preparation. To The Greenwood Gone includes music of the Renaissance and traditional Celtic songs, all arranged and played by Kubica himself. Even the cover art is the musician’s own painting.
“I’ve been playing so long,” he said. “It’s a necessity to me to be able to use music as a way of expressing.”
The guitar began to interest Kubica in his early teens. “Like a lot of kids at that age, I was interested in rock music and forming a band with my friends,” he said. A self-taught player, Kubica decided to formally study the instrument and completed his undergrad in guitar performance at Western in 1989.
From there he went to Prague to continue studying under Štepán Rak. While overseas he met his wife, fellow guitarist Wilma Van Berkel. The two formed a guitar duo in 1990 and produced three albums during the next decade.
Kubica credits their time together in Europe as the foundation for their musical success. “It takes a long time as a guitar duo to develop to a point because the ideal is that you sound like one instrument,” he said. “And so you really have to learn to read each other and to match each other.”
Teaching keeps Kubica quite busy during the year, as he juggles lessons at the university, high school and his home studio. But he enjoys the personal interaction with students. “When a light goes on and they say, ‘Oh, I get it now,’ that’s really satisfying as a teacher,” he said.
Kubica’s willingness to share the secrets of his craft has enhanced his reputation as a great educator, says Peter Karle, a third-year student of the musician. “Bob can tell you exactly what you want to know (about the music), as if he’s been friends with the composer his whole life,” he said.
While Kubica enjoys teaching, he balances his time in the classroom with his own playing. Lately, he’s been working with a group of local musicians interested in traditional Irish music. They meet weekly for informal playing sessions.
Kubica’s musical contribution to the ensemble is very pleasing to Western colleague Kari Veblen, also a member of the group. “Our sessions are a bit like the old story of stone soup where everyone who comes adds something special,” she explains. “What Bob adds is a generous cup of cream and a dash of sherry, enriching the sound and infusing it with flavour.”