Born and raised in Lachine, Quebec, dynamic percussionist Beverley Johnston began her music studies at Vanier College in Montreal and was then accepted into the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, to study music education. Johnston is recognized as a “Canadian Music Centre Ambassador” because of her ongoing commissioning and performing of music by Canadian composers. She tours and performs frequently in Canada and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, and is a frequent contributor at summer festivals such as Festival of the Sound and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Featured in several documentaries Johnston has recorded six solo CDs and collaborated on numerous others. She has been an instructor at the Banff Centre and currently teaches at the UofT, Faculty of Music.

About your childhood photo… I believe it was my fifth birthday party, at my home in Lachine, Quebec, with all my friends from the street and my sister. This photo makes me realize that I have not lost that sense of concentration that happens when immersed in the sound of a musical instrument. Playing an instrument is one of the most satisfying activities…the ability to create your own sounds with your own body…as opposed to just listening.

Suppose a friendly child asks what your job is? Well, I would say that I make my living from beating things! But seriously I would say that I do a number of different things to make a living: playing extra in different orchestras and chamber music with some pretty awesome musicians, teaching percussion, recording and commissioning composers to write me solo pieces!

Your absolute earliest memory of hearing music? I actually don’t remember much from when I was younger about hearing music but I suppose subconsciously music was just there and when I was very little, I would rock my body back and forth when hearing something musical. This helped me to relax and to also be in that music trance! I think the most connected memories would be when my mother would sing to me. She seemed so happy then. She would imitate the sound of castenets with her tongue which always used to make me laugh! We listened to my mother and father’s small but varied collection of LP records. These included opera and I do remember some wonderful Danny Kaye records which included him imitating different voices and characters. We had a small record player on the second floor of our house and danced around when playing the records. It wasn’t like I was going out of my way to listen to music when I was a child. It was just there, through listening to the radio, watching television and attending local musical events either through church events or through school events.

Working musicians in your family? My mother, Mary, was a substitute elementary school teacher and stay-at-home mom. My father, Gerald, was a horse-racing chemist (they tested the horses at the race track for drugs) who eventually expanded his company to include environmental testing. There were no working musicians although my grandmother on my father’s side was a great organist for the local church in Thetford Mines, Quebec. I loved listening to her play both piano and organ. But we all enjoyed music. My sister and I took piano lessons for a few years. I continued playing piano even after I finished with the lessons. I was drawn to the instrument like a magnet! My mother loved to listen to opera while my father was more interested in jazz. My sister and I loved to listen to the latest most popular rock music which, of course, included the Beatles!

Your very first recollection of making music? Making music started in the kindergarten rhythm band…playing the triangle. It’s ironic that playing the triangle was probably one of the biggest sources of income for me when I first became a professional musician….one of the first gigs I had was playing mostly triangle for the National Ballet Orchestra!

A first instrument other than your own voice? My first instrument was the piano. I started lessons at age seven until age ten. But I continued playing during lunchtime after I quit the lessons. I would grab any music available, from classical to pop tunes and sight read them on piano. I loved just getting lost in the music and the feeling of being able to instantly create melodies and harmonies and also to sing along with the tunes.

An important first music teacher? I did not enjoy my piano-lesson teacher…she was a bit harsh. But the first real influence on my musical life was Iwan Edwards, my music teacher at Lachine High School which was just up the street from where I lived. My music experience there was awesome…thanks to Iwan! He was brilliant and very encouraging to me. He thought I should become a singer….not a percussionist! Iwan has been a big name in Canada as a top choral conductor.

Early experiences of making collaborative music? Perhaps the first collaborations were singing in choirs in elementary school and with certain church groups to which I belonged. My first legitimate percussion experiences were, of course, playing in the high school band!

The first time you performed for an audience? I was involved with a few house concerts at my piano teacher’s house. I first performed as a percussionist in my high school band in Grade 7…that would be in 1969. I remember the band only had minimum percussion gear…the usual snare drum and bass drum…and then a set of chimes. We did an arrangement of Black Magic Woman and there was a bells part (probably supposed to be played on glockenspiel) which I ended up playing on the chimes with one mallet. Interesting!!!

How about composing, and improvising? I don’t compose…I leave that up to my husband who’s an expert at that. But through my career I have dabbled in structured improvisations which I thoroughly enjoy. I also love working with composers since I feel that I am a part of the creative process: developing the piece without actually having to write it myself!

And leading other musicians? I suppose that my work as a teacher has allowed me to lead other musicians. I’ve certainly been involved with many projects with which I’ve had to take the lead in aspects of organizing rehearsals, coaching ensembles and all the logistics that are involved with putting on a successful concert.

What early experiences most significantly formed your adult musical appetites? I remember the feeling of being totally absorbed and lost in my music which was a great way of dealing with my external world. I was quite shy but music was a vehicle through which I could most successfully express myself….no pressures. My parents did not pressure me into music at all so for me that was a total relief. In retrospect, I think that is why I ended up being a musician. But Iwan Edwards was the most influential mentor because he was the first person in my life who really understood music at a more sophisticated level.

Do you remember when you began to think of yourself as a career musician? I suppose just joining the Toronto Musicians’ Association was the point at which there was no looking back…yes indeed, at that point (in 1979) was when I knew I was a career musician.

Was there a time when you thought you would do something else? I never thought I would do anything else in my life, simply because I don’t feel I am good at anything else! In this world of seemingly feeling more important if we are capable of multi-tasking at a high rate, I’m the opposite…I am a good ‘uni-tasker’. I love getting absorbed at the task at hand and sticking with it.

AND TODAY

Is the music you are involved in today different from what you thought, as a younger musician, you would be play? I feel the trajectory of my career has been pretty consistent. My main focus for many years (perhaps since university) has been commissioning new works for percussion. What I’m surprised at is that I’ve been able to still play being in my 60s…although I’ve had to be really careful not to overextend myself physically. I find I am not as tolerant to lifting percussion gear. I’ve definitely had to be careful with that!

Are there children in your immediate or extended family? What music-making, if any, are they involved in? I have a stepdaughter who is not a musician but she is currently seeing a rap artist. She loves music but makes her living as a hair dresser.

How does making and/or hearing music fit into your current personal home life, and among your extended family? Both my husband and I are so absorbed into our careers. He is a composer (Christos Hatzis). He has actually written me quite a few solo and chamber works for percussion over the years. What I find as I get older is that I love to absorb creativity through other means…not just by listening to music. I love theatre and anything to do with acting. I attended a few performances at the Luminato Festival last summer and was blown away by the raw talent. I feel that I am still learning so much about performing through other means of creativity besides music. Music for me is the gateway into one’s emotions. If I can tap into creativity from other forms, I find that so enlightening. But I also love listening to music from different cultures and genres than my own. This really feeds my soul.

What would you say to parents/grandparents hoping their young children will grow up to love and make music? Even if your child does not become a professional musician, it’s so important to have them involved in extracurricular activities which involve music. The sound world and the ability to create your own sounds with your own body, is one of the most important activities one can take part in. Music is a special way to connect in a communal environment with other human beings and is so important for our mental health and brain development. It is a shame that some governments feel that these music education activities are not that necessary to fund.

If you were all ALONE (in the shower, driving) and could sing along with complete abandon to ANY one recording, what would you choose? Abbey Road. The Beatles!

UPCOMING…

FEB 21 & 22: Confluence Concerts, “Witch on Thin Ice…” based on the life and works of Yoko Ono. Aki Studio, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto

MAR 8 to 14: Drum Festival, Hugh’s Room Live, Toronto.

APR 2: Music in the Afternoon, “Beverley Johnston and Friends” with special guests Marc Djokic, violin, Susan Hoeppner, flute, Aiyun Huang and Russell Hartenberger, percussion.

MAY 8: Serenata Music presents Beverley Johnston, percussion, Susan Hoeppner, flute. Von Kuster Hall, Don Wright Faculty of Music, London.

Any new recordings, DVD or film projects in the works? My next recording will be released in a few months and it includes an all-Canadian program of works by Christos Hatzis, Richard Mascall, Norbert Palej and Dinuk Wijeratne. It will be available through Centrediscs.

New Music Concerts’ third concert of the season is “Serious Smile” directed by Brian Current, on Thursday February 13, 8pm (with an introductory chat at 7:15pm) at Harbourfront Centre Theatre. “We showcase the future of NMC by celebrating talented young composers and the latest in mind-blowing technology. We top it off with the stellar Chamber Concerto (1970) by Gyorgy Ligeti. If you have not heard this piece live, this is your chance!” MARY LOUIS and CHRISTIAN MUELLER each win a pair of tickets.

But meanwhile, you can hear the RCM Glenn Gould School’s New Music Ensemble concert “For Michael Colgrass” on Sunday, January 19, at 1pm in Mazzoleni Concert Hall, curated and conducted by Brian Current. In honour of Colgrass they will play a world premiere of Bestiary I & II by Bekah Simms for soprano, ensemble and electronics; Gabriel Dharmoo’s the fog in our poise; and the North American premiere of Aguas Marinhas by Miguel Azguime. The tickets to this concert are FREE, 
but will go quickly. Get yours starting Monday January 13!

Composer and conductor Brian Current is co-artistic director, along with Robert Aitken, of New Music Concerts and has been composer adviser for the RCM’s 21C Music Festival. He’s the director of the New Music Ensemble at the RCM Glenn Gould School, and the main conductor for Continuum Contemporary Music.

As a conductor he leads a wide range of 20th/21st century repertoire, and is the champion of close to a hundred works by Canadian composers including commissioned premieres by Linda Catlin Smith, Brian Harman, Christopher Mayo, Bekah Simms, So Jeong Ahn, Andrew Staniland, Alice Ho and many others.

Current’s compositions are programmed frequently by major professional orchestras, opera companies and ensembles across Canada and internationally. The Naxos recording of his opera Airline Icarus won the 2015 Juno Award, Classical Composition of the Year. He was the inaugural winner of the Azrieli Commissioning Competition in 2016. Current’s 2017 opera, Missing, with Métis playwright Marie Clements, is about Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women. Missing has just completed a tour of Victoria, Regina, and Prince George and was featured on our November 2019 cover.

Current was born in London Ontario, and grew up in Ottawa with his older brother Grant and younger sister Catherine. “Both my parents and siblings are very musical. My parents still sing in the Ottawa Choral Society. They may be its longest-serving members. My Dad played Gershwin and Chopin at our living-room piano, and my Mom still plays piano in retirement homes around Ottawa.”

If a friendly child asks what your job is? I draw the music so people know what to play. I also wave my arms so people know when and how to play it.

Where did hearing music fit into your life, growing up? In the car with my parents. Listening to my 80s cassette Walkman while delivering The Globe and Mail (before 7am! Ottawa winter!) as a teenager.

Your very first recollection of making up music yourself? Trying to fake out my mom by pretending to practise Mozart and Beethoven, but rather attempting (poorly) to improvise in that style. She knew.

First instruments other than your own voice? Piano, guitar and euphonium.

A first music teacher? I’d go to the home of Karen Sutherland who was a fantastic local teacher with a half-dozen children of her own.

Early collaborative experiences? My first ensemble experience was as a choirboy at Christchurch Cathedral where the starting salary was $2.10 per week.

After high school? I didn’t know that formal composition as an art form was a thing, but I nevertheless somehow convinced my parents that I should study piano and composition, rather than commerce, at McGill.

When did composing music arise? I knew before high school that I wanted to compose but didn’t know about any existing practices until John Rea inspiringly introduced the composition world to us in a third year undergrad introduction class at McGill.

When did you first conduct? I wrote a piece for tenor, bassoon, overtone singing, bowed banjo and piano and needed to put it together for a concert, and just did it. The first time conducting professional musicians was the National Arts Centre Orchestra in my 20s and it was terrifying but a huge learning experience.

Experiences that formed your adult musical appetites? When I was in the Ottawa Youth Choir, we performed Michael Colgrass’ The Earth’s A Baked Apple which was like music from another planet at the time, and in retrospect was a fantastic introduction to contemporary music.

When did you began to think of yourself as a career musician? 
I still don’t know about this. It remains a struggle. We should all ask ourselves every five years if this life is for us.

Ever think you would do something else? My secret other fantasy job is to be a political journalist in foreign countries for Harpers, The Atlantic, NPR.

Music-making in your own family today? My three kids take piano and violin, but I don’t push them to be professional musicians. More, I would just like them to get a glimpse of the world that I work in daily and love. When the kids were little – one still is – we would listen to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, or the Goldberg Variations every night as they went to sleep. We would listen to the same pieces for years and not get tired of them.

What should we say to parents/grandparents hoping their young children will grow up to love and make music? They won’t regret it if they take music lessons, or if they are introduced to great works.

Music Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra since 2017, Elisa Citterio moved from her native Italy to live in Toronto with her partner and their child, three-year-old Olivia.

Where does making music fit into your child’s life? Music is a form of play for me and Olivia, we do it every day at home. We sing together, we play with small instruments, as well as on a small violin. We pretend to do lessons in a very fun way. She has attended group music classes since age two, and we are planning to start regular violin lessons soon. Olivia also comes to Tafelmusik concerts and rehearsals and joins us on tours, so she is surrounded by music and musicians.

What would you say to people hoping the young children in their lives will grow up to love and make music? As a child, I fell asleep with the sound of Chopin or Bach or Mozart playing on the radio. Musical language enters children’s brains on a subliminal, cellular level. My parents never insisted that we play or study music. It was in the air we breathed. Music education is very important, especially if it is sensitive and subtle.

I would love to see families with young children attending live concerts of any kind on a regular basis. We had a great experience with this recently at Tafelmusik’s Fall Social, a family friendly concert, and I was glad to see so many children there. Music, especially live music, has a deep effect on children, both cognitively and emotionally. In addition to developing cognitive capacities, music provides an important example: watching a group of musicians performing together instills an understanding of a collective effort towards a single goal.

Looking back at yourself …? Violin isn’t an easy instrument at the beginning, and it takes years to get a nice sound. But I also remember how much I enjoyed walking around with my small violin case! I’d like to ask her which piece of music she was playing because I can’t remember it. I would encourage her by saying that music is the best way to connect with oneself.

Just the basics … I was born and raised in Brescia, an Italian city just east of Milan. My mother is a pianist and composer who taught music privately and in middle school and my father was a bank employee, now retired. He has been an amateur painter since his youth. I have a brother and two sisters, and music was a big part of our lives growing up. We had a lot of fun playing together, especially when I used to sight read accompanied on piano by my brother. We didn’t play all the notes correctly, but we played like actors in a show! All of us now work professionally in music.

Your earliest memory of hearing music? The sound of my mother playing the piano. In addition to being a composer, my mother plays piano and taught it and I remember hearing the sound of her playing in our home. Anyone who spent time with my mother fell in love with classical music. Music, both live and recorded, was constant in my childhood home. In addition to hearing live music played by my mother or siblings, I would hear music on the radio, which my mother had on most of the day, tuned to a classical station. My lullabies were symphonies by Mozart or Shostakovich. My brother and his friends experimented with jazz, and I have clear memories of listening to them as they practised “Autumn Leaves.”

Your very first recollection of making music? After seeing an orchestra on TV at the age of five, I became fascinated by the violin. I begged my parents for a violin of my own and the next day, they presented me with a tiny quarter-size instrument, which I began learning to play with a violin teacher. I also played piano from an early age. And singing? Yes, in the choir at the Conservatory.

First music teachers? I started with piano before the age of five, which is when I became interested in the violin. My first music teacher was my beloved Aunt Anna, who taught me piano. Then I started violin with an elderly violinist in Brescia. I didn’t have a great time studying with him, and at age ten switched to another teacher who I loved and who inspired me. There is a test at the end of the eighth year of violin study which includes viola playing. I liked it so much that later I also got a degree in viola (in addition to violin).
My new viola will be ready soon!

First performances? My mother organized concerts every year with her students, and I played every time on both piano and violin. The first time I probably played a Bach minuet on the piano, and a violin concertino by Küchler. My first professional performance was the award ceremony of a violin competition: I was 12 and
I played an easy Vivaldi concerto.

When did you begin to think of yourself as a career musician? Probably around the age of 16, when I gave up my piano studies to focus solely on the violin. I’ve never thought about doing anything else!

UPCOMING … There’s so much I’m looking forward to, it’s hard to pick highlights! In October, in addition to “Baroque Roots,” we’re doing several community concerts around Toronto including one for asylum seekers at Toronto Plaza Hotel, a family concert at Cloverdale Mall, a Nuit Blanche performance at the Aga Khan Museum, and “Café Counterculture” – our first Haus Musik of the season at the Burdock Music Hall. In November: our first Europe tour in several years, and I’m thrilled to have this first opportunity to work with soprano Karina Gauvin. We’ll perform in several cities in England including London’s Barbican Hall, also in Bruges, Belgium.

If you’re a new reader, a word of explanation is in order. In our regular photo contest, We Are ALL Music’s Children – now completing its 16th season – readers identify members of the music community from a childhood photo, for a chance to win tickets and recordings.

Who are September’s Children? And why are there SIX of them?

In addition to leading this ensemble I’m also artistic director and founder of a new classical, world and jazz music festival in Ontario (Jul 18 – Aug 11). I’m excited to perform at its opening concert in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and then on August 9 with the Rolston String Quartet.

This summer: Toronto Summer Music Festival, Victoria Summer Festival, Edmonton Summer Solstice Festival, Kincardine, Waterside, Leith, Ottawa’s Music and Beyond. Plus an All-Beethoven Cello Sonata Cycle in Hamilton and KW, and a recording of EMIC’s Mosaïque Project.

I’ll be at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival in June; then I’m teaching at the Orford Music Academy; solo recitals in Ottawa, Saskatoon and Vancouver later in the summer, before a recording session for ATMA in early September.

Dad really wanted it to be violin. My summers at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro NC are full of collaborative music, whether I’m performing, teaching, or going to concerts!

This summer will be a bit of a rollercoaster with projects all over – in Norway, France; and also finding time to prepare (and eat) some amazing food with my loved ones, read some books, and try out the newest ride at Canada’s Wonderland!!

I will be in Desolation Sound and Gulf Islands, BC, where I study and prepare material, hike, swim, and BBQ with meticulously selected European red wines!

Think you know who they all are AND the name of this re-launched ensemble, now in its first season? WIN PRIZES!

Send your best guess by August 24 to musicschildren@thewholenote.com

Previous artist profiles and full-length interviews can be read at thewholenote.com/musicschildren.

Or — you can view them in their original magazine format by visiting our online back issues https://kiosk.thewholenote.com

We launched this contest in September 2004 (VOL 10 No.1) in an article called Music Education: Choosing a Path. We ran this photo of four-year-old Robert Aitken and the clue ”An early taste for his instrument.” Aitken was in fact licking whipped cream off an egg-beater but holding it just exactly how a little kid might hold a flute, with the kind of focused pleasure we hope to see when children first experience music-making.

It’s kind of amazing, but that was nearly 15 years ago, and here we are in April 2019. Since then in almost every issue we’ve tempted readers to identify a member of the music community from a childhood photo with a chance to win concert tickets and/or recordings. We follow up with a profile that looks at music in that artist’s childhood, and announce the contest winners.

Where we all win is in better understanding the many things that can make a difference in their early years if people are to have musical lives. Some simple examples follow.

In April 2006, conductor David Fallis talked about Lloyd Bradshaw, the choirmaster of St. George’s United Church Boy Choristers. “Through him I became a founding member of the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, and had such fun in the O’Keefe Centre in La Bohème, Carmen, Turandot etc. A very outgoing charismatic musician, great with kids and youth, he was the first to suggest I should consider conducting.”

In April 2010, pianist Serouj Kradjan described his earliest musical memory: “ … my father ceremoniously taking the vinyl disc out of its sleeve, putting it on the disc player, the sound of the needle falling and suddenly, music filling the room. My excitement related to this process had no boundaries.”

In April 2012, conductor Lydia Adams said, “CBC was a musical lifeline to us in Cape Breton, as well as in most parts of the country, I suspect. We listened to everything: Elmer Iseler conducting Handel’s Messiah each Christmas; the Christmas Eve service from King’s College, Cambridge, with David Willcocks conducting; the marvellous voices of Lois Marshall and Maureen Forrester, people I later knew and worked with …”

In April 2016, soprano Mireille Asselin said, “My own strongest memory is my father picking me up and dancing me around our living room to the Temptations: “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside I’ve got the month of May …”

NEW CONTEST

Let’s check back in on a few of APRIL’S MYSTERY CHILDREN

Siblings: operatic baritone and singer/songwrite. Him: Cosi fan tutte at COC in Feb 2019. Upcoming with Soundstreams’ Hell’s Fury in June! His sister: currently in Germany touring her show MODERNE FRAU. Catch this musical tribute to the women of 1920’s Berlin when she returns at The Jazz Bistro, April 28.

Versatile pianist with a special affinity for music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and a true “Friend of Canadian Music.” Upcoming with Kindred Spirits Orchestra, May 11 and June 29, performing André Mathieu’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

Mezzo soprano, equally at home in any outfit. If you missed Barbara Croall’s Miziwe …(Everywhere…) with Pax Christie you can hear her upcoming in Against the Grain Theatre’s Kopernikus, April 4 to 13.

A high tenor with astounding diction. In Idomeneo with Opera Atelier, April 4 to 13; Bach’s Magnificat with Tafelmusik in May, and Beethoven’s Mass in C, May 25, with the Bach-Elgar Choir (Hamilton).

Violist, busy chamber musician, educator and arts administrator. Six years with Toronto Summer Music. He’s at Georgian Music (Barrie) April 7, Scotia Festival (Halifax) in May and June.

Think you know who they all are? WIN PRIZES!

Send your best guess by April 20 to musicschildren@thewholenote.com

Previous artist profiles and full-length interviews can be read online below. Or – you can view them in their original magazine format by visiting our online back issues at kiosk.thewholenote.com