Glenn Gould was born in Toronto on September 25, 1932. His family was a musical one: Edvard Grieg was a first cousin of his mother's grandfather, his father is an amateur violinist, and his mother played piano and organ. His mother was his only music/piano teacher until he was ten. When he was three years old it became evident that he possessed exceptional music abilities, including absolute pitch and even the ability to read staff notation. At five, he was playing his own compositions for family and friends. At age six, Glenn was taken to his first live musical performance which he recalled as being Josef Hofmann's last performance in Toronto. It created a lasting and important impression upon the boy.

Robert Fulford, a distinguished Canadian author, met Glenn when they were both nine, when his family moved next door to the Goulds, he wrote... "Even as a child Glenn was isolated because he was working like hell to be a great man. He had a tremendous feeling and loving affection for music... It was an utter, complete feeling. He knew who he was and where he was going."

At age ten Gould began lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto: Alberto Guerrero was his piano teacher; he studied organ with Frederick C. Silvester and theory from Leo Smith.

Gould competed in 1944 at age 12, in the annual Kiwanis Music Festival and won the piano trophy. In 1945 he passed the associateship examination as a solo performer at the Royal Conservatory, signifying a professional level of attainment. In 1946, at age 14, he passed the music theory examination and was awarded a diploma with highest honours. Gould continued piano lessons with Alberto Guerrero until 1952.

Of significant influence upon the teen-aged Gould were Artur Schnabel ("The piano was a means to an end for him, and the end was to approach Beethoven"), Rosalyn Tureck's recording of Bach ("upright, with a sense of repose and positiveness") and Leopold Stokowski (upon whom Gould would later write and produce Stokowski: A Portrait for CBC Radio).

Gould's public debut was in 1945 as an organist in a performance sponsored by the Casavant Society at the Eaton Auditorium. The review in The Evening Telegram was headed "Boy, age 12, Shows Genius As Organist". In 1946 he first performed as soloist with orchestra at a Royal Conservatory concert performing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. Of this occasion Gould wrote that it required little preparation because he had owned Schnabel's recording for over two years and knew every nuance. The following year Gould played the same concerto with The Toronto Symphony and The Telegram wrote, "he sat at the piano as a child among professors, and he talked with them as one with authority."

His first public recital as a pianist came in 1947 and included Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt. "Genius as profound as their own was at the keyboard" was what one reviewer wrote. Gould gave his first network radio recital for the CBC in 1959, the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship.

Gould made his U.S. debut in 1955 at the Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C. performing the G Major Partita of Bach, Beethoven's Sonata in E Major, op. 109, five Three-Part Inventions of Bach, Webern's Variations Op. 27, and the Berg Sonata, some Gibbons and Sweelinck. Paul Hume wrote, "Few pianists play the instrument so beautifully, so lovingly, so musicianly in manner, and with such regard for its real nature and its enormous literature. Glenn Gould is a pianist with rare gifts for the world. It must not long delay hearing and according him the honour and audience he deserves. We know of no pianist anything like him of any age."

On the evening of January 11, 1955, Gould made his New York debut ("Debutown" as Gould has called it) at Town Hall and next day David Oppenheim, Director of Columbia Masterworks at the time, signed Gould to a recording contract. Gould's taping of Bach's Goldberg Variations took place at the CBS Studios in June of that year. Time Magazine stated "Bach as the old master himself must have played". The record won instant acclaim and has remained a CBS bestseller to this day.

Gould's U.S. orchestral debut came in 1956 with Detroit Symphony. Again he played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. The following year, Gould debuted with the New York Philharmonic. Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Second Concerto. During that same year, 1957, Gould embarked upon his first European tour beginning with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert Von Karajan. The two artists remained admirers of each other's work from that time.

Tours, recordings, and engagements with the finest orchestras continued. Of a performance with the London Symphony Orchestra under Josef Krips, The Musical Times stated, "But when all is said, the playing's the thing, and if Glenn Gould should find it impossible to play as well as he does without, let us say, standing on his head, I for one would not object. He would, I am sure, do this if he felt like it, without first asking my or anybody else's permission."

During the early 60s, Gould performed and lectured extensively, until, without any fanfare, Gould made his last public appearance as a pianist in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, on March 28, 1964.

From that time until his death from a stroke in October, 1982, Glenn Gould devoted himself not only to the piano, as expressed through his more than sixty masterworks recordings, but to publishing, radio and television broadcasting, philosophy, scoring feature films, conducting, and generally realizing the tremendous potential that he harboured as creative genius.

In 1982, CBS Masterworks released a new digital recording of the Goldberg Variations, which won two Grammy Awards, the Grand Prix du Disque Award from the Academy Charles Cros, and a Juno for Best Classical Album of 1982. At that Juno Awards Ceremony, Gould was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

Following his demise, further recordings of new material have continued to be released by CBS (now Sony Music). One of them, two Beethoven Sonatas, released in 1983, won Gould his fourth career Grammy Award and his recording of Brahms' Ballades won him a Juno Award in 1984.

Courtesy of the Glenn Gould Foundation
For more information about Glenn Gould, visit Sony Canada's Glenn Gould website.