Re: GG:Goldberg Variations...and Conservatory

[Katherine Lee <katherine@dna.bc.ca>]

At 4:27 PM -0500 3/22/98, Elisha J Tseng wrote:
[snip]
>About the Conservatory, I've visited the website (thanks to all of you
>for the info!) and had requested some info.  The place is still called
>Royal Conservatory of Music, but the actual conservatory is called "The
>Glenn Gould Professional School" (go figure!;-).  Has anyone in this list
>seen or been to this school?  My mom is doubtful about me going to
>Toronto at the end of my senior year (she's afraid that the school
>changed its name in order to attract more students.  Plus it is rather
>far away).  I mean, GG graduated from there, so it must be somewhat
>distinguished--am I right?
>
>Thanks(;-), Elisha

Hi Elisha:

It occurs to me that you might want to contact John Beckwith, who is a
prominent Canadian composer, and taught at the Faculty of Music at the
University of Toronto from 1952 (he was the Dean there from 1970 to 1977).
He and Glenn Gould both studied with Alberto Guerrero AND at the Toronto
Conservatory (before it was called the Royal Conservatory) ... so he may be
uniquely qualified to speak about the musical institutions in Toronto, as
well as what it was like to be a contemporary of Gould's.

Beckwith can be contacted c/o the U of T Faculty of Music.  Their fax
number is (416) 978-5771.

Also, not that I've ever attended the RCM (the only influence I've had is
studying their exam books and going through the yearly torture of graded
exams as a child) ... you might want to keep in mind that it's not
necessarily the institution itself that makes a great artist ... so
(warning!!! unsolicited advice ahead :-) ) keep an open mind, check out
other schools & do all the research you need to do before you decide.

Good luck!


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