This is the opening concert of the RCCO 2018 Calgary Organ Festival.

This performance by Ryan Jackson features both mainstream music and a new composition commissioned by the Spirit Wind Festival.

Originally from Ontario, acclaimed organist and choral director Ryan Jackson was appointed Director of Music and Fine Arts Ministries at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, in 2012 following an international search.

The winner of numerous prestigious competitions, including the Royal Canadian College of Organists’ National Organ Playing Competition, he has studied with several of the most prominent organists of the day, including Patricia Wright, Thomas Murray, and Paul Jacobs. Ryan is a graduate of the University of Toronto (Mus.Bac.Perf.), Yale University (M.M.), and The Juilliard School (D.M.A.).

The new composition commissioned for this concert is by Zachary Wadsworth

Zachary Wadsworth is a composer of “fresh, deeply felt and strikingly original” music (Washington Post), with regular performances and premieres around the world. His compositions have been heard at the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, and Tokyo’s Takinogawa Hall, and they have been performed by such ensembles as the choir of Westminster Abbey, the Yale Philharmonia, the Swedish Chamber Choir, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Richmond Symphony.