PIE Day 2024

PIE Day at Beach United

Beach United Church March 21, 2024 No Comments

Last Thursday, March 14th 2024, we celebrated National Affirming PIE Day with a pie-inspired menu at our Interfaith Lunch, and our Queer Youth United group made chicken pot pie together in the kitchen later that evening.

P.I.E. is a special day on or around March 14th each year that we can remind ourselves of the commitment we have have made to be Public, Intentional and Explicit in our welcome to 2SLGBTQIA+ folk of all sexual orientations and gender identities.Learn more about PIE Day on their website!

Our Thursday Interfaith lunch menu included shepherd’s pie (made by our volunteers), and various dessert pies – here are some photos!

PIE Day 2024
The Octokats at Beach United

Jazz & Reflection with The OCTOKATS

Beach United Church March 6, 2024 No Comments

Come experience local big band, The OCTOKATS, as they treat you all to  ‘Martinis with Mancini’ – a special exploration of the musical mind of American film composer Henry Mancini on Saturday, April 6th at 4:30pm.

You may reserve your seats at this link. Entry is pay-what-you-can.

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Henry Mancini, born as Enrico Nicola Mancini, was an American Composer extraordinaire! So how is it that this remarkable individual who had 18 Academy Award nominations with 4 wins, 11 Golden Globe nominations with 1 win, and an astounding 75 Grammy Nominations with 20 wins would have a split personality? While one side of his brain would function to achieve very orchestral compositions and arrangements for the movie industry, the other side would focus on the very essence of hip, Cool West Coast Jazz! Known to his friends and colleagues simply as “Hank”, in the late 50s and 60s his iconic work for the Peter Gunn TV series featured many tunes that had a cool vibe reminiscent of other West Coast Jazz artists such as Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper and Shorty Rogers. Stay tuned as The OCTOKATS treat you all with an exploration of the darker, hip vibe from the mind of Mancini! 

The OCTOKATS, formed in 2012, specialize in a type of jazz that is quite different from the mainstream jazz bands around the GTA and offer something unique and different. West Coast Jazz was a style of Jazz that was developed in the Los Angeles area in and around the time of the 1950’s. This was the very beginning of the essence of Cool Jazz. Unlike many of the big bands, West Coast Jazz simply focuses on arrangements that are less frenetic yet enriched with smooth voicing and are heavily arranged. This style is very relaxed and calming, a perfect combination for either easy listening or dancing. Sorely missing from the Toronto Jazz scene, The OCTOKATS have resurrected this West Coast Cool Groove while breathing new life into the music with a fresh new zeal. 

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Proceeds go towards supporting our musicians and making our concerts accessible, while also supporting Beach United’s year-round community programs.

Organ Stops with Ryan Baxter

Organ Stops with Ryan Baxter

Beach United Church February 27, 2024 No Comments

Beach United Church is excited to present organist Ryan Baxter for our final Organ Stops concert of our season on Saturday, March 16th at 4:30pm.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Program:

Organ Sonata No. 6 in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn

Trio Sonata No. 6 in G major, BWV 530 by Johann Sebastian Bach

12 Characteristic Pieces, Op. 156 by Josef Rheinberger

Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d’Alain, Op. 7 by Maurice Duruflé

Ryan Baxter is a student in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music, studying solo piano performance with Professor Stéphan Sylvestre. This year he holds an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, which supports his continued work on contemporary Australian four-hands piano music, including sonatas by Carl Vine and Stuart Greenbaum. He received a Bachelor of Music from Brock University (2019), an Ontario Graduate Certificate in Music Composition from Humber College (2020), and a Master of Music from the University of Manitoba (2022). Outside of university study, Ryan holds LCRM, ARCT, and LTCL diplomas in piano, ARCT, ARCCO, CRCCO, and LTCL diplomas in organ, and an ARCT in piano pedagogy. 

Beyond academic life, Ryan is Music Director and Organist at Rowntree Memorial United Church in London, Ontario, and is currently on the board of directors at the United Church Foundation. Previously he was organist, and later music director, at Trillium United Church in St. Catharines (2016-2021). He has worked as a marker/grader, choral and instrumental accompanist, in-classroom tutor for mathematics and English, MOOC (massive open online course) facilitator, private piano and theory instructor, and in various other education-related positions. When Ryan is not practicing, writing, or working, he can be found walking outside, gardening, gaming on his PC, cooking, baking, and applying to more programs. He is happy to be part of Beach United Church’s musical programming this year! 

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Beach United‘s warm, inviting hall serves as the perfect backdrop for this concert – the concert is pay-what-you-can, and proceeds support our year-round community programs.