ABOUT
Jean Tews was a Canadian pianist who studied alongside Glen Gould and Mario Bernardi. From her early success winning multiple Stratford Kiwanis Music Festival awards and scholarships, to performing on the concert hall stage in Germany, Jean devoted her life to music. She recorded her six-volume series of Composer Masterworks before losing her battle with cancer in 1993 at age 62. .
Jean’s insightful and authentic interpretations of Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and Ravel will live on through the Composer Masterworks collection. Made before and during her remission from cancer between 1988-1991, the pieces were performed on Jean’s exclusive Kawai EX Concert Grand piano and recorded with the inimitable Calrec Mark IV Soundfield Microphone.
Following Jean’s death in 1993, the recordings languished in the family archives until they were resurrected in 2018 by her brother, Dr. Gavin Hamilton .
Executive Producer David Stambler, with the assistance of Armoury Studios in Vancouver, had the recordings remixed; they were published, and he launched this website. Volumes 1 and 2 were given a 4-star review by International Piano magazine, and the first volume was distributed to 60 international radio stations.
Now, for the first time, her family presents all six volumes of the Composer Masterworks ; a collection that captures and preserves Jean Tews’ unique interpretations of the world’s greatest piano pieces.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Gavin Hamilton
Dr. Gavin Hamilton is Jean Tews' brother. He entered the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario in 1949 on multiple scholarships, graduating as MD in 1955. After a decade in family practice, he earned a Royal College Fellowship in Diagnostic Radiology (1969). From his small private office practice, he shared new insights into Diagnostic Radiology and the unrecognized worldwide contamination of medical injections by an allergenic, toxic natural rubber contaminant, MBT, from rubber parts of disposable syringes, drug ampoules and IV administration sets, in The Lancet, Radiology, CMAJ, JCAR, and Urology.
In his book “The Nurses are Innocent – The Digoxin Poisoning Fallacy,” he revealed that an epidemic of baby cardiac deaths at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children in 1980-81 was not due to serial murder by digoxin poisoning by the nursing staff, as generally believed, but was due to a cumulative toxin, MBT, which was falsely measured as digoxin by the test methods used. At the time of the Toronto deaths, researchers at Hammersmith Hospital found 91 neonatal babies with “potentially toxic” levels of the cumulative toxin, MBT, from syringes, drug ampoules and IV administration sets; these “poisoned” babies, using the tests employed in the Toronto baby deaths, would show falsely high (toxic) blood levels of digoxin.
In an enigmatic radiologist’s arterial injection phenomenon, arteriographic standing waves, he recognized the coexistence of stationary simple harmonic fluid shear waves and standing wave sound in what should have been the chaos of turbulent flow. This led to his understanding of the cause of the sudden change from laminar (streamline) flow to turbulence, a phenomenon in Physics that has remained unexplained in spite of worldwide research for two centuries. Gavin's numerous publications are available for viewing and download at www.gavinhamilton.ca.
Although Gavin knew Jean and Lothar had made recordings over the years, he learned of the final digital recordings only in 2010. Lothar wanted them preserved as CDs, but felt he shouldn't spend money that his second wife Marion might need after he died (which he knew would be later that year). Gavin undertook having Alpha Music Studios in London do a basic transfer of the recordings to sets of seven CDs, which he then gave to family, friends and acquaintances who loved classical music. David Stambler, a digital designer, project manager, music lover and longtime family friend in Vancouver received a set of Jean’s recordings in May 2018. He was so fascinated by her life story and a sense that he might be in possession of a treasure trove of unrecognized talent that he made Jean’s recordings one of his managed projects, presenting Jean’s recordings from an unknown artist dead for 25 years onto the world stage with international exposure and acclaim in a period of 6 months.
David Stambler
David Stambler graduated with an English language and literature degree from Western University, and began his multimedia career hosting radio programs, followed by photographing people and culture throughout South East Asia and recording folk, tribal, and religious music in India, before pursuing multimedia accreditation at UBC in Vancouver.
He was involved in the original iMac launch and worked in the digital imaging field, then specialized in digital presentations, digital video, and DVD production for Duocom/MCSi Creative Services.
He continued as the Website Content Manager for SkinCareGuide, a 19 site network of dermatology information websites. Web traffic doubled from the start of his tenure at SkinCareGuide to the time he left.
As Project Leader for a large website integration, he managed the combination of three domains into a single interface for the Department of Dermatology and Skin Science at UBC, and was the Project Manager for the creation and launch of the Canadian Skin Patient Alliance website.
Since that time he is currently a freelance multimedia designer in Vancouver, servicing clients for a variety of needs including website content authoring and interactivity optimization, digital design and presentations, custom HTML email campaigns, corporate logo and identity creation for the IT industry, digital map creation for archeological clients, and digital video editing and DVD authoring and design.
In addition to launching the Jean Tews Composer Masterworks Series, he has recently produced a book of poetry for another client, photographed and videotaped dermatology conferences, and worked on an international medical image reference gallery. Like the cobbler that doesn't have time to make new shoes, his website is over 8 years out of date and will be updated shortly: www.stambler.net
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