It’s become a weekly event that leaves people with a very good feeling.
Every Thursday, the music director at St. George’s Cathedral in Kingston presents an organ recital for the audience at home. Like most places of worship, St. George’s is closed due to COVID-19.
But the Limestone City landmark is anything but vacant.
“People were feeling very cut off from the community, so I wanted to start doing these concerts as a way to reconnect with people a little bit,” said Michael Capon, the cathedral’s director of music.
Capon is also an organist and every Thursday during the noon hour he live streams a 30 to 45 minute recital. He says an empty church isn’t standing in his way.
“My mission as a musician, it’s not so much about the music. It’s really about building the community,” Capon said. “And so when I don’t see the people here, it’s difficult to see that connection but I do see that later.
“I do see the comments on YouTube. I see the comments on Facebook from people that have tuned in and really appreciate it.”
Another big supporter of the organ concerts is the Rev. Don Davidson. He’s the rector of St. George’s, and is also the Dean of Ontario.
“I think music is important to us at any time. It touches us at a level that other things maybe don’t. But right now we’re feeling that need more then ever,” Davidson said.
“Being isolated, we need that sort of a feeding of our heart, and so I’m so pleased with the fact we are able to keep that happening in people’s homes — albeit only virtually, but it’s still happening.”
Both agree there are certainly good things emerging from this pandemic experience and one of them is more online connectivity, like the Thursday noon organ recitals.