UNLEASHING THE PIPES
This story was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of the RCCO 2018 Calgary Organ Festival.
Whenever Knox United Church organist Chellan Hoffman meets an organist from out of town, she knows exactly where the conversation is headed.
“The first thing off their lips is, ‘Are we going to hear the organ at the Jack?’ ” says Hoffman. That’s a reference to the Jack Singer Concert Hall’s iconic Carthy pipe organ, which has built a mythology that extends well beyond Stephen Avenue.
The organ, installed in 1987, will be put to good use during the RCCO (Royal Canadian College of Organists) 2018 Calgary Organ Festival, which will feature public performances at a variety of venues from July 2-5.
The Jack Singer Concert Hall takes centre stage on July 5 as it will host two recitals and an evening concert by Calgary’s Neil Cockburn.
For Hoffman, who learned her craft playing organs in small-town Saskatchewan, playing the Carthy organ is like taking a fine-tuned automobile for a spin.
“This organ has four manuals (keyboards), plus a pedal keyboard,” Hoffman says. “It’s like driving an elegant car. I’ve never driven a Porsche or anything like that — but it just whispers, in some ways (like the purr of an automobile).
“It’s a majestic machine — you look up and see (nothing but) a towering row of silver pipes above the concert hall stage. And even more impressive are the 6,000 pipes behind that facade. There are so many sound possibilities — from delicate flutes to fiery trumpets. The organist’s challenge is to find the right mix to make the music come alive. That’s what’s exciting about hearing the organ. Your ears are never bored.”
Festival attendees will enjoy both familiar repertoire — Cockburn’s Baroque concert — as well a dazzling display of musical diversity.
Exhibit A: A solo performance by Grammy Award winner Paul Halley plus a rare treat — trios with piano, harpsichord and organ on July 3 at Knox United Church.
Halley also sits in with a 60-voice choir presenting the earth mass, Missa Gaia, at Knox United on July 4, along with his son, percussionist Nick Halley, and a band of Calgary musicians (guitar, bass, cello, oboe, sax, organ and even more percussion).
“The music style of Missa Gaia is like jazz-meets-Gregorian-chant-meets-Brazilian rhythms.” The festival events begin July 2 with a performance by New York-based Ryan Jackson, originally from Bracebridge, Ont., performing, among others, a composition by Massachusetts-based ‘honorary’ Canadian Zachary Wadsworth.
There are also workshops for performers and kids, national RCCO meetings and a variety of performances at venues around town, including Christ Church, Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall in the Rozsa Centre at the University of Calgary, Grace Presbyterian Church and the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer.
Visitors are expected from across Canada and the United States for what promises to be a festival filled with enchanting music including the 6,000-plus pipes of the Carthy Organ at the Jack.
Visit calgaryorganfestival.ca for more information.