A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO EARLE MOSS

That’s how the international magazine of piano and organ CLAVIER, in its October 1995 issue described the teaching methods of one of Canada’s best known and respected pianists Earle Roderick Moss. Born in Toronto in 1921, Moss lived in Owen Sound in the 1930's when his father Cyril was organist and choirmaster at Knox United Church, and his son’s first piano teacher. Earle graduated from OSCVI and then moved with his family to Toronto where he studied piano and theory at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, initially with his father, and later with Ernest Seitz, Bela Böszörmenyi-Nagy, Healey Willan and Charles Peaker. He himself began teaching at the Toronto Conservatory (later the Royal Conservatory of Music) in 1946 after winning its prestigious 1945 Gold Medal and over the years included among his pupils the renowned concert pianists Walter Buczynski and Angela Hewitt, He also embarked upon a distinguished 50 year career as a piano recitalist of international stature.

Active between1948-65 as collaborative artist, he often accompanied the singers Maureen Forrester, Frances James and Jon Vickers and string players Eugene Kash, Mischa Mischakoff and Elie Spivak and was frequently heard in performance with them on CBC Radio. As the RCM’s senior specialist examiner for many years Earle Moss was well known by piano students throughout Canada as a tough, but fair and friendly critic. He also adjudicated at music festivals in North America and Asia where he was often featured in recitals. But it is as a teacher of piano that he is best remembered. . His pupils became friends for life.

After a debilitating stroke in the late 1990's Earle Moss returned to Owen Sound’s Central Place where his enchanting sense of humour won him many new friends. At Christmas in 2002, after months of painstaking practice, he played his final concert for the residents of his new home. He died a few months later.

One of his distinguished students, Walter Buczynski, went on to achieve great recognition as a concert pianist. He made his debut in 1955 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing Chopin's F Minor Concerto. During the 1960s and early 1970s he gave solo concerts in New York, Paris, Warsaw, and many Canadian cities, as well as CBC radio recitals, featuring his own and other contemporary Canadian works. For many years, Buczynski's dual commitment to piano performance and composition found him giving one, then the other, his attention. An outstanding concert artist, he has performed and recorded the music of Chopin and many Canadian composers as well as his own compositions. From 1975 on, all his attention has been devoted to composition. As a musical tribute to his friend and teacher during this Sesquicentennial Year of Owen Sound, Walter Buczynski will perform at Historic Leith Church on Sunday afternoon July 15 at 2:30 pm.

Tickets at $15 will be available at Leith Church prior to the concert or at the Downtown Bookstore, 945 Second Avenue East in Owen Sound. At the request of Mr. Buczynski all the proceeds of the Concert will be donated to the Donna Steinacher Bursary which benefits music students of North Grey-Bruce.