Pianist, accompanist, educator and dedicated volunteer, Evelyn Greenberg has spent decades bringing people together through music, community service, interfaith engagement and her commitment to Jewish life. The recipient of numerous honours, Evelyn believes the greatest reward comes from giving back. For her, as she explains to Communications & Marketing Committee member Suzan Zilahi, music has never simply been about performing, it has always been about sharing joy with others.
1. Evelyn, you have received some prestigious honours over the years, including the Governor General Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Musicians’ Association of Ottawa-Gatineau. What has that recognition meant to you?
Volunteerism is part of my DNA. I learned it from my mother and my sister, Jackie. Wherever I go, giving back is important in my life.
I was one of the founders of the Canada-Israel Cultural Foundation in Ottawa. I also spend a great deal of time building bridges through interfaith work and fighting antisemitism, particularly at universities. Playing at St. John the Evangelist Church on Christmas Eve, for example, is very important to me.
I was also very honoured to receive the Rabbi Reuven Bulka Shem Tov Award. But probably the most meaningful recognition has been from Hillel Lodge, because I have played there for 43 years and continue to do so.
When I received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa and spoke at Convocation, I told the graduates: “You’ve got to share what you have received from this university, from your communities and from Canada.”
2. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Ottawa. My parents came from Winnipeg. My father was an actuary and my mother was a volunteer. Like me, my mother had cancer and she gave back by volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society.
My sister, Jackie Holzman, was mayor of the City of Ottawa for two terms. I’m very proud to call Ottawa my home.
3. What is your history with KBI and Ottawa’s Jewish community?
I grew up going to Shul at Adath Jeshurun on King Edward and we eventually merged into Beth Shalom on Chapel Street. I was married there, and I loved that synagogue. Then, as luck would have it, we merged with Agudath Israel and became KBI.
What I love about KBI is that the membership includes dear friends from Beth Shalom and the new ones I have met. I’m also impressed with the volunteers who carried on the Shabbat service along with Cantor Green. It’s a pleasure to worship here.
4. How did the piano become part of your life?
My sister Jackie, who is almost three years older than I am, was taken for piano lessons when she was about seven. I was four and couldn’t stay home by myself, so I went along.
After about six weeks, the piano teacher said to my mother, “Do yourself a favour, leave the big one at home and bring me the little one!”
At four and a half, I performed in a concert at what is now the Canadian Museum of Nature. From then on, I was never shy about playing in public.
5. Did you always know that music would become your career?
Not at all! I have a Bachelor of Commerce from Carleton University and worked for a year at the Bank of Canada. Then I married the wonderful lawyer Irving Greenberg, who thought I should stay home and cook.
I was not good at that.
So I started playing the piano professionally. People hired me to accompany them, and eventually the University of Ottawa hired me to teach accompaniment and ensemble. I taught there for 27 years.
All the other professors had degrees such as Master of Music and Doctor of Music after their names. After mine it said B.Comm. People thought I was the accountant.
6. What do you love about being an accompanist?
I’m not a person who plays music just for myself. I’m not a solo musician. I like working with others.
Throughout my life, music has allowed me to work with some extraordinary people. I’ve accompanied choirs, ballet classes, singers and instrumentalists — even the Moscow Circus! Your life is enhanced by the musicians you work with.
I particularly enjoy playing for singers. One of my favourite people to accompany was Maureen Forrester. It was easy to play for a professional who was a mensch.
When I was only 14, I also had the opportunity to accompany the legendary Yiddish actress and singer Molly Picon when she came to Ottawa.
7. Are you still playing?
Absolutely. I continue to play, even though my fingers are now 88 years old — which, by the way, is the number of keys on a piano, and that makes me very proud!
I play at retirement homes throughout the city. When I go to ones that aren’t Jewish, they love it when I play “Hava Nagila.”
8. What do you love about teaching?
Teaching is a joy. You learn a great deal from the colleagues you work with and from your own teachers, but you learn the most from your students. Their questions take you somewhere new and different, somewhere you may never have thought of before.
9. What makes you most proud when you look back on your career?
I’m proud that I have this huge circle of people who have come into my life through music.
And I’m personally proud that, at my age, I’m still playing the piano and giving joy to people who hear it.
I’m also enormously proud of my family — my three children and my six grandchildren. That is nachas.
10. If you could have dinner with any Jewish person, past or present, who would it be and why?
Without question, Artur Rubinstein.
Not only was he a great pianist, he was also a generous mensch. He loved Israel. Even in his later years he maintained his extraordinary love of life.
Many decades ago, I had the opportunity to present flowers to him at Ben Gurion Airport. I was so overwhelmed by being in his presence that I couldn’t speak.
To this day, I would like to sit beside him and say, “Now I can talk, Maestro.”
11. What is your secret to staying so youthful?
Rubinstein said, “If you love life, life will love you back.”
I love life.
I love the company of others. I love sharing whatever skills I have. And I believe in giving back.
It all comes back to that.