Inaugural concert of the
restored Casavant organ

Organist Isabelle Demers in concert at Ascension of Our Lord Church in Westmount

May 17, 2022

Organiste Isabelle Demers

Ascension of Our Lord Parish is pleased to announce that Quebec organist Isabelle Demers, formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair of Organ at Baylor University and recently appointed Associate Professor of Organ at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, will give the inaugural concert for the newly restored instrument on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at 3 pm. Isabelle Demers will present a program of varied works highlighting all the sonorities of the newly restored instrument.

Thanks to the generous support of its parishioners and a significant grant of $176,000 received from the Conseil du Patrimoine Religieux du Québec (CPRQ) in June 2021, the Ascension of Our Lord parish has completed the five phases of the restoration of its Casavant Opus 1344 organ.

The inaugural concert of the Opus 1344 organ was presented on January 13, 1930 by Lynwood Farnham.

Restoration of the Casavant OPUS 1344 organ

The inaugural concert of the Casavant Opus 1344 organ was performed on January 13, 1930 by Lynwood Farnham. Although restoration work has been done periodically over the past fifty years, this is the first time since its installation in 1928 that the console of the Opus 1344 was physically removed from the church.

The restoration consisted of the replacement of the Blower and Bellows, the Console, the restoration, and repair of the Recital, Positif and Solo and, finally, the Great Organ and Pedal divisions. In addition, a 32′ Counter-Trombone was added to the instrument considered by the CPRQ Organ Committee as of heritage value.

The expertise of Casavant Frères

Casavant Frères technicians, under the supervision of Jacquelin Rochette the firm’s artistic director, came to the Ascension of Our Lord Church to dismantle the church’s Opus 1344 organ console and transport it to their workshop in Saint-Hyacinthe for restoration and refurbishment, including the installation of state-of-the-art electronics.