The Artist
Glenn Gould’s originality, maverick determination, and intellectual depth combined with the spiritual richness of his finest performances have marked him as a global icon of excellence.
A brief biography
Born in Toronto, Canada, on September 25, 1932, Glenn Gould has been hailed internationally as one of the great musicians of the 20th century, and as a visionary thinker and multimedia artist who foresaw the profound impact of technology on culture and society. Initially acclaimed as a pianist of prodigious talent, Gould had a remarkable career that included recording, television, film, writing and producing radio documentaries, and composing and writing scholarly and critical work.
Glenn Gould had become a legend as a concert pianist before he was 30. His landmark 1955 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations was a runaway best-seller.
Despite this success, and a burgeoning international concert career, he chose to redirect his energies towards innovative ways to communicate music through the mass media. When he stopped giving public concerts in 1964 at the age of 32, his friends and closest colleagues predicted that his refusal to give live performances would destroy his career. With extraordinary foresight, however, he reinvented his career as a dedicated recording artist with CBS Records, now Sony Classical.
Gould’s untimely death on October 4, 1982, just days after his 50th birthday, was mourned by music lovers everywhere. Through his recordings and other contributions to the mass media, Glenn Gould has left a rich legacy of musical ideas and performances that find him, each year, the subject of new books, articles, plays, films and documentaries, which continue to challenge and inspire new generations.
