A Celebration of the Guitar: Eli Kassner's 80th Birthday
by VINCEA McCLELLAND
The aptly named “Celebration of the Guitar” was a highly successful event which took place in Toronto, Canada on September 18, 2004. The Guitar Society of Toronto and the University of Toronto presented a delightful evening honouring Professor Eli Kassner’s long career. Eli Kassner has been the central figure for the classical guitar in Toronto since the mid 1950s as the founder and principal director of the Guitar Society of Toronto and the guitar performance department at the University of Toronto. The 500-seat Walter Hall at the Faculty of Music’s Edward Johnson Building was filled to capacity for the concert which featured a superb line-up of performers and world premieres of compositions by Sergio Assad, Celso Machado and the Kassner-Quer Duo.
Jeffrey McFadden, one of Canada’s leading guitarists and President of the Guitar Society of Toronto, gave the welcoming address and spoke of Eli Kassner as "very much a driving force for the whole guitar community". He announced that proceeds from the concert were to be donated to the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music to establish continuing scholarships for guitar students. Jeff then gave a warm welcome to the evening’s willowy M.C., the celebrated Canadian guitarist Liona Boyd, a five-time Juno award winner and holder of several honorary degrees and the first female graduate of the University’s guitar programme. Throughout the evening Liona was superb as Mistress of Ceremonies and her legendary talent for winning over an audience was much in evidence, even without a guitar! In her introductory remarks she began by saying how honoured and pleased she was to be present and she described how Eli had "provided so much inspiration" and "changed so many lives".
The programme started with a marvellous short film about Eli entitled “A Life in Music”, produced and directed by Jeff Cipin. Present-day scenes of Eli teaching, or gardening at home with his wife Ann, are interspersed with images from his early years in Vienna, en route to Palestine, on the kibbutz in Israel, in Toronto in the 50s and 60s...and always with a guitar. There is a group shot with Segovia and the whole class at Santiago de Compostela in the late 50s as well as excerpts from the five memorable International Guitar Festivals and Competitions organized by the Guitar Society under Eli’s direction from 1975 to 1987.
After the film the talented young Canadian guitarist Aaron Brock, a guitar performance graduate of the University of Toronto and finalist in the recent GFA Competition in Montreal, performed a new piece entitled “Thoughts are free . . . Little Variations on a German Song”, composed especially for Eli’s 80th birthday by his daughter Danielle Kassner and her husband Guillem Pérez-Quer, both accomplished guitarists themselves.
Then it was my turn to take the stage and I chose to play a piece entitled “Saudades Marcia” by the great Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell. With two of Brazil’s guitar giants on the programme, I couldn’t resist paying tribute to all Brazilian guitarists and to Brazilian music in general. As a graduate myself of the University of Toronto’s guitar performance programme (I believe I was the second female to do so!), it was a very satisfying yet curious “time-warp” feeling to be performing again in the same hall where my student recitals had taken place so many years before. It was also hard not to have visions of the first Festival in 1975 when the four competition winners - Isbin, Barrueco, Fisk and Leisner - gave their performances in Walter Hall and went on to become the top guitarists of their generation (and how!). Colin Cooper once noted that Eli had a lot of successful female students, so with that in mind I also played Jorge Morel’s terrific arrangement of Fernando Bustamante’s “Misionera”, a popular folk-song dedicated to the women of the Argentine province of Misiones. Who can forget the brilliant performances at “Guitar 75” of Sharon Isbin, Lynne Gangbar and Liona Boyd and how their success inspired so many other young women to pursue careers as classical guitarists.
A good show should have lots of variety and a touch of originality as well as the prerequisite high standard of performance. These elements were amply demonstrated throughout the evening. The multi-talented guitarist, composer, recording artist and teacher Brian Katz is yet another University of Toronto music alumnus. He performed one of his own compositions in a jazz duo with top Toronto studio guitarist Rob Piltch, and this was followed by the Canadian-Iranian guitarist Bagher Moazen playing original compositions from his new CD Nomad.
One of the main highlights of the concert was the performance by the Brazilian master Carlos Barbosa-Lima who played with dazzling virtuosity and charm. His selections included Jobim's "Stone Flower" and Barroso's "Aquarela do Brasil". He was accompanied by compatriot Celso Machado for a spur-of-the-moment duet of the rousing tune “Tico Tico”, based on an original arrangement by Carlos’ teacher Savio. The two artists also played a choro by Pixinguinha. (Carlos mentioned that they’d rehearsed for the first time only three hours earlier!) It would be no exaggeration to say that the already receptive audience was now totally bewitched and in raptures of delight!
After the intermission, Dr. Gage Averill, recently appointed Dean of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music said a few words of congratulation and expressed his enthusiasm for the Faculty’s developing guitar programme. He then presented Eli with a commemorative plaque which was signed by all the evening’s participants. Eli also made a flowing speech during which he spoke of his childhood in Vienna, his discovery of the guitar and how he fell in love with the sound, of his arrival in Canada and the founding of the Guitar Society in 1957, and of the five Toronto Festivals which featured so many legendary artists and composers. (Leo Brouwer’s “Concierto de Toronto” had its world premiere at “Guitar 87”, performed by John Williams and conducted by the composer). Eli concluded by warmly thanking all the performers and organizers and he had special words of thanks and praise for his wife Ann, for her support and her invaluable contribution throughout the years and "without whom this event would not have taken place."
During the second half, Liona read out some of the many messages received from friends, colleagues and former students around the world who were unable to attend. These included Bill Kanengiser, winner of Toronto’s International Competition in 1981 and Jesse Cook, the Canadian rumba-flamenco sensation who began guitar studies at age six with Ann Kassner. There was also a letter to Eli from John Williams who wrote: "The guitar and its music have benefited from your sympathetic, enthusiastic and wise dedication for so long that simply congratulating you for notching up another decade seems insufficient. To those of us fortunate enough to be your friends, it's also an opportunity to recognize your humour, humanity, and look forward to another decade of sharing your humour and to continue hoping that a spark of your humanity will rub off on us." Amen to that!
One of Eli’s most famous former students is the internationally acclaimed award-winning film director Atom Egoyan. Cairo-born, Canadian-bred and of Armenian descent, he studied International Relations and classical guitar at the University of Toronto. Atom was present in the audience and following an introduction from Liona, came to the microphone and spoke about his early guitar lessons and the creative influences which Eli had had on him. It was just one of the many very special moments of the evening. Atom described how he’d been "profoundly influenced and inspired by Eli’s spirit of creativity" and became a filmmaker as a result of his guitar studies. Himself an award-winning filmmaker for Canadian television, Eli Kassner was the first filmmaker Atom had ever met. "In my lessons he gradually steered me away from the guitar and towards filmmaking."
The University of Toronto Guitar Ensemble conducted by Jeffrey McFadden gave a very polished performance of a fabulous new work by Celso Machado for eight guitars and percussion entitled “Folguedo”. Celso himself introduced the piece which he whimsically described as J.S. Bach on vacation in the northeast region of Brazil. He then enthusiastically accompanied the ensemble on an astonishing array of exotic percussion instruments.
Jeff, already known internationally for his wonderful playing, displayed a new hidden talent as maracas player while leading the guitar ensemble. Celso also performed solo and sang...so beautifully!
If Carlos Barbosa-Lima and Celso Machado were the "show stoppers" of the evening, David Russell definitely stole it. With assistance from his charming wife Maria, he had prepared a special surprise...something a little different for Eli who had already heard him perform several concerts during the season. It was a brilliant comedy routine! After playing a few pieces including a hauntingly beautiful new guitar solo composed by Sergio Assad called “Portrait of Eli”, David performed a side-splitting take-off on the concert guitarist’s accoutrements, complete with props. (These arrived in the nick of time for the concert as they were in David’s and Maria’s luggage which was lost and then found by the airline.) The overjoyed audience was treated to very convincing demonstrations of various footrests and knee cushions, how to transform your guitar into a lute, solving music stand problems, footstools as bottle openers and...oh yes, my personal favourite was a new invention called the "guitar kilt". Well... you had to be there! Afterwards, I jokingly observed that if David’s career as a guitarist didn’t work out he could always become a comedian.
Thus the concert came to a close with everyone breathless but happy and ready to attend the reception where a delicious buffet was provided by Paradise Bay Catering. To sum up this amazing gala of non-stop fun and entertainment I’ll leave the last word to Jack Silver, Secretary of the Guitar Society of Toronto, who describes the Celebration of the Guitar Concert as: “a magical experience, a true celebration of Eli’s life not only as a tremendous contributor to the development of our beloved instrument but also to his example as a kind, inspiring, and truly cultured human being” (and, I would add, a multi-dimensional one!). Jack Silver and Ann Kassner are to be commended for the excellent job they did planning and coordinating the whole event. Many thanks also to the main sponsors Yamaha, The D’Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts and The University of Toronto as well as to Long & McQuade Musical Instruments and the Board of Directors of the Guitar Society of Toronto.
As for me, it was a joy and privilege to take part in this very special and unforgettable occasion. I studied with Eli for five years and gradually our teacher-student relationship grew into a firm friendship which I value highly. I thank him not only for teaching me how to play the guitar but for teaching me so much about life in general, including lots of helpful advice. For their assistance with this article I wish to express my thanks to Rob Rosenblat, Jack Silver, Frank Weiler, Aaron Brock and Camilla Pucholt.