- 2017 Bios
- Aaron James
- Alison Riseley-Clark
- Andre Rakus
- Andrew Adair
- Christopher Dawes
- Gordon D. Mansell
- Gordon Mansell with Emily Canning (Soprano)
- Hanne Becker
- Imre Olah
- J. Thomas D. Gonder
- John Laing with Roger Flock (Percussion)
- Manuel Piazza
- Mario Ciferri
- Mark Himmelman
- Michael Capon
- Richard Birney-Smith
- Richard Spotts
- Simon Walker
- Stefani Bedin
- Thomas Fitches
- Thomas Fitches with Paul Sanvidotti (Trumpet)
- W. Dudley Oakes
- Wayne Carroll with Samuel Bisson (Cello)
- William O’Meara
2017 Bios
 |
Gordon D. Mansell - Executive Producer, Artistic Director Gordon Mansell is Music Director, composer and titular organist at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Toronto, Canada. In 2012, he also formed the touring and concert choir, MOSAIC Canadian Vocal Ensemble, based at Our Lady of Sorrows. Mr. Mansell is also Ontario, Canada, dealer for the world’s largest organ builder, Allen Organ Company. |
|
 |
Andre Rakus began his musical studies with the violin at the age of five. At eight years of age, he attended St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, Canada adding voice and piano to his studies. During high school at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, he studied trumpet. While attending St. Paschal Baylon Roman Catholic Church in Thornhill, Ontario he met the late British concert organist, Stanley Arthur King, under whom he studied organ from the age of twelve. |
|
 |
Andrew Adair is Director of Music and Organist at Toronto’s historic Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He previously served as Associate Director of Music at St. James’s Cathedral, Toronto, and as Assistant Organist at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. At St. James’s Cathedral he contributed regularly to the recital series, playing well over 100 programmes. Andrew studied at the University of Toronto with University Organist John Tuttle, and has additionally received tuition from a number of international sources. |
|
 |
Gordon Mansell with Emily Canning (Soprano) Gordon Mansell is Music Director, composer and titular organist at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Toronto, Canada. In 2012, he also formed the touring and concert choir, MOSAIC Canadian Vocal Ensemble, based at Our Lady of Sorrows. Mr. Mansell is also Ontario, Canada, dealer for the world’s largest organ builder, Allen Organ Company. Emily began choral singing at the age of 9 with the Mississauga Children’s Choir. Since then she has joined a number of choral groups, touring in New York City, Chicago, Vancouver, England, and most recently, Italy as both soloist and ensemble member with the MOSAIC Canadian Vocal Ensemble under the direction of founder and artistic director, Gordon Mansell. |
|
 |
J. Thomas D. Gonder, born in Cayuga, Ontario in 1971, exhibited musical gifts at an extremely early age. He spent most of his life in London, Ontario, his family having relocated there in 1981. Immediately becoming involved in the musical life of St. Paul’s Cathedral, he spent many years there as a chorister, Organ Scholar, Assistant Organist, and Organist and Master of the Choristers. Thomas quickly rose to the forefront of the Canadian Organ scene as one of its brightest young performers shortly after his public debut at the age of 15 under the tutelage of D. Mervyn Games. His teachers, mentors and greatest influences also include David Palmer, Ian Sadler, William S.J. McArton, Catherine Crozier, Simon Preston, Gerald Bales, Naji Hakim and David Briggs. |
|
 |
John Laing with Roger Flock (Percussion) John Laing, conductor, composer, organist and pianist, was born in London, U.K. He began to play the piano and compose at a very young age, and he became a treble chorister in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks. Roger Flock has toured extensively with the Royal Winnepeg Ballet, the National Ballet, and the Bolshoi ballet companies. His orchestral experience includes forty-five seasons with the Hamilton Philharmonic, numerous seasons with the Canadian Opera Company, Opera Ontario/Hamilton, Toronto Philharmonia, Stratford Festival, Hanniford Street Silver Band as well as hundreds of theatre productions in Toronto, Hamilton and throughout south and central Ontario. |
|
 |
Manuel Piazza is a second year student at the University of Toronto, pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance and studying with Dr. John Tuttle. A recent graduate of St. Michael’s Choir School, he has developed a strong passion for sacred music, Gregorian chant, and renaissance polyphony. At the choir school, he sang under the direction of Dr. Jerzy Cichocki, studied organ with René Belic, and participated in numerous additional musical activities involving accompanying and conducting. Currently, Manuel is the Bevan Organ Scholar at Trinity College, where he accompanies the Trinity College Chapel Choir and collaborates with students from the Faculty of Divinity. |
|
 |
Mario Ciferri was born in Fermo (FM) – Italy. His extensive studies led him to receive Diplomas with brilliant results in Piano, Organ, Orchestral Conducting, Harpsichord (with first-class standings) and Sacred Music (cum laude) from the “G.B.Martini” Conservatoire in Bologna, the “S.Cecilia” Conservatorie in Roma and the “G.Rossini” Conservatoire in Pesaro, where he studied Composition too. |
|
 |
Mark D. Himmelman (b. 1978), a native of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Mark Himmelman began playing the organ at the young age of seven years and by age eight had played his first church service. At age eleven Mark began studies in piano and organ under David Zwicker. His teachers have also included Allen Wayte, F. Alan Ressor and John Vandertuin. Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from the University of Prince Edward Island. |
|
 |
Richard Birney-Smith discovered his fascination with the organ at the age of four and began working as a church musician at the age of ten. After study with Thomas Matthews, Edna-Scotten Billings, Marcel Languetuit, and Clarence Watters, Dr. Birney-Smith moved to Canada to become Organist & Master of the Choristers at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Saskatoon (1965-67). |
|
 |
Organist Richard Spotts, a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, has set out to perform and educate the public of this seminal work, with the ultimate goal of performing the complete fifteen-hour cycle in a recital series over a period of ten days. |
|
 |
SIMON WALKER is Director of Music at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville, and Accompanist to Pax Christie Chorale. In addition to this he is Artistic Director of the ’Celebration of the Arts’ concert series in Oakville, and is also in regular demand freelance as an accompanist, teacher and conductor. |
|
 |
Thomas Fitches with Paul Sanvidotti (Trumpet) Thomas Fitches received his training in Oshawa, Toronto and Croydon, England, at the Royal School of Church Music. His teachers have been George Rapley, Alan Reesor and Douglas Bodle. Paul Sanvidotti is a freelance classical trumpeter in the Toronto area. As a chamber musician, Paul has a regular and substantial schedule of trumpet and organ recitals throughout Ontario. |
|
 |
Organist, Dr. Dudley Oakes is a church musician, performer, teacher, and organ consultant. Oakes is also a member of the faculty of Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia where he has taught theory and organ since 2001. Oakes has served many churches in the DC area including ten years as organist and choirmaster at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Georgetown Parish. He has been busy nationally in the organ building industry since 1987. |
|
 |
Wayne Carroll with Samuel Bisson (Cello) Wayne Carroll was born in London Ontario. Since accepting his first position as organist, at age fifteen, he has maintained a high profile musical career in Southern Ontario for over forty five years. Samuel Bisson is quickly distinguishing himself in Canada as a versatile soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Currently based in Toronto, he performs frequently in the GTA and has performed and toured across Canada, the US, Austria and China. |
|
 |
Imre Olah was born in Hungary, where he studied music in Budapest, specializing in organ performance. His studies later involved specialization in choral music and choral direction. Since moving to Canada in 1989, Imre has served as music director and organist at many Churches. He has been part of the musical life in the city, presenting organ recitals and accompanying choirs and soloists. He has also performed organ recitals in Hungary, Germany, Italy, and the USA. He holds the Associateship diploma with the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Imre is the Artistic director for the St Elizabeth Scola Cantorum of Toronto. He is the music director and organist at Caven Presbyterian Church in Bolton. |
|
 |
CHRISTOPHER DAWES, numbered among Canada’s leading church musicians, concert organists and choral accompanists, is a freelance musician and consultant based at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Following a 20-year career serving churches and cathedrals of the Anglican Church of Canada in September 2013 he commenced a new chapter in his varied musical story as Principal Organist to Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, its Choir School and Radio Ministry. |
|
 |
Born in Toronto, Aaron James is an organist and musicologist currently based in Rochester, NY. An alumnus of the Eastman School of Music, he graduated in 2016 with both a PhD degree in musicology and a DMA degree in organ, along with the Performer’s Certificate in organ. He was the 2011 winner of the National Organ Playing Competition of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and has won numerous other prizes and scholarships for his organ playing, including first prizes in the Florence and Stanley Osborne Organ Competition and the Howard Fairclough Organ Competition; he was also a finalist in the 2012 Franz Schmidt International Organ Competition (Kitzbühel, Austria). |
|
 |
Alison Riseley-Clark, a native of New Zealand, travelled to Canada in 1981 to complete a Masters Degree in Organ Performance at McGill University (Montreal). She won the New Zealand Organ Competition when she was 18, and while studying in Montreal she travelled to Chartres (France), Bruges (Belgium), Manchester (England), and Ann Arbor, (Michigan) to play in more Competitions. |
|
 |
Michael Capon serves as Director of Music at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Kingston Ontario, and is active as a performer, conductor, composer, and teacher. In addition to his church work, Michael has directed community choirs and orchestras, directed music for theatrical productions, taught music theory and organ students, and adjudicated at music festivals and competitions. He was a judge for the Juno Awards Classical Composition of the Year in 2012. |
|
 |
William O’Meara is organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral. He is also co-founder of ORGANIX. Recently, Bill premiered and recorded an organ concerto Cathedral Architecture by John Burge, and was soloist with the Hannaford Street Silver Band at Ottawa Chamberfest. He was also featured on the CBC Radio program Ideas and was organist for the Canadian premiere of Benjamin Britten’s Triumph of the Spirit by the Toronto Orpheus Choir. |
|
 |
Hanné Becker is an organist and soprano with a particular passion for sacred music. Hanné commenced her organ studies with John Tuttle in Toronto. She graduated in 2014 from the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto in the Bachelor of Music (Organ Performance) program with Honors. At present she is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Organ Performance specializing in Early Music with Wolfgang Zerer at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. |
|
 |
Stefani Bedin is a solo and collaborative performer, liturgical musician and pedagogue, active in her hometown of Toronto. She studies organ under the tutelage of Dr. Kevin Komisaruk, and in September 2017 will begin her pursuit of the Master of Music Degree in Organ Performance at the University of Toronto. She recently completed the Bachelor of Music Degree in Music History and Theory (with Honours) and a Minor in Historical Keyboard.. |