Josh's Blog.: July 2017

2017/07/20

St. James Cathedral

People ask me what it is that I love about St. James Cathedral.... It is hard to put it into words.

I love organ music and I go to the Tuesday Music at Midday organ concerts whenever I can.

Above all, I like the people at St. James and I love that we share the same love of the organ.

I have met some really wonderful people at the concerts and it was at one of these concerts that I met my organ teacher. It makes me so happy that I am able to have lessons in such a beautiful, historic place and be a part of such a great community.

St. James has been going strong since 1807!

Of course, there have been many changes since then.

In February, there was a display up in the church for Black History Month..

This picture shows Thornton Blackburn's taxi stand outside of St. James Cathedral around 1874.

Thornton Blackburn was a former slave from the United States and John Strachan, who was rector of St. James objected to returning the Blackburns to the U.S.

I love that there is a long history of treating people with respect.

The Church building itself is beautiful. It has stained glass windows all around.
Each of them shows a different scene.

If you look closely, you might be able to spot a small picture of the Cathedral in this window.

There is just something about the church that makes you want to take care of it.

Of course, I love the organ itself....

It has 5101 pipes and it has such a wide range of sounds.

Here is an excerpt from Voluntary in A Minor by William Boyce.
(Mom taped me when I was having class one week.)

This one is Little Prelude and Fugue in G Minor by J.S. Bach

I am still very new at playing organ... My repertoire isn't yet varied enough to show off the full capabilities of the organ.

Here is a link to the website for the Cathedral Church of St. James:

https://stjamescathedral.ca/

2017/07/15

TDSB's Downtown Summer Strings, 2017

This week, I went to the Toronto District School Board's Downtown Summer Strings. It is a 2 week program but I was at Leahy Music Camp last week.

I am really good at sight reading sheet music, so I was able to fit in with the group well. I missed out on the Chamber Groups though because they form in the first week.

I played viola in the 'more advanced' group.
Camp is so much fun!

This year, on Stuffed Thing Day when the Chamber Groups perform for our Stuffed toys, my stuffed thing, Ptolemy XIX, won 'Most Likely to Look Like 18 Other Stuffed Things" and it got a cup covered with pictures which looked exactly like him!

Here are a couple videos from the concert.

The 'More advanced' group played Russian Sailor's Dance by R. Gliere arranged by E. Del Borgo.

And the "Really Big Group" played Swallowtail (traditional) arranged by Ian Guenther.

Here is a picture of me with Andres. The last time I saw him, he performed Bach's Coffee Cantata with the Rezonance Baroque Ensemble.

Ed Hayes came to see the performance. He arranges music and the Downtown Summer Strings Staff and Staff Aides performed his arrangement of Journey's Don't Stop Believing.

I found this picture from the first time I met Ed in April 2010. Back then, I only played piano and my Mom was trying to convince me to try cello. He and his wife, Marie, came to my school and did a presentation about music from around the world.

This is a picture of me with Ian Guenther and Rebecca Kurtis-Pomeroy.
Every year, they put on this amazing camp and my summer doesn't feel right without it.

Thank you so much to Ian, Rebecca, Andres, Felix, Jonathan, and Lee and all of the Staff Aides!

Here are some pictures of me with Ian from 2013 - 2017.

Links to my older Blog Posts about Downtown Summer Strings:
2015
2015 CTV News Feature

2014
2013

2017/07/12

Photos of Mackenzie House - July 2017

Today, Mom and I went to Mackenzie House. We walked a different route and noticed this sign which we had never seen before. Turns out it is new. :-)

The first thing we did was some printing in the Print Shop.

There is an exhibit going on called "The Past is Never Far" by Summer Leigh.

I thought this was a genius way to use the window space in the gallery.

While we were there, we found out that they are going to start doing some work on the outside of the building. So, today we focused on taking pictures of the outside and the inside using natural light.

I hope you enjoy our pictures!