Our Noon Hour Concerts are back for another incredible season of music and community building under the artistic direction of our Music Director Ann-Marie MacDairmid. After a long hiatus, we are excited to welcome guests back into our sanctuary to enjoy these concerts in person and we will continue to stream live to our YouTube channel.
Admission to the building is free, and a sandwich lunch is available for purchase prior to each recital between 11:30am - 12:15pm with the concert beginning at 12:15pm.
We look forward to welcoming the musical community back to our sanctuary this fall.
About Bryn Blackwood, pianist
Bryn Blackwood is a solo and collaborative pianist based in Toronto, Ontario, with
a keen interest in 20th and 21st century music. As the winner of the 2019
Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, he gave a Canadian recital tour
bringing contemporary Canadian music to nine cities across the country. During the past
two seasons unfortunately marred by COVID-19, Bryn performed in a live-streamed
recital of works by Canadian composer Jacques Hétu at the Canadian Music Centre
and in a concert for The Aeolian Hall’s Phoenix Sessions in London, Ontario, in addition
to a number of recitals at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. He is thrilled to be
returning to in-person performance in 2022.
In 2019 Bryn was featured on CBC’s 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under
30 List and won the University of Toronto’s DMA Recital Competition, giving a concert in
the Faculty’s Thursday Noon series the next January. As a Guest Artist at the 2019
Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Italy, he performed numerous recitals of
solo and chamber music. He was a finalist and winner of the Paul J. Bourret Memorial
Award for Best Performance of the Test Piece, Franz Liszt’s Paraphrase of Verdi’s
Rigoletto at the 2018 Shean Piano Competition. In addition to his solo activities, he is an
avid collaborator with singers in Toronto, and was the class pianist for many vocal
courses at UofT.
A recipient of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier SSHRC award for his studies of the
Russian-American piano composer Leo Ornstein, Bryn continued this research while
completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto. His now published
dissertation is titled “Dissonance Reimagined: Tone Clusters in Leo Ornstein’s Early
Piano Music”. Formerly a student of the late acclaimed pedagogue Marietta Orlov, he
has also studied with Lydia Wong, Ilya Poletaev, and James Hibbard. Bryn received his
Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees from Western University and McGill University
respectively.
View the full concert lineup here:
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Bryn Blackwood - piano
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Hallowe’en Special
Bruce Skelton - Violin
Darielle Chomyn-Davison - Mezzo-soprano
Sophia Malowany - alto
Ann-Marie MacDairmid - Organ/Piano
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
Wendy Wagler - Flute
Beth Ann De Sousa - Piano
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Shoreline Chorus
Directed by Ann-Marie MacDairmid
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
Emma Allen - Cello & Matthew Gartshore - piano
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Elizabeth Lepock - Soprano
Scott MacDonald - Clarinet
Anna Ronai - Piano
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
KatrinaLisa Keeler - oboe
Tina Giannopoulos - violin
Ann-Marie MacDairmid - piano/organ
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
The Renaissance School of the Arts Flute Choir
Directed by Wendy Wagler
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Steele Strings Duo
Cynthia Steele - cello
Tom Steele - guitar
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Cambridge Girls' Choir
Directed by Jessica Strub