Kenneth Gilbert

12+ albums

ClassicalCanadianharpsichordbaroquehistorically informed performance

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about

Kenneth Gilbert. Harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, teacher, b Montreal 16 Dec 1931. Hon D MUS (McGill) 1981. He studied with Conrad Letendre (organ) and, at the CMM, with Yvonne Hubert (piano) and Gabriel Cusson (harmony and counterpoint). Gilbert won the 1953 Prix d'Europe for organ and studied for two years in Europe with Nadia Boulanger (composition), Gaston Litaize and Maurice Duruflé (organ), and Sylvie Spicket and Ruggero Gerlin (harpsichord). Though he was on leave 1953-5 for these studies, he remained officially the organist and music director 1952-67 at Queen Mary Rd United Church, Montreal. In 1955 he gave a recital of Canadian organ music for the RTF (Radio France). Back in Canada he designed and in 1959 supervised the installation at Queen Mary Rd of the first major modern tracker organ in Canada. This instrument (built by R. von Beckerath of Hamburg) and Gilbert's performances on it strongly influenced subsequent organ building practice in Canada. The society Ars Organi, in the formation of which Gilbert played a leading role, also influenced organ performance standards in eastern Canada. While in Paris (1965) on a Quebec government grant, doing research on Couperin in preparation for a CBC series (and subsequent RCI recording, released on Harmonia Mundi in France, RCA in England, Music Heritage in the USA, and other labels in Italy and Japan) of the composer's complete works for harpsichord, Gilbert suggested that a new edition would be appropriate to hon