Mark July 13 through 16 on your calendars for ORGAN FESTIVAL ON THE GRAND - a dazzling showcase of musical artistry, excitement, enrichment and diversity inspired by the pipe organ and hosted by the Waterloo-Wellington Centre of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO).

This adventurous four-day program is packed with a wide range of public entertainments, concerts, workshops, and even worship opportunities, all designed to shed the stuffy, mysterious, and humorless image of those wind-powered giants that live in our churches — they can also dance and play in myriad colours and moods.

St. John’s beautiful Gabriel Kney tracker organ will be among the featured instruments, especially in two affiliated pre-Festival events - Organs Exposed! on July 5 (all you ever wanted to know about what actually happens inside these wonderful wind-powered instruments) and on July 12, in a special solo performance by Christina Hutten, the inaugural winner of the first Barrie Cabena RCCO Music Scholarship. - And our accomplished music director, Marlin Nagtegaal, is among the Festival’s performing artists in a July 14 program of Bach Concerti at St. Mary’s Catholic Church; he will also be one of the dual organists earlier that day for an RCCO choral worship service being held at St. John’s.

Check out the ORGAN FESTIVAL ON THE GRAND website at www.festivalotg.ca for a complete lineup of public programs, some requiring paid admission, and some free.

- Pauline Finch (publicist)