The CMR Spotlight
John Sankey
John Sankey grew up on the Niagara Peninsula, Canada, and began studying piano with his mother at age three. He also studied violin with Artur Garami. During childhood he was inspired by a series of articles about Vladimir Horowitz in Etude Magazine. By the age of sixteen he was an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. With the help of Thurston Dart in London, England, he later discovered the harpsichord and Fenton House. He was also introduced to the art of viola da gamba making by Juliet Beamont of Cambridge, and to the baroque violin by Alice Harnoncourt.
After taking a hiatus from a musical career in order to help raise his five children, John Sankey has recently devoted his musical interests to early harpsichord music and to MIDI sequencing. His goal is to record (in General MIDI format) the complete catalog of copyright-free works for the harpsichord for free distribution on the Internet.
John's equipment for MIDI sequencing presently consists of a Kawai MIDI keyboard, Cubase Compact for Windows, and a Soundblaster 32 card. His many MIDI sequences to date include the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, Keyboard Toccatas, Partitas and French Suites by J.S. Bach, the Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and a large selection of pieces from William Byrd's FitzWilliam Virginal Book.
He plans to continue with his current FitzWilliam project, and then "I've got a list a mile long of gorgeous music to work on. I'll probably return to a bit of Bach, then choose Handel or Francois Couperin for my next major project."
The following is a quote from John Sankey regarding the limitations of MIDI as applied to harpsichord music:
"Few MIDI instruments implement key release velocity (string damping), and none of which I am aware take account of the effect that one string's sound has on other harmonically-related undamped strings. But, pushing the limit of things is what artists have always done. So be it. Finger motions are pure information, the stuff of the modern age."
Mr. Sankey can be reached by email at: