{"id":14060,"date":"2013-07-24T07:09:18","date_gmt":"2013-07-24T12:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=14060"},"modified":"2013-07-24T07:09:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-24T12:09:18","slug":"summer-festivals-organist-rachel-laurin-takes-up-residence-at-stratford-summer-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/07\/24\/summer-festivals-organist-rachel-laurin-takes-up-residence-at-stratford-summer-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer festivals: Organist Rachel Laurin takes up residence at Stratford Summer Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rachel Laurin presents concerts at Stratford Summer Music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Old and new worlds collide as Canadian concert organist and composer Rachel Laurin and the Vienna Boys Choir converge on Stratford Summer Music this week.<\/p>\n

Laurin, who matured as an artist over the course of 16 years at Montreal’s grand St Joseph’s Oratory and four years at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Ottawa, now works exclusively as a composer and concert organist — both still male-dominated occupations.<\/p>\n

She presents three different and complementary pre-lunch solo-organ programmes at Stratford’s St James’ Church. Each surveys organ literature, but with a different focus.<\/p>\n

Thursday, Laurin shows off what it takes to interpret organ music — in particular how the choice of tonal colour in “registering” an organ, i.e. choosing which sets of pipes will play together, changes the nature of the music.<\/p>\n

Friday’s concert is all about improvisation, something Laurin does in the grandest French style. And Saturday’s programme focuses on the art of composition.<\/p>\n

All three concerts feature Laurin’s own creations.<\/p>\n

Stratford Summer Music’s website is awkward, if not completely unhelpful (the listings say 11:15 a.m. for each concert, which is correct, but the calendar function says 12:15 p.m., which would make a visitor miss the music entirely). The best place to find reliable detail is under an entry confusingly called the Sun Life Financial Guide here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is Laurin playing one of her own creations, a Procession<\/em>, for AFNOM, an annual festival of new organ music organised in England:<\/p>\n