Pianist Angela Hewitt, who agreed to be the Honorary Patron of Music for Young Children^® in 2000, continues to captivate and charm audiences around the world with her musicianship and virtuosity. Since her triumph in the 1985 Toronto International Bach Piano Competition, Miss Hewitt has been hailed as "the pre-eminent Bach pianist of our time" (The Guardian, London, 2001).

In 1994, she embarked on a ten-year project to record all of the major keyboard works by Bach for the Hyperion label, a series which has been called "one of the record glories of our age" by London's Sunday Times. Her disc of Bach Arrangements won a Juno Award in Canada for the Best Instrumental or Chamber CD of 2001. During the year 2000, she gave complete performances of the 48 Preludes and Fugues in Canada, the United States, England, and Germany. She has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Japan, Australia, China, Mexico, and the former Soviet Union.

Born into a musical family (her father was the Cathedral organist in Ottawa, Canada), Miss Hewitt began her piano studies at the age of three, performing in public at four, and a year later winning her first scholarship. She also studied violin, recorder, singing, and classical ballet. At nine, she gave her first recital at Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music where she studied from 1964-73. Miss Hewitt then studied with French pianist, Jean-Paul Sevilla, at the University of Ottawa from which she earned her Bachelor of Music degree at the age of 18.

Miss Hewitt placed First in Italy's Viotti Competition (1978) and was a top prizewinner in the International Bach competitions of Leipzig and Washington, D.C., as well as the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Casadesus Competition in Cleveland, and the Dino Ciani Competition at La Scala, Milan.

Miss Hewitt's repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to the contemporary. Her discography also includes CDs by Granados, Olivier Messiaen, and most recently, the complete solo works of Ravel. She has performed with orchestras across the United States, with the Japan Philharmonic, and with every major orchestra in Canada and Australia. Highlights of 2002-2003 include appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (in a world premier of a concerto by Dominic Muldowney); the Houston, Dallas, and Detroit Symphonies; her debut in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw; tours with the Deutschekammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Australian Chamber Orchestra; and recitals for the Cleveland Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the Bilbao Philharmonic, the Arts Tower Mito in Japan, the Serate Musicali in Milan; and the Schwetzingen, Cheltenham, and Oslo Festivals.

Her lecture-recitals on Bach, and her frequent masterclasses are widely appreciated by students and teachers alike. Dedicated to keeping "live music" alive, she is a founding member of Piano Six - a project involving six Canadian pianists who take music to the rural communities of Canada. In 1995, Angela Hewitt was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa; in 1997, she received the Key to the City of Ottawa, and in 2005 was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She has made her home in London, England since 1985.

Frances Balodis on the left with Angela Hewitt at the WaterCan Benefit Concert in Ottawa at Christ Church Cathedral, September 20, 2005.