Carleton University music professor Elaine Keillor was named to the Order of Canada “for her contributions as a musicologist and historian of Canada’s musical heritage,” on June 30. She was given an honorary doctorate from Carleton on Nov. 12. The Charlatan sat down with her to learn all about her illustrious career.
The Charlatan (TC): What does your appointment to the Order of Canada mean to you?
Elaine Keillor (EK): Well, of course it came as a great surprise, first of all. But after it sort of sank in, it was very rewarding because I’ve worked hard for many, many years, and to finally have my work honoured on a national scale is really quite an achievement.
TC: You were one of the first [researchers] to really explore First Nations music. In your opinion, why do you think there had been so little academic interest before?
EK: There had been sporadic attempts of exploring Indigenous music. Mainly, I would say, by people who did not have an ethnomusicological background. They didn’t have any background about how, particularly in modern ethnomusicology, we try to put music-making into context, like what it means for the people themselves . . . when I came to Carleton, one of the first things they asked me . . . was that I take a look at all the Canadian music course offerings Carleton had at that time . . . So, I looked at what they were offering, and the first thing that I noted was the fact that they were omitting this large chunk of what is really Canadian music heritage. That was of our Indigenous people. And so, I started a course in Indigenous music of Canada’s peoples. That was the first one to be offered at a university in North America, actually.
TC: How much more room for study is there?
EK: Oh, it’s tremendous. First of all, there’s so many different cultures. We’ve barely scraped the surface at this stage. But of course one of the major things, which was also an impediment in my own work, is language is so closely tied to music. To really understand the music-making of a particular culture, one needs to be fluent in that language . . . I actually had a number of students who were of Indigenous heritage. Once they saw some of the things they should think about and ask, they had the skills to work in their communities as some of them have. I really think that the best way that we can learn about this music-making is to have specialists from within the culture.
TC: What is Canadian music in your eyes?
EK: I would say Canadian music is any music that has been created, used, and listened to in Canada. So that covers an awful lot.
TC: Tell me about your performance career. As an artist, what do you strive to get out of the piano?
EK: I grew up in a musical household, my mother was a music teacher. So the result was music around the house, and it just was second nature. My mother said that she couldn’t remember teaching me, because I was present when she was teaching other students and I would just go to the piano and do whatever she had been teaching them. So it was more by osmosis I think than anything else. Of course it meant I was playing a lot of repertoire at a very young age and I was concertizing and playing with orchestras and so on and so forth. What has that meant to me? Well, I guess any performer will say this, it’s the most incredible experience when you really feel that you created a connection with your audience. There’s just no way of describing that feeling. It’s just on another level, and that has happened to me several times in my career.
TC: Any particularly memorable performances that stick out in your head?
EK: Looking back, I think the first time I really strongly experienced that was when I gave a concert down in Nova Scotia. It was interesting with the critiques that I got from that recital, the writers were speaking about how there was this amazing connection that was made. I felt it, and apparently the audience members felt it too. That was on a Cross-Canada tour that I did, and it happened several times on that tour. Sometimes it just happens for a particular work, other times you feel the whole concert was on that level. I think one of the other strong experiences where I had that happen was when I played with an orchestra in Germany. Thinking back, some of the times when I did premieres of Canadian works, I’ve felt it happen. So it varies.
TC: What do you think it takes for a performer to forge that kind of connection between themselves and the audience?
EK: I feel the general situation with piano playing today is the result of the fact that we have so many piano competitions going on now. The thing with competitions, and I’ve gone into a good many myself, is that it takes a particular type of character to do well in a competition. You have to have nerves of steel. I think simply because juries are listening to so many performers, they have to find some way of distinguishing x from y . . . They play it in sort of a wooden fashion, because they find that’s what they had to develop to do well in competitions. But I often find they don’t move me. It’s very mechanical. It’s robotic. I find myself so often going and listening to great pianists from the past. Because they would take chances. I try to take chances in performances.
TC: Do you have a favourite piece of repertoire?
EK: It’s usually whatever I’m working on at that particular point [laughs].
TC: If you were to be remembered for one thing you accomplished, what would you want that to be?
EK: Difficult question. I think overall I would like to feel that my approach to music-making has been helpful to my students, and they can carry it on . . . Even when I’m teaching Canadian music, I want them to think about where the composer of that particular composition experienced in Canada. One of the things I discovered working with Indigenous musicians is they very much will distinguish their particular music culture from another in geographic terms . . . As well, technical skills are important to have, but I want my students to go beyond that. I want them to try to make a statement that is very personal. I often get my students to tell me what they’re imagining when they’re playing a particular passage. Because that is the one thing music can do. It can free our imagination.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
