Julie Gunn & Nathan Gunn
By Julie Gunn
Nathan and I were raised on art song recitals by our teacher John Wustman, who was of a generation that sang many of them and who taught us about Schubert and Wolf and other songwriting giants. So it’s something we’ve always done since we met in college. Now, 20 years later, we love them for other reasons, too. We love the chance to be together away from all the loving craziness that happens in a house with 5 kids, 2 grandparents, a dog and a bird; we love the relationships that we make with the audience members who love songs like we do and we love the freedom and independence that comes with the small scale of the recital, where we can just be us. This is our first Canadian recital, and first time to Toronto! Our one connection is our student, Melissa Davis, from Toronto, who is a wonderful song singer. If everyone in Toronto is like Melissa, this should be an electric experience 
The recital we’re offering at Roy Thomson Hall on March 10 is one of our favorites. It starts with a surprisingly diverse selection of songs by Franz Schubert, the master, and then offers American songs, which, in our opinion, build on that foundation: Charles Ives, a visionary who we don’t even now fully understand; Ben Moore, with his beautiful, lyrical settings of famous Irishmen; Tom Waits, who with his wife creates such a vivid union of words and music; and some of my arrangements of traditional folk songs which we’ve all known and loved since childhood. We hope to see you there and to leave feeling that we can say we’ve learned a lot about Toronto.
Julie Gunn is a renowned pianist and spouse to Grammy award winning baritone, Nathan Gunn. They perform together at Roy Thomson Hall, Wednesday, March 10, 2010.
