Diane Bish Organ Recital Winspear Centre

CSO President’s Message

Welcome to another great season of the Calgary Society of Organists. The first concert of the season will feature Jeremy Spurgeon, playing at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer on Nov. 7. Please do plan to attend, and tell all your friends. Organ music is now ‘in’!!

CSO is about more than concerts! In response to questions about our focus and direction, members of the executive met on Monday June 23. Don Nevile led the group in a goal planning and future directions process. Those present did some brainstorming about what they thought should be the future focus and direction of the Society’s efforts. A detailed description of the results is available from our secretary, Sheila Ramsey.

For my part, I would like to summarize a few of the main points.

By far the biggest concern was with professional issues, that is, issues directly related to the working conditions and future of the church organist. We agreed that CSO should provide a setting where we can discuss problems, issues, and general direction of church music today. Because our membership is multidenominational (if not yet multifaith), we are in a good position to share ideas without feeling threatened. Some felt that we should be more actively advocating for the role of the organ in worship. If so, how would we do that effectively? Is this the same thing as advocating for traditional forms of worship? We don’t want to ‘ghettoize’ ourselves, and we would like to reach out to some of the evangelical churches that often have very different worship styles. This discussion is ongoing at the executive level and we would like to find ways to invite the membership to share in it. At some stage in the year, we hope to present a speaker or a forum to take us forward in this discussion. For those in church jobs, it would be a great opportunity to bring your clergyperson.

The annual concert series is another very important part of what we do. Support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Calgary Regional Arts Foundation has enabled us to present world-class performers in every concert season. The more we can do to publicize our series and increase attendance, the better. All ideas and initiatives are very welcome!

The social aspect of belonging to CSO is important to many. We clearly have a significant role as a group where people make friends and get personal support. This year we do plan to include several potlucks in our program, one of which could be combined with a members’ recital.

We also agreed that outreach should occupy more attention. Our membership is aging, which is fine as long as we do it gracefully! But does the lack of young members indicate a rut?

Developing a committee structure for CSO would help us to involve more people and get things done more expeditiously.

These were some of many ideas that came out of our brainstorm. We do intend to turn at least a few of them into action during the course of this year.

The executive now meets regularly at 10 a.m. on the first Monday of the month at Knox Presbyterian Church.It is not a closed meeting, and any member who is interested in attending is of course welcome. Please tell either Sheila Ramsey or myself if you are planning to be there. (We want to provide enough coffee!)

Sincerely,

Jim Picken

Diane Bish Organ Recital
Winspear Centre, Edmonton
September 7, 2003

Diane Bish opened the Sundays at 3 recital series, September 7, 2003 in the beautiful Winspear Centre, the pride and joy of Edmonton. Self-styled with the very American title of "First Lady of the Organ" she made a grand entrance on the stage with her trademark stunning costume of sequins (with another costume after the intermission). Free advice to organ students from the guru herself: the more rhinestones on the shoes, the faster the feet can play. I'm taking my shoes to the jeweller as soon as I finish typing this.

Fast is surely the operative word here, racing through works like Buxtehude's Prelude and Fugue in g and Bach's Toccata in F. I suppose one needs to decide whether you want to hear all the notes or do you want a standing ovation at the end, obviously the choice of the "First Lady". And you get the audience on their feet by using the crescendo pedal and pulling out all the stops as they say at the end of nearly every piece. This was very well done with the Vierne Carillon de Westminster but the purists would no doubt have a fit with the Bach. You also don't impress the audience as much with a subtle pivot from the ankle pedal technique but rather with knee-high stomping.

The recently completed Davis Concert Organ by Letourneau is truly fabulous. My main criticism is that it is built into an alcove behind the stage thus obscuring the clarity of the passagework at First Lady speeds. This is probably not a problem on the Diane Bish edition of the Allen organ, but the Davis organ is essentially located in another room like the 1950s church architectural school of "see no organ" and unlike the Casavant organ in the Jack Singer Concert Hall which is within the same walls as the audience. I particularly enjoyed the reeds of the Edmonton organ which were demonstrated most effectively with the Bolero de Concert by Alfred Lefébure-Wely, a favorite piece of organists who like to show that they too can play 19th century schlock as well as the pianists and violinists. But then reeds have the ability to project out into the hall. The en chamade reeds certainly make you stand at attention yet still have a musical tone.

The organ is certainly fantastic visually and a tremendous feature of the concert hall. My other criticism of the organ should be directed at the architect however because two of the acoustic deflectors partly cover the view of the organ. I was sitting in nearly the exact centre of the orchestra section and could not see the entire organ in its high soaring splendour, so I doubt that anyone else would be able to either.

Miss Bish played two of her popular hymn arrangements and sales of her music, recordings, and biography were quite brisk with autographs after the show. In place of the Widor 6th first movement on the program she substituted the last movement of a Concerto by Pietro Yon (composer of Gesu Bambino) which didn't impress me that much on first hearing but the audience certainly lapped up the pedal glissandi. The encore was also by Yon, the Humoresque for flute. I was curious to see if she would use the crescendo and pedal reeds at the end of this one, but I guess she doesn't use that treatment on all pieces. The last piece was a Toccata by Denis Bédard whose music Diane Bish has been championing. It is effective and listenable and quite demanding, the sort of music expected by the growing number of Calgary friends of this "nice guy" who now makes his home in Vancouver.

The most impressive part of the event was over 1200 enthusiastic attendees (and at $30 per ticket that makes your treasurer sit up and take notice). I wonder if they will still have those kind of numbers after a dozen years. I also wonder if we could do the same in Calgary: get a big name, in the big hall (that means big rent), with the big ticket prize? When Diane Bish last played in Calgary in 1992, we had 551 in attendance.

The rest of the Sundays at Three 24th concert season (yes, that is not as old as our CSO series) promises to be significant with all concerts in the Winspear Centre which must be an enormous financial commitment by the Edmonton Centre of the RCCO. But their treasurer did not seem to mind as he went laughing all the way to the bank after this concert. The second concert in their series is that other flamboyant blond with the sequins, Iveta Apkalna of Latvia who wowed the crowds (especially the males) with her performance at the last Calgary International Organ Competition. We should get this girl for our own series. The other two concerts in Edmonton's series will be shared with Calgary: Clive Driskill-Smith from England, an audience favorite and gold medal winner of the concerto round of the last Calgary competition ( Knox United February 13, 2004, and in Edmonton on February 15), and Veronique le Guen of France (Christ Church April 16, 2004 and in Edmonton April 18).

Howard Janzen

A list of organist substitutes is being prepared. If you would like to be included in this list or if you know someone who would, please forward name, phone number and e-mail address to Mary Ross 242-1400 or maryross@shaw.ca

Substitute organist available immediately: Please contact Howard Janzen 249-0764 cso@shaw.ca

Organist Of The News
The August 31 Calgary Herald was the 120th anniversary issue. There was an article about J. J. Young who was the owner around the turn of the last century before it was sold to Southam. Mr. Young was also a musician and organist at Central Methodist (now Central United - Ed.) who gained notoriety for running off with one of the (married!) sopranos who was prominent in "society".

Howard Janzen

Wilbur Snapp of Florida has died. The 83-year old minor baseball league organist was ejected by the umpire during a game in 1985 at Jack Russell Stadium, says The Associated Press. He had reacted to what he thought was a bad call against the Clearwater Phillies by playing Three Blind Mice.

Karen R. Reid, 310 - 2 Ave NE Suite B, T2E 0E4, 277-6821. Karen is a recent graduate of King's University College, obtaining the Bachelor of Music and church music diploma under Dr. Jacobus Kloppers. She is presently looking for "any position in church music leadership." Karen is the granddaughter of long-time supporter of the CSO, Peggy Reid of Cremona.

Howard Janzen

Organist with M.Mus., FRCCO and 20 years experience seeking employment. Please contact Howard Janzen 249-0764

For Sale Baldwin 2 manual organ, full AGO pedal board for home or church.
Phone 403-527-0282

Keith Fisher

Mount Royal College Organ Academy
The Conservatory offers private instruction in organ to students of all ages and levels

Technique
Repertoire
Church music
Practice methods
Keyboard skills

Neil Cockburn, Head of Organ Studies

For further details call The Conservatory
Telephone: (403) 440-6821

Stillman Matheson, until recently director of music at Robertson-Wesley United Church in Edmonton has just moved to Calgary. He is interested interested in subbing for local organists on Sunday mornings as well as for funerals etc. through the week. His phone number is 265-9191. stillmanmatheson@yahoo.ca

Submissions To The Newsletter
These should be sent to Graham Hunter grahamnormanhunter@hotmail.com or Fax: 235-3018

Those wishing to join the CSO should contact our treasurer, Howard Janzen 249-0764 cso@shaw.ca
It is not necessary to be an organist to join. There are members who are organ enthusiasts who do not play themselves. All are welcome.