Name Gordon Slater | ||
Gordon Slater (born 22 August 1950) is a Canadian carillonneur (musician who plays massive bells), bassoonist organist and conductor. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto, he is best known for holding the position of Dominion Carillonneur for Canada from 1977 to 2008. In this position, he performed on the carillon in the Peace Tower of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's national capital.
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Early studies
BornToronto, Ontario, Canada, Slater began his musical studies at the age of four, as a piano student of Carmel Archambault at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He studied with Archambault until 1964. He went on to study bassoon under Professor Nicholas Kilburn at the University of Toronto from 1968 to 1971. Slater studied carillon with his father, James B. Slater, from 1957 to 1968. His father was the carillonneur at Metropolitan United Church in Toronto. Gordon Slater also studied carillon under teacher Robert Donnell in Ottawa from 1973 to 1974.
Performing
He played organ and led the choir from 1969 to 1972 at Riverdale Presbyterian Church in Toronto. He worked as a carillonneur at the Soldiers' Tower at the University of Toronto from 1969 to 1977. He played carillon at the Rainbow Tower from 1972 to 1975. He played the Canadian National Exhibition Carillon from 1975 to 1976. He released several records in the 1970s, including the 1978 record Bells and Brass with the Canadian Brass. Slater was the Dominion Carillonneur for Canada from 1977 to 2008. In this position, he performed on the massive carillon in the Peace Tower of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Beginning in the early 1990s, he played bassoon and contrabassoon in several Ottawa groups including the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
Other musical activities
He worked in a number of jobs related to the pipe organ in the 1970s, including building organs, tuning them and repairing them. In 1987, he began conducting Divertimento Orchestra, an amateur community orchestra based in Ottawa. He also works as a music clinician, providing advice to other music groups on their performances.