Marc Middleton and Jackie Carlin / Photography by Mike Dunn
Benoit Glazer is a unique, talented and passionate man on a musical mission. To say he personifies focused energy would be a massive understatement.
“I do everything with intensity,” he said. “I don't believe in doing something halfway or half-cocked. I go all the way in everything I do.” This is a story about going all the way. Glazer is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and conductor who played professionally all over the world before taking a major risk and moving from Montreal to Orlando to become musical director of “La Nouba” for Cirque du Soleil. “When we came to the United States in 1998, my wife and I had three, young kids and were $43,000 in debt. We just said, ‘Okay, let's do it,’” Glazer said. “La Nouba” was a significant musical challenge and a major success for Glazer. He loved working for Cirque du Soleil but quickly became restless on his two nights off. “It was very hard in 1999 to find any good live music or exceptional 32
THE MUSIC MAN
cultural experiences on a Tuesday or Wednesday night in Orlando,” he recalled. “So, we decided to have a concert at our house.” Glazer knew how to find musicians. But every concert needs an audience, so he and his wife, Elaine, and their three young children, went door-to-door around the neighborhood to spread the word. “We knocked on our neighbors’ doors and said, ‘We’re having a concert at the house,’” recalls his son, Charles Glazer. “It’s a new thing we’re trying out. Just come over and bring a little plate of food to share.” They put out a few bottles of wine, moved the furniture and created a small space for the musicians and their audience. It was just going to be one concert — a chance to entertain the neighbors and keep Benoit Glazer from being bored on a Tuesday night. “But as soon as it was over,
G R O W I N G B O L D E R / J A N UA R Y 2 0 2 2 D I G I TA L D I G E S T
everyone asked, ‘When is the next one?’ And that’s how it all began,” Glazer said. Word spread about Glazer’s living-room concerts; and quickly, his living room wasn’t big enough. When the audience spilled out the door and into the backyard, the music man became the demolition man. “He knocked down one of the walls to make the living room bigger,” said his son. Glazer didn’t stop there. After tearing down a second wall, his passion project ran into the proverbial wall and it was time to consider another major risk. “Elaine and I sat down and said, ‘We can pull back on the concerts or we can put all the money we've ever made, and the money we’ll ever make, into building a new house with something more appropriate for the concerts. But if we do that, we might not have a comfortable retirement.’ And we said, ‘Okay, let's do it,’” Glazer said.
