VIBRANT PIANO MENTOR NEVER MISSES A BEAT
Retirement not in vocabulary of musician and philanthropist
Irene Besse’s retirement is anything but quiet.
After almost four decades in the piano business, the 75-year-old is now dancing to a new tune, several tunes in fact.
She’s a competitor in a local Dancing with the Stars fundraiser, mentor to a young piano prodigy, a board member with Calgary Civic Orchestra and is contemplating a new dating business for older adults.
“Retirement is not for me,” she said. “I just have too much energy and can’t stay still for long. My passion is that everybody should have music.”
And Besse has done her best to make that come true.
In addition to selling pianos, she’s donated instruments to non-profit organizations like the Alberta Children’s Hospital. She even gave a $100,000 Steinway concert grand to a Calgary prodigy named Jan Lisiecki, who now tours the world as an acclaimed pianist.
“It took me five years to pay for it, but it really changed his playing.”
Besse is well known as the organist for the Calgary Flames during its first 10 years here and counts the 1988 Winter Olympics as one of her biggest thrills. By her account, it was the first time at the Games they had an organist play at each hockey game. She composed more than 60 pieces of filler music that had no affiliation to any nation, lest the Canadian Olympic Organization be accused of bias.
But along with fame and glory, the longtime businesswoman and philanthropist has endured her share of heartbreak. Her store flooded in 2010, destroying more than a million dollars worth of instruments. About six months later, her husband Tom died. She had back surgery and went through painful rehabilitation due to nerve damage in her arm. In early 2015 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and, almost exactly a year ago, her family home burned down.
“The last five to seven years have been horrendous,” she said.
“Music has been my healer. It’s kept me from completely going over the edge. It’s the constant in my life, the very best gift.”
To that end, Besse is coming out of retirement.
She has gone back to working two days a week in a piano store owned by her daughter Nicole and son-inlaw Michael Lipnicki.
She’s holding a meet and greet there (6033 Centre St. S.) on Friday and Saturday to “reintroduce” herself to the public.
Most rewarding of all, she’s still guiding young pianists with promising careers. She’s heading to Berlin in November with 11-year-old Kevin Chen as guests of Bechstein Pianos. The budding star is also the recipient of a grand piano, courtesy of Besse.
“Like Jan, I expect we’ll see a difference in his playing.
“He is such a charming little boy, so shy. I’ve been able to open some doors for him, but there is a fine balance between protecting him and his private life and letting the world know about him.”
Besse understands the challenges involved in a music career better than most.
She’s taught and performed in Europe and Japan, hosted international musicians in her former store’s concert hall, and was integral in the start of the Honens International Piano Competition.
She learned to play piano as a young girl in a convent school in St. Albert and began giving lessons at age 18. She moved to the U.S. for her husband’s studies and landed a sales job at a Bon Marche.
She was put on the sixth floor, selling washers, dryers and pianos.
“They had 30 pianos there. I said I’d give free lessons to everyone who bought. I sold all 30 within three months ... but no washers or dryers,” Besse said, laughing before recalling she had to deliver on all those free lessons. “I didn’t have a day off for two years.”
That was the start of a lifelong passion to share music with people.
When the Besses came back to Calgary in 1965, she went to work playing the organ in the former Calgary Inn dining room.
She stayed almost 10 years, meeting many of the customers who would later patronize her store.
Over the years, Besse built a brand around her name — at a time when there was no social media, notes Ruth Alexander of Image Media Marketing.
She is working with Besse on marketing plans for Kevin Chen and a speaking tour for Besse.
“In Irene’s era, she did social media before it even existed,” said Alexander, who counts Besse as a mentor. “She was in the trenches, building relationships one on one.
“She epitomizes the saying, ‘Do what you’re passionate about.’ True branding is about authenticity and she’s the real deal.”