Top 5 classical songs picked by Yukon piano tuner

This story is part of a web series called Music that Matters with CBC Yukon's Airplay host Dave White. Dave sits down with Yukoners to talk about five pieces of music that inspire them. 

Barry Kitchen is something of a rarity in the city of Whitehorse.

He's a piano tuner.

"I know of someone else that actually took the same course I did that can tune pianos, but he doesn't do it for a living," he said. "Of all the jobs I do, tuning pianos is my favourite."

Kitchen said classical music was always playing in his home as he grew up, so naturally he decided to study piano and that led him to a lifetime in music.

When he was asked to share five of his favourite pieces, he reached back to his youth and chose the songs that continue to inspire him.

"When I was very young, my parents would play a record with lullaby music on it, and one of them was the Moonlight Sonata [by Beethoven]," he said.

"As soon as I heard it, I fell in love with it ... I wanted to learn to play it."

He says he was about 12 years old at the time and had only been playing piano for about four years — but it didn't stop him from learning complicated songs.

"My piano teacher would not teach [Moonlight Sonata] to me because it was beyond me. So I just learned it on my own."

Kitchen said he can still play the piece from memory.

Kitchen's second choice also came from Beethoven.

"I'm a lot like Schroeder from the Peanuts gang," said Kitchen. "When I was a kid, Beethoven was my idol. I used to have a big poster of Beethoven on my bedroom wall."

He said the first time he saw his local Hamilton Symphony, they performed Beethoven's 5th Symphony, and the thrill of hearing the music played live never left him.

"The 5th Symphony and hearing it in an orchestra for the very first time really sparked a passionate memory for me."

Kitchen chose Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for his third selection.

"I went to university and got a bachelor of Music, but I did not major in the piano, I decided to major in the organ because I wanted to improve my organ playing, he said, adding he had never taken organ lessons privately.

"In my first year of university, I learned it so well, I could play the whole thing from memory."

Kitchen made the classic song What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong his fourth choice.

"I used to teach band in a school in Fox Creek, Alberta," he said.

"Every now and then I would get a spare where I had time to myself where I could just sit and relax and often I would put on this CD of wedding music."

And Armstrong's song was his favourite.

"I ended up playing that one over and over again." 

With the holiday approaching, Kitchen picked a festive song as his fifth choice — the carol O Holy Night.

"I thought I would pick this one because it's Christmas time and it's my favourite carol," he said.

His favourite versions is the King's College Choir, an all boys choir, for it's "very pure sound."

"It's got the organ accompaniment and because I'm an organist, I lean to that version, and they do such a good job."