Gregory Butler

Edward Gregory Butler (* 1940 in Belleville , Ontario ) is a Canadian pianist and music teacher.

Butler received his first piano lessons at the age of five and became a student of Mona Bates at the age of ten . After high school he studied at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester with Jose Echaniz and Eugene List and wrote a dissertation on the piano sonatas by Harry Somers .

Butler has performed as a pianist in many cities in Canada and the United States. He was invited to the White House and performed the American and English premieres of Somers' Third Piano Sonata at Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall . Butler's repertoire focuses on the works of contemporary Canadian composers; so he played a complete recording of Court Stone's solo works for piano . For the past twenty-five years, Butler has worked frequently in duo with organist David Palmer .

He has taught at Mount Allison University , the Eastman School of Music, and MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. From 1986 to 1998 he was director of the School of Music at the University of Windsor , which awarded him the honorary title of Professor Emeritus after his retirement . The Ontario Registered Music Teacher's Association recognized him with the Special Teachers' Award for Excellence in Musical Achievement .