Forty-five years. That’s how long the Canadian-American musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland spent not waiting for fame. Bookending that period are his debut album, released in 1970, and the 2015 rediscovery of Keyboard Fantasies, a record first released on a few hundred cassettes in 1986. In the intervening years, Glenn-Copeland, who goes by Glenn, worked at everything from delivering pizzas to composing for Sesame Street and appearing as a regular on the Canadian children’s TV show Mr. Dressup. The one constant was making music in serene obscurity, a process he describes as translating into song the audible transmissions sent to him from the “Universal Broadcasting System.” In the last few years his ethereal music has resurfaced, and his albums Keyboard Fantasies and Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland reissued. He has performed at MoMA in New York and been the subject of a documentary film that covers both his creative journey and his transition to living publicly This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty Buy Now Related Stories Music Issue 50 Behind the Scenes Film composer Emile Mosseri on the art of setting music to film. Music Issue 31 Ryuichi Sakamoto The celebrated Japanese composer reveals the oddly shaped edges of his constantly questing mind. Music Issue 51 Zach Condon A check-in with the Beirut musician. Music Issue 50 Caroline Polachek “The thing that eats at me a little bit is how subjective my music is.... You can’t get away from ‘Caroline Polachek.’” Music Issue 50 Power Tool Master piano tuner Ulrich Gerhartz on the tool he couldn’t work without. Music Issue 50 Odd Jobs Molly Lewis, professional whistler.
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