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Thornbury musical pro hits all the right notes

People of Collingwood: Christopher Burton, musician and director of music at Grace United Church
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Christopher Burton is director of music at Grace United Church in Thornbury.

A life-long love of music has led to a robust career for a local pianist.

For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we spoke with Christopher Burton, 64, musician and director of music at Grace United Church in Thornbury.

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I grew up in Ottawa.

I went to elementary, high school there, and my first university degree is from the University of Ottawa in piano performance.

Q: When did you first know that music was your passion?

A: I started taking lessons when I was four years old. I stopped for a while in my teenage years. When I was 17, I decided that violin performance was going to be my thing. When I got to university I took violin in my first year and piano. I decided around that time that piano was the way I wanted to go.

I haven’t looked back since.

What I do is called collaborative piano. It used to be called accompanying. Right from an early age, I was accompanying my father, who was a very fine singer. He could have made a career in singing but he didn’t. He was a teacher.

As I grew up, I was always very fond of collaborating with other people whether it was singers or instrumentalists. I was in a little trio with my two sisters when we were young.

I enjoy playing with other people, so that’s what I’ve focused on for most of my adult life.

Q: Where did life take you after the University of Ottawa?

A: After that, I went to McGill University in Montreal, again for a degree in solo piano but I still did a lot of collaborative playing.

I was invited to teach piano at a school in Windsor almost immediately after I graduated from McGill. I moved there for a few years and taught.

I was inspired to move onto a doctorate degree in collaborative piano and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. This was in the 1990s. It’s internationally regarded as one of the top music schools across the world. I’m proud to have earned a doctorate degree from that school.

I thoroughly enjoyed that. I just loved it.

I’ve continued with what I’ve learned there ever since.

After that, I moved back to Windsor. I moved to Toronto and taught there for about 10 years.

Then, the opportunity came up to be director of music at Grace United Church in Thornbury.

Q: Is that why you moved to Thornbury? What happened that led to the move?

A: I moved up in 2018.

I had been seeing a very nice lady, and we had been together for a few years. Her parents lived in Wasaga Beach, so I was coming up to this area quite a lot with her.

I was getting tired of a lot of things about Toronto – the congestion, the traffic, the competition. The day that I came up here for my interview, there was the van attack on pedestrians in North York. I love Toronto, but I needed a change in scenery.

I had been director of music for two different churches in Toronto over the years. I did an interview in April and moved here in July.

I’ve been here ever since.

Q: What were your first impressions of South Georgian Bay?

A: It’s so beautiful.

I love skiing at Blue Mountain and just looking at Georgian Bay.

Q: What are your hobbies?

A: I sing in the ChoralWorks choir in Collingwood since I moved up, aside from the COVID years.

I also do work with another church in Thornbury and the Georgian Bay Concert Choir in Owen Sound.

I work with Michael Schmidt. He is a fabulous musician and conductor, and he and his family put together a Christkindl Market on his farm in Durham. They put on this fabulous Christmas market and every year for the last few years he runs this thing called Symphony in the Barn. We do a performance of Handel’s Messiah in the barn with an audience and the farm animals. There are cows, pigs, chickens and cats in the barn with us, and you never know when a cow is going to let out a big moo. It adds to it. It’s smelly and cold, and it’s just beautiful. It’s one of the highlights of my year here.

For a few years I conducted another choir in Hanover.

In addition to all that stuff, we do concerts here at the church in Thornbury. There’s a lot of stuff going on here, and I’m pleased that it’s focused on this little church and this little community.

I’m an avid amateur photographer. I go skiing.

Q: Is there anything else you want people in Collingwood to know about you?

A: I teach here at the church. I’m always available for interested students to come.

I love performing.

There’s a lot of very good stuff developing here. Grace United has become a hub.

For our feature People of Collingwood, we speak with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature runs on CollingwoodToday every weekend. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].