Bio - John S Gray

John S. Gray began improvising in New York in 1957, and studied music from 1959. By 1966 he was a chorister in the King’s College School Chapel. At Dalhousie, Gray studied Music and History, and recorded his 1973 chamber work ELEGY. He wrote RIEVAULX in 1978, and the score to the award winning film PERSPECTIVES in 1980. A 1982-83 tour took Gray to a number of art galleries, with a solo appearance at the Halifax ALTERNATE MUSICS festival. 1985 saw Gray’s FLOWER score. He wrote 4W-1 in 1993, LITTLE CANTATA in 1995, AUTUMN PRELUDE in 1996 and LENTEN PRELUDE in 1997.

FANTASIE, MINUET AND TRIO was on CBC Radio’s TWO NEW HOURS in 2001. A 2002 Music Gallery concert saw Gray’s LE VERNISSAGE for chamber orchestra. In 2003 EPISODES FOR ORCHESTRA was premiered in Scarborough. INTRODUCTION AND AUTUMN PRELUDE was premiered in Brampton, and THREE OLD FRIENDS with the CEE in 2004. In 2005 Gray wrote SINFONIA D’ESPOIR, CLARINET QUARTET and STEPS TO THE SETTING SUN. CHORDA CONCERTATIO was written in 2006, premiered by Victor Feldbrill in Florida; Trio No. 2 THE DISQUIET was written in April 2009, premiered by the Ardeleana Trio.

STRING QUARTET No.1, written in 2011, was premiered at Tenri Institute in New York in 2014. Five of Gray’s works were performed in 2013, during which he wrote RB5W-1 for brass quintet. In 2014 Gray finished his FANTASIE FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA, Five GLADSTONE FRAGMENTS meditations, and ALLEMANDE for winds and double bass. DARK HUMORESQUE followed in 2015.

Gray wrote FOUR MEDITATIONS for organ and chamber ensemble and JUNCTION BARCAROLLE in 2016. The ALLEMANDE was included in the Scarborough Philharmonic’s CANADIAN PANORAMA compact disc.

JG at #170678 Toronto 2022

This was a long time to come to fruition. Having enjoyed the on-and-off forbidden relationship with the E-270 piano no. 161500 at Dalhousie, I was sad when it left the building as part of a deal for the university to obtain a new Yamaha CFII. That piano ended up in a private home where it is off limits to me. In 2016 I submitted to surgery for my deteriorated right arm, and made the decision to bring No. 170678 over from the rebuilders in Germany. Finding a suitable place for this monster to be was a concern, but after several years it finally ended up in Calvin Presbyterian, home of the heavenly acoustic.
Photo by Igor Kravtchenko.
Rehearsing for Alternate Musics Festival, 20 March 1983

My fingers are on No. 161500, the E-270 piano that so inspired me in the 1970's. In the background is the Moog Sonic Six synthesizer which emitted the most eerie of ring modulator sounds. I'm wearing my late father's woolen cap.
JSG with John Weinzweig & Peter Oundjian

John Weinzweig on stage, 2006, just before he passed away. Oundjian introduced him to the audience as a man who was born 2 years after the death of Mahler. Whoopy do. Didn't do his research. Here was a man who hung out with and conferred with Hindemith.
Writing Episodes 2002

This commission was a bit of a surprise from conductor Robert Raines. Despite having started sketches for large ensemble works some years earlier, I'd never actually finished one, nor had a performance. Suddenly I had a deadline. The opening section of the work was a memory of an earlier sketch written for the Campbellford High School concert band way back in 1983. I was very lucky to be in close contact with Alexander Levkovich (b. 1952) at the time, and it was he who took me under his wing in a mentoring relationship. Alexander's eagle eye could see every mistake I made, and made helpful suggestions. The piece was largely composed in Ian Young's Temple Room in his house full of books in Scarborough.
JSG with Jan Lisciecki

The photo of me with Jan Lisciecki goes back to 2011. Last time he ever worked with the Brott Festival in Hamilton, before he became so famous that he was performing for HM the Queen, the Pope, All over the world. But that was a little party put on by the Brott's following a gig where Jan played, I recorded. At the party, Brott's old dog was trying to sneak a bite at the tray of cold cuts, temptingly displayed on a low coffee table where she could easily access. So Jan and I were taking turns keeping her away from the coffee table. Photo caught our change of shifts.
On stage at the 2000 Halifax Experimental Music Festival

From 1987 onward, I had just about given up on making music. This photo is one of re-birth.

After all the music I'd accomplished during the years 1980 to 1987, I had just stopped, turning myself into a piano technician for eleven years. Many people loved having working instruments after i'd applied myself to them, but only a few over the years surreptitiously recorded my little improvisations on a freshly prepped piano. This all came to an abrupt halt when I met Dave Martin and his family.

Photo by A. J. Gray
W. Fenn's drum 2000

In 1999 Fenn Martin had obtained an African djembe drum and began jamming with my piano improvisations. The promoters of the 2000 Halifax Experimental Music Festival programmed JSG to do an electronic set, followed by an unplugged set with Fenn drumming alongside me. Suddenly I was getting applause and encouragement after a gap of nearly 13 years.

In the photo you can see Fenn Martin's djembe drum.
Arts & Letters Club, Toronto

Recent photo from my talk on Jack L Gray at the Arts & Letters Club, Toronto. I'm relating how on 6 July 1962 the President ruffled my hair slightly.
JSG in front of the old Ibach piano works

The piano factory is the old Ibach works, company dating back to 1794, building dating back to the 1860's and actually survived having a direct hit from a 500 pound bomb in 1943.
JSG working on CHORDA CONCERTATIO in late 2005

In 2005, I was on a roll composing music. I'd absorbed much from Levkovich's tutoring. Working with a student string orchestra as recording engineer inspired me to write them a new piece. Photo shows me making pencil corrections/alterations to the score.
St. Mary's Art Gallery concert, 23 September 1982 in Halifax

The curators generously allowed David and I to set up and rehearse in the middle of the gallery on a working day. That was great, inasmuch as our rig was complex, with all the many patch cords and MIDI cables keeping our devices in sync. The little panel on top of the piano is a control unit for a set of Moog Taurus bass pedals.

The 215 cm Ibach piano (from Schwelm, Westfalen) was a piano that old gallery director Bob Dietz used to tell me to stop playing on. That was when it was a brand-new instrument in 1973. By 1982 Dietz had retired, and Leighton Davis was director. Davis' assistant Alison Chipman was a fan of the Floyd and John gigs at the Centre for Art tapes, so it was she who wangled the funding and made this gig happen. Over 150 people crammed themselves into the gallery to experience this show.
John S Gray, 2012

Ar one point the Canadian Music Centre had yet another total re-vamp of its public web site, so they asked all staff for a thumbnail photo to be added to the new Meet Our Staff page. I deliberatly put on headphones for the photo, so people would clue in to what my job was there.
Pale Atmospheres One (still from video by A.J. Gray)
John w/Robert Raines, Birchmount Auditorium, Scarborough, Dec 2003
'Five Pianos' Session

Recording FIVE PIANOS out in Rexdale. on (soprano) Melodia de Almeida's Sauter 6'2" (from Spaichingen) Sept 2001, as the dust from the WTC towers in NYC is still blowing around
With Kerry Stratton @ GGS 2013
Writing 'Episodes', 2002
JSG writing Intro & Autumn Prelude, 2004
Recording Embers Part 3

Embers Part 3: a streamed concert during the height of lockdown, 2020 pandemic.
JG with Dave Martin in Cape Breton
Victor Feldbrill

Victor Feldbrill

Oh how i miss him.

Rehearsing CHORDA CONCERTATIO in St. Lucy's Church (Outskirts of Boca Raton). Victor asks John if there can be any wiggle room in the tempo markings of this passage . Note that both are wearing shorts in January.