A few months ago now, our daughter performed a gig at a popular Toronto jazz nightclub called the Reservoir Lounge. Nothing particularly special about the venue. But when Whitney brought her piano, sax and bass combo on stage, the place just seemed to jump with the energy and interpretation of her music. Not so long ago, she and I talked about where that all came from.
“I always credit my being able to connect emotionally with expressing myself musically to Susan Hall,” Whitney said. “It’s not just that I’m telling the story with the lyrics, but it’s the story of the melody that a lot of singers don’t think about … It’s because of what I learned playing with her.”
Not long after we arrived in Uxbridge, in 1988, we happened to hear about this extraordinary piano teacher up at the end of First Avenue. While she had actually opened her home to teaching privately quite by accident, some 30 years ago, it turned out Susan Hall was in great demand. But just like the way we discovered she taught music, she decided that our daughter would work out as one of her piano students.
“She cared so much about the music and the student,” Whitney went on. “She was emotionally invested in everything she taught.”
I remember at the end of so many of our daughter’s piano lessons, sitting just down the stairs from the living room where the instruction went on. I never heard the verbal exchanges between teacher and student, but I always sensed the intensity of the musical communication. I remember Whit never liked all the repetition of technical practice – the scales, arpeggios and technique – but when it came to the way to express the music Susan chose for her, there wasn’t enough time in the day for piano rehearsal.
“She chose the music to match your personality,” Whitney said.
In her case Susan Hall often chose Chopin. In the case of one of Whitney’s lifelong chums, Jessie Baird, it was Mozart. Somehow in the teacher’s eyes, Wolfgang’s complicated yet expressive runs and chords suited her student’s demeanour. Recently, Jessie recalled one of her first competitions at the annual vocal and instrumental music festival in Sunderland, Ont. Jessie remembered being petrified as her competition class began. As the first contestant – also playing the Mozart – approached the piano, the kid’s mother shouted from the audience, “Let ’er rip, Katie!” The Katie in question played the Mozart at lightning speed, while Jessie, at Susan’s instruction, played it slowly, emotively and from the heart.
“Wow, there was some really wonderful technical ability in this competition,” the adjudicator said, referring to the speed of the aforementioned Katie’s performance. “But, wow, for being able to feel the music…” And Jessie got first prize in the class.
Today, a recent graduate of art therapy studies in Montreal, Jessie Baird works a long way from those Mozart performances when she was a teenage student in Susan Hall’s tutelage. But Jessie told me she’s never far from a musical escape – playing a saw, strumming blues on a ukulele or her cigar-box guitar.
“Susan was absolutely the best teacher. No question,” Jessie said. “Many people had to go on waiting lists to study with her. She didn’t take students who weren’t serious about working … caring about music.”
Not that Susan was a task master. Not at all. Both Jessie and Whitney spoke about the gentleness of her teaching and the precision at performance class. Once every few weeks, Susan would assemble her students in the recital room to practise not only what they played, but how they approached the show. She taught her group the subtleties of presenting oneself to an audience, announcing the piece and its composer, taking time to breathe, adjust the seat and get into the right space to play.
“We ended up using our whole body playing the music,” Jessie said. “Other students didn’t do that. Clearly with Susan something special was happening.”
During one of those nights at the Reservoir Lounge in Toronto, not too long ago, Susan and her husband Harry Hall suddenly showed up to catch one of Whitney’s shows. Between sets, they talked and Susan spoke quietly about how proud she was of her former piano student. Whit said she sang especially for Susan that night, “because I felt like I was giving something back to her.”
So will this community have a chance to do the same. From 1 to 5 p.m., on Sunday, May 15, some of Susan Hall’s many friends and graduate students have planned “A Lifetime of Music” celebration at the Music Hall. It’s small thanks from the musicians and families Susan Hall has touched.