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Experience the musical brilliance of Manual Piazza, winner of the 2023 Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Prize, and winner of the 2021 RCCO National Organ Playing Competition. Currently Assistant Director of Music at St Thomas’s Anglican Church in Toronto, Manuel will be performing the Allegro Maestoso from Edward Elgar’s First Sonata, the Canon in A-flat Major by Robert Schumann, and music by Maurice Duruflé on the majestic organ of St James’ Anglican Church in Vancouver. His playing has been praised for its imaginative stop selections, smoothly shifting tone colours, and abundant energy, and the concert at St James’ promises to be an unforgettable experience of musical brilliance!

The programme presents a compelling journey through a diverse range of organ music, beginning with Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata No 29, which showcases the clarity and precision of Baroque counterpoint. From this solid foundation, the music moves into the lush Romantic expressiveness of Franck and Elgar, whose works demand both a rich tonal palette and dynamic control. The mood then shifts to the distinctive English sound of Herbert Howells, whose two pieces evoke a contemplative and nuanced atmosphere through modal harmonies and subtle textures.

Following this introspection, Schumann’s Innig offers an intimate and heartfelt moment, contrasting with the radiant and rhythmically intricate Joie et clarté des corps glorieux by Messiaen, which challenges the performer’s command of colour and timing. The programme concludes with Duruflé’s Suite, Opus 5,where Gregorian chant influences blend seamlessly with Impressionist harmonies, requiring a refined touch and deep musical sensitivity. Together these selections demand not only technical proficiency but also the expressive nuance and stylistic awareness necessary to capture their unique character and emotional depth.

Manuel Piazza is assistant organist and choir master at St Thomas’s Anglican Church, in Toronto. He studied organ with Martin Jean, improvisation with Jeffrey Brillhart, and choral conducting with Dale Adelmann. He served as senior organ scholar at Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, where he was mentored by Walden Moore, and as an organist for Yale Schola Cantorum, conducted by David Hill.

Manuel Piazza developed a passion for sacred music while attending St Michael’s Choir School as a chorister in Toronto, Canada. He completed his undergraduate studies in organ performance at the University of Toronto, where he studied with John Tuttle. Hhe served as choir director and organist at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, organ scholar at Trinity College ( University of Toronto ), organ scholar at St James Anglican Cathedral, and one of five organists of St Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. From September 2019 to July 2020, he was organ scholar at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, UK, where he played for Evensong three times a week, accompanying choristers under the direction of Christopher Gray.

Whilst living in the UK, he also taught theory and organ and performed with ensembles such as the London Sinfonia. After returning to North America, he won first prize in the 2021 Royal Canadian College of Organists National Organ Playing Competition and other awards such as the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship (RCCO), the Mary Baker Scholarship in Organ Accompanying (Yale ISM), the Julia R Sherman Memorial Prize for excellence in organ playing (Yale ISM), and the Aidan Kavanagh Prize for academic achievement (Yale Divinity School).

Join us for a fun-filled evening of spooky and scary music!  Come in costume!  Treats for kids (and the young at heart) after the concert.

Works by Schubert, de Falla, Britten and others.

Please come and enjoy an hour of music with these two outstanding artists.

A spectacular celebration of the iconic silent film Phantom of the Opera (1925) in its centennial year, featuring a score performed live by a 6-piece orchestra, 80-person choir from the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs, and Vancouver Civic Organist Michael Dirk on the historic Wurlitzer organ.

YouTube videos by Michael about the Orpheum Wurlitzer:
A Tour of the Wurlitzer (VSO Day of Music 2025)
Orpheus’ bells and whistles 

Marnie Giesbrecht (organ) and Joachim Segger (piano) are Duo Majoya.   They will perform the works from their latest CD, Canadian Suite Celebrations, including Vancouver composer Denis Bédard’s Grande Suite, Capriccio, and Duet Suite, Edmonton composer Jacobus Kloppers’ The Last Rose of Summer, and Toronto composer Ruth Watson Henderson’s Suite for Piano and Organ.

Duo Majoya is a versatile and innovative keyboard team that performs keyboard duets of all combinations in North America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. The duo performs a distinctive repertoire of commissioned, original, and arranged works. Commissions include more than twenty works for organ duet and organ/piano by Canadian and international composers. Duo Majoya records a broad range of repertoire on CDs and on their YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@duomajoya; for more information, please see www.duomajoya.com.

The release of their latest CD, “Canadian Suite Celebrations,” recorded in the Winspear Centre and published on the Centredisc label in April, 2024 is officially celebrated with concerts in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, Langley, Vancouver and in the United States.

The duo is inducted in the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame; they are separately inaugurated Honorary Fellows of the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Giesbrecht and Segger co-direct the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ national competition committee. As active board members in the Edmonton RCCO Centre, they plan and organize local concerts and events.

Marnie and Joachim are Music Directors at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Edmonton. In addition to conducting weekly rehearsals and services, they curate organ and choral concerts, fundraise for refugees, and support community music making. They take great pride in their two sons, Mark and Chris, who rock the world with percussion, drum set and composition (Mark); heavy metal guitar playing in the Juno award winning band “Striker” and long-distance running (Chris).

Joachim Segger

Dr. Joachim Segger  (BMus, MMus, Performer’s Certificate, Eastman School of Music; DMus UAlberta) is a versatile musician who performs internationally as a piano soloist and collaborative artist. A church organist since the age of nine, Joachim enjoys improvising at the piano and organ using classical and contemporary musical styles as well as hymn-based improvisations.  Dr. Segger is Professor Emeritus of the Music Department at The King’s University, Edmonton.

Marnie Giesbrecht

Keyboard artist Marnie Giesbrecht performs and records as organ soloist, and collaborative musician (organ, piano, harpsichord) in mainstream repertoire, as well as new and early music. Dr. Giesbrecht is Professor Emerita at the University of Alberta (1988 to 2014), Adjunct Professor of Music at The King’s University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Declared “glorious” by the New York Times upon its release, this 1926 action adventure film, shot entirely in two-colour Technicolor, marked a landmark achievement in the advancement of cinema as an art form. It features Douglas Fairbanks portraying a nobleman posing as the “Black Pirate” to seek justice for his father’s death and rescue a kidnapped princess.  Accompanied live by eminent Vancouver organist Edward Norman on the historic Wurlitzer organ.

Clara Bow’s role as the plucky shop girl in this 1927 box office hit brought her global fame and made her the first-ever “It Girl”. Bow is magnetic as Betty, who is enamored with the wealthy owner of the department store where she works and determined to catch his attention.  Accompanied live by Vancouver Civic Theatres organist Michael Dirk on the historic Wurlitzer organ.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film The Lodger was his first critical and commercial success. This haunting silent thriller tells the tale of a mysterious young man who takes up residence at a London boardinghouse just as a killer known as the Avenger descends upon the city. Accompanied live by organist Koos van Nieuwkoop on the historic Wurlitzer organ.