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Toronto: Home of the Oldest and Newest Carillons in North America
Friday, September 29, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
Donations at the door or when you watch online are voluntary and only partially cover program costs. If you agree that continuing education is worth the investment, We’d love to hear from you.
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Over five centuries in Europe a remarkable concert instrument evolved: the carillon, consisting of tuned bronze bells expressively played from a keyboard. Before the outbreak of the Great War there were more than 140 “singing towers” in the Low Countries, providing melodic soundscapes to their communities. Wars wreaked destruction on the European carillons, but the fame of their voices also inspired a carillon renaissance to build new towers across the world serving as musical memorials. In 1922 Toronto’s Metropolitan Methodist Church (now Metropolitan United Church) installed the first modern tuned carillon in North America. In the century since, ten more carillons were built in Canada and more than 170 installed across the continent. In this illustrated lecture Andrea McCrady will celebrate North America’s newest carillon to serenade Toronto at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church.
This lecture is a live, in-person event in Cameron Hall. You do not need to pre-register to attend – just show up.
BIOGRAPHY:
Andrea McCrady was appointed Dominion Carillonneur of the Peace Tower Carillon in 2008 and is an Adjunct Professor in carillon studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. Introduced to the carillon in 1971 at Trinity College, Hartford, CT, she studied at the carillon schools in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France on a post-graduate fellowship. During medical school at McGill University, Montreal, she was carillonneur at St. Joseph’s Oratory, followed by her hospital residency in Toronto, where she played at the University of Toronto and the Canadian National Exhibition. From 1990-2008, she coordinated the carillon program at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane, WA, where she also practiced family medicine. In 2008, she retired from medicine upon receiving a Bachelor of Music from the University of Denver. Dr. McCrady has served on the boards of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America and the World Carillon Federation. When not at the carillon keyboard, she is out exploring the great Canadian outdoors by hiking, canoeing, and skiing.
This is a special commemorative lecture on the occasion of the inauguration of Yorkminster Park’s new Carillon.