In late November, Gonzales and other performers recorded the fourth installment of the Arte Lounge TV show at Werner Otto Hall, which is part of the Konzerthaus facility in Berlin. The site of the Berlin Konzerthaus has quite a lengthy history of famous performers: Mozart, Paganini, Liszt, to name a few. While previous buildings were destroyed several times by fire and war, the current building opened in 1984 and features a gorgeous main performance hall. With a donation from German Entrepreneur Werner Otto, the orchestral rehearsal space was converted in 2003 into a modern, open hall, appropriately named “Werner Otto Hall”.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Gonzales is garnering attention and accolades in Germany, after all, he’s currently based out of Cologne and performs many concerts around the country. The same was true when he lived in Berlin, then Paris: Gonzales’ popularity in Germany and France increased dramatically while he was a resident. But the cities also had an effect on Gonzales in the same way that living in different cities affected the musical style of classical composers.

It’s fascinating that Gonzales was unknowingly part of Drake’s musical universe prior to Drake becoming a critically-acclaimed rap entertainer. With the inclusion of one Solo Piano song on a mixtape, Drake set a chain in motion that resulted in a wonderful collaboration between the two entertainers. If Drake’s recent tweet is any indication, that collaboration is set to continue: he’s amassed a talented crew to produce and record his fourth album (titled: “Views From the 6”), and Chilly Gonzales is included in the list:

Many of Gonzales’ albums have a central theme, much in the same way that many of his songs were driven from a central theme or challenge (e.g. compose an emotional song only on the white keys). In the case of Solo Piano, it’s the (apparent) intimacy and solitude of an upright piano, and in “The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales”, it’s the insightful and bombastic rapper (with no beats), and so on. The original Boys Noize collaboration, Ivory Tower was also a concept album of sorts – a ‘pure’ artist struggling with the pressures of becoming an ‘Entertainer’. For Ivory Tower, the duo were soundtracking to an actual movie, but in the case of Octave Minds, the music is written to a movie that only exists in our minds. This is much more powerful and effective, as the evocative imagery that comes from within us is shaped from our personal environment and experiences. Without a singer (for the most part), the music is universal as we don’t have to strain to interpret words.

Chilly Gonzales fans are passionate people. They either run a website dedicated to his works, apply for a lesson by the Maestro himself with incredibly witty and funny videos, or they start playing the piano – just because they love his pieces so much. Others queue for hours to enter Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann in Berlin and witness his Masterclass. In the end, only 200 make it inside. While waiting, one of them stated something obvious, yet easy to be forgotten: “He sells out Europe’s concert halls – it is special to be part of something that intimate tonight.”

Europeans hardly see themselves as citizens of one nation. They consider themselves inhabitants of several independent countries pooled by an alliance of convenience, or worse: necessary evil. Even more in “our” times, when the EU is in danger, fighting monetary threats. On one hand, people benefit from open borders, and on the other, they seem to be more aware of the differences than of what unites us and the rich cultural heritage. Maybe it’s the lack of a common language; a European Esperanto. Yet, it’s the words of a Canadian that strikes a chord, and might bring some remedy for the sore EU citizen – especially the German soul. In an interview with renowned radio station Deutsche Welle he states: “I firmly believe that Europe is one land and Germany an important province of this land.”

On May 23rd, at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s 21C Music Festival in Toronto, Gonzales, accompanied by the Madawaska Quartet & Ensemble, premiered his “Suite from The Shadow”, which was called “dynamic and invigorating” by NOW Magazine. As Gonzales explained to a CBC interviewer, the longer work is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s adult fairy tale “The Shadow”, which Gonzales was intrigued by:

I was attracted by its nuanced handling of the age-old duality theme. The tale gets beyond the Faustian bargain into themes of charisma, charlatanism and the unleashed id.

When I witnessed Cameron Carpenter mastering his International Touring Organ and making this incredible machine come alive in Zurich last Sunday night, I instantly had Chilly Gonzales’ words in mind, when he called The BBC Symphony Orchestra he played with in London 2012 “the world’s most expensive synthesizer”. It was apparently another fulfilled longing to have one of those “synthesizers” all to himself. Carpenter’s digital organ might be even more expensive, the inner urge to create such an instrument, find sponsors and then actually use it, is the same. The obvious connection between the two musicians – apart from their dedication to key instruments – as Chilly Gonzales would put it: They are men of their (and our) time. They have a vision – the vision to take music to the next level. To keep the roots, but cut the weed. To not see music as something written in stone, but something versatile, adaptable and re-inventable as well as re-interpretative.So in an ideal world, these two should work together and as we sometimes like to daydream at SoloGonzales, we already have an idea how: with harpsichordist Christopher Lewis on board in a concert dedicated to “The Evolution of the Keys”.

A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.

Gonzales has released a book of etudes specifically geared towards a very large target audience; lapsed piano students. Remember way back, when your parents forced you to sit down in front of the piano and practice while all the other kids were outside riding their bikes? The piano seemed torturous, and you caused your parents so much grief that they eventually let you quit piano. Now you have regrets and wish there was some way to re-introduce yourself to the piano so you can finally feel that sense of musical accomplishment (and possibly inspire your own family).

Response to the first Solo Gonzales puzzle was overwhelming – happy to hear that so many Chilly Gonzales fans up for a challenge. As promised, we have developed puzzle number two, and we think it’s even a bit trickier than the first. This puzzle mainly covers from Presidential Suite all the way to Ivory Tower, and (as always) almost all of the clues are Gonz-related in some way.