Oct 21, 2011
Bruce DeMara for The Toronto Star
Eccentric genius, recluse, hypochondriac. Canadians may think they know who classical music legend Glenn Gould is. Mark Kingwell begs to differ.
Kingwell, an author and associate chair of philosophy at the University of Toronto, will offer a more textured view of Gould as the series Extraordinary Canadians debuts on Citytv at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. (The series will also air on The Biography Channel beginning Oct. 29.)
The show, co-produced by Rogers Media Television, is based on a series of 18 books written by notable Canadians, including futurist writer Douglas Coupland, who profiles futurist thinker Marshall McLuhan, and former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, who profiles Dr. Norman Bethune, a hero of the Chinese Communist revolution. Twelve of the books have already been filmed, with the remaining six set to go into production next year.
“It’s a somewhat unusual pairing because I’m not a musician or an expert on classical music. Then I started thinking that writing about Gould as a thinker and an intellectual and approaching him that way had not really been done before,” Kingwell said.
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