Beaverbrook Community Concert Series

The Beaverbrook Community Concert Series is proud to present organ masterworks from Venice, Spain, and Germany performed by Peter Bayer, Director of Music at Kanata United Church, and Program Coordinator of the series.
This concert will take place on 20 December, 2026 at 3:00pm, at Kanata United Church (33 Leacock Dr., Kanata ON).

No need for tickets: just show up! This concert is offered on a pay-what-you-can basis, with a $15 donation recommended. To download a printable poster for this concert, please click here.

About the Artist

Peter Bayer holds a BA in Organ Performance and Classics from The Catholic University of America and is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists. While at CUA, he spent a semester studying historical performance of early Italian repertoire in Rome, performing a recital there on the restored 16th-century instrument at S. Barbara dei Librai. He is currently writing his PhD dissertation in the Classics department at the University of Toronto on the theme of the Inner Teacher in Clement of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, and the ancient Platonist philosophical tradition. He has recently been blessed with a beautiful wife and twin daughters.

Before becoming director at KUC, he was Bevan Organ Scholar at Trinity College, Toronto, while maintaining a busy schedule as a substitute organist. He was a semifinalist in the 2025 Canadian National Organ Competition and has performed numerous recitals in Washington D.C. and environs, and Toronto, including notably at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, D.C. and St. James Cathedral, Toronto. Peter’s other interests include the history and theory of music, particularly of the seventeenth century, classical English literature, and Medieval and Renaissance art and history.

Program

J.S. Bach (1685-1750), Pastorella BWV 590

Pablo Bruna (1611-1679), Tiento lleno de sexto tono

Annibale Padovano (1527-1575), Toccata del primo tono (Toccate et Ricercari d’Organo: Venice, 1604)

Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia (1585-1618), Tiento lleno de cuarto tono

Aguilera de Heredia, Obra de octavo tono: Ensalada

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Prelude and fugue in G major Op.37 no.2 (Three Preludes and Fugues for the Organ, Leipzig/London, 1837/8)

Here is a bit of an introduction to the theme of this month’s program:

“Although these pieces are not directly related to the Christmas season, I have selected a program which I think is fitting at this joyful time. The program opens and closes with works by Bach and Mendelssohn which make use of the conventions of the Italian pastorale, a genre of music played at Christmas as it was intended to mimic the tunes played by shepherds on their rustic pipes. Pablo Bruna was one of the most famous organists in Spain of his time, despite being blind from a childhood case of smallpox. Annibale Padovano was organist of St. Mark’s in Venice. This piece is perhaps one of the first “preludes and fugues” ever composed! Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia was the organist of the cathedral of Zaragossa in Spain, famous in his lifetime and afterwards for his choral works as well as for his organ music.”

All of our concerts are held at Kanata United Church, 33 Leacock Drive Kanata ON. Our venue offers limited parking, with street parking
available in the surrounding neighborhood.
The venue is accessible, which includes automatic doors, a dedicated accessible washroom and no stairs required for entry.