William O’Meara
William O’Meara has performed throughout North America, South America and Europe. Among his many solo engagements are included St. Paul’s Cathedral (London, UK), Toronto International Bach Festival, Trnava Organ Days (Slovakia), Warsaw International Festival of Organ Music (Poland), Turin International Organ Festival (Italy), Sao Bento International Organ Festival (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Harvard University Organ Society (Cambridge, USA), Perm Organ Festival (Perm, Russia), Fédération québécoise des amis de l’orgue (Québec), Jack Singer Hall (Calgary), Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto), International Congress of Organists (Montréal), Maison Symphonique de Montréal. From 1990 to 2003, he toured with the Laughton & O’Meara trumpet and organ duo, performing over 100 concerts throughout the U.S. and Canada.
O’Meara has commissioned and premiered many Canadian compositions and performed the Canadian premieres of many works by foreign composers. In 2006 he performed with the German choir RIAS Kammerchor in a concert honouring the 75th birthday of Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, with the composer in attendance. The same year he gave the world premiere in Toronto of Paul Frehner’s Lila for two orchestras and organ with Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal and Norway’s BIT20 orchestra. In 2013, O’Meara premiered and recorded Cathedral Architecture, an organ concerto by John Burge, commissioned by Hannaford Street Silver Band.
O’Meara’s interest in improvisation led him to study silent films and their musical accompaniment. He has accompanied on piano and organ over 300 silent films from Europe, Russia, North America, China and Japan for such organizations as Cinematheque Ontario, Toronto International Film Festival, Perm International Festival (Perm, Russia), Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), Jack Singer Concert Hall (Calgary) Goethe Institute (Toronto, Vancouver), Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleton, S.C.), Toronto Silent Film Festival, and Silent Sundays at the Revue Cinema.
From 1993 to 2008, he was Organist and Choir Director at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, and from 2009 to his retirement in July 2022, Cathedral Organist of St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica and accompanist for St. Michael’s Choir School.