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iolin has always been part of Jacques Forestier’s
life, but he doesn’t remember the first time he
held or even heard one, because humans don’t
form memories before two years old.
“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have [a]
violin,” he says. “I’d say my first memory probably goes
back to when I was about four. I remember discovering
on my own how to do vibrato.”
That self-taught moment of learning to toggle between
notes has reverberated throughout Forestier’s life and
career — which, at only 19 years old, is already substantial.
As a child of musician parents, it’s no shock
Forestier followed in their musical footsteps. But there’s
a difference between being musically inclined and
maniacally interested in an instrument you’ve yet to
even play.
“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.
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.”
20 Together we thrive
“I’d say my first
memory probably
goes back to
when I was about
four. I remember
discovering on
my own how to do
vibrato.”
— Jacques Forestier
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.
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