John Whitelaw (born 1943) is an American-born Canadian

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

Life and career

Born in New York in 1943, Whitelaw was originally trained as a pianist at liberal arts colleges in Tennessee, Indianapolis, and Chicago. He was a student of Kenneth Gilbert in Montreal from 1967-1971; during which time he also pursued further music studies at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec and

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

. In 1970 he won the

Prix d'Europe The Prix d'Europe is a Canadian study grant that is funded by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec of the Government of Quebec. Established in 1911, the award has been distributed annually to a single individual through competition wi ...

. That same year he was a finalist at the

ARD International Music Competition The ARD International Music Competition (german: link=no, Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD) is the largest international classical music competition in Germany. It is organised by the Bayerischer Rundfunk and held once a year in Munich. Si ...

in Munich and was awarded the Premier Prix by the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. In 1971 he won second prize at the

Musica Antiqua Bruges The MA Festival Brugge, short for the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges in Bruges, Belgium, is a festival of early music and historically informed performances, started in 1960. The program includes concerts, master classes, conferences, visits in t ...

competition in Belgium, and third prize at the international harpsichord competition in Paris. While continuing his education in Canada, Whitelaw simultaneously worked as a music faculty member at the University of Ottawa. He also was the director of the Montreal Chamber Singers. After leaving Canada, he worked as a longtime faculty member of the Royal Conservatory in Ghent. In 1976 he toured Australia as the harpsichordist in the Five Centuries Ensemble. He has appeared as a guest artist on numerous recordings, and in 1996 released his studio recording of works of William Byrd. He has also played the clavichord, the forte-piano and the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, in particular accompanying South African soprano Gerda Hartman in, notably, the repertoire of the German

Lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

References

Living people 1943 births Academic staff of the University of Ottawa American harpsichordists Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Québec alumni McGill University alumni {{US-keyboardist-stub