FutureStops

In our penultimate episode of Season 2, Blake sits down with Kit Downes, a phenomenal composer, pianist and organ player, as well as ECM records recording artist, and winner of a BBC Jazz award. His website: https://www.kitdownes.com/ Also, don't forget to check out our Patreon @ www.patreon.com/futurestops

In Episode 33, we speak with 3 different guests. First, we speak with Robert Curgenven about his project Beyond Enclosures. Then Tea Kulas comes on to discuss the Zadar Sea Organ and her organ festival. Finally we wrap up with Tauba Auerbach and Cameron Mesirow on their project: the Auerglass. Beyond Enclosures: https://robertcurgenven.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-enclosures-3-album-set the Zadar Sea Organ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n86pF-wQKrw Don’t forget to check out our patreon @ www.patreon.com/futurestops

For episode three of our Canadian Organ Builders series, we visit the workshop of Orgues Letourneau. The Orgues Letourneau workshop is a pipe organ factory housed in a former water treatment plant in sleepy Ste.-Hyacunthe, Quebec. Fernand Letourneau started the company in 1979 by building a six-rank pipe organ in his basement, and from those humble beginnings the company has built an international reputation for their distinctive sound and artistry. We speak with Andrew Forrest, who is the Vice President and Artistic Director at Letourneau and plays a key role in the balancing act between old world tradition and new world technology.

Today we speak with documentary filmmaker James Dawson and organ restorer Martin Renshaw about their work on the documentary Organ Stops. You can check out the full doc here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/organstops Organ Stops Synopsis: Martin has spent his life playing and building pipe organs; nowadays he dedicates all his time to rescuing them – "It’s a real crisis. There are around fifty churches closing every year and half the organs in them are worth saving." Beautifully made and historically important pipe organs are being scrapped in their hundreds. Once the centre of British culture pipe organs are now largely neglected and unloved.Often just one step ahead of the bulldozers, Martin and a small band of organ "anoraks", travel the country on rescue missions. In one ex-mining village in the north of England he discovers a fine very rare nineteenth century organ who’s salvage and "rebirth" becomes the redemptive story at the heart of the film. It's eventually adopted and given a new lease on life in a vibrant, largely Afro-Caribbean congregation in London.

Adrian Foster is back at Montreal’s Sacre Coeur de Jésus Church for season two. In this episode we discuss Foster’s use of the pipe organ to create both electronic and acoustic music, as well as feature his piece Manifesting Light recorded in November 2021Sacre Coeur de Jésus

Welcome to the third installment of Organ+, a segment of the podcast where we profile artists and performers expanding existing contexts for the organ and creating new ones. Our guests in this episode are: Thomas Mellan, a composer and the newly minted organist at St Cecilia's Church in Boston, MA. His latest project breaks the mold of what we expect from a congregational player and connects back to his love of the electric guitar. FUJI​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​TA, a performer who accompanies his voice with a keyboardless pipe organ which he built and designed himself. John Kameel Farah, an artist who blends different keyboard instruments, genres, eras and cultures within live musical experiences, offering challenges and insights into the spaces where they take place.

Ellen Arkbro is a Swedish composer whose search for authenticity in her musical practice led her to the pipe organ. Join us here for an interview with Arkbro about her creative approach to the organ and her abundant musical creativity. Listen to this episode's feature track, 'CHORDS for organ', here: https://ellenarkbro.bandcamp.com/track/chords-for-organ.

Amina Claudine Myers is an, Organist, Pianst, Vocalist, Composer, Master Improvisationalist, Actress and Educator. She joins us here for an interview about her incredible life as a musician, and her yet-to-be-released Improvisational Suite, featuring the pipe organ. Amina‘s music gives us a glimpse into what’s possible when a pipe organ is wielded by someone with a wide range of influences, and an unbridled, wild creativity.

Welcome to the second season of FutureStops! We’re very excited to be back bringing you more of the sounds and stories of the 21st century organ experience. This season begins with the first in a series of episodes exploring the rich history of organ building in Canada. Our first stop is at the legendary house of Casavant in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, where we spoke to Dany Wiseman, Sébastien Kardos and Simon Couture about their experiences in the complex and fascinating world of organ building.

Orgelpark is an organ-centric performance space and research lab in Amsterdam that is home to 6 (!) permanently installed pipe organs. Join us for our conversation with with Orgelpark's Artistic Assistant Trevor Grahl and composer Eric de Clercq to learn more about the past, present and future of this performance space and what makes it so unique.

Music festivals around the world have had to adapt to new limitations during the COVID pandemic, such as travel restrictions and bans on gatherings. Join us as we survey the organ festival landscape, checking in on 4 different festivals to see how they’re adapting. Our guests are: Ed McCall, CEO of the Organ Historical Society in the US; Br. Riccardo Ceriani, General Manager & Superintendent of The Custody of the Holy Land in the Middle East; Sir Andrew Parmley, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Organists in the UK; and Angela Hewitt, Honorary Patron of the Royal Canadian College of Organists in Canada.

Welcome to the second installment of Organ+, a segment of the podcast where we take a look at multiple, unique pipe organ projects and their creators. In this episode, Blake speaks with Canadian composer Adrian Foster, Canadian sound artist George Rahi and Norwegian DJ and producer Hans-Peter Lindstrom about some of their distinctive, individual projects.