Scott Ross

Scott Ross earned acclaim in the United States as a harpsichordist whose technical mastery and penetrating readings of Baroque works brought him both popularity and critical esteem. Over a career cut short, he committed to disc the complete keyboard output of Scarlatti, Rameau, and Couperin while becoming closely identified with the music of J.S. Bach; he also commanded respect as a harpsichord instructor in Canada and France.

The death of his father in 1956 coincided with the emergence of a deep musical interest in the boy. One year later he began lessons on both organ and piano. At thirteen, in 1964, he relocated to France alongside his mother and brother—the latter two would eventually return to the United States—and the following year entered the Nice Conservatory, studying harpsichord with Huguette Grémy-Chauliac and organ with René Saorgin. He departed in 1968 after receiving first prize at his graduation recital. Although organ had been his principal focus in the early French years, he gradually shifted his attention to the harpsichord by the close of the 1960s. An unsuccessful attempt at the international harpsichord competition in Bruges in 1969 was followed two years later by a first-prize victory there. That same year he concluded his studies at the Paris Conservatory, where Robert Veyron-Lacroix had taught him harpsichord since 1969.

The suicide of his mother in 1970 struck the young musician with particular force. He emerged from what he later described in an interview with the French magazine Diapason as a “foul” period by making his debut recording in 1971 for the early-music label Editions STIL; the album, devoted to Bach and titled Monsieur Bach, was followed that year by lessons with Kenneth Gilbert at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. In 1973 he joined the faculty of the Laval University School of Music in Quebec, advancing to assistant professor in 1978. A 1975 release of Rameau’s Pièces de clavecin drew favorable notices and secured a grand prix du disque the next year. His subsequent project, the complete Pièces de clavecin of Couperin, again earned widespread praise.

Ross requested a leave of absence from Laval in 1983. The next year he entered a five-year agreement with the French label Erato. His initial undertaking for the company—the 555 sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti—proved the most demanding of his life. Recording began in June 1984 and concluded in September 1985; across that fifteen-month interval he captured two sonatas on every studio day, ultimately issuing the set on thirty-four compact discs. Although numerous concert performances and additional recordings contributed to his reputation, this monumental cycle remains his most enduring achievement. Further discs of music by Bach, Soler, and Forqueray appeared in 1986, the same year he resigned from Laval University.

Health problems surfaced seriously in 1988 with the first of several stays at Lapeyronie Hospital in Montpellier. Ross died in Assas at the age of thirty-eight.