Josh is a young Jamaican-Canadian and this blog is about his music & travel adventures and anything that takes his interest. He sings bass, and studies organ, piano, violin & viola.
(This blog was last updated in April 2019, and will no longer updated in the future.)
Last Tuesday, I did the "Music at Midday" recital at St. James' Cathedral. I was asked to fill in just a week before, and I was really excited to help out.
I repeated the program for my last recital (in February) as I am still working on new pieces. My new pieces are really close to being ready, but I want to work on them some more with my teacher first.
My past performances have been arranged weeks or months in advance, so this was a new experience for me.
Last Tuesday, I did a recital at The Cathedral Church of St. James for "Music at Midday".
Philip Elliot recorded it for me and I uploaded the full recital to SoundCloud:
It was a lot more relaxed than my first two recitals and I felt better prepared, mainly because I had done it before.
Thomas Fitches came to hear me play!
The first time I met him was just a couple days before I started doing organ lessons. I heard him play at "Music at Midday" and so it is really a big deal to me that he came to hear my recital. Thank you so much for coming!
The biggest surprise was that Chrissy Quigley came to my recital! She helps to organize the Leahy Music Camp and she mentioned that she might come but it was wonderful seeing her!
I made sure to upload both Choral Song and Folk Tune since I know you loved them! Thank you for coming all the way to Toronto to hear me play!
One of the highlights of the recital is showing people the Pipe Organ afterwards... I'm hoping that some of the kids will be interested in learning organ in the future!
A huge "Thank you" to my teacher, Ian Sadler and to Robert Busiakiewicz, the Director of Music at The Cathedral Church of St. James for allowing me to perform and do lessons there. And of course, thank you to Philip Elliot for the audio-recording and to my Mom for the videos!
Last week, I went to the Leahy Music Camp.
It was at the beautiful Lakefield College School just outside Peterborough.
This year, I focussed on piano so each morning, I would go to workshops for piano where I learnt how to vary bass lines and chords when accompanying fiddle.
Each afternoon they had electives where you could choose to learn fiddle, guitar, piano, accordion, bagpipes, banjo, step dancing, composition, improvisation, arranging, computer lab or even recording!
It's really difficult to choose what to do in the electives.
I chose:
Beginner Step Dancing with Jacqueline Enright
Beginner Accordion with Timi Turmel
Improvising on Fiddle with Shane Cook
Intro to Bagpipes with Liam McGlashon
Composing with Erin Leahy
And Mac Lab with Gary Atkins.
(Sorry, I don't have a pic from this elective.)
Each evening they had lots of fun stuff planned for us.... You can choose to do as many or as little of the activities as you like.
Monday Evening, the Instructors put on a performance.
I put together a little montage of clips from their performance.
They were awesome!
So much talent in one room and to think they are the ones who would be teaching us for the week!
On Tuesday, we had a Dance.
It was so much fun and my legs were sore the following day. :-)
On Wednesday afternoon, we had a special Slow Fast Jam. In between some of the songs that we were all playing together, we got to see some of the campers perform.
I didn't do the evening activity on the Wednesday though.... We decided to stay in and rest for the busy Thursday ahead.
On the Thursday, we recorded the Camp Chorus.
For the Camp Chorus, I played in the piano section this year. (Last year, I did the fiddle.)
Each section learns their own part separately, and the first time we hear the full thing is when we get together to record it.
It is really exciting!
After the camp edits it and send it out this year, I will make a post about it here on my blog.
On the Thursday afternoon, we had our group challenge performance.
The group challenge is my favourite part of camp.
For the Group Challenge, we get together with other campers who we don't normally see or work with throughout the year and work together on something to perform for everyone.
This year, I worked with Olivia Werden and Gail Poulsen. Olivia wrote a beautiful song called Leia's Lullaby and we arranged and performed it for the group challenge.
We also performed it in the evening at the Grand Jam.
The Grand Jam is the final performance at the camp... It is a lot of fun but it also means that the camp is over. We all get to share the stage with the Instructors and play the tunes that we've learnt throughout the week.
Thank you so much to the Leahys for having such a wonderful camp. It is so nice to be around a family which really seems to like each other and take care of each other.
And of course, a special thanks to Frank Callaghan for opening doors once again for us!
And thanks to Mom for being my chaperone and taking such good videos throughout the camp!
~~
Update:
This blog post has been edited to include a link to a video of the performance of "Leia's Lullaby".
I did my second ever solo recital earlier this month. It was on May 8th at the Cathedral Church of St. James.
It wasn't as nerve-racking as the first time.
Normally when I do concerts or rehearsals, my parents record some of it, but this time, they sat and enjoyed it.
We arranged with Philip Elliot to do an audio recording of the concert for us.
I'm so happy that we could get such a wonderful recording!
My program included:
Rigaudon by Andre Campra (166 - 1744)
Trio in C Minor, BWV 585 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 533 by J. S. Bach
Fantasia in C Minor, BWV 562 by J. S. Bach
Sonata de 1o Tono by Jose Lidon (1748 - 1827)
Folk Tune by Percy Whitlock (1903 - 1946)
Choral Song by Samuel Wesley (1810 - 1876)
Berceuse by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937)
Gaelic Fantasy by Hans-Andre Stamm (b. 1958)
I finally had time to sit down and listen to the performance.
It is very different listening to the concert and comparing it to how I experienced it while playing. The Rigaudon and the Bach pieces all went really well. I stumbled in the Sonata; the stumble was only about a split second, but it seemed so much longer while playing. I approached the Gaelic Fantasy a little too fast..It would have sounded better if I had just gone a little slower. Everything else was good. :-)
Lots of homeschoolers came out to listen. Thank you so much for coming, it was great having so much support from other homeschoolers! I really hope you all enjoyed it!
me with Robert Busiakiewicz (left) and Ian Sadler (right)
A special thank you to my teacher - Ian Sadler, Robert Busiakiewicz - the Director of Music at St. James, and to Philip for recording the concert. :-)
On Pi Day, we usually do something Pi/Pie related or go to the Science Centre. But, this year, Pi Day is smack in the middle of March Break and that means the Science Centre would be packed. So, instead, we decided to head downtown and visit one of our favourite museums.
We finally got to see the exhibit "Eaton's Goes to War: Family, Memory and Meaning" at Mackenzie House. It is about the people who went to fight in the First World War who worked at Eaton's Department Store.
I was at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church for Remembrance Day last year and they did a wonderful service with beautiful music paying special tribute to the members there who served in both of the World Wars. (The whole service is available online at https://www.temc.ca/sermon/decisions-nightfall.) It got me wondering about the people who served and so, I really wanted to see this exhibition.
I didn't expect to see something about someone younger than me going to war. He was 13, working at Eaton's and he enlisted in the army along with his older brother, Fred.
Fred Gledhill received a Distinguished Conduct Medal, and became the youngest Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army.
One thing that is special about this exhibit is that it looks at how these men who served are remembered by their families and what happened after.
I always hear stories about my Grandfather (Mom's Dad) and my Great Grandfather and Great Uncle (Dad's Grandfather and grand-uncle) and I know that being in the army in World War II was a part of their lives, but they were so much more.
Eaton's Goes to War is on at Mackenzie House until April 30th this year.
Ryerson Interior Design Students also have an exhibit up at Mackenzie House.
Can you see the silhouettes of Mackenzie and his daughters?
There is also a display of objects made from human hair.
And of course, we spent some time in the Print Shop.
Thanks to Alex and Jared for the wonderful afternoon!
And a special thank you for having the well thought out exhibit on Eaton's Goes to War. You always have such great exhibits!
Dad and I spent Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23rd) at Black Creek Pioneer Village. It was the first time we have gone in the snow. We took the fancy new subway to the new Pioneer Village Station and then walked from the station to BCPV. It took about 10 minutes but there is a bus that passes the Village. If it weren't for the new subway stop, we wouldn't have gone in the winter.
Here are some pictures from our trip.
I hope you are having a wonderful, peaceful Christmas!
