Calendar

Michael Dirk offers a concert to celebrate Adrian Koppejan’s Opus 20 turning 20 years at Good Shepherd Catholic Church.

(pre concert pipe-chamber projected slide-show- prepared by the Royal Canadian College of Organists –  Vancouver Center)

Concert Prelude: Sinfonia from Cantata No 29 – JS Bach/arr Dupre (1731)
Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir (We thank you, God, we thank you) – Psalm 75
(based on Bach’s Violin Partita No 3)

Opening hymn – All Creatures of our God and King – St Francis of Assisi/Psalm148/Friedrich Spee (1225/1623)

Tribute to the Dutch origins of the commissioner and organ builder:
Ballo del Granduca – Petr Sweelinck (1589)

Tribute to the inaugural concert October, 1995 (Darryl Nixon, organist)
Prelude and Fugue in F – Darryl Nixon (1995)

<<Stella Maris Choir: Freedom Trilogy – Paul Halley (1994)>>

Tribute to Fr Galvon and Fr Dion
Variations sur «Nous chanterons pour toi, Seigneur» (“The Old Hundredth”) – Denis Bedard (1995)

Closing Hymn – Now Thank We All Our God – Rinkark/Crüger (1636/1647)

Concert Postlude – Carillon de Westminster – Louis Vierne (1927)

Trumpeters Katherine Evans and Christopher Robertson will present a programme of music for two trumpets and solo trumpet, with organist Darryl Nixon.

Duets by Gervaise, Webber, Bach, Aldrovandini, Charpentier, Delibes.

Trumpet solos by Peeters, Handel, Copeland, Stevens.

Organ solos by Bach and Handel

More details to come.  As always, look forward to costumes, dark music, and lots of seasonal treats at the reception afterwards!

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

A fundraiser for Syrian Migrants through the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund www.pwrdf.org.

Programme:

Buxtehude          A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Haydn                Variations on “Austria”
Dvorak               New World Symphony
Callahan            On Eagle’s Wings
Walford Davies  Jesu Dulcis Memoria
Arr. Baljeu          Un Canadien errant
Hill                      Praise My Soul
Howells              Psalm Prelude Opus 32, #3
Bach                  St. Anne Fugue

St. John’s Vancouver Choir – David Poon, Organ – Terence Fullerton, Conductor

Organist Michael Murray and guests Shane Hanson, Corey Hamm, and soprano chorus, perform works by Vierne, Bach, Hill, Pärt, Walcha, Litaize, and Sweelinck.

Vierne: Pastorale (from Op.31)
J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in B Minor BWV 544
Hill: Panic at the Discotheque
Pärt: My Heart’s in the Highlands
Walcha: Three Chorale Preludes
Litaize: Sonate à deux
Sweelinck: Psalm 140

Programme:

Wolfgang Amadeux Mozart: Fantasia in F minor, K. 608

Sigfrid Karg-Elert: The Soul of the Lake, Op. 96 No. 1, from Pastels from the Lake of Constance

Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543

Richard Wagner: Prelude to Die Meistersinger

Rachel Laurin: Étude héroïque

Traditional Irish, arr. Robert Hebble: Londonderry Air

Felix Mendelssohn: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Louis Vierne: Adagio and Finale from Symphonie No 3, Op. 28

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

Ken Cowan organistkencowan.com/ is one of North America’s finest concert organists. Praised for his dazzling artistry, impeccable technique and imaginative programming by audiences and critics alike, he maintains a rigorous performing schedule which takes him to major concert venues and churches in America, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Recent feature performances have included appearances at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa California, Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall, Spivey Hall, and Walt Disney Concert Hall, as well as concerts in Germany and Korea. In addition, Mr. Cowan has been a featured artist in recent years at the national conventions of the American Guild of Organists held in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, has performed at many regional conventions of the AGO, and has been featured at several conventions of the Organ Historical Society and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Ken received the Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, studying organ with Thomas Murray. Prior to attending Yale, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with John Weaver. His major teacher during high school years was James Bigham, Organist/Choirmaster at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, in Buffalo, NY, which is not far from his hometown Thorold, Ontario, Canada.

In 2012 Mr. Cowan joined the keyboard faculty of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as Associate Professor and head of the organ program. Previous positions have included Associate Professor of Organ at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ, where he was awarded the 2008 Rider University Distinguished Teaching Award, and Associate Organist and Artist in Residence at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in New York City.

Programme:

Rathgeber: Aria pastorella
Sweelinck: Balleto del granduca
JS Bach: Sinfonia from Wedding Cantata
JS Bach: Schmucke dich BWV 564
Schumann Canon in B Minor
Brahms: Schmucke dich
Guilmant: Fantasie on two English tunes
Chaplin: Those Love Pangs (1914 film)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumble Bee

Performed by the Cathedral’s own musicians: organist Denis Bédard and the Cathedral Choir, assistant organist Catherine Walsh and the Holy Rosary Women’s Choir, the Contemporary Choir with director Chito Lacsina, the Spanish Mass Choir with director Alejandro Frias, and guest organist Rachel Alflatt.

Freewill offering.