Classical guitarist Liona Boyd was a trailblazer when she first rose to fame within the Nineteen Seventies. In 2025, she’ll be inducted as a member of Canada’s Stroll of Fame. The group lately made the announcement of Boyd’s recognition, which coincided with the discharge of her debut album in 1974.
Canada’s Stroll of Fame is a not-for-profit charitable group that appears to encourage Canadians by spotlighting those that make extraordinary achievements in quite a lot of fields, counting greater than 230 inductions up to now.
Liona Boyd is a five-time JUNO Award winner whose induction can be among the many first spherical underneath the Arts & Leisure class in 2025.
We caught up with the Canadian icon to ask a number of questions.
Liona Boyd
A composer in addition to classical guitarist, Boyd was born in London, UK, however grew up in Toronto. That’s the place her dad and mom gifted her with a classical guitar they’d purchased on a visit to Spain. She was 13 years outdated. She fell in love with the instrument after attending a live performance that includes Julian Bream, and went on to check with the perfect, together with Bream himself, and Andrés Segovia. Liona earned her Bachelor of Music diploma from the College of Toronto in 1972, and adopted it up with two years of personal examine with Alexandre Lagoya in Paris.
She made her Carnegie Corridor debut in 1975, and started a touring profession that included performing as a gap act for Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot.
Boyd would construct a profitable worldwide profession that noticed her performing for royalty and heads of state, in live shows all around the world, in quite a few recordings, and tv appearances.
However, success itself would take a toll.
In 2002, her profession would take a success when she was identified with focal dystonia, a poorly understood situation that impacts the particular operate of sure fingers, and is commonly present in musicians. As she described it in an interview, “It appeared that 40 years of enjoying the identical notes hundreds of thousands of instances had induced one finger to insurgent and now not obey my mind’s instructions.”
After quitting the stage in 2003, she would reinvent herself as she retrained her affected finger to play, and make a comeback in 2009.
“I now realized that I used to be a pure songwriter and reinvented myself as a singer, whereas nonetheless enjoying my beloved guitar with a simplified approach.” she defined in an interview.
She’s launched a number of albums and toured since then.
Boyd has turn into recognized for mixing classical, folks, and varied international parts into her music, and has recorded 30 albums.
Alongside along with her JUNO assortment, Boyd was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, amongst many different awards and recognition. She can be the author of two autobiographies, In My Personal Key (1998) and No Treatment for Love (2017), and a kids’s ebook.
Liona’s newest full-length album, As soon as Upon a Time, was launched in 2023, and a video for the instrumental monitor Shadows of the Wind dropped only a few weeks in the past.
Liona Boyd: Q&A
We requested the celebrated musician about her profession, and what it means to be included in The Stroll of Fame.
What retains you making music a half century after the discharge of your debut album?
Music has enabled me to have an thrilling and adventurous life. Being artistic with my guitar and with my lyrics provides me probably the most profound pleasure conceivable. I really like developing with new music, and sometimes whereas writing melodies it feels as if they’re flowing into me from one other dimension. I’ve experimented with so many various kinds and am delighted that each one of my albums are actually that can be purchased or stream.
Once I bear in mind all of the symphonies I carried out with, my a whole bunch of solo live shows, my two main excursions with my very own band and numerous live shows, extra lately with a duo accomplice enjoying and singing with me, I really feel actually blessed.
Your most up-to-date launch, As soon as Upon A Time, reimagines a few of your earlier work, together with presenting new compositions, however appears finally to have a timeless high quality. Is {that a} aim, to create a sound world to your listeners that’s outdoors of the on a regular basis expertise?
Sure, that could be very perceptive of you. My producer Peter Bond and I wished this to be a timeless album. A lot of it was impressed by movie scores, therefore its expansive sound stage. Certainly my hope is that the album will present an escape past the on a regular basis expertise. One of many items was primarily based on an older composition of mine known as “Shadows Of The Wind”, which is certainly one of my favorite melodies. I really like Peter’s new manufacturing for it. We simply launched a video for it that’s on my YouTube Vevo channel The album has many large and intimate moments, usually inside the identical piece. For instance the opening monitor, Cantarium, with it’s stately themes and sudden transcendental classical guitar cadenza.
As soon as Upon A Time was nicely suited to the Atmos (Immersive audio) mixes which might be accessible on Apple Music. Peter labored with Jeff Wolpert with the Atmos mixes, however after all the album sounds superb in Stereo too!
This summer time I revisited my duet with Olivia Newton-John with a brand new manufacturing, “Summer time Goals”, which we launched in August together with a video. It’s had a terrific response from each her followers and mine with over 70k audio streams.
Within the classical world, regardless of the careers of artists such as you, the guitar has been seen as one thing of an outlier, nevertheless it looks as if there’s a renewed curiosity in it only recently. Would you agree — is it one thing you’ve noticed your self as an advocate of the instrument?
Sure, and maybe being in lockdown through the pandemic fired up many individuals to take up the classical guitar. Plainly there are extra gamers than ever and the guitar scene could be very wholesome.
As an unofficial worldwide ambassador and champion for the classical guitar my complete profession, I discover it immensely satisfying to see such a lot of proficient classical guitarists from world wide. And eventually immediately this consists of so many feminine gamers, one thing that was uncommon once I began my profession within the mid seventies.
Who’re you listening to as of late? Are there any younger Canadian artists in your playlists?
Fairly actually I’ve not saved “au courante” with the Canadian classical guitar scene, however by way of my web site I hear from many who credit score me with having impressed them. Earlier this 12 months I “paid it ahead” by buying 30 lovely new guitars from Yamaha and held a giveaway throughout Canada by way of Lengthy & McQuade we had an enormous response with over 17,000 entries. I acquired probably the most great letters of appreciation from the winners, which have been printed in newest L&M journal.
I hope many dad and mom will purchase guitars for his or her youngsters over the vacations. In any case, it was a Christmas current that led me to this most lovely of devices.
What does inclusion within the Stroll of Fame imply to you?
I’m thrilled to be inducted into Canada’s Stroll of Fame together with so many distinguished Canadians from numerous fields. It’s exhausting to imagine I’ve spent over 50 years within the music enterprise! I do know I launched hundreds of thousands to the classical guitar once I appeared on tv reveals such because the Tonight Present and NBC’s Immediately, in addition to having my very own TV specials in varied international locations together with Canada.
I’m very touched and honoured by this recognition and am grateful to all my followers and supporters and to Canada’s Stroll of Fame for selecting to incorporate me.
- The 2025 Canada’s Stroll of Fame Awards Present and Gala Celebration will happen on Saturday, June 14, 2025 on the Metro Toronto Conference Centre.
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
