Calendar

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

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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.

The Oratorio Singers, directed by Darryl Nixon, are excited to present Franz Joseph Haydn’s beautiful but seldom performed Lord Nelson Mass, also known as “A Mass for Troubled Times” and selected solos and choruses from George Frederic ever-popular Messiah.  This concert features soloists Marisa Gaetanne – soprano, Shane Hanson – counter tenor, Carmen J. Price – tenor and Andrew Greenwood – bass.  Instrumental accompaniment will be provided by OS415, a specially assembled period orchestra led by Chloe Meyers and includes strings, baroque bassoon, valveless trumpets, timpani and chamber organ.

The concert will begin at 8:00 p.m on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.  Doors open at 7:30 p.m.  The venue is the wonderful acoustic of St Andrew’s-Wesley Church (Burrard at Nelson). For convenient underground parking with direct elevator access, enter the parking garage from the lane between the church and the Century Plaza Hotel.  Translink routes #2, #22 and #44, both northbound and southbound, stop right in front of St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church.

Programme:

D. BEDARD: Three Pieces in Ancient Styles for trumpet and organ (Pavane – Cantabile – Allegro giocoso)
J. S. BACH: Chorale “O Innocent Lamb of God” for organ
G. P. TELEMANN: Two pieces from “Heroic Music” for trumpet and organ (Grazioso – Con delicatezza)
N. BRUHNS: Prelude and Fugue in G minor for organ
H. PURCELL: Sonata in D major for trumpet and organ (Pomposo – Andante maestoso – Allegro ma non troppo)
E. GIGOUT: Marche religieuse for organ
F. PEETERS: Aria for trumpet and organ
D. BÉDARD: Suite de concert for organ
D. BEDARD: Suite breve for trumpet and organ (Aurore – Mignardise – Andante tranquillo – Final)

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

Originally from Boston, MA, trumpeter Katherine Evans appears in Vancouver as a soloist at Holy Rosary, St. Andrews-Wesley, and Christ Church. Praised for her “solo work of exceptional quality” by the Boston Globe, Katherine is the principal trumpet of the Newport Symphony Orchestra (OR) and has been the principal trumpet of the Brockton, Hingham, and Concord, (MA) Symphony Orchestras. She has performed as a soloist with the Brockton and Waltham, MA Symphony Orchestras, the Harvard-Radcliffe Bach Society Orchestra and Harvard-Radcliffe Baroque Orchestra, and has been recorded on the Centuar and Albany labels.

As a vocalist, Katherine is a member of musica intima and the St. Andrews-Wesley Vocal Ensemble. She also sang with Phoenix Chamber Choir for three years and served on their Board. In the U.S., Katherine worked extensively as a church vocal soloist and was featured in a recording of the Christ Church Schola of Rochester, NY on Loft Records.

Katherine holds an M.M. in trumpet performance from the Longy School of Music and a B.A. in English and Music from Harvard University. She works for the UBC School of Music.

Denis Bédard, who was born in Quebec City in 1950, first studied music at the Quebec Conservatory of Music, graduating with first class honours in organ, harpsichord, chamber music, counterpoint and fugue. Having received grants from the Canada Council for three years running, he continued his studies in Montreal, Paris, and in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt.

Laureate of the “Prix d’Europe” in 1975, and of the CBC Radio Talent Competition in 1978, Denis Bédard leads a very active career as a recitalist. He has given concerts throughout Canada as well as in the United States, in France and in Brazil, and has recorded frequently for Radio-Canada and the CBC. 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 has been organist and music director at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver since 2001.

Denis Bédard has written more than one hundred and fifty works. He has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, the Victoria Scholars in Toronto, Holy Rosary Cathedral and the Laudate Singers in Vancouver, Monaco Cathedral and various professional musicians in Canada, Great Britain, France, Switzerland and the U.S.A. Many of his compositions have been performed internationally, and many have been published and recorded on CD.

Programme:

J. S. Bach: Prelude in C Minor BWV 546
Ravel: Pavane
Kittel: Prelude in Eb Major
Mulet: Vitrail
Guilmant: Grand Choeur en Re Majeur
Mushel: Toccata
Balbastre: Romance
Dvorak: Preludio Re Maggiore
Bedard: Dialogue
J. S. Bach Fugue in C Minor BWV 546