Hamelin first studied with Yvonne Hubert, a pupil of Cortot, at the École Vincent d’Indy in Montreal. He then went to America to study with Harvey Weedon and Russell Sherman at Temple University in Philadelphia where he gained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. Hamelin’s father was a pharmacist, but also a keen amateur pianist who introduced his son to the works of Alkan, Medtner, Godowsky and Sorabji. ‘He greatly favoured pianists from the first half of the twentieth century: Hofmann, Godowsky, Paderewski, Friedman, all those people. Because that’s what he listened to, that’s what I heard – more so than any contemporary pianist. I think the most beneficial element hearing these pianists provided me with was a sense of freedom they definitely had back the...