Monica Gaylord

{{Infobox musical artist | name = Monica Gaylord | image = | image_upright = | image_size = | landscape = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1948|02|06}} | birth_place = [[St. Albans, Queens]], New York, US | instrument = Piano | years_active = | education = [[Juilliard School]], [[Eastman School of Music]] (B.Mus, M.Mus) | current_member_of = [[The Royal Conservatory of Music]] | past_member_of = [[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]], [[National Arts Centre Orchestra]] | awards = | website = {{URL|https://rcmusic.com/bios/monica-gaylord}} }}

'''Monica Gaylord''' (born 1948) is a [[Caribbean Canadians|Caribbean-Canadian]] pianist, harpsichordist, and [[Piano_pedagogy|teacher]].<ref name=MGCE>[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/monica-gaylord-emc "Monica Gaylord"], ''Canadian Encyclopedia'', 2007</ref>

In 2020, during [[Black History Month]], she was honoured by the [[Government of Canada]] alongside [[Measha Brueggergosman]], [[Oscar Peterson]], [[Portia White]], and [[Eleanor Collins]] among "notable Black people in Canada who have helped shape Canadian heritage and identity."<ref name=GCBHM>[https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month/black-canadians.html "Noteworthy Figures"], ''Black History Month'', Government of Canada, accessed 16 December 2025</ref><ref name=BHM2020>[https://www.innovateinc.co/celebrating-notable-canadians-for-black-history-month/ "Celebrating Notable Canadians for Black History Month"], Innovate Inclusion, 7 February 2020</ref>

==Early life and education==

Gaylord was born in [[St. Albans, Queens]], in 1948 to [[Jamaica|Jamaican]] parents. At the age of 9, she featured as a [[Child prodigy#Music prodigies|piano prodigy]] on ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]''.<ref name=Welk1958>"Lawrence Welk's Top Tunes and New Talent", ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'', [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], 3 February 1958, 9:30pm</ref><ref>Clarkson 2010, pp. 233–234</ref> The following year, she began her studies at [[Juilliard School|Juilliard]] with [[Jane Carlson]]. Gaylord graduated from Juilliard in 1963, and went on to receive [[Bachelor of Music]] (1968) and [[Master of Music]] degrees (1969) from [[Eastman School of Music|Eastman]], where she studied with [[Cécile Genhart]].<ref name=MGCE /><ref name=MGRCM>[https://www.rcmusic.com/bios/monica-gaylord "Biography: Monica Gaylord"], [[The Royal Conservatory of Music]], accessed 15 December 2025</ref>

==Career==

Gaylord moved to Canada in 1970 to become the orchestral pianist for the [[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]] and the [[National Arts Centre Orchestra]] (NACO). She also featured as a soloist with the [[Hamilton Philharmonic]], the [[Victoria Symphony Orchestra]], and the [[Calgary Philharmonic]].<ref name=MGCE /><ref>Winters 1995, p. 122</ref>

Contemporary reviewers noted her keyboard playing for its "blend of power and charm," with [[Ronald Hambleton]] describing her musicianship as "endowed with both subtlety and strength and shows admirable calm and warmth."<ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 234</ref> [[James Montgomery (composer)|James Montgomery]] dedicated his 1979 [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] commission ''I Have Come Through,'' a composition which "highlights the wide-ranging textural and timbral capabilities of the piano," to Gaylord.<ref>Woloshyn 2023, p. 216</ref> [[Glenn Gould]] referred to Gaylord as "an artist who combines astonishing versatility with extraordinary insights,"<ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 229</ref> and composed ''Monica—Her Madrigal'' in her honour.<ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 239</ref>

In March 1978, Gaylord premiered [[R. Murray Schafer]]'s ''Adieu [[Robert Schumann]]'' with [[Maureen Forrester]] and NACO in Ottawa, proceeding on tour.<ref name=Elliott2003>Robin Elliott (September 2003), [http://sites.utoronto.ca/icm/0103a.html "Intertextuality in R. Murray Schafer's ''Adieu Robert Schumann'': an Essay in Honour of the Composer's 70th Birthday"], ''[[Institute for Canadian Music]] Newsletter'', 1(3), pp. 3–12</ref> Later that year, on 5 November, Prime Minister [[Pierre Trudeau]] invited Gaylord to play for an assembly of visiting African heads of state, where she was described as "the surprise hit... the PM's personal choice to play the piano... [and] the centre of attention."<ref name=Globe1978>"Toronto pianist catches Trudeau's eye", ''[[The Globe & Mail]]'', 6 November 1978, p. 8</ref><ref>Clarkson 2010, pp. 235–236</ref> Gaylord continued to feature at the [[National Arts Centre]], often with Forrester, for major Canadian state visits through the mid-1980s, including a performance for Chinese Premier [[Zhao Ziyang]].<ref name=TOStar1984>Sid Adilman (12 January 1984), "Canadian talent ready for Chinese premier", ''[[Toronto Star]]'', p. E1</ref><ref name=LS1984>"Émission spéciale à Radio-Canada", ''[[Le Soleil]]'', 17 January 1984, p. A2</ref>

Gaylord also continued to be active in [[contemporary classical music|new music]], featuring as a soloist with [[New Music Concerts]] in Toronto on and their 1977 European tour.<ref name=MGCE /> She premiered David Keane's ''Lyra'' for piano and [[Electroacoustic music#Tape music|tape]] (1978) in January 1979 at the first annual Festival of Electronic Music, hosted by [[The Music Gallery]] in Toronto. A recording of that performance was subsequently released on the Music Gallery Editions label (MGE-29).<ref name=DKCE>[https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/david-keane "David Keane"], ''Canadian Encyclopedia'', 2013</ref><ref name=CUMR1980>David Piper (1980), "Record Review: David Keane, ''Lyra''. Musical Gallery Editions MGE 29" (1979), ''Canadian University Music Review'', (1), pp. 156–157</ref> She toured Europe in 1985 with the [[Canadian Electronic Ensemble]] (CEE), performing at the [[Holland Festival]].<ref>Woloshyn 2023, p.47</ref> CEE founding member [[David Jaeger (composer)|David Jaeger]], reflecting on that period in a 2021 interview, named Gaylord as one of a handful of "fabulous performers" that contemporary composers considered as ideal collaborators, describing her playing of his [[tone poem]] ''Quivi sospiro'' (1979) as "[[virtuoso]]."<ref name=Intersections2021>Matthew Fava and Alexa Woloshyn (2021), "The Canadian Electronic Ensemble in the 1970s and 1980s", ''Intersections: the Canadian Journal of Music'' 41(2), pp. 21–27</ref>

In 1986, Gaylord joined the faculty of [[The Royal Conservatory of Music]], where she continues to teach, co-authoring the institutions's piano workbooks.<ref name=MGRCM /><ref name=MGCE /><ref>Winters 1994, p. 123</ref>

She has been especially active in performing and promoting the work of Black composers and Canadian women composers,<ref name=MGCE /> remarking that the latter was necessary "because so many are under the impression that there are no women composers in Canada."<ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 234</ref> She premiered [[Mary Gardiner]]'s ''Concerto for piano, string orchestra and drum set'' (1977) at the first concert dedicated to women composers' works in Toronto.<ref name=HRG1995>Janice Drakich, Edward Kovarik, and Ramona Lumpkin, eds (1995), ''With a Song in Her Heart: a Celebration of Canadian Women Composers'', Humanities Research Group, University of Windsor Press, p. 79</ref><ref name=Pool2008>Jeannie Gayle Pool (2008), "Canadian Composer Mary Gardiner: Celebrating Her 75th Year", ''Journal of the [[International Alliance for Women in Music]]'', 14(1), pp. 13–19</ref> With the support of a grant from the [[National Endowment for the Arts]], she recorded ''Black Piano – A Treasury of Works for Solo Piano by Black Composers'', featuring music by [[William Grant Still]], [[Oscar Peterson]], [[Duke Ellington]], [[Howard Swanson]], [[Robert Nathaniel Dett]], [[Ulysses Kay]], [[John Wesley Work III]], and [[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]]. The album was released on [[Music & Arts]]' "Programs of America" label (CD 737-1) in 1992, and re-released as ''Piano Music by William Grant Still and Other Black Composers'' in 1998.<ref name=NEA1991>''NEA Annual Report'', [[National Endowment for the Arts]], 1991, p. 170</ref><ref name=MGCE /><ref name=Murchison2005>Gayle Murchison (Spring/Fall 2005), "Current Research Twelve Years after the William Grant Still Centennial", ''Black Music Research Journal'', 25(1/2), pp. 119–154</ref><ref name=BMRJ2001>Dominique-René de Lerma (Autumn 2001), "Preface", ''Black Music Research Journal'', 12(2), pp. 127–132</ref>

Writing in ''[[The Musical Times]]'', David Wright praised Gaylord's playing on ''Black Piano'' as consistently excellent, noting the "striking" quality of her performance of works by Peterson, Ellington, and Coleridge-Taylor in particular.<ref name=TMT1993>David Wright (January 1993), "CD Reviews", ''[[The Musical Times]]'', 134(1799), p. 44</ref>

==In photography==

Gaylord is the subject of two notable black-and-white photographs by Walter Curtin that are part of the permanent collection of the [[National Gallery of Canada]], taken when Curtin was engaged in "an extensive project documenting Canada's classical music scene" in the 1970s, with a focus on "current pianists" including Gaylord and [[Angela Hewitt]].<ref name=WCCE>[https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/walter-curtin "Walter Curtin"], ''Canadian Encyclopedia'', 2013</ref><ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 229</ref><ref>Winters 1994, p. 20</ref> These photographs are also described and reproduced in Kenneth Winters' 1994 book ''Curtin Call: A Photographer's Candid View of 25 Years of Music in Canada.'' The first is a striking image of the performer seated at the piano, wearing a white jacket, white gloves, and a white mask, taken at [[University of Toronto Faculty of Music#Facilities|Walter Hall]] in 1973.<ref name=Curtin1973>Walter Curtin (1973), [https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/monica-gaylord-toronto "Monica Gaylord, Toronto"], National Gallery of Canada, 74-X-1883</ref><ref>Winters 1994, p. 112</ref> The second is of Gaylord and another pianist, Heléna Bowkun, at work and rest respectively, in rehearsal at the [[Art Gallery of Ontario]] for a [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] concert performance of James Montgomery's ''Riverrun'', composed for three amplified pianos.<ref name=Curtin1978>Walter Curtin (1978), [https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/pianist-at-rest-helena-bowkun-with-monica-gaylord-left-and-billie-bridgman-right "Pianist at Rest: Helena Bowkun with Monica Gaylord (left) and Billie Bridgman (right)..."], National Gallery of Canada, EX-84-429</ref><ref>Winters 1994, p. 113</ref>

The [[Toronto Public Library]] Digital Archive holds three further photographs of Gaylord through the [[Toronto Star]] Photograph Archive: two by photographer Boris Spremo, taken in 1977 aboard the [[Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant|MS ''Jadran'']], and a portrait by Dick Darrell from 1973.<ref name=TPLDA>[https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/people/44315/gaylord-monica-1948/objects "People: Gaylord, Monica, 1948-–"], [[Toronto Public Library]], accessed 16 December 2025</ref>

==Personal life==

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gaylord had a romantic relationship with Pierre Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, that attracted considerable public interest in Canada, making front-page news.<ref name=TOStar1982>"On the town: Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his date, classical pianist Monica Gaylord...", ''[[Toronto Star]]'', 16 March 1982, pp. A1, B1</ref><ref>Clarkson 2010, p. 240</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *Clarkson, Michael (2010). ''The Secret Life of Glenn Gould'', [[ECW Press]]. *Winters, Kenneth (1994). ''Curtin Call: A Photographer's Candid View of 25 Years of Music in Canada'', [[Exile Editions]]. *Woloshyn, Alexa (2023). ''An Orchestra at My Fingertips: A History of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble'', [[McGill-Queen's University Press]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaylord, Monica}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:1948 births]] [[Category:Juilliard School alumni]] [[Category:Eastman School of Music alumni]] [[Category:Canadian classical pianists]] [[Category:Canadian women pianists]] [[Category:African-American pianists]] [[Category:African-American women pianists]] [[Category:African-American classical pianists]] [[Category:African-American classical musicians]] [[Category:Academic staff of The Royal Conservatory of Music]]