One of today’s most sought-after concert organists performing on the international stage, Isabelle Demers (Professor of Organ at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University) brings her extraordinary musicianship to the Aeolian-Skinner organ. Renowned for her virtuoso technique and brilliant command of the complete organ repertoire, her focus in this recital will be on the 19th- and 20th/21st-centuries, featuring especially the art of orchestral transcription in music from Stravinsy’s Pulcinella Suite, Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and Brahms’ Variations on a Theme of Handel.
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 enthralling 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, which called her back to the stage five times.
She has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Oman, Australia, New Zealand, 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 (Montréal). In summer 2023 she was a featured performer at the 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), 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 and Minnesota, 2017), and the Association of Anglican Musicians (Minnesota, 2024).
Her debut recording on Acis label was met with critical acclaim. On a recent broadcast of Pipedreams, radio host Michael Barone featured the Fugue from Reger's Op. 73, describing it as "a masterful score, here masterfully played," and Isabelle Demers as, “definitely a talent to watch, to hear”. The RSCM's Church Music Quarterly awarded the “exciting, expressive and successful” recording its highest recommendation for its “profound and searching” performances. Fanfare Magazine proclaimed the “superbly produced” and “clear, tightly focused” recording as 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. Her fourth CD, Bach, Bull, and Bombardes (Pro Organo), was released in May 2013, and includes works of Bach, Bull, Reger, Widor, Tremblay, Mendelssohn, Daveluy, and Thalben-Ball. She also appears as solo organ accompanist in a recording of Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Baylor University Choir, recorded at Duruflé’s church, St. Étienne-du-Mont, in Paris. Her latest CD, recorded at Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, was released in January 2020, and includes works of Reger, Laurin, Dupré, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Macmillan.
A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Dr. Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montréal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas).
Join us on Sunday, February 23rd at Sage Chapel at 3pm. This event is free and open to the public.
