Gary Sill

Gary Sill ranks among Canada’s foremost new age musicians, having issued multiple commercially successful albums that range from meditative works to solo instrumental pieces. Born on September 28, 1944, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, the pianist and composer grew up with a bandleader father and a journalist mother. He trained at the Banff Centre for the Arts and the University of Calgary, later instructing students at Grant McEwan College. For years he performed as a jazz pianist across Canada, residing at different times in Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton before settling permanently in the resort town of Banff in the Canadian Rockies alongside his wife, photographer Carole Harmon. Although Sill has written scores for CBC Radio, theater productions, and other projects, he is chiefly recognized for his solo recordings. His Music for Relaxation series on PacificLine enjoyed strong sales, as did his Sufi recordings issued by Sound of Light. Greater critical recognition arrived with the sequence of piano albums launched in 2000 by Healing Moon and continued each year with Spring Is in the Poet and Restless Hearts; all three titles performed strongly on NAV’s Top 100 chart.