Pianist and teacher Andrew Markow, the person responsible for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s piano curriculum for nearly four decades, died in Toronto on Tuesday, July 2, following a battle with cancer. He was 71.
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Markow first joined the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1970, and still recently taught students at the Glenn Gould Professional School. He had also taught at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.
He was a busy accompanist and teacher as well as competition and festival adjudicator. But his most lasting legacy is helping shape the piano curriculum at the Conservatory, which is followed by the majority of Canadian piano students. He co-authored books on ear training and sight reading with Boris Berlin, another significant force in piano education, who died in 2001.
Markow is survived by his wife Lena.
There is visitation at the Turner & Porter funeral home at 2357 Bloor St W. on Sunday (July 7) from 2 to 5 p.m. The funeral will be held there on Monday at 11 a.m.
A memorial celebration is being planned for September.
Here is Markow’s arrangement of “I’m a Little Teapot,” for the Conservatory’s Grade 1 piano curriculum, as played by young Andrew Zhong last year:
John Terauds
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