Virtual Organ Academy

We are excited to announce the launch of the Virtual Organ Academy - a new resource presenting leading organists and experts in their fields in free one-hour online sessions. 

Join us for the next session, Setting Attainable Goals With RCCO Exams on March 22, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET presented by Aaron James and Peter Nikiforuk (see detailed description below).

To register for this event, click here. Registration is free, and once you complete the form, you will receive an email with instructions on how to join the presentation.

This session will take place on Discord, an online platform that we have recently adopted to facilitate communication and conversation among members and friends of the organ music community. It can be used on your computer, phone or tablet, and provides easy access to video, audio and text chatting.

March 22, 2025: Setting Attainable Goals With RCCO Exams

**THIS IS A FREE EVENT**

One of the most important benefits of belonging to the RCCO is the College's exam system, which is recognized by employers and arts organizations both in Canada and internationally. For many players, however, taking an exam can be intimidating, especially for people who have not been in an academic environment for a long time. This session will focus on the RCCO exams that are designed to be accessible to the greatest number of players: the Service Playing Certificate and the Colleague diploma. These exams test skills that you are likely already using if you play organ for weekly church services, and the option of a recorded exam for the Service Playing Certificate makes it possible to complete this certification on your own schedule without travelling to an in-person exam location. Aaron James, chair of the Examinations committee and Peter Nikiforuk, chair of the Board of Examiners, will discuss the requirements of these exams, common pitfalls, and tips for successful preparation.

Aaron James is the Director of Music at the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, and a Sessional Lecturer in organ at the University of Toronto. At the Oratory, Aaron plays organ at Holy Family Parish and directs three choirs for Masses and Vespers on Sundays and feast days, as well as teaching music to students at St Philip’s Seminary. An alumnus of the Eastman School of Music, he holds 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 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). He performs regularly as an organ recitalist in both Canada and the United States, and has appeared as a soloist with the Eastman Graduate Chamber Orchestra, the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, the College’s highest academic distinction, receiving the Willan and Porter prizes for the 2012 Fellowship examinations. He is a past president of the RCCO Toronto Centre and currently serves as national Chair of Examinations for the College.

Aaron completed his doctoral studies as an organist in the studio of Edoardo Bellotti, having previously studied with Hans Davidsson and Michel Bouvard at Eastman, and with Paul Merritt at the University of Western Ontario, where he received the Faculty of Music Gold Medal. His musicological research has focused on Renaissance vocal polyphony, with published articles in the Journal of the Alamire Foundation, Early Music, Sacred Music, Organ Canada, The Lamp, Oxford Bibliographies Online and Grove Music Online. Aaron is the editor of the Parish Book of Motets (Church Music Association of America, 2022), a printed collection and suite of online resources compiled to make sacred polyphony accessible to small parish choirs. At the University of Toronto, he teaches studio organ lessons and classes in organ literature for students in the Faculty of Music as well as the Master of Sacred Music program at Emmanuel College, having previously taught at Eastman and at the University of Rochester.

Peter Nikiforuk holds a Bachelor of Music (BMus) from the University of Toronto, as well as a Master of Music (MM), Master of Musical Arts (MMA) and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) from Yale University. He is active as a piano teacher, workshop clinician and editor and examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) and the Royal Canadian College of Organists. He is also a member of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, the American Guild of Organists and The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada. Active as both an organist and choral conductor, he conducted Menno Singers in Kitchener-Waterloo for 19 seasons from 1998-2017. Peter was co-owner and editor of Kelman Hall Publishing for over 20 years. He has been the director of music at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener since 1989.

February 22, 2025: Strategies for Productive Practising

**THIS IS A FREE EVENT**

Are you looking for techniques to refresh your practice sessions? Are you a teacher looking for tips to pass on to your students? This workshop will offer ways to make the best possible use of limited practice time. Anne Laver will discuss the importance of simple physical warm-ups and mindfulness techniques to start a practice session and will then share specific strategies for standard repertoire. We will also discuss how to adapt some of these strategies for choir rehearsals. Workshop attendees are encouraged to bring pieces or excerpts to be used as case studies.

Described by Fanfare magazine as a “complete musician, totally adept and utterly stylish in everything she plays,” Anne Laver maintains an active career as concert organist, scholar, and pedagogue. She has given organ concerts in Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and across the United States and has been a featured recitalist at conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, and the Göteborg International Organ Academy (Sweden). In 2010, she was awarded second prize in the AGO National Young Artist Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP). Anne’s debut recording, “Reflections of Light” (Loft, 2019) received favorable reviews and has been aired on nationally syndicated radio programs, including WXXI FM’s With Heart and Voice and American Public Media’s Pipedreams.

Anne is a versatile musician, equally at home on antique and modern organs. Her programs are tailored to the specific organ at hand and center around themes ranging from the art of variation in seventeenth-century Germany, to music of women composers, to organ music with live dance. An advocate for new music and diversifying the organ repertoire, Anne has worked with composer Natalie Draper to offer programs for composers who want to write for the organ, and has given world premieres of works by Draper, Eric Heumann, Jordan Alexander Key, and Ivan Božičević.

Anne is passionate about advocacy for the organ and the encouragement of young organists. In her appointment as Associate Professor of Organ and University Organist at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, she helps educate the next generation of organists and church musicians. She also serves as artistic director for the Malmgren Concert Series at Hendricks Chapel, coordinates the annual Arthur Poister Competition in Organ Playing, and hosts educational programs for youth in collaboration with local chapters of the American Guild of Organists. Anne has taught and led outreach programs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, most recently serving as Visiting Professor of Organ from 2020-2022. She has also chaired national committees for the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboards.

As a scholar, Anne’s research interests focus on organ music at the nineteenth and twentieth century world’s fairs. Her articles have been published in the Journal for the Society of American Music, The American Organist, and Vox Humana. She is also a contributor and expert advisor for a soon-to-be-released open access online organ encyclopedia edited by Kimberly Marshall and Alexander Meszler. She has been able to involve student research assistants in her scholarship with the help of Syracuse University’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement.

Anne Laver studied organ with Mark Steinbach as an undergraduate student at Brown University and spent a year in The Netherlands studying with Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. While pursuing masters and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music, she studied with Hans Davidsson, William Porter, and David Higgs.

January 25: The Musician's Body - Learning from Bumblebees and Interesting Things

**THIS IS A FREE EVENT**

This presentation presents a principled basis for making decisions about organ performance and technique.  Many pedagogical works offer specific and detailed solutions and yet we know that we all differ anatomically, in our approach to the keyboard, and in the challenges we currently face.  This presentation is based on four examples from biomechanics that provide insight into some possible solutions for problems in keyboard technique.  From the high-speed movements of a bumblebee’s wings we can learn much about the causes and impacts of unnecessary muscle tension.  From the ping-pong ball we can learn a few things about the physical laws governing our interactions with an organ or piano key.  The Roman Arch shows an example of how it is possible to support the hand and depress the key without muscular contraction using a gently curved finger. Finally, the physical reactions to walking the plank (or walking on ice for that matter) give us a source of information on the impact of stiffening our limbs on movement control.  All together, these represent four broadly applicable ideas to help individuals make well informed decisions about their keyboard technique.  

Donald Russell has an Associate Diploma from the Royal College of Organists, Associate and Choir Master Diplomas from the Royal Canadian College of Organists and a Diploma in Church Music Studies from the Royal School of Church Music and is an active organist, chorister, and composer in the Ottawa area. He has a PhD in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a Professor and Associate Dean at Carleton University, where his research focuses on the biomechanics of musical performance. Dr. Russell has taught several graduate level courses on the biomechanics of keyboard performance and common playing related injuries.  He has been deeply involved in a wide range of research in areas related to music performance both through his own research at Carleton University and through active participation in various initiatives in music and health coordinated through the Piano Lab at the University of Ottawa where he has been an Adjunct Professor. This research has included work on measurements of posture in order to identify the impact of various somatic training interventions, such as Feldenkrais and the Alexander Technique, on musicians; measurement changes in wrist stiffness during the performance of challenging passages; muscular fatigue, and the impact of anxiety on musical performance.

Donald L. Russell, PhD (MIT), FEC, PEng (NS), DipRSCM, ARCO
Associate Dean (Governance), Faculty of Engineering and Design
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Carleton University