The Canadian pianist, composer, organist, cembalist, conductor, writer and actor Glenn Gould was born in Toronto in 1932. Already as a child his musical telent was obvious. He first studied under Alberto Guerrero (piano) and Frederick Silvester (organ). When he was 14 he made his début with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, in Beethoven's Fourth Concerto. Appearing throughout Canada in recitals and broadcasts, principally of the Classical repertory, he began a study of music of the modern Viennese school and later of such post-Romantics as Richard Strauss. These strongly influenced his early compositions
short pieces for piano alone and for bassooon and piano, and a long one-movement string quartet (composed 1953-5, later recorded and published).