A Potluck Dinner and Hymn Sing will take place at St. Luke's Anglican Church, 760 Somerset Street West, on Sunday, September 13th at 5:30 pm. Dinner will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Hall and will be followed by a Hymn Sing in the church at 7:30 p.m. Mark your calendars now for this first event of the new season. Please let Suzanne Marjerrison know what you can bring; i.e. appetizer, salad, entree or dessert . Email: Suzanne Marjerrison or Tel: 613-724-3793.

Last January, the Parish of St. Luke's began work on undertaking a project to sponsor a refugee family. All the documents have now been completed and a refugee family from Sudan will be arriving on September 21. In light of the recent horrors we have witnessed, a free-will offering at the hymn sing will be earmarked for St. Luke's refugee family expenses.

PARKING: The Serson Clarke Apartment Complex,which is attached to the west side of St. Luke's, has a parking garage, and there is free parking in it after 5:30 pm. The entrance to the garage is from Somerset Street, right where Empress Street meets Somerset (at the traffic light). Also, parking on area streets is free on Sundays.

Cost: $40:00 (incudes tip)

Please register by October 19 by sending a cheque payable to RCCO, Ottawa Centre and mailing it to:

If you are sending a cheque for several people, please name each person in the group.

Guest speaker: James Bailey, RCCO National President.
James is a distinguished architect as well as a distinguished musician, and he will be giving us an illustrated talk about the relationship between church music and its specialized architecture, which should be extremely fascinating!

Please reserve the date now, and let your clergy know about it too! See you there!

We will be visiting the Dominion Carillon to hear a presentation and performance by Dr. Andrea McCrady, the Dominion Carillonneur, followed by a round of questions. She has selected a number of pieces with our membership in mind.

There are 11 spots available to our members for this tour and all names need to be received by Monday, November 9th at the latest in order to reserve visitor passes. There is no cost for this event.

Peace Tower Carillon Tower Visitor Advice:

Do not stand in line with the tourists (under the main door to the Centre block), but enter at the door immediately to the left, marked "Parliamentary Business". Identify yourselves to the guard and guide as guests of the Dominion Carillonneur. You will still have to go through security (like the airport, but without taking off your shoes), and bring a photo ID, required for your visitor passes. Dr. McCrady will meet everyone at the VWC to escort us up the tower. She will play from 12 to 12:15, and we should be done in the tower by 12:30.

To reserve contact: Matthew Morel, Programme Convenor, RCCO Ottawa Centre
Matthew Morel
Tel: 613.884.8331

Many of us will have heard the sad news that St. Matthias Anglican Church has decided to close and amalgamate with All Saints, Westboro, effective January 1, 2016. Before that happens, and in order to celebrate the lovely three-manual Casavant organ while it is still in use in St. Matthias Church, the Ottawa Centre plans to hold a Members' Recital at St. Matthias Anglican Church at 3 pm on Sunday November 22, the Feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music.

Some of the organists who will play are to include Rachel Laurin, Matthew Larkin, Heather Rice, Mervyn Games, and Gilles Leclerc. Also playing, of course, will be Deirdre Piper, the longtime Organist and Choir Director of St. Matthias Church, and in addition, the parish choir will sing an anthem as part of the programme.

A reception will follow the recital, and a free-will offering will be received at the door. Parking is available in the parking lot between the church and the Queensway, or on neighbouring streets.

For further information, please contact Frances Macdonnell at 613-726-7984 or email frances (dot) macdonnell (at) rcc0-ottawa (dot) ca.

Join us on Monday January 25th at the Wellington Gastropub in Hintonberg for a listening party of significant organ performances on vinyl. Please bring any vinly organ recordings that you would like to share.

This is being co-presented by Tetra Speakers (a locally based but internationally respected speaker company) which will bring in its audiophile-quality equipment. There is a fee of $25 which covers appetizers and a beverage with proceeds going to the Parkdale Food Bank and our Kiwanis Music Festival Organ scholarships.

Tetra Speakers is offering a 15% discount on purchases made by RCCO members of any Tetra Speaker from www.tetraspeakersonlinestore.com. Also, a portion of the proceeds (5%) from the sale will be donated back to the RCCO. The discount code to be entered upon checkout is "RCCO Ottawa". The code will remain in effect until April 30, 2016. The owner, Adrian Butts, is available to RCCO members to answer any questions and offer advice on the best Tetra speakers for them. His direct number is 888-909-3705 Extension 101.

This workshop will be presented by Matthew Larkin and Gilles Leclerc.

Come and hear our students in recital on Saturday March 5 at 2pm at St Barnabas Anglican Church!

The purpose of this recital is to give students some valuable playing experience, so even beginning students are encouraged to play.

Students performing: Samuel Lee, Adam Reid, Antonio Lechasseur, Rebecca Lee, Maria Gajraj, Lindsey Sikora and Letitia Kwan.

Free-will donations will be collected and will go towards the Scholarship for Beginning Organ Students. Come out and support our young organists!

Note to students: Please send all pieces/composers and a very short bio to Jennifer Loveless by Saturday February 20th. Each student is allowed up to two hours of practice time. Please contact Wesley Warren to book practice time.

Visit the Student Recital Facebook page.

Although this is not one of our programmes, it does involve many of our student members and we are providing $500 in scholarship money to the participants. The adjudicator is Scott Bradford.

Come and support our students in recital.

Further informationn can bew found on the Kiwanis Music Festival website.

Save the date! Saturday, May 14^th is the big day of our Organ Crawl to the Canton/Potsdam area of New York state and we'd love to see you there.

We'll meet in Potsdam at 10am at First Presbyterian Church. Inside, a marvellous 1931 Casavant IV beckons. Afterwards, we'll make a short hop to Colton to visit the Hook and Hastings installation before concluding our morning with a tour of the 1863 Andrews installation at Unitarian Universalist Church.

From there, we'll travel to St. Lawrence University in Canton where we'll enjoy a fine lunch as guests of the University Chaplain. While on the university grounds, we'll have the opportunity to visit the acclaimed 1926 Estey Organ in the university's Gunnison Memorial Chapel.

We'll wrap up the afternoon with Tea at David Van Epps and Sondra Goldsmith Proctor's home in Pierrepont Village, just outside of Canton.

Blake Hargreaves has graciously agreed to organize travel arrangements for us. He'll coordinate the carpooling assignments or, if there are sufficient numbers, we'll book a bus. So if you're planning to come along, please contact Blake at 613-255-1394 or via email at blakehargreaves (at) gmail (dot) com . to reserve your spot. Note that you'll need a valid passport for the border crossing.

Mark your calendars now for this exciting day of discovery in Canton, NY. Come to play, listen and enjoy!

This is your centre. The executive values the feedback received from members. Come out and voice your opinions on what you would like to have your Centre do.

The Annual General Meeting of the Ottawa Centre is our opportunity to conduct the necessary business of the College but also to celebrate the year past and look forward to the coming year. All members are encouraged to attend and participate in decision making and to hear reports of the various convenors and national council representatives.

We are pleased to announce that Rev. Dr. Daniel Hansen, our Professional Support Convenor, will be recognized as the Member of the Year. Daniel has held the position of Professional Support for many years and has provided his time, expertise and support to many members of our Centre.

There is plenty of parking and the room is air-conditioned.