Helen Joyce MacKay.
Helen Joyce MacKay Prodigy. Musician. Mentor. Mother. Born June 13, 1928, in Mimico, Ont.; died July 21, 2017, in Lindsay, Ont., of cardiac arrest; aged 89.
The only child of William and Florence Lanchbury, Joyce exhibited a natural aptitude and strong interest in music at the age of 3. She began lessons when she was 6 and passed the Piano Grade 8 examination at the University of Toronto at the age of 9. Joyce won a citywide piano competition and was accepted to the Royal Conservatory in Toronto under the tutelage of Mona Bates, one of the city's pre-eminent pianists.
Joyce aspired to be a career piano soloist, but she learned early on that this was not the fate for women of her time. She was a practical and pragmatic woman and realized her only path would be to play in supper clubs, as an accompanist and as a teacher. It was her dedication to piano that would launch her career and her lifelong passion.
During the Second World War, Joyce entertained Canadian servicemen in local hospitals and canteens around Toronto. She was offered an overseas contract by the BBC, and was invited to represent Canada in Leipzig, Germany. However, her parents would not allow her to go to Europe during the war, so neither opportunity was taken up.
After the war, Joyce continued to play at venues in Toronto, then in 1949 accepted a six-month engagement at the Taft Hotel in New York, where she moved with her mother. When she returned to Canada, she performed in Montreal at the Alberta Lounge and found herself on the same bill as Oscar Peterson, establishing a lifelong friendship with him. It was during the Peterson gig that she noticed one jazz fan who returned frequently. A friend later introduced her to Douglas MacKay, but the two lost contact when she returned to Toronto.
Joyce continued her career as a supper-club entertainer and accompanist, playing with such Canadian legends as Maureen Forrester, Lois Marshall, Hilda Veenstra and many others in concerts and live CBC broadcasts.
In the summer of 1951, Joyce played at the Alpine Inn in Fenelon Falls for a small wage, tips, room and board. While there, she bumped into Doug again. The two began a romance, and were married the following year and moved to Montreal. In 1954, their son, Gordon, was born.
The family soon moved from Montreal to various Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Toronto and Whitby, Ont., where Joyce taught piano and performed professionally, including a gig with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Corps. Joyce's Steinway – owned since the age of 10 – was played at every family gathering. In later years, it would entertain her granddaughters, Kathryn MacKay and Emma Harris, and great-grandson Luke Harris. Her son, however, never got the hang of the piano although Gordon did inherit a love of music and played drums instead. (When her husband died in 1981, Joyce downsized, but made sure her beloved piano stayed in the family and passed it on to a second cousin.)
Joyce continued to play well into her 80s, entertaining "the old folks," as she called her peers, in retirement homes nearby. She lived on her own until she couldn't any longer.
Joyce died quietly with her son at her side while Beethoven's 5th Symphony, one of her favourite compositions, played in the background.
Gord MacKay is Joyce's son.
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