Variations and Passacaglias: Denis Bédard in Concert

Music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century, including J. S. Bach’s masterpiece the Passacaglia and Fugue (see complete programme below).

Performance visible on a giant screen at the front of the Cathedral.

Denis Bédard, who was born in Quebec City in 1950, first studied music at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, graduating with first class honours in organ, harpsichord, chamber music, counterpoint and fugue. He continued his studies in Paris and Montreal, as well as in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, and was laureate of the “Prix d’Europe” in 1975 and of the CBC Radio Talent Competition in 1978. A professor at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec from 1981 until 1989 and organ professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from 2001 until 2004, Denis Bédard was organist at St-Coeur-de-Marie church in Quebec City for 19 years and then became organist at St-Roch church, also in Quebec City, in September 1997. Since September 2001 Denis Bédard has been organist and music director at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver. He is a very active concert artist and has given recitals across Canada, in the United States, in France and in Brazil.

Denis Bédard’s compositions include more than twenty chamber music works as well as orchestral and vocal music and many organ works. He has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Québec Symphony Orchestra and various professional musicians in Canada, England, France, Switzerland and the U.S. Many of his works have been performed internationally (U.S.A., France, Monaco, England, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, South Africa, Namibia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador, Israel, Russia), particularly at international organ and saxophone conventions, and several have been recorded on CD. His music, essentially tonal and melodic, is characterized by a concern for formal clarity and immediate communication with as vast a public as possible.

Programme:

Diderik Buxtehude: Passacaglia in D minor, BuxWV 161

Girolamo Frescobaldi: Aria detta la Frescobalda

Antonio Valente: La Romanesca

Gaston Litaize: Vingt-quatre Préludes liturgiques: No. 2

Denis Bédard: Variations sur “Sine Nomine”, Variations sur “Ubi Caritas”

Alexandre Guilmant: Offertoire (O Filii), Op. 49, No. 2 from “L’Organiste pratique

Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck: Variations on the chorale “Mache dich mein Geist bereit”

Diderik Buxtehude: Prelude, Fugue and Ciacona, BuxWV 137

Samuel Scheidt: Psalmus: Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chorale Preludes “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier”, BWV 730 & BWV 731

Johann Sebastian Bach: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582