Sarah McGrath’s pure, angelic voice and innate musicality have made her a much appreciated soloist and section lead in the Holy Rosary Cathedral choir. After solo and choral studies at UBC, she has sung in tours across Europe, China, and the USA, including at Carnegie Hall and the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts, and is also a section lead in the Vancouver Cantata Singers.
Denis Bédard was laureate of the “Prix d’Europe” in 1975 and of the CBC Radio Talent Competition in 1978. He has given recitals across Canada, in the United States, in France, and in Brazil, and pursues an international career as a composer. His music has been performed and recorded throughout the world and he has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Monaco Cathedral, and various professional musicians in Canada, England, France, Switzerland and the U.S. Since September 2001 he has been organist and music director at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver.
Programme:
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C major BWV 545
André Campra : Jubilate Deo
Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck : Variations on the Chorale “Mache dich mein Geist bereit”
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi : Cujus animam gementem, Vidit suum dulcem natum from Stabat Mater
Johann Sebastian Bach : Fantasia in G major BWV 571
César Franck: Cantabile
Alexandre Guilmant: March in D major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Laudate Dominum, Alleluia
Camille Saint-Saëns : Ave Maria
Denis Bédard: Communion sur “Lauda Sion”, Prélude et Toccata sur “Victimae Paschali Laudes”
Performance visible on a giant screen at the front of the Cathedral.
Programme:
*Pieces with an asterisk with the participation of the St. Mark’s Instrumentalkreis
Tailleferre: Prelude
Bach: Trio Sonata in C Major
Krapf: Partita on “Herzlich tut mich erfreuen”
Bach: Durch Adam’s Fall ist ganz verderbt
Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ
Von Gott will ich nicht lassen
Mendelssohn: Aus dem Lobgesang *
Couperin: (350th anniversary of his birth)
La Julliet
La Létiville
Le Tic-Tic-Choc, ou les Maillotins
Muséte de Taverni *
Performers:
Haruyo Skikano Abramson, Cindy Leung, Huiyuan Ma, Gail Ovington, Susan Ohannesian, John Pals.
Programme: TBA
Programme to come later, will include some transcriptions and jazz.
Winner of the 2017 Canadian International Organ Competition and Firmin Swinnen Silver Medalist at the 2016 Longwood Gardens International Organ Competition, Alcee Chriss III has been celebrated for his “grace, skill and abundant proficiency” by the Journal Assist News, Albuquerque. And of his prize-winning performance at the Longwood Gardens Competition, Choir and Organ Magazine declared, “Chriss stole the show.” Mr. Chriss also won First Prize and Audience Prize in the Miami International Organ Competition (2014), the Fort Wayne National Organ Competition (2016), the Albert Schweitzer National Organ Competition in Wethersfield, CT (2013), and the Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in Austin, TX (2013).
Mr. Chriss has performed throughout the United States and France, and In 2014 was a featured “Rising Star” at the national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Boston. Recent and upcoming performances include the Meyerson Symphony Center (Dallas, TX), John F. Kennedy Center, Washington National Cathedral, Caruth Auditorium, and St. Olaf’s Catholic Church (Minneapolis MN), among others.
Alcee is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at McGill University where he studies with Hans-Ola Ericsson. He previously studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he received the Master’s degree in historical keyboard and a Bachelor’s degree in Organ Performance. At Oberlin, he studied organ with James David Christie and Olivier Latry, improvisation with Marie-Louise Langlais, and harpsichord and continuo playing with Webb Wiggins and Hank Knox. He also received a grant from Oberlin’s 1835 fund to spend a month in France studying historic organs and repertoire.
Mr. Chriss is regularly featured at various organ festivals, including the Atlanta International Organ Festival, and he returned to France in April 2016 and November 2017 to perform solo recitals as a part of the Festival Myrelingues in Lyon. He also continues international volunteer work as the parrain of a music immersion course in Lyon’s Duchère district.
In addition to his organ and harpsichord performances, Alcee is also active as a conductor and jazz pianist.
“Alcee Chriss III, winner of the AGO/Quimby Regional Young Organists Competition for the Southwest Region in 2013, performed a musically sensitive and technically brilliant concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church in May of 2014. He approached each piece with discernment and tapped into the many colors of the church’s 62-rank Möller/Garland organ. His commentary between pieces was both entertaining and informative. The standing ovation was truly deserved.”
— Dr. Michael Bedford, President, American Guild of Organists
