William O'Meara
William O'Meara has performed at festivals and concert series throughout North America, South America, Europe and Russia. Some of his solo engagements include International Organ Music Festival (Perm, Russia), St. Paul's Cathedral (London, UK), Harvard University Organ Society (Cambridge, USA), Sao Bento International Organ Festival (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Trnava Organ Days (Slovakia), Warsaw International Festival of Organ Music (Poland), Turin International Organ Festival (Italy), Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, USA). In Canada he has performed in hundreds of concerts throughout the country and from 1990 to 2003, toured regularly throughout Canada and the United States with the Laughton & O'Meara trumpet and organ duo, including performances on radio and television. He has commissioned and premiered many Canadian compositions and has performed the Canadian premieres of many works by foreign composers. In 2006 in Toronto he performed as soloist and accompanist with the renowned German choir RIAS Kammerchor honouring the 75th birthday of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, with the composer in attendance. The same year he gave the world premiere performance of Paul Frehner's Lila for two orchestras and organ with Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal and Norway's BIT20 orchestra and performed in The Toronto Fanfare Project featuring brass players from Canada and Sweden. O'Meara is the co-founder of ORGANIX (www.organixconcerts.ca), a series of concerts held every May throughout Toronto featuring the finest pipe organs in the city.
O'Meara's interest in improvisation led him to study silent films (i.e. pre-1930) and their musical accompaniment. His expertise has been the subject of numerous radio, television and newspaper interviews. He has accompanied films for Cinematheque Ontario, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Ottawa International Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Italy), the National Gallery of Canada, Goethe Institute, Pacific Cinematheque (Vancouver), and many festivals and concert series across Canada and the United States.
William O'Meara - organ
A Night at the OperaWednesday, May 14, 2008
6:00-6:45 p.m
Tickets $7.50
Concert Program at the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Catharines, ON
Saturday, May 17, 2008
7:00-7:50 p.m.
Tickets $10