Edwin Gnandt, MMus

Recently awarded the designation of “Professor Emeritus of Piano and Music” at Ambrose University in Calgary, Edwin Gnandt has relocated to the beautiful city of Victoria and as of September 2021, will join the music faculty at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.  He continues to enjoy a collaborative career in music as pianist, accompanist, author, adjudicator, competition juror, workshop clinician and international speaker.   He adjudicates festivals across Canada and recently as a juror for the Canadian Music Competition (CMC), the National Stepping Stone Competition, the Bosendorfer (BC) Piano Competition and the Steinway Junior Competition. In 2022, Mr.Gnandt will the Keynote speaker and Competition Juror for the BCRMTA Provincial Music Conference. In September 2021, he will be the “Headliner” for the Alberta Piano Teachers Association Conference (APTA). He has been praised by the San Francisco Examiner for his “consistently alluring sound”, by the Oakland Tribune for his “ear for phrasing”, and by the Los Angeles Times for his “distinct refinement”.  He participated as a visiting Professor of Music at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, California.  His book “The Soul of the Music: Gifts from the Golden Age of Piano” (2014) has been received with excellent reviews.

His newly released second book (2019) entitled “The Inner World of Fryderyk Chopin: Psychology, Medicine and the Majorca Period”, involved Chopinolgy forensic research.  For this project, he made research trips to Paris, France and the Carthusian Monastery in Valldemossa on the Island of Majorca where Chopin spent the winter of 1838-1839.

Professor Gnandt presents and chairs at international conferences including the annual ‘Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities’ (HICAH), the ‘International Journal of Arts and Sciences Conference’ (IJAS) in Barcelona, Spain; the International IJAS conference at the Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy; and the IJAS conference in Florence, Italy.

He has many recordings for CBC and has collaborated with a variety of national and international artists including baritone Alan Monk (Metropolitan Opera), baritone Paul Berkholds (California Institute of the Arts), violinist Dylana Jenson (Silver Medal Winner-International Tchaikovsky Competition), violinist Thomas Williams (McGill University), violinist Connie Gantsweg (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra), flautist Leslie Neuman (University of Toronto).

He is a regular contributor to the Victoria Conservatory of Music Summer Piano Academy, the Mt. Royal University Summer Piano Institute, Calgary CASSA Musical Arts Summer Piano and the Pt. Loma Summer Piano Institute in San Diego.

Mr. Gnandt has studied at a number of prestigious institutions, including the Juilliard School of Music, University of Washington and University of Edinburgh, Scotland (Canada Council Grant).  His piano students have participated in national and international piano competitions and have gone on to graduate studies at recognized institutions such as Juilliard, University of Toronto, McGill, University of Ottawa, Eastman School of Music and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.