Eve Egoyan (born 1964) is an

Armenian-Canadian Armenian Canadians (Western Armenian: գանատահայեր, Eastern Armenian: կանադահայեր, ''kanadahayer''; ) are Canadians, citizens and permanent residents of Canada who have total or partial Armenians, Armenian ancestry. Accordin ...

pianist and artist based in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Early life and education

Egoyan was born in Victoria,

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

.Hampson, Sara
The Keys to Living
''The Globe and Mail''. 2006-04-08. Accessed: 2022-02-08. Her Armenian parents, Shushan and Joseph, both painters, ran an art gallery/furniture store in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, before emigrating to Canada in 1962. Shushan and Joseph settled in Victoria, where they took over a home furnishings/design store. Egoyan's parents didn't own a

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, but as a young girl she began to see the piano as a “safe, private place”. Egoyan took lessons from an elderly neighbour, and then began formal lessons at 11 at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. She holds a bachelor of music (BMus) from the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay, British Columbia, Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. Established in 1903 as Victoria College, British Columbia, Victoria Col ...

(1985). She studied piano in Banff with György Sebők, in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

with Georg Sava, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with

Hamish Milne Hamish Milne (27 April 1939 – 12 February 2020) was an English pianist known for his advocacy of Nikolai Medtner. Milne studied at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury and then with Harold Craxton at the Royal Academy of Music in London, ...

, and at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

with Patricia Parr, where she completed a master's degree in 1992.

Music career

Egoyan specializes in new works for the piano. Canadian composer Ann Southam dedicated several works to Egoyan throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s including: ''Qualities of Consonance'' (1998), ''Figures: Music for Piano and String Orchestra'' (2001), ''In Retrospect'' (2004), and ''Simple Lines of Enquiry'' (2008).Ann Southam
''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. Accessed 2022-02-08. Her 12 solo CDs explore music by composers ranging from

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

Alvin Curran Alvin Curran (born December 13, 1938) is an American composer, performer, improviser, sound artist, and writer. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and lives and works in Rome, Italy. He is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard ...

, Michael Finnissy,

James Tenney James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microt ...

, Martin Arnold,

Linda Catlin Smith Linda Catlin Smith (born 1957 in New York City) is a composer based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2005 she became the second woman to win the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music. Smith studied composition and theory with Allen Shawn in Ne ...

, and Southam. Her most recent album, ''De Puro Amor & En Amor Duro'', features two large-scale works by Spanish-German composer

Maria de Alvear Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

.Eve Egoyan
Music On Main. Accessed 2022-02-08. In ''Surface Tension'', a collaborative work with media artist

David Rokeby David Rokeby (born 1960) is a Canadian artist who has been making works of electronic art, electronic, video art, video and installation art since 1982. He lives with his wife, acclaimed pianist Eve Egoyan, in Toronto, Canada. His early work ''V ...

, Egoyan's performance undergoes transformation through Rokeby's software, resulting in images projected onto a screen positioned above the piano. Variations in dynamics, pitch, tone, and duration serve as triggers for visuals inspired by natural phenomena, such as the movements of planets, the swarming of insects, and the ripple effects caused by a falling pebble.Eve Egoyan and David Rokeby’s Surface Tension
Musicworks. Accessed 2022-02-08. In 2018, Egoyan created ''Solo for Duet'', an integrated mix of sound, image, and unspoken narrative challenging traditional conceptions of piano and pianist.Eve Egoyan
Toronto Arts Foundation. Accessed 2022-02-08. The following year she collaborated with director Su Rynard on a 72-minute portrait film, ''Duet for Solo Piano'', that documents this musical exploration. Egoyan's current focus is composing and performing her own work for augmented piano – an acoustic piano equipped with computer software to extend, expand, and enhance the sound. Egoyan has been the recipient of several accolades including "Best Classical" by ''The Globe and Mail'' (1999) for her first solo CD; one of "Ten Top" classical discs, by ''The New Yorker'' magazine (2009);Ross, Alex
2009: Ten Exceptional Recordings
''The New Yorker''. 2009-12-03. Accessed: 2022-02-08. and "Top Classical Disc of the Year", by ''The Globe and Mail'' (2011).Poole, Elissa
Our verdict is in: This was the year's best music
''The Globe and Mail''. 2011-12-26. Accessed: 2022-02-08. In 2013, she received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship.Eve Egoyan
University of Victoria Music. Accessed 2022-02-08. In 2019, the CBC named her one of the “best 25 Canadian classical pianists of all time”.The 25 best Canadian classical pianists
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed: 2022-02-08. She won the Muriel Sherrin Award from the Toronto Arts Foundation in 2019.Eve Egoyan
Toronto Arts Foundation. Accessed: 2022-02-08. She has performed in Canada, the US, Europe, and Japan, including festivals in Italy (Transart), Austria ( Klangspuren), the UK (Huddersfield Festival), and Vancouver (Modulus Festival). She is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

(FRSC) and has been designated a CMC Ambassador by the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its As ...

.Eve Egoyan
University of Victoria Music. Accessed: 2022-02-08. Egoyan is an elected Associate of the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, London, England (ARAM).

Personal life

Egoyan is married to

, a media artist. Her older brother,

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; ; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian Canadians, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with ''Exotica (film), Exotica ...

, is a Canadian filmmaker.

Discography

Selected solo recordings: * (2016) Maria de Alvear's diptych ''De Puro Amor'' and ''En Amor Duro'' * (2015) "Thought and Desire" (Earwitness Editions and World Edition) * (2013), ''5'' (Centrediscs) * (2011), ''RETURNINGS'', (Centrediscs) * (2009), ''Simple Lines of Enquiry'' (Centrediscs) * (2007), ''Asking'' (Mode Records, New York) * (2006), ''Weave'' (Earwitness Records) * (2005), ''WU'' by Rudolf Komorous (Candereen Records) * (2004), ''The Art of Touching the Keyboard'' (Earwitness Records) * (2001), ''Recoins (Hidden Corners)'' (CBC Records) * (1999), ''thethingsinbetween'' (Artifact Music)

Notes

References

* Sykes, C. (2000). Dreaming into the work: The interpretive piano art of Eve Egoyan. Musicworks, (77), 11–14.
This is how a listener plays: New music pianist Eve Egoyan pays attention to every detail, including the silences
ew Music for Piano: Thethingsinbetween (1999, October 26). National Post, B1,B3. * "Eve Egoyan: musical explorer: ntario Edition, Toronto Star (7 March 2002), H05.

External links

*
CBC Music

Duet for Solo Piano
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egoyan, Eve Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Living people University of Toronto alumni University of Victoria alumni 21st-century Canadian pianists 1964 births 21st-century Canadian women pianists Canadian people of Armenian descent