Guitarist grateful for ‘great adventures’
Liona Boyd to wrap November tour of Ontario at Showplace
Liona Boyd, who can recall attending a classical guitar show for the first time at age 13 and getting her first guitar for Christmas that very same year, encourages more parents to bring their children to her performances.
“That concert changed my life,” the guitar virtuoso said Tuesday on the eve of a November tour of Ontario that will culminate at Showplace Performance Centre on Nov. 19. “It is so important to expose (youth) to music … it can really change their life.”
Dubbed Canada’s First Lady of the Guitar, Boyd has played her romantic, unique brand of classical, folk and world music to audiences around the world since her 1975 debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
After living in places as far apart as Miami, Los Angeles and Connecticut, the 69-year-old now splits her time between Palm Beach and Toronto — just a short walk away from where she graduated from the University of Toronto with a music degree in 1972.
Boyd has 28 recordings, five instrumental artist Juno awards, an Order of Canada, Order of Ontario, Diamond Jubilee Medal and five honorary doctorates to her name.
She has recorded and performed with Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Rik Emmett, David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, Yo Yo Ma, Roger Whitaker and Gheorghe Zamfir. She also dated Pierre Trudeau for eight years and remains friends and pen pals with Prince Philip.
The London, England native — who moved to Canada with her parents at age eight — is very grateful for the “great adventures” she has had.
“I’m very privileged to have played just about every country in the world and play with so many great people,” Boyd said.
She has fond memories of playing in Peterborough, including a show as part of the then-called Festival of Lights that was filmed. She also has close friends here — including someone who recently moved into a retirement home who plans to attend the show.
For this tour, which began Thursday in Brockville, Boyd is being accompanied by fellow classical guitarist and singer Andrew Dolson.
She recalls how they connected thanks to a cover story on him by a magazine in her mother’s hometown of Kitchener. It described how the recent classical guitar graduate was looking for his first big break.
When Boyd first reached him when he was mountain climbing, he ignored the message, not believing what he was hearing. When she left another message, he realized it was the real deal and hastily went for an audition, Boyd recalled.
“It was all because of my mother and that magazine, really,” she said, singing his praise. “He has such a great personality. People are going to love him.”
The show will include personal anecdotes and a set list drawing from a career that includes 2013’s homecoming album, The Return … To Canada with Love, which includes patriotic tributes to her country.
It featured the song Canada My Canada and appearances by Olivia Newton-John, Dan Hill, Daniel Lavie, Millbrook’s Serena Ryder, Jann Arden, Randy Bachman, Michel Bérubé, Divine Brown, astronaut Chris Hadfield and more.
Boyd’s first autobiography, In My Own Key, was published in 1988 before it was reissued in August 2017 as she released her second, No Remedy For Love. It picks up where the other one left off, she said, adding how it shows how her life hasn’t always been easy.
That includes a six-year period where she didn’t tour, following the release of 2002’s Camino Latino, as she retooled her playing technique after being diagnosed with focal dystonia — a neurological condition causing involuntary muscular contractions.
She also slipped on a piece of cardboard in her Palm Beach garage in April 2016, causing her to fall and break her knee and shoulder and prompting an airlift to a Florida trauma centre before having surgery back in Toronto.
Fans of Boyd can also catch her on television next month, as PBS will be airing one of her Christmas concerts Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. and Dec. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
NOTES: Reserved seating tickets for An Intimate Evening with the First Lady of Guitar.… Liona Boyd are available for $47.50 (tax and facility fees included; handling charges may apply) from the Showplace box office at 290 George St. N or 705742-7469.… Showtime is 7:30 p.m.… Visit www.lionaboyd.com or www.shantero.com for more information.