April 25, 2026: International Organ Day: Celebrating Canadian Organ Music Culture with Canadian Organists, Composers and Organ Builders
**THIS IS A FREE EVENT**
Featuring special guests: concert organist Rachel Mahon (Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral, UK), composer Denis Bédard (Éditions Cheldar) and organ builder Robin Côté (President of Juget-Sinclair)
Join us at the Virtual Organ Academy as we celebrate International Organ Day! We will be welcoming esteemed Canadian organ composers, performers, educators, and organ builders and hearing about what inspires them to create and influence nationally and internationally. Guests will also share a little bit about their favourite Canadian organ composition(s). Come on out and support Canadian organ music culture; celebrate the Pipe Organ's special day with our special guests at the Virtual Organ Academy.
Canadian concert organist Rachel Mahon maintains a busy international recital schedule. Recent performances have taken her to Oslo, Norway; the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Oklahoma City; St Stephen’s Cathedral, Vienna; Lϋbeck, Germany; and Adelaide and Sydney in Australia. Most recently she played the world premiere of Ira Mogilevsky’s Missa Initium in OrganSpace, the Stockholm International Organ Festival. This past summer, Rachel made her BBC Proms debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Saens’ Organ Symphony. Rachel has appeared on radio as performer and presenter, most recently accompanying the BBC Singers in Choral Evensong and presenting Inside Music on BBC radio 3 and This Is My Music on CBC radio. Rachel's debut solo album, featuring all Canadian music on the organ of Coventry Cathedral and supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, was released to excellent reviews - it received five stars in Choir and Organ Magazine and was Gramophone Magazine Editor's Choice in March 2020.
Rachel combines life as a busy performing musician with being a cathedral organist – she is Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral (UK), where, along with playing the organ and curating the recital series, she trains and conducts the Cathedral Choir which consists of adults and separate boys’ and girls’ choirs. Prior to this, she was Assistant Director of Music and before that she was Assistant Organist at Chester Cathedral.
Rachel was Organ Scholar at St Paul's Cathedral in London, England from 2014-2016, and made history as the first female organist on staff in its 1400-year history. As one of the staff organists, she gave recitals and regularly played and conducted for services, working with the world-famous Cathedral Choir in the daily cycle of worship as well as services of National significance.
Rachel has won numerous awards and competitions in Canada, including a graduating scholarship from the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship from the Royal Canadian College of Organists. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied with John Tuttle. Whilst pursuing her degree, Rachel was the Bevan Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Toronto, as well as the Principal Organist at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. Once in the UK, she studied with Henry Fairs at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She has also held scholarships at St James Cathedral, Toronto and Truro Cathedral, UK.
In 2012, Rachel and fellow organist Sarah Svendsen founded the duo Organized Crime and the two organists aim to entertain audiences with their music and crazy antics. They have toured across Canada many times. For more information, visit rachelmahon.co.uk.
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. From 2001 to 2021 he was organist and music director at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver. As a concert artist he has given recitals across Canada, in the United States, in France and in Brazil. In 2020 the Royal Canadian College of Organists awarded him the Diploma of Fellowship (honoris causa) and in 2021 the Royal School of Church Music awarded him the title of Fellow (honoris causa). Denis Bédard has composed more than 170 works, including chamber music, orchestral and vocal music and many organ works. He has received commissions from Radio-Canada, the CBC, the Québec Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Canadian College of Organists and various professional musicians in Canada, England, France, Germany, 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, Russia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Israel, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Rwanda, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Brazil, Ecuador), 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.
Robin Côté first grew up musically at St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montréal receiving a strong musical training from Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal. It’s also at that time that he was initiated to the organ, turning the pages and pulling the stops for Raymond Daveluy and Rachel Laurin at the Oratory’s monumental Beckerath organ. Rapidly fascinated by the process of organ building, after studying organ playing for 8 years, he joined the Juget-Sinclair team in 2002 to receive a complete apprenticeship. He also went to France to work with Michel Jurine S.A.R.L. near Lyon to improve his understanding of the French Symphonic organ design, 19e century organ restoration techniques and the traditional way of making polished tin façade pipes. Robin Côté got to learn every essential technique to build every part of the organ: from metal casting to voicing. During numerous study trips, Robin Côté had the chance to get free access to the inside of many significative instruments of France, Germany, Sweden, Latvia & USA. He also put a great importance in documenting historic organs of Canada, in particular those built by the Montreal organ builder Louis Mitchell. His will to share this knowledge materialized in the writing of many articles and lectures. For more than 20 years, having contributed to the making of more than 50 new organ projects as general organ builder as well as designer & voicer, Robin Côté is sharing with his team the will of building organs without compromising anything on the quality and refinement. That’s why he evolved as one-third partner since 2013 and now co-owner along with Stephen Sinclair, taking part of the administration of the Juget-Sinclair workshop as president since 2018.
