My Recital at St. James' Cathedral - Music at Midday

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:

https://soundcloud.com/joshua-duncan-lee/full-july-24-2018-music-at-midday-recital-at-the-cathedral-church-of-st-james-live/s-6fQwB

I played:

• Rigaudon by Andre Campra (1660 - 1744)
• Largo e Spiccato by A. Vivali (1678 - 1741) arr. J. S. Bach
• Prelude and Fugue in E Minor, BWV 533 by J. S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
• Voluntary in A Minor by William Boyce (1710 - 1779)
• Choral Song by Samuel Wesley (1810 - 1876)
• Folk Tune by Percy Whitlock (1903 - 1946)
• Trumpet Air by Bert van der Hoek (b. 1932)
• Variations on 'Fidelis' by F.R.C. Clarke (1931 - 2009)
• Gaelic Fantasy for Organ by Hans-Andre Stamm (b. 1958)

Just in case you don't have time to listen to the full recital, here are videos of a few of the pieces:

Rigaudon by Andre Campra

Prelude and Fugue in E Minor (BWV 533) by J.S. Bach

Choral Song by S.S. Wesley

Folk Tune by Percy Whitlock 

Variations on 'Fidelis' by F.R.C. Clarke

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!

My Recital at St. James

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. :-)

I uploaded a few of the pieces from the concert to SoundCloud
Rigaudon by Andre Campra
https://soundcloud.com/joshua-duncan-lee/rigaudon-by-andre-campra-live

Fantasia in C Minor by J. S. Bach
https://soundcloud.com/joshua-duncan-lee/fantasia-in-c-minor-bwv-562-by-j-s-bach

Choral Song by Samuel Wesley
https://soundcloud.com/joshua-duncan-lee/choral-song-by-samuel-s-wesley


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. :-)

My organ recital

Today, I did my first organ recital.
It was at St. James' Cathedral.

The programme included:

• Prelude and Fugue in C Major by J. S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
• Largo e spiccato by A. Vivali (1678 - 1741) arr. J. S. Bach
• Prelude and Fugue in G Minor by J. S. Bach
• Voluntary in A Minor by William Boyce (1711 - 1779)
• Berceuse by Louis Vierne (1870 - 1937)
• Trumpet Air by Bert van der Hoek (b. 1932)
• Siciliano by Max Reger (1873 - 1916)
• Gaelic Fantasy for Organ by Hans-Andre Stamm (b. 1958)

The prelude in C Major went smoothly, but I stumbled a little in the fugue.  I had a 'fat finger' in a couple pieces but the good news is I think that any future recitals will be easier than this one. I learnt how to recover from my mistakes while performing in public.

Here is a video of Largo e spiccato from my recital:

A huge "Thank you" to Ian Sadler, my teacher and Robert Busiakiewicz, the Director of Music at St. James' Cathedral for allowing me to do lessons at the Cathedral, plus practice time and for letting me perform.

It is hard to believe, Robert introduced me to Ian, last year on October 18th and I had my first organ lesson on October 30th.
Here is a picture from the day I met Ian.

A special thank you to everyone who came out to hear me play, including Julia, Elaine, Kelly, Ken, Christine, Lisa, Mervin, Lucy, Barbara, Sage, and all the homeschoolers.

And thank you to Mom and Dad, I couldn't have done this without you!

My First Organ Recital

I have some exciting news!
Next Tuesday, I will do my first organ recital.
It will be at St. James Cathedral's "Music at Midday."
I am so excited!

Here is the poster with the information for the concert:

Stephen Boda at the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church

link to original photo

Yesterday, Dad and I went to see Stephen Boda perform at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church.
He is the Principal Organist there and this performance featured the new Antiphonal Division that was just installed in December 2016.

The first time I went to the Church was in March for Pedals, Pipes and Pizza in March, so the Antiphonal Division was already installed. I didn't realize it was so new!

The stops in the division are:

• 16' Contra Violon
• 8' Open Diaspason
• 8' Violin 8'
• 8' Chimney Flute
• 4' Octave
• 4' Open Flute
• 2 2/3' Twelfth 
• 2' Fifteenth
• IV Mixture
• V Grand Cornet
• 8' Trumpet

They added 1080 new pipes!
All of the new pipes are at the back of the church and are un-enclosed.



The program for the concert included:

Sinfonia from Cantata 29 by J.S. Bach (transcribed by Guillmant)

Outer Hebrides: A Fantasia on Three Celtic Melodies by Pau Haley

Fanfare by John Cook 

Night on Bald Mountain by M. Mussorgsky (transcribed by Szathmary)

Andante Sostenuto by C.M. Widor

Scherzo Symphonique by P. Cochereau

I really loved "Outer Hebrides" and I hope to get the music so I will be able to play it one day. I have a soft spot for Celtic Music. 

The "Fanfare" by John Cook highlighted the 8 foot Festival Trumpet stop beautifully. 

The Scherzo Symphonique was an improvisation by Pierre Cochereau and was transcribed from a recording at Notre Dame in Paris.  With the stops chosen, this piece blasts you from behind  and it is guaranteed to get everybody's attention. It was the perfect way to show what the new pipes are capable of!

Overall, it was a great selection of pieces to highlight the new division.