April, 2006 - Nr. 4
ORGANIX 06
The first festival in Toronto dedicated to the pipe organ, its music, performers and composers will take place from April 28 to May 26. There is something for everyone.
British organist Gillian Weir, one of the greatest performers of our time, opens the festival on Friday, April 28 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, (Bloor & Jarvis). Lew Williams from Arizona presents a concert of pops favourites and a tribute to Quentin Maclean on the Wurlitzer theatre organ at Casa Loma on Monday, May 1. On May 2 and 5, Cinematheque Ontario presents the classic 1968 German film Chronicles of Anna Magdalena Bach starring early music performer Gustav Leonhardt as Bach.
On Saturday May 6, a free Show and Tell session at Deer Park United Church (St. Clair & Avenue Rd.) will be an opportunity to see how a pipe organ works and to play it. That evening, German organist Elke Völker, teams up with Toronto Symphony concertmaster Jacques Israelievitch for a program of music for organ and violin on the largest organ in Canada at Metropolitan United Church (Queen and Church St). The concert is repeated the following evening in Orillia. Sunday, May 7, Mozart’s Sonatas for Organ and Orchestra will be included in the Toronto Classical Singers concert at Christ Church Deer Park (Yonge & St. Clair).
Every Wednesday in May (May 3, 10, 17, 24) at historic St. Basil’s Church (Bay & Wellesley) there will be short concerts from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. for organ solo and organ with instruments. Performers include organists William O’Meara, Ryan Jackson and Andrew Weleschuk. violinists Etsuko Kimura & Thomas Cosbey, cellist Jonathan Tortolano and trumpeter Bart Woomert. The first concert on May 3 is dedicated to the works of internationally acclaimed Toronto composer Ruth Watson Henderson and includes the premiere of her Suite for Violin & Organ. All Wednesday concerts are only $5!
The closing Gala concert at St. Basil’s on Friday, May 26 features organist David Palmer and the Choir of St. Thomas Anglican Church under John Tuttle in a program of French music by Tournemire, Messiaen and Duruflé.
FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT PROGRAMS, PERFORMERS, ORGANS, LOCATIONS, TICKETS, VISIT www.organixconcerts.ca
William O’Meara & Gordon Mansell
Artistic Directors
