Jan Randall is a Canadian musician. Self taught as a young child, he started playing professionally in bands while still in high school, and after receiving formal classical and jazz training as a composer and arranger went on to an extensive career in original music for broadcast and improvisational music for comedy theatre. He currently teaches music history at the University of Victoria,[1] while continuing to unleash his music creativity via Vista Heights Music [2] for publishing his classical piano works, and song recordings as an Independent Recording Artist.[3]
His latest release of original songs, Wait in Line is distributed exclusively in digital format to Apple Music, SoundCloud and Spotify(2020).[4]
From 2011 to 2017 Jan composed and performed over 60 original comedy songs for CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show featuring a number of singers including Jocelyn Ahlf and Martin Murphy.[5] Popular songs from this series include “operettas” about texting, a transcript of a child’s tantrum, and Pavarotti doing his taxes. Other favourites include a Stan Rogers style tribute to Ben Mulroney, and spoofs of a wide variety of artists including Joni Mitchell,[6] Loreena McKennitt, Johnny Cash, Justin Timberlake, Patsy Cline, Morrisey, Cher, and Prince.
Good Fair World (2008) was his first solo recording project which was followed with a world promotional tour that included LA, Memphis, New York, London, Berlin and Rome.[7]
In 1971 Jan passed an audition to begin music studies at the University of Alberta, graduating in 1975 with a Bachelor of Music, majoring in theory and composition. His professors there included Violet Archer, Malcolm Forsyth, Isobel Ralston, and Alexandra Munn.[8] In 1976 he received a scholarship to attend the Banff School of Fine Arts, followed by jazz studies at Macewan University and North Texas State University.
In January 2014 he performed a classical piano concert of his original solo works at the McDougall United Church that included his “Piano Sonata No. 1” and a collection of Impromptus.[9] In 2016 Jan Randall and Ina Dykstra started Vista Heights Music, a sheet music publishing company featuring their original piano solos. As of 2020, they have nine books out which they distribute nationally through Debra Wanless Music[10] and Long and McQuade. They also sell directly by way of their website, vistaheightsmusic.com [11]
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