Class Acts: Tariq Khan ’98 & Zihan Cai ’13, Pre-U ’14

Tariq Khan ’98:

On the Record

The school is cool because, while people there want to be successful, like anywhere, there is this parallel idea of making a meaningful contribution.

BY MARK BOGHEN

If you knew Tariq Khan ’98 in his LCC days, you might not have predicted that he would go on to found HighBreedMusic, a cuttingedge music platform, recording studio and performance lounge that attracts some of the best musicians in the world. However, it would not have been a stretch to guess that he would build his life around music.

Having studied classical throughout his childhood — he started violin at the age of two — Tariq participated in every LCC band he could. The Jazz Cats Big Band, the Latin and bebop ensembles, he missed no opportunity to play, usually as a drummer. Every day was crammed with lessons and rehearsals. The school’s music teachers at the time were professional jazz performers, and they held classes in the church on NDG Avenue, often after playing gigs late into the night before. Tariq is still in contact with his first LCC drumming teacher, Quebec musician Eloi

Bertholet, and even mixed an album with teacher Roger Walls, who had played lead trumpet with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie bands.

After graduating from LCC, and around the time he was continuing his studies at Vanier College, Tariq scraped together all the credit he could and bought enough equipment to start a small recording studio in his parents’ BaieD’Urfé basement. Meanwhile, he was playing in every kind of band that would have him: reggae, drum’n’bass, hip hop. He was deeply influenced by the Soulquarian movement, a rotating group of avant-garde Black musicians that included the likes of D’Angelo and Erykah Badu.

In his early 20s Tariq branched out into organizing “nights” at downtown Montreal spaces, in which groups of musicians of many different stripes would gather and play. It was in those years that he made the technical and creative breakthrough that would come to be associated with him. He had arranged for the Cuban singer Janet Valdes to make an album in Montreal. “She was an amazing live performer,” he recalls, “but couldn’t reproduce the same energy in the studio, which she wasn’t used to. My space at the time was upstairs from a Haitian community centre that occasionally hosted shows. I drilled holes in the floor and invented a system to run cables so I could record her while she performed for the crowd, but with the advantages of recording instruments separately for the purposes of mixing and production.” This innovation would prove to be his great leap forward.

TARIQ KHAN ’98 AT HIS RECORDING STUDIO

Already a working producer, musician and event organizer, Tariq was drawn to New York City, with its matchless level of talent and professionalism. At first, the success that he’d found at home was hard to duplicate. “For the first couple years, I was overwhelmed by the scope of everything,” he admits. Then he had his next big “aha” moment. “No one was impressed that I was a producer or had my own studio. Every great musician in the city already had someone for all of that. Once I realized that instead of telling them what I could do, I’d get further by asking them what they needed, I started to build productive relationships and everything came together for me.”

Today, Brooklyn-based HighBreedMusic is a focal point of the New York scene, attracting top talent in a wide range of musical genres to perform together, record and even make concert videos, for which Tariq has just concluded a distribution deal with legendary producer Quincy Jones’s QwestTV platform. He’s worked with artists as diverse as Lauryn Hill, jazz great Ron Carter, and Stephen Colbert band leader Louis Cato. He’s even recorded an album with online sensation Sheena Melwani ’00, a singer he first met when she took the microphone for the LCC Jazz Cats!

Tariq remembers his high school days with fondness. “LCC gave me a great foundation and I made friends from so many backgrounds. The school is cool because, while people there want to be successful, like anywhere, there is this parallel idea of making a meaningful contribution.”

And his advice to today’s students who might want to follow in his footsteps? “Whatever your craft, there is no substitute for a really strong foundation. Once you have skills and knowledge, they’ll always serve you well. And work on your teamwork skills. Even the most talented person can’t get anywhere without gathering a supportive team and working together. Once you’ve got a great circle around you, you can really get the best out of yourself.”

Zihan Cai ’13, Pre-U ’14:

Environmental advocacy, from forests to fresh water & COP 15

BY WENDY SINGER, WRITER

We have to think here and now, and for the future.

Zihan Cai ’13, Pre-U ’14 grew up feeling fortunate to live in Montreal, surrounded by a lush ecosystem of forests and fresh water where she could hike and pick blueberries. At the same time, at only 10 years of age, she was conscious about the excess of plastic bags she saw building up in her home. She imagined that if the same thing were happening in landfills across the globe, there would eventually be no more space and no place for the bags to go.

These concerns were on Zihan’s mind while attending LCC and, later, when pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental science at the University of Toronto (U of T), where she had received a full entrance scholarship.

Studying global environmental perspectives with a diverse student body was an eye-opening experience for Zihan. “In Canada we have a lot of water and promote vegetarianism as a means of protecting the environment. But in countries like Kenya that have frequent droughts, having meat is a way to survive global change because the crops are unreliable,” she says.

Over the years, Zihan has taken on leadership roles managing environment-related projects. One of her first contracts was with Ocean Wise, a global environmental charity that addresses overfishing, ocean pollution and climate change, where she coached program participants on their marine conservation service projects. More recently, she worked with Environment and Climate Change Canada, registering Canadian delegates for COP 15, the United Nations biodiversity conference held in Montreal last December.

She also participated on the COP 15 ChinaQuebec Forum’s youth panel, where she spoke about marine conservation programs that youth can support, such as shoreline cleanups and sea forestation, which could include planting kelp or seaweed in the ocean in conjunction with trees on land.

ZIHAN CAI ’13, PRE-U ’14 WORKS WITH THE CITY OF TORONTO TREE PLANTING AND STEWARDSHIP VOLUNTEERS ON ONSITE RESTORATION

Zihan can trace her beginnings in project management back to her days at LCC when she served as house head for French House. In this role, she discovered that leadership is all about collaboration and being approachable, supportive and encouraging. “Listening to others and valuing their input creates a stronger team environment, helps develop others’ leadership skills and encourages change,” she says. LCC provided Zihan with a solid foundation, particularly in mathematics, that served her well in her studies in environmental data on topics like insect diversity, and the Spadefoot Toad—a research project she led at U of T that was submitted to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. “Math was a piece of cake after the training I received at LCC with Mr. Hoteit,” she says.

She was also active in arts and athletics, from playing the flute in the band with Mr. Cheyne, painting with Ms. Loeb, and practicing cardio and strength training with Mr. Moody.

Zihan is now working at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, collaborating with industry professionals to bring workplace projects into the classroom. The leadership skills that she honed at LCC continue to be invaluable as she builds relationships with colleagues, professors, academic staff and managers. Continually concerned about the environment, Zihan includes at least one project per semester that addresses sustainability in business.

“We have to think here and now, and for the future,” she says, encouraging students to start small. “Look for tree-planting events, clean up the shoreline, report the data and contribute to a pool of citizen-science data. Lead those conversations. Bring sustainability as a mindset to any job you take on.”

In her spare time, Zihan practices Wushu, a form of Chinese martial arts which she began studying just seven years ago. Top ranked in the women over 18 category in Quebec, she aspires to make the national team and compete on the world stage. “I started Wushu late at the age of 19. Many start in childhood,” she says. “But now I know it is never too late to try something you are passionate about.”