Owen Spicer - Music Director
Owen Spicer is an organist and accompanist based in Montreal, Quebec. An Associate of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Owen has won numerous awards and scholarships, including the Godfrey Hewitt Scholarship, the Paul Westermeyer Hymn Playing Award and The Donald and Helen Mackey Memorial Award. In 2024, Owen was awarded First Prize in the Osbourne Organ Competition run by the Summer Institute of Church Music.
Owen has held positions as Assistant Organist at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa, Organist at Montreal West United Church and Organ Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral Montreal, First St. Andrew's United Church London (On), and St. Martin's in the Fields London (On).
As a recitalist, he has performed at many venues in Quebec and Ontario, including Redpath Hall Montreal, St. Andrew's Church Ottawa and St James Cathedral Toronto. Owen has appeared alongside numerous instrumental and choral ensembles around Canada, such as the Caelis Ensemble in Ottawa and the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.
Owen is a graduate of McGill University with a bachelor's in organ performance, where he studied Organ Hans-Ola Ericsson and Jonathan Oldengarm and Choral Conducting with Jean Sébastian Vallée. He is pursuing a Master's degree at McGill University in the studio of Isabelle Demers. Owen is excited to join the Trinity Anglican Ministry team as Director of Music!
music ministry report to vestry (February 2025)
Since January, the choir at Trinity has maintained a strong presence, ably leading Congregational singing during hymns and the sung mass each week, as well as occasional anthems and the singing of psalms, an essential staple of Anglican Liturgy. I am grateful for two new choir members, Godfrey and Lucie, and the dedicated members who have made me feel most welcome as Director of music here at Trinity. I hope to continue to grow the choir in the coming months. On February 2nd, the church hosted a very well-attended concert showcasing our beautiful sanctuary and the incredible talents of local musicians, the Heartstrings ensemble and soprano Charlotte Corwin. The concert attracted around 200 people to Trinity. I hope we continue these fruitful partnerships for more successful events hosted at the church and look for other opportunities such as these to welcome people into Trinity. I thank the many volunteers and performers who made this event possible, specifically Cynthia Holland, Lucie McCartney and Graham Sheppard. Their hard work and talents made this event a success.
Respectfully Submitted,
Owen Spicer
Father Adam’s reflection on 2024-2025 (from the rector’s report to vestry 2025)
This year has been a very busy and exciting year for our Music Ministry. As Trinity’s Rector, I discerned that this was going to be a significant part of how we move forward as a church. This will by no means be the only thing, but there are tremendous and diverse opportunities that we can explore through this!
In the second half this past year, Cynthia Holland coordinated one of the most significant fundraisers we have had in recent memory, the funds of which went to repairing our organ and funding our Music Ministry! I am very grateful for Cynthia’s leadership and expertise in this project!
In the Fall, we welcomed three candidates to be our new Music Director, each being a student at McGill University’s Department of Organ and Church Music. Each of the candidates were highly qualified and talented, and on Epiphany we were so happy to welcome our new Music Director, Owen Spicer! In working with him I am impressed not just by his talent and hard work, but in particular by his friendly and approachable charisma, his ambition and insight, and his overall commitment to developing our music program into a full ministry. We have some exciting and ambitious project in the works for this year, but they are not quite ready to be announced, so stay tuned!
Just a few weeks ago, now, we held our first Candlemas Concert, and it was a huge success! We brought together talented musicians from across the region and saw nearly 200 people in our church! I know that this event is mentioned in some other reports, as well, but I want to add my voice to the chorus in gratitude for all those who helped out, and in particular Cynthia Holland as the Coordinator.