Holiday Stops: A Christmas Organ Concert

Beach United Church November 21, 2024 No Comments

Beach United Church is excited to present celebrated organist David Simon, as he shares a modern Advent and Christmas-themed concert for the Holiday season, including works by Derek Holman, Adolphus Hailstork, and Melissa Dunphy on Saturday, December 21st at 4:30pm. Let the majestic sound of the Beach United Church organ wash over you and fill you with the spirit of the Holiday season at this ‘not-to-be-missed’ Christmas concert. 

Tickets are pay-what-you-can with a suggested minimum of $10. Proceeds help support Beach United’s year-round community programs.

About David Simon

David Simon is an organ recitalist, liturgical musician, and music instructor. He is the Director of Music at the historic Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto where he directs the Gallery Choir, accompanies the liturgy, and maintains the musical tradition made famous by the work of his predecessor Healey Willan. David also has the privilege of teaching organ, piano, and music theory at St. Michael’s Choir School, having grown up there as a chorister himself. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University and has studied with Thomas Murray, Jeff Brillhart, and Patricia Wright. He is a Fellow of the RCCO, winning prizes for top national achievement. 

A prize-winning recitalist and improviser, David won first prize in both the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) national competition and the University of Michigan’s organ improvisation competition. David has performed across North America, the UK, Europe, and Russia, and he maintains a busy concert and teaching schedule. He is in particular demand as an organ improvisation teacher, giving lectures for Organ Festival Canada, instructing at the RCCO Summer Organ Academy, and giving masterclasses for various centers of the RCCO; David also maintains a private studio which includes students from across Canada.

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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

Christmas Organ Concert with Manuel Piazza

Beach United Church November 8, 2023 No Comments

Join us on Saturday, December 16th at 4:30pm for a special Advent and Christmas-themed organ concert, featuring a diverse selection of organ favourites to get you in the holiday mood. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, and proceeds go towards Beach United’s year-round community programs. 

RSVP here for our Christmas Organ Concert with Manuel Piazza.

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About Manuel Piazza

Manuel Piazza is the Assistant Director of Music at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, where he accompanies the High Mass and Evensong choirs and leads the parish’s new children’s choral program, The St. Thomas’s Choristers. Manuel completed his undergraduate studies in Organ Performance at the University of Toronto, studying repertoire with John Tuttle and conducting with Ivars Taurins. 

As an undergraduate in Toronto, he served as choir director and organist at Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church, organ scholar at Trinity College (University of Toronto), organ scholar at St. James’ Anglican Cathedral, and one of the five organists of St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. 

He was also an organist for the Yale Schola Cantorum, conducted by David Hill. After graduation, he was Interim Assistant Director of Music at Trinity Church in the City of Boston, working with Colin Lynch. Manuel’s playing has been praised for its “seamless registration changes … imaginative stop selections, smoothly shifting tone colours … abundant energy, (and) rhythmic control” in Organ Canada. Other awards include the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Scholarship (RCCO), the Mary Baker Scholarship in Organ Accompanying (Yale Institute of Sacred Music), the Julia R. Sherman Memorial Prize for excellence in organ playing (Yale School of Music), the Aidan Kavanagh Prize for Academic Achievement (Yale Institute of Sacred Music), and the Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Prize.