JOHN ARPIN, 70: MUSICIAN

Pianist was the 'Chopin of Ragtime' and a master of all musical
genres

As a composer, his music was heard on Polka Dot Door as well as daily
on Morningside. As a performer, he made more than 60 albums. 'He was
one of those naturals'

LISA FITTERMAN

Special to The Globe and Mail

November 17, 2007

By all rights and the laws of human physiology, John Arpin should
never have been a pianist. His hands seemed too small, with short,
delicate fingers that somehow spanned not only octaves but whole
musical genres, from classical and opera to Broadway, the Beatles and
ragtime.

Couple those hands with an encyclopedic general knowledge of music,
add the gift of the gab, and you had a consummate entertainer who,
over the course of half a century, released
no less than 67 recordings and often engaged his audiences in
impromptu history lessons about what he would play.