The Barbara Solís Method of Teaching
For a period, Barbara Solís lived in at least one small community in Canada’s western region, in the province of Alberta. She taught piano during these years and in her later years as well.
In her undated manuscript The Barbara Solís Method of Teaching, Ms. Solís aimed to provide a method of musical instruction that would provide students with a foundation they could benefit from when a music teacher was not available in a small community. Ms. Solís referred to her teaching method in her artist biography in the 1988–89 edition of Alberta Performing Artists.
Ms. Solís had an indirect connection with another piano teacher in western Canada. This connection was Lyell Gustin (1895–1988), who in 1920 began what would become a celebrated piano teaching studio in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
In the 1950s, Saskatchewan-born pianist Douglas Voice became a pupil of Mr. Gustin and subsequently taught as Mr. Gustin’s assistant. Douglas Voice settled in Ottawa in 1966 and became a founding member of the music department at the University of Ottawa in 1969. He was a principal teacher of Ms. Solís in the 1990s during her university studies, and he had a deep influence on her because of his extensive knowledge of Spanish music. After Douglas Voice’s death in 1998 at the age of 61, all of Ms. Solís’s concert programs featured a prominent dedication to him.
Piano-teaching items
