Started piano at age four with (believe it or not) the Kelly Kirby method – baby C, bumble B, doggie D – and a kind-hearted teacher named Edna Smith who always put me last on her student recitals, at the end of her teaching day so I could have extra time and a ride home in her Jag (she didn’t need the money!), and who let me have her lesson time with Boris Berlin in Toronto when she couldn’t make it there. Mr. Berlin later became my main piano teacher for many years, beginning when I studied music at McMaster University, taking one lesson a week from the late Reginald Bedford, and practising a separate repertoire for my bi-weekly lessons with Mr. Berlin at the Univeristy of Toronto music building. Oh yeah, McMaster U. gave me a hand-made Medal for the Performing and Creative Arts upon graduation (given to one person chosen from all the arts faculties each year).
Along the way, played in master classes such as with early music specialist Raymond Dudley, Janos Solyom and Karl Ulrich Schnabel (son of the fellow who recorded and edited the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas), and sat in on many master classes for piano and other instruments like violin, cello, clarinet and flute (you learn more about your own instrument by thinking about other ones).
Was a festival kid, winning at least one scholarship a year for a 13-year stretch. Entered the Canadian Music Festival Stepping Stones competition (four recital rounds, including a concerto with orchestra), bombing out the first time, and then finishing about fourth or fifth nationwide a couple of years later.
As for the fiddle, the rumors are true – studied violin from age eight into university (actually starting as a violin major; got the highest Grade 10 violin exam mark in Ontario), and briefly studying with Marta Hidy, now a friend, and for whom I later organized and managed a string chamber orchestra, Ensemble Sir Ernest MacMillan, that performed for eight years).
While a university student and for a period after that, gave quite a few solo recitals, performed concertos with orchestras in Hamilton and Toronto on about ten occasions (including various Bach, Bloch, Mozart and Mendelssohn concertos, as well as the Canadian premiere of the Chinese Yellow River Piano Concerto with the McMaster Symphony at Mohawk College, with members of the Chinese embassy from Ottawa in attendance). Later in life, while accompanying a Suzuki Institute in Calgary, my dream came true – performed Leroy Anderson’s Typewriter (on a genuine Underwood) with the faculty orchestra!
Over the years, been a piano accompanist for everything from flute to tubas, working with the university’s madrigal choir, chamber music, accompanying solo operatic recitals (including one where the organizer’s offered me a shot of whisky before going on stage – declined), rehearsal pianist for Opera Hamilton’s production of La Bohème, stage pit keyboard player for Theatre Aquarius, keyboard player for the defunct Toronto Pops Orchestra. Now I play mainly for string instruments (Suzuki String School of Guelph, Institutes in Montreal and Waterloo, auditions, recitals, competitions) and the Guelph Youth Singers.
Taught harmony at Mohawk College and McMaster University, music appreciation at Sheridan College in Oakville and Brampton, coached chamber music for Mohawk College, and on the side, was music critic for the Hamilton Spectator for about a decade and contributor of articles to Music Canada magazine (I don’t think it exists any more) and Hamilton Magazine. Other things included organizing a classical music series in Hamilton in the pattern of after dinner theatre, which had a parade of Hamilton Philharmonic players and Toronto people (including myself) in performances in front of candle lit dining tables (the biggest success was an intimate performance by Liona Boyd). I also was co-director of the Hamilton Kiwanis Music Festival for a couple of years and, of course, put them permanently into the computer age. Also had a crack as a music festival piano adjudicator in Simcoe, Ontario (2003).
Other occupations, aside from private piano teaching and accompanying, are somewhat accidental, including a little company called Artset, which is me, my silent partner and buddy Norm Reintamm (formerly assistant conductor of the National Ballet of Canada), and a collection of Macintosh computers. The other preoccupation is the continuing development of a MIDI music software program called The Pianist, which is now temporarily shelved (copyright issues with some of the content) but still in development (volume 7 in progress). It’s produced by PG Music of Victoria and was always favorably reviewed by magazines and internet music sites. Also spend a lot of time producing music and music books for Frederick Harris Music, Ltd. of Toronto, Ontario (including making the Vandendool and Sarnecki books, as well as the music for Exploring Music History, Celebrate Piano and Sound Advice series).
My God! They sold The Pianist in the music department of London, England’s famous Harrods.
Here I am (in December 2001) pointing to the box on the shelf.
Maintain a studio in my home town of Hamilton, but live in Guelph with my violinist wife, Paule Barsalou. Now that’s more than you need to know! (Ken Gee 2004)
