He kept time. He knew the modes. He never startled a room or left a silence where a flourish was expected. When he sang, his fellow Romans nodded. When he […]

He learned early that music, like travel, required light baggage. You carried only what you could afford to lose. He was a singer in Rome, sang with the economy of […]

Lena was performing a fragile ballad. This was Ruggie’s Cafe in August. Two minutes in and the espresso machine erupted like a subway train deciding also needed to see the […]

I went to the hospital to say goodbye to Jeff Burke. It was after nine pm. His daughter gave me the password and the nurse directed me to his room. […]

The rehearsal room at the community arts centre smelled of winter boots and varnish. Fluorescent lights hummed. Joe, nineteen and on fire, attacked a run of notes like enemies on […]

Jeff Burke had been playing bassoon in the Dundas Station tunnel for an hour, long enough that the rhythm of the trains were syncing to his phrasing. Toronto moved the […]

For years, a musician slept in fragments, ten minutes here, twenty there, always waking like someone had woke him from a dream before the note could resolve. His friends said […]

Felix Messer, pianist, part-time teacher, full-time cynic and distant relative of Don Messer, never intended to crawl into Bach’s head. It just happened, the way bad drugs or good revelations […]

There was a saxophonist, high-cheekboned, soft-spoken, known everywhere as a gentle man. The kind of sweetness people mention as if it were a credential. But sweetness can be a costume, […]

A dark shape moved between trunks. Then another. He slowed his breath. Another rustle. A twig breaking. He played the last line of the melody. Then a deer stepped out. […]