Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) presents

Isabelle Demers

With playing described as having “bracing virtuosity” (Chicago Classical Review) and being “fearless and extraordinary” (Amarillo-Globe News), organist Isabelle Demers has enraptured critics, presenters, and audience members around the globe for her exhilarating performances. Her recital for the joint International Society of Organbuilders-American Institute of Organbuilders convention so enchanted the audience that she “left the entire congress in an atmosphere of ‘Demers fever’.” In 2010, her performance for the national convention of the American Guild of Organists, in Washington, D.C., was received with unbridled acclaim not only by critics, who deemed it “one of the most outstanding events of the convention” (The American Organist), but also by the standing-room-only audience of her colleagues which called her back to the stage five times.

Isabelle DemersShe has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, and from coast to coast in the United States and Canada, including at the Cathedrals of Cologne and Regensburg (Germany); the ElbPhilharmonie (Hamburg); the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey (London); City Hall (Stockholm); the Royal Opera House of Muscat (Oman); the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China); Victoria Hall (Singapore); Melbourne Town Hall (Australia); Auckland Town Hall (New Zealand); Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Davies Hall (San Francisco), the Meyerson Symphony Center (Dallas), the Kimmel Center, and the Wanamaker Organ at Macy’s (Philadelphia); and the Maison Symphonique (Montreal). She was a featured performer at the 2023 BBC Proms held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Ms. Demers is in continual high demand and held in exceedingly high esteem by her fellow colleagues, as witnessed by repeat performances for regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists (Minneapolis, 2008; Washington D.C., 2010; Hartford, 2013; Austin, 2013; Indianapolis, 2015; Houston, 2016; Seattle, 2022; Phoenix 2025), the joint convention of the American Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders (Montréal, 2010), the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Toronto, 2009; Kingston, Ontario, 2016; Guelph/Kitchener 2025), the Organ Historical Society (Vermont, 2013; Minnesota, 2017; Milwaukee 2025), and the Association of Anglican Musicians (Minnesota, 2024).

A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr. Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montreal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas).

In this concert, she transforms the Grand Orgue Pierre-Béique into an opulent orchestra, bringing out its many facets in transcriptions of works by Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky.

Program
Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, op. 35: IV. Festival at Baghdad – The Sea – The Ship Breaks upon a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman (transcr. I. Demers, 13 min.)
Elsa Barraine, Prelude and fugue no. 1 in G minor (11 min.)
Naji Hakim, Hommage à Igor Stravinsky, excerpts (12 min.)
Intermission (20 min)
Igor Stravinsky, Scherzo à la Russe (transcr. I. Demers, 4 min.)
Nadia Boulanger, Three Pieces (9 min.)
Igor Stravinsky, The Firebird (1919, transcr. I. Demers, 22 min.)

Sunday, April 6, 2025 at 2:30pm
Maison symphonique

To purchase your tickets, visit: www.placedesarts.com