Tom Gordon
Music History
B.A. (Music/English) Central Missouri State University
B.Mus. (Piano Performance) Central Missouri State University
M.A. (Music History) Central Missouri State University
Ph.D. (Musicology) Toronto
Office: MU-2000
Phone: (709) 864-3155
E-mail: tgordon@mun.ca
Tom Gordon is a pianist/musicologist with an eclectic range of interests that stretch from musical life in eighteenth-century Labrador to the historical avant-garde of early twentieth-century France. Among his current research projects are an exploration of the Moravian choral and instrumental music in the Inuit communities of coastal Labrador. Forthcoming from these projects are a thematic catalogue of the 250+ manuscript anthems in the mission churches and a monograph on the indigenization of the Moravian mission music by the Labradro Inuit. Gordon’s research has also informed several CBC radio documentaries, including “Three years of provisions and two French horns,” a profile of the brass band tradition in Labrador produced by Francesca Swann for Inside the Music.
Gordon’s interests in European music are currently occupied by his work on the editorial board (Bärenreiter) of the Oeuvres complètes of the French composer Gabriel Fauré, for which he will be editing Fauré’s works for voice and instrumental ensemble/orchestra. Previous Fauré research resulted in his volume of essays Regarding Fauré (Gordon & Breach, 1999) and his organization of an international conference on the occasion of the composer’s sesquicentenary. Gordon is also the editor of Jean Cocteau – Evangelist of the Avant-Garde / Jean Cocteau -- Évangéliste de l’avant-garde, (Canadian University Music Review, 2001) and articles on French music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His doctoral research on Stravinsky and neo-classicism (University of Toronto, 1983) has resulted in numerous publications including sketch studies on Trois Pièces pour quatuor à cordes (Amadeus Verlag, 1994) and Piano-Rag-Music (Intersections, XXVI/1, 105).
Stravinsky research is one of several fields where Gordon’s scholarship has led to unique performance projects. In 1990 he directed a historical re-construction of the original production of Stravinsky’s l’Histoire du soldat which was revived for a tour of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2002. In 1987-88 he toured Eastern Canada with a lecture-recital/exhibition on Stravinsky's four-hand piano works and sketches (with Mary O'Keeffe). Gordon also re-constructed from sketches Stravinsky's incomplete ballet fragment David, an aborted collaboration with Jean Cocteau that found its eventual realization in Erik Satie's Parade.
As a performer Gordon is most active as a Lieder accompanist with a vast repertoire that covers the standard German, French and English art song repertoire. He has accompanied Canadian and American singers, including sopranos Caroline Schiller, Carmen Mehta, Gail Desmarais, Catherine Fitch, Shari Saunders, Michèle Gagné and Jane Leibel, mezzo-soprano Mary Ann Hart, tenors François Panneton and Brian Staufenbiel and baritones Michel Lachance and Douglas Dunsmore. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, he organized and performed with School of Music alumni in a series of concerts exploring the song cycles of both Robert and Clara Schumann. In 2003 he organized a concert series on the Lieder of Hugo Wolf in honour of the centenary of that composer’s death. In the autumn of 2001 he toured the province of Newfoundland and Labrador with a program of French vocal ensemble music with sopranos Caroline Schiller and Catherine Fitch and baritone Douglas Dunsmore. During the 1994-95 season, Dr Gordon programmed the complete vocal works of Gabriel Fauré. Gordon’s other performance credits include frequent recordings for Radio-Canada with Ensemble Musica Nova of Sherbrooke, Québec. Notable performances have included works by George Crumb (Vox Balanae and Makrokosmos II) and premieres of works by Andrew P. MacDonald, Jacques Desjardins and Isabelle Panneton.
Tom Gordon was Director of the School of Music at Memorial University of Newfoundland from 2000 to 2010. Prior to coming to Memorial he was a professor and chair in the Department of Music at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Québec (1983-2000). While at Bishop’s, Gordon served a term as Director of Centennial Theatre (1997-2000), inaugurated the popular Music Chez Nous concert series and was co-founded Ensemble Musica Nova for which he served as administrative director from 1989 to 1997. Previous to his tenure at Bishop’s, Gordon was Head of Liberal Arts Studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto (1977-1983).
