A FOND LOOK BACK AT IRENE BESSE’S CAREER
Calgary piano store owner hands over reins
The exquisite, handmade Fazioli piano sitting outside Irene Besse’s office is a lifetime away from the cardboard cut-out keyboard she first laid her fingertips upon as a little girl in St. Albert.
But the connection — the theme running through her life — is music. It has always been that way.
Music defines her life and, as she gets ready to retire from the Calgary store and business that bears her name, she certainly has no intention of being silenced.
“I won’t leave the industry. I intend to be a music ambassador,” she said.
That will come naturally to the woman who has taught, played and made a business out of music in the city for almost 40 years since moving here from Edmonton.
Selling off much of the stock as well as putting her massive southwest showroom and academy up for sale has been a bittersweet experience for Besse. But it is one she accepts.
“I lost my husband two years ago and he didn’t have time to smell the roses and I realized it is time. I love my business but have been doing this for such a long time that I need to move on.”
She’s been making music almost as long as she’s been breathing. She got her start bashing away on her grandmother’s old piano as a three-year-old.
“I always loved it. We didn’t have a piano at home so I used to go to my grandmother’s on Sunday and I would pound the piano.
“After two hours of this grandma would say ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ ‘Oh, I’m fine’ I’d say. The poor lady was tired of all the pounding. I’d just go for it,” she said.
Soon she was taking lessons but her parents couldn’t afford to buy a piano so her mom fashioned a keyboard from cardboard.
‘She built a cardboard piano and that’s what I practised on. I knew where the notes were and I’d hum along.”
After nine months of lessons, she was advanced enough to start learning to use the pedal. That’s when her mother bought an old piano that had been in a fire.
“It smelled smoky and half the notes didn’t work. But it had pedals and if the notes didn’t work, I’d just hum them,” added Besse.
As a teenager Besse played organ in a band that would belt out cover versions of popular hits in Edmonton clubs and a few years later, fresh out of high school, she went to work in a music store and began giving lessons.
But when students asked for advice about buying a piano or organ, she realized, like many teachers, she knew little about “what was under the hood.”
“I knew I had to learn more about pianos, so every time I took a holiday I went to a music store or factory to see how the pianos were built. I would go to Germany — over time I visited 14 factories there,” said Besse.
Now she knew what was under the hood and soon after moving to Calgary with her husband Tom she got involved in a retail operation.
“I was working for a store and I thought I could do better. No one except my mom encouraged me, but she said just go for it.”
Besse bought into a local op- eration run by two young Calgarians and persuaded them to use her name to better market the operation. She also persuaded her new partners to bring in pianos and stop focusing solely on organs.
By then she was making a name in the city, playing every evening for customers in the grill room of the Calgary Inn and was in high demand from sports teams in need of an organist.
And when the Flames came to town she was the obvious choice for the new hockey team.
“I played for the Flames for nine years — I loved that organization. I’d play 15 minutes before game time, I’d play during the game and then I’d play in the intermission. If nature called — forget it. In those days they didn’t tell me what to play — when I saw something on the ice I’d just dig in,” she added.
One of Besse’s career highlights was playing the organ at the Saddledome during the 36 games of the 1988 Olympic hockey tournament.
“That was a wonderful experience. It took me three years to convince the committee to use a live organist. I had to write 63 things to play that had no attachment to any country — fill-ins you called them. It was phenomenal.”
By this time Besse had bought out her partners and both the store and her reputation were secured.
Through teaching, performing and selling, Besse has watched music change but she still marvels at its power.
“I see what music does for people at all levels. It keeps the mind active. It has been proven that children taking lessons have 37 per cent higher retention, their movement — the athletic response — is better, their science skills, their math skills are better because they are using more of their brain,” she said.
“But parents and teachers should remember it also has to be fun. Lessons should never be a chore. I say to teachers you can’t make a concert performer out of every one who walks through the door. Teach them the enjoyment of music. Some parents push and push. That ruins the passion. It should blossom like a flower,” she added.
Besse’s daughter Nicole and son-in-law Michael Lipnicki are continuing in the music business. Michael is an expert piano tuner and Nichole learned the retail business at her mother’s side. The couple is waiting for final word on a new, smaller store that will deal in high-end instruments — that’s likely where the $230,000 Fazioli is bound.
“I am very content. My daughter and her husband do business the same way I have over the years. I was raised that you reap what you sow. You don’t tell lies and you keep it straight,” she said.
Straight: like her fingers on that make-believe keyboard so many years ago.