Ars Organi

Ars Organi

Ars Organi. Society founded in Montreal in 1960 by a group of young organists to 'contribute to a renewal of interest in the organ in Montreal by presenting recitals in which the programs, the choice of instrument and the style of performance bear witness to the highest traditions of organ music'. The founding coincided with the first installations in Montreal of tracker organs in the classical style. These organs were used for all the society's recitals: first at Queen Mary Rd United Church, then at St-Joseph Oratory and the Immaculée-Conception Church, where the complete works of J.S. Bach were presented in May 1967. The six founders - Gaston Arel, Raymond Daveluy, Kenneth Gilbert, Bernard and Mireille Lagacé, and Lucienne L'Heureux-Arel - gave most of the recitals, but Ars Organi also arranged for numerous foreign organists of international reputation (eg, Anton Heiller, Lionel Rogg, Marie-Claire Alain, Xavier Darasse, André Isoir, Michel Chapuis) to perform in Montreal, often for the first time in North America. The society invited several Canadian artists (eg, Antoine Bouchard, Jean (organist) Leduc) to give recitals and commissioned others (eg, Daveluy, François Morel) to compose works. Ars Organi stimulated the renewal of organ building in Canada and created a larger public for organ music. Once this cause was won, the society's founders became concerned more with the development of their individual careers, and the society's activities came to a close with the May Festival of 1973.