I recently had a wonderful conversation with Leila Getz of the Vancouver Recital Society. She has run this organization for over 40 years, featuring both established and the latest up-and-coming artists. Leila has always had a nose for fresh talent, throughout her entire career booking artists for their Canadian debuts when they were not yet famous or on the international radar.

I’ve attended VRS recitals since moving to Vancouver in 1999 and I have always enjoyed catching up with Leila before, during (at intermission), and after concerts. I knew that she had an appreciation for Dinu Lipatti because – a little surprise we didn’t discuss in our filmed conversation – she once had a cat named Dinu.

Given the lack of concerts this year and the move to virtual events and streaming, Leila had started having filmed conversations with various performers and critics. We’d previously discussed doing an event where we feature historical recordings – especially as these have come up in post-concert Q&A sessions with Joseph Moog and Andrew Tyson (two marvellous pianists with a strong knowledge of and appreciation for these old recordings) … and so at least having a preliminary conversation online about these recordings and the issues they reveal around interpretation and musical culture seemed appropriate.

Leila and I had a great time discussing some important topics – there’s always more to discuss about these matters than most people have the attention span for, so we kept things to the essentials here, and hopefully we will be able to film another discussion in the near future.

Enjoy!