Welcome to the home of the 2009 McGill Summer Organ Academy!

Message from the Artistic Director:

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the 2009 edition of the McGill Summer Organ Academy which will take place from July 6 to 16. We will be celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Mendelssohn as well as the 50th Anniversary of the arrival of the first Beckerath organ in Canada.

Through the pioneering efforts of Kenneth Gilbert the arrival, in 1959, of the Beckerath at Queen Mary Road Church in Montreal became a watershed event. This Beckerath, now housed in Mountainside United Church, became the main teaching instrument at McGill and allowed McGill to become one of the first organ departments in North America to endorse the revival of mechanical-action instruments.

I would like to encourage you to register early in order to avoid disappointment. The places for "active" participants in each course is limited, and as an added incentive we have introduced a considerable saving to you if you register before April 30th. Even if you only plan to audit courses it would help us enormously in planning the logistics of the Academy if you were to register early. Also, please note that our fees have not increased since 1997, and in the present economic climate this is worth mentioning.

There is a bilingual website on the Organs of Quebec that you might enjoy browsing if you are not familiar with Quebec and its great heritage. Quebec City celebrated the 400th Anniversary of its founding in 2008. You can find this web site at www.quebec400.gc.ca. Also, you might enjoy browsing on the web site for the Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC) at www.ciocm.org.

I hope to see you in July at McGill and should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Devon Wilkinson and Jonathan Patterson, our Co-Executive Directors, at organ@music.mcgill.ca.

Best wishes,
John Grew, Artistic Director
MSOA

Questions? Contact organ@music.mcgill.ca

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