During my four years in Toronto, I’ve always found it challenging to break into the city’s “concert scene”. First of all, there’s so many great shows to see everyday. And, being from Saskatoon, I was used to always having ample performance opportunities with tons of public support. Out of the blue (and thanks to Deanne Bogdan’s volunteer managerial help), I was asked to perform in the Great Hall of the Hart House. This concert series has a rich history (I believe Glenn Gould performed in it like 50 years ago).

As this was a last-minute invitation to cover another performer who backed out, I was quite nervous about drawing any crowd whatsoever. The advertising consisted of a few posters put up at the Hart House, along with some mass emails by yours truly. When I was heading to the hall, I counted in my head about 20 people who confirmed that they coming out. Yikes!

Well, as I walked from the green room to the hall, I noticed an unusually large amount of coats on the coat-rack. Then some guy was outside saying to someone “there’s no chairs...this is absurd”. So you can imagine my surprise when I walked into a full house! In fine Saskatoon form, there was a great crowd on hand. Well, from the new found electricity, the concert was a success. It was pleasantly amusing to see people grabbing those few posters on the wall and asking me to sign them. I thought to myself...I’m just a classical pianist. What are they planning to do with those posters anyways?

Certainly, the most touching moment for me was meeting this kind gentleman, who said that he and his wife caught Wilhelm Kempff performing the Appasionata 50 years ago in Germany. Since his wife passed away recently, it brought back joyful memories for him. As tears rolled down his eyes, I felt like Beethoven had warmed his soul that afternoon.

I found this photo after meeting a friend at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. He told me to look at his site, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dentax/ because he took a picture of me during the concert. I can’t for the life of me remember his name! So if you out there gets a chance to see this picture...please contact me so I can give you the credit for a beautiful photo.

Cheers!
Thomas