News

It is with much excitement that we announce the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Prize. Funded by the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation and administered by the RCCO, this prestigious award of $7,500 is given in memory of Canada’s preeminent musician from the 1920s through the 1950s.

The prize will support the artistic development and career advancement of a young organist; it may be used to assist with travel, a workshop or study program, participation in a festival or competition, or other relevant purposes.

Candidates should be at an advanced stage of their musical education, under thirty years of age at April 30, 2021, and should hold either Canadian citizenship or permanent residency of Canada. They should also be members of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

The winner will be selected by recorded audition and references, adjudicated by a jury of representatives from the RCCO and the wider musical world. The jury may withhold its recommendation if it considers no applicant is of sufficiently high artistic standard.

The application deadline is April 30, 2021.

Click here for an application form.

Click here to read more about the Prize.

Click here for information on the Sir Ernest MacMillan Foundation.

All members are cordially invited to the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Canadian College of Organists / le Collège royal canadien des organists.

Date: Saturday, October 24, 2020

Time: 12:00pm – 1:00pm ET

Location: Meeting to be held by teleconference via Zoom (link will be posted on the Members Forum on the RCCO website on October 23, 2020.) 

The Agenda, Annual Report, Financial Documents and Notice of Motion to confirm the amendment to By-law 3.09 as enacted by the Board of Directors on September 23, 2020 is now available on the Members Discussion Forum page of the RCCO website at https://rcco.ca/page-18488. (You must be logged in to view the meeting materials.)

We look forward to seeing you on online on October 24, 2020.

The FutureStops podcast is now live! Our first episode was released on September 15, and we hope you will give it a listen.

In Episode 1, host Blake Hargreaves speaks with renowned organist Olivier Latry and organ builder Bertrand Cattiaux about the restoration, history and future of the great organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris following the devastating fire in April 2019.

Pictured above: Olivier Latry, Titular Organist at Notre Dame Cathedral

Episode 2 will be released on September 29, and features Blake’s coverage of the first note change in seven years in the world’s longest lasting pipe organ performance – As Slow As Possible by John Cage at the Saint Buchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany.

You can listen to the podcast on the FutureStops website at futurestops.org or wherever you get your podcasts, including through the following links:

  

  

For more information about the show and to keep up to date with the latest news, follow FutureStops on social media:

   
   

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

A big thank you to all of the panelists who spoke at the RCCO's first online Forum yesterday. Your words of advice and support were greatly appreciated, and we are grateful to everyone for sharing their experiences with us during this challenging time.

If you were unable to attend the Forum live, or would like to go back and review it, the recording is now available to watch online at https://youtu.be/ob2j3zV1E2I.

To view and download the slides from Dr. Allison McGeer's presentation, please click here.

Dr. McGeer has also provided links to two online resources mentioned in her presentation:

• "COVID-19 Transmission Risks from Singing and Playing Wind Instruments – What We Know So Far" - Public Health Ontario
  

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) website - US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

If you have any questions or feedback regarding the Forum, please contact Hayley Raymond, Office Administrator at info@rcco.ca.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our recent online survey. Your responses were instrumental in helping us identify the most important topics of discussion for our upcoming online forum, COVID-19 Impact on Canadian Organists. To see a summary of the survey responses, please click here.

The online forum will take place on Wednesday, August 12. 2020 at 1:00 PM ET via Zoom. The registration link will be sent out shortly. Please note that there is a cap of 100 attendees who can join live, so please register as soon as possible. For those unable to attend live, the forum will also be recorded and made available for viewing after the event.

Our panelists are:

Dr. Peter Nikiforuk: Director of Music at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, Kitchener and on the faculty of the Beckett School at Wilfrid Laurier University. and President of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Dr. Allison McGeer: Canadian infectious disease specialist in the Sinai Health System, a Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute.

Chellan Hoffman: Music Director at Knox United Church in downtown Calgary, teaches organ privately and through Mount Royal University Conservatory, is Vice President  of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and serves as Chair of the Editorial Committee (Organ Canada).

Matthew Fraser: Young organist beginning studies this fall at the University of Toronto towards a Bachelor of Music in Performance and Junior Organ Scholar at Metropolitan United Church, Toronto alongside Dr. Patricia Wright.

Katherine Hume: Private piano teacher, church organist, music educator, frequent performer and collaborator with 30 years experience and Music Director at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt, BC.

Fred Graham: Retired organist, Associate Professor Emeritus of Emmanuel College, U of T and Chair of the Professional Support Committee at the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

The RCCO is pleased to announce the winner of the 2020 John Goss Memorial Scholarship as Stefani Bedin, by unanimous decision of the Jury. Stefani Bedin is currently working towards the Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance (Organ) degree at the University of Toronto, where she studies with Dr. Kevin Komisaruk.

The RCCO is pleased to announce the winner of the 2020 Lorna and Murray Holmes Scholarship as Rebecca Lee, by unanimous decision of the Scholarships and Bursaries Committee. Rebecca Lee begins the Bachelor of Music in Performance (Organ) degree at McGill University this September.

Earlier this year, internationally-regarded organist-composer Denis Bédard turned 70 – a milestone that would have been celebrated together by organists from across the country at Organ Festival Canada – Victoria, BC in July. Indeed, Bédard was due to have given the premiere of his Fantasia alla marcia (commissioned by the Festival) in a celebratory recital on July 9.

Sadly, the festival had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. So in lieu of an in-person premiere, the composer has kindly agreed to give this piece its first performance by video (as one of four special events in Organ Festival Canada Online - https://www.facebook.com/rcco.ca/). As a special birthday gift from Denis Bédard and Organ Festival Canada to the RCCO membership and festival registrants, you can click here to access a preview score to this new work. Please feel free to print a copy and add it to your repertory. But remember: No sneaky premieres until after the premiere event! (https://www.facebook.com/events/1169267320094313/)

Of this new piece, the composer writes:

Fantasia alla marcia was composed in October 2019.  Written in a Neo-romantic style, it is in four sections, the first being a very joyful and rhythmic march and the second featuring a tranquil melody on a solo stop.  Then follow first a short interlude on the Celestes and finally a repeat of the first section culminating in a brilliant coda, which displays the full splendour of the organ.

La Fantasia alla marcia fut composée en octobre 2019.  De style néo-romantique, elle se compose de quatre parties : une première section très joyeuse et rythmée, en forme de marche; une deuxième section plus tranquille, très mélodique et faisant chanter un jeu solo; un court interlude sur la voix céleste, suivi de la reprise de la première section, amplifiée d'une brillante coda faisant sonner l'orgue dans toute sa splendeur.

Denis Bédard

Podcast Producer Wanted!

The Royal Canadian College of Organists is seeking a producer for its new FutureStops Podcast which will explore the 21st century organ experience in all of its dimensions.

The FutureStops Podcast will focus on innovation, collaboration and experimentation in relation to the organ and will aim to reach both existing and new audiences for contemporary organ music. The Podcast Producer will work closely with the host and the Executive Producer to shape and create the content of the podcast.

The successful candidate will:

• Have a professional attitude and approach
• Be a strong and detail-oriented project manager
• Be passionate about the arts, especially music
• Have audio production expertise and experience
• Be a supportive and engaged team player
• Understand how to create meaningful and compelling stories in sound
• Be boldly creative, flexible, organized, reliable, articulate and digitally savvy
• Be able to relate to and connect with music lovers in their 20s and 30s
• Be comfortable working remotely

If you would like to be considered for this paid part-time position, and can commit a highly focused 15-20 hours per month to it, then please send us the following:

• a CV and brief bio
• a link to 2 audio clips you have produced
• a text of up to 300 words that briefly summarizes:
• • your knowledge (or impressions) of organs, organ music and the organ community
  • what you think makes an arts podcast successful
  • your experience as a producer and as a storyteller
  • your technical capacities
  • why you want to produce this podcast
  • why you will be successful in this role

Please email your application to Elizabeth Shannon at execdirector@rcco.ca no later than July 17, 2020.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

The Royal Canadian College of Organists is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from all qualified individuals.

Looking for some new high-quality online performances this summer? Organ Festival Canada has taken to the clouds for its four-concert mini-festival this July, with events coming from Victoria and Vancouver.

Each live-streamed concert will be professionally recorded and beautifully filmed to show this great instrument in its best light, from multiple angles. Presentations range from a short premiere by beloved west-coast composer, Denis Bédard (10 minutes), to an hour-long transcription of Holst’s “The Planets.”

The concerts are centred around four universal themes -- Earth, Heavens, Creation, and Navigation -- and feature acclaimed organists Denis Bédard, Donald Hunt, Mark McDonald and David Stratkauskas.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, BC, Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver, BC and St. John the Divine Anglican Church in Victoria, BC for their assistance in the production of these performances.

Full Program

Monday, July 6, 7:30pm EDT
"Earth": Widor's 5th Symphony
Donald Hunt, organ

Charles-Marie Widor is the grandfather of the Organ Symphony. From the evocative snapshots in this work’s opening theme and variations to the cavernous Toccata which concludes it, this 35-minute work has something for everyone on earth. Presented in partnership with Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria.

Tuesday, July 7, 7:30pm EDT
"Navigation": Kim Farris-Manning's MAP; gest
David Stratkauskas, organ

"The fundamental problem of maps is that the earth is a sphere and that paper is flat." A similar quandary exists with musical scores, as with anything that lies on the border of imagination and representation; the danger being that if you write down a lie, it might look like the truth. Kim Farris-Manning explores these questions in her improvisatory soundscape.

Wednesday, July 8, 7:30pm EDT
"Creation": Bédard plays Bédard
Denis Bédard, organ

Join Denis Bédard as he premieres his own composition, Fantasia alla marcia, commissioned by Organ Festival Canada to honour the composer in his 70th birthday year. 

Thursday, July 9, 7:30pm EDT
"Heavens": Holst's The Planets
Mark McDonald, organ

Originally composed for a full symphony orchestra between 1914 and 1916, this English composer’s magnum opus has been transcribed for one musician and thousands of pipes by Peter Sykes. Prize-winning organist Mark McDonald gives a performance that is out of this world! Presented in partnership with Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria.

Admission is free or by donation.

Click here to access the streams.

Please click here if you would like to make a donation.