Today we’d like to introduce you to Benoit Glazer.
Benoit, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I came to Orlando in 1998 to take the post of conductor/musical director at La Nouba, Cirque du Soleil. We used to be off on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Élaine and I could not find good live music on those nights in or around Orlando, so we started having concerts in our home. The concerts grew very fast. After tearing down as many walls as I could, we realized we needed to design and build a home that was more conducive to presenting events in. So, in 2004, we found a spot in SoDo with loads of parking, near all major roadways, bought the modest home that what there, and built our pretty unique home in that ideal spot. We have a conditional use permit from the city of Orlando to operate. We have now presented about 1100 public concerts, and about the same number of private events and recording sessions. We have been integrating visual arts into the experience since about 2002, and pride ourselves in having the most diverse programming around. The Timucua Arts Foundation, which we founded in 2004, has a wonderful board and is growing steadily, both in budget, reach, and in reputation. Performers come from all over the world to play at the house, and our audience is loyal and dedicated. We collaborate with many local and regional arts organizations, and several people have started their own concert series, inspired by our work.
I still play trumpet, compose and conduct, but mostly for fun now. I took up golf in 2017, at 50…everyone needs a hobby, and the concerts are now my full-time job.
Élaine, my wife of 30 years, is a piano teacher and she loves singing, so she is in several choirs and quartets. Our three kids are wonderful musicians, though none is earning their living with music right now. Charles Édouard plays violin, viola, and bass, and he is reconditioning pianos in Melbourne, Jean-Marie works in a music store, builds and referees D&D-type games, and is a great cellist who plays around town, and our daughter Camille plays horn and viola. She is a veterinary surgeon who is now in Africa researching ways to eliminate parasitic diseases that affect millions of people in the global south. She is a recent Acute Myeloid Leukemia survivor.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life is not smooth for anyone. It would be boring, I suppose. My dad passed away when I was 15, on the eve of college applications. I changed my major to music (from physics), went around the band room, tried every instrument, and put down the one that I could not make a sound out of, the trumpet. I had six weeks until college auditions. So no, my road was not a smooth one. I was so far behind; I took my first day off 10 years later. But I was teaching at McGill University at 21, and I was incredibly fortunate to play with many musicians much, much better than me, all over North America and Europe.
As for Timucua, we consciously decided to pour all our money, retirement fund, kids college funds, and all, into building a home with a 100-seat venue in the living room. We also decided to let the real estate bubble of 2006 burst rather than sell and stop our home concerts while our new home was being built.
We constantly have to fundraise to keep Timucua on top of the small venue world. But the result is that we have the best small venue in the south, complete with a state-of-the-art recording and broadcast studio, and one of about six active acoustic control systems from ACS, a Dutch company who leads the world in that field. The result is that we can provide ideal acoustics for just about any kind of music.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have always been a bit of an amateur engineer. The combination of arts, music, and design has proven to be very good for me. The house design is pretty good, but I have since refined it to a high degree, and I am confident that the next projects will feel, look, and sound even better than our Orlando location.
In fact, the ultimate goal is to offer a complete tour to performers, from D.C to Miami and back to New Orleans.
This would include the same feel, incredible backline, and acoustics as Timucua, but add lodging to the mix.
Imagine musicians not having to give all their money, or having to spend hours every day, to organize a tour. One application and you’re off…all you would have to worry about is putting a great concert together and transportation. This would be such an important asset for performers. And in turn, audiences would reep the benefits of a much higher level of artistic content. Because that is what we want to offer: A peak artistic experience, both for the artists and for the audience.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Finding a few people who believe in what you do, and let you do what you are good at doing. That is the key. Everyone working at what they are good at, all for a common goal.
Contact Info:
- Email: chris@timucua.com
- Website: http://timucua.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timucuaarts
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timucuaartsfoundation
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Timucua
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/timucua-arts-foundation-orlando
- Other: http://benoitglazer.com
Image Credits
Andreas Volmer
