International Organ Summer in Hallgrímskirkja

Saturday 27. July at 12:00 – 12:30

Isabelle Demers, a concert organist from Canada, music professor in USA

Performs pieces by Ernest Macmillan, Rachel Laurin, Oskar Lindberg and Sir George Thalben-Ball.

Tickets 2500 ISK

International Organ Summer in Hallgrímskirkja 

Sunday 28. July at 17:00 – 18:00

Isabelle Demers, a concert organist from Canada, music professor in USA

Performing pieces by Charles Tournemire, Jason Roberts, J. S. Bach, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Igor Stravinsky. 

Tickets 3000 ISK 

Canadian organist makes the instrument sing at The International Organ Summer in Hallgrímskirkja

There is no shortage of organists who make their instruments roar; and while her power was never in question, Demers made the instrument sing.” (Peter Reed, Classical Source.com, England, 2016) 

With playing described as having “bracing virtuosity” (Chicago Classical Review) and being “fearless and extraordinary” (Amarillo-Globe News), Isabelle Demers has enraptured critics, presenters, and audience members around the globe. Her 2010 recital for the International Society of Organbuilders-American Institute of Organbuilders convention “left the entire congress in an atmosphere of ‘Demers fever’.” That same year, her performance at the Washington D.C. national convention of the American Guild of Organists caused the standing-room-only audience to call her back to the stage five times. 

She has appeared in recital in Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, and coast 

to coast in the United States and her home country of Canada. 2018-2019 season highlights include performances at the Maison Symphonique (Montreal, Québec), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany), City Hall (Stockholm, Sweden), the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), and Westminster Abbey (London, UK). 

Dr. Demers is in continual demand by her fellow colleagues as witnessed by performances for numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. 

Her first recording on the Acis label, The Old and the New, was met with critical acclaim. Fanfare Magazine called it “superbly produced”, a “clear, tightly focused recording”, and a “brilliantly played program.” Her second disc, featuring the organ works of Rachel Laurin, was released in June 2011, and her recording of Max Reger’s Seven Chorale-Fantasias in November 2012. Bach, Bull, and Bombardes (Pro Organo), was released in May 2013. In 2018, she appeared as solo organ accompanist in a recording of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Baylor University Choir, recorded at Duruflé’s church in Paris, also on the Acis label. 

A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr. Demers is Organ Professor and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University in Texas. 

Isabelle Demers is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. 

Saturday 27th of July at 12 noon

Ernest Macmillan 1893-1973 

Cortége Académique 

Rachel Laurin 1961- 

Two Short Etudes op. 68 Flight of the Hummingbird Dialogue of the Mockingbirds 

Oskar Lindberg 1887-1995 

Gammal fäbodpsalm från Dalarna 

Sir George Thalben-Ball 1896-1987 

Variations on a Theme of Paganini 

Sunday 28th of July at 5 pm

Charles Tournemire 1870-1939 

Choral-Improvisation on the Victim Paschali 

Jason Roberts 1980- 

Two Scherzos 

Whimsical 

Mischievous 

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685-1750 

Concerto in a minor BWV 593 after Vivaldi 

Allegro

Adagio senza pedale a due clavier

Allegro

Charles-Valentin Alkan 1813-1888 

Excerpts from Twelve Etudes for solo pedal 

Fughetta 

Adagio 

Moderato 

Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971 

Three movements from Petrushka transcription Isabelle Demers 

Russian Dance Petrushka’s Room The Shrovetide Fair