On May 13, audiences will be able to watch this year’s Glenn Gould School Piano Showcase from the comfort of their homes for the very first time. Pianists from The Glenn Gould School will perform the complete first book of Préludes by 20th-century French composer Claude Debussy.
While it was originally hoped that this concert could be performed live on April 10, increased provincial lockdown restrictions required the showcase to be adapted from a livestream to a recording session, and GGS students once again demonstrated their ability to roll with the punches.
“Life is full of challenges, and we constantly need to be creative and find ways to adapt and find solutions,” says James Anagnoson, Dean of The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School. “The pandemic took away our ability to do live performances for an audience, so we adapted and arranged for each student to record their Prélude in Temerty Theatre, which we then put together for a livestream of the event.”
While pianist Eric Guo (BMus ’24) has certainly had an atypical experience as a first year in the Bachelor of Music program, he has not shied away from virtual performance opportunities and acknowledges the unique challenges inherent to this format. “With the format of a livestream concert, it's essential to have both the technical accuracy of a recording and the passion, fire, and charisma of a live performance,” says Guo. “I imagined that there was an audience sitting there and would connect with them when producing a sound.”
“The students didn't have the experience of performing live for an audience, but performing in front of cameras is a different kind of pressure, and it takes experience doing it to learn how to play well in this setting,” says Dean Anagnoson. “In the end, something was lost, but something else was gained – or as we have been saying all year, we made lemonade out of lemons!”
As a fourth-year pianist in the Bachelor of Music program, Mariya Orlenko (BMus ’21) will be graduating this June. In a year of few public performances, Mariya has chosen to maintain a positive outlook. “Of course, I do still miss walking onto the stage and bowing to the audience, as well as, and I never thought I’d say this, hearing the occasional cough or squeaking of a chair as I play... but dare I say, this is almost as good.”
“While it was sad to not see every pianist performing, I felt that the space allowed us to express a more intimate portrayal of our musical personalities,” says Chelsea Ahn (BMus ’23), a second-year student in the Bachelor of Music program. “Given this unique opportunity, I'm excited to hear how all the pianists unify digitally!”
“Recording for the piano showcase this year was a breath of fresh air,” says Orlenko. “Being able to see my peers in a performance setting, even though we weren’t performing live together, was such an amazing opportunity.”
The Glenn Gould School Piano Showcase premiered via livestream on May 13 at 3 p.m. ET. Watch the broadcast now!
