About
Heather Taves has performed thousands of concerts on four continents, appearing as a soloist with orchestras performing concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff. She has recorded 5 albums of classical and new music, collaborated with world class musicians to perform most of the standard classical chamber music repertoire, and taught piano at universities and in guest masterclasses for 30 years. She performs music spanning a vast range of styles, from the Bach Brandenburg concerti on harpsichord, to the 24 Etudes of Chopin on piano, to fierce and daunting 20th century works by Bartok, Crumb, and Carter, to music of solace and comfort in palliative care, to adventurous cross-genre new music events. In the 2024-25 season, she performed the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven sonatas, documenting the journey in her acclaimed blog “Beyond Beethoven”.
At age sixteen, Heather Taves left her island home for Montréal. There, she quickly gained recognition, making her orchestral debut at age 19 playing the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, and becoming become a regular broadcast artist with the CBC. She studied with some of the greatest piano teachers of the 20th century: Menahem Pressler, Monique Haas, György Sebök, and Gilbert Kalish, developing a unique capacity to play any genre of repertoire.
In the internationally renowned music environments of Indiana University and Stony Brook University, she was awarded her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. More than being a pianist, she researched multiple facets of music, studying harpsichord and fortepiano, taking jazz with David Baker, writing about women in music, and taking world music courses. Narrowing her focus onto the Beethoven piano sonatas, she wrote several doctoral essays on his compositional process, gave lecture-recitals about his works including the “Hammerklavier” sonata, and researched and performed sonatas by other composers including Elliott Carter, David Baker, Marianne Martinez, Schumann, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Bartok.
Straightaway after completing her degrees, she returned to Canada to reach out to students and audiences, teaching in Canadian universities and becoming an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University. There she galvanized the keyboard curriculum to educate students in creativity, improvisation, early keyboards, and new technology. She led the ground-breaking 21st Century Pianists Project and collaborated with maverick performer-composers such as Glenn Buhr, John Kameel Farah, Oded Zehavi, Can Cazaz, Rebekah Cummings, Barbara Assiginaak, and others.
Heather Taves communicates directly with humour and insight through her playing, writing, and composing. She has obtained a creative writing diploma at Humber College in Toronto working with writer Diane Schoemperlen. During the Covid pandemic she broadcast an informal daily piano series from home, The Island Pianist. Past episodes are available on Vimeo.