Glenn Gould was a pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the twentieth century. He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of J. S. Bach.

Glenn Gould died of a stroke at the Toronto General Hospital on October 4, 1982. A large public funeral service was held at St. Paul's' Anglican Church, 227 Bloor Street East. It was attended by more than 3,000 people.  He is buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery Grave No 1050 Section 38. The cemetery office is often asked for instructions on finding his grave site. The beneficiaries of his will were the Salvation Army and the Toronto Humane Society.

The grave marker is modest, made of grey marble and inscribed with the opening bars of the Goldberg variations. A sitka spruce (a tree used to make piano sound boards) was planted on the site by Sony executives during the 1992 Glenn Gould conference.