Simon Walker, music director at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, will be returning to the United Kingdom after nine years in Oakville. He will attend a teacher training program to qualify as a music educator in the British school system.
Walker came to St. Jude’s in March 2012 following an exhaustive search to fill the position left vacant by Tom Bell, now music director at St. James’ Cathedral in Toronto. One member of that search committee said that Walker’s audition on the St. James organ was ‘dazzling’ and showed a young musician more mature than his years. His appointment to St. Jude’s coincided with installing a new digital organ designed and built by Phoenix Organs of Peterborough, Ontario. He made recommendations for changes to render the instrument more suitable for its role at St. Jude’s. During his time in Oakville, Simon and other organists have shown the instrument to be flexible in music from all periods, from the Renaissance to contemporary music.
Simon’s leadership of the St. Jude’s Choir has brought it to a new level of Anglican choral expression in support of the liturgy and concert settings. In particular, the choir’s singing of the Psalms using Anglican chant has been elevated to the highest levels. The choir’s improved standards led to invitations to serve as Choir-in-Residence for a week of the daily Choral Evensong in England at Ripon Cathedral in 2015 and Winchester Cathedral, and the Sunday Services at Romsey Abbey in 2019. The choir’s singing was received with enthusiasm from all who heard them at each venue. They were outstanding musical ambassadors for Oakville.
Simon Walker’s successor will inherit his good work with the choir over the past nine years, plus an outstanding organ (three manuals and 72 stops) which will have been hybridized by the addition of a 1927 Casavant Frères pipe organ acquired three years ago from St. John, Norway in Toronto. Covid has delayed the installation, but the finished instrument will combine the flexibility of the Phoenix digital original with the unique quality of blown pipes, making St. Jude’s organ an even more desirable recital instrument and one of the best in the Diocese of Niagara.
Throughout his tenure, Walker has worked closely with associate organist Andrei Streliaev, who will assume the role of acting music director until a successor is appointed.
Simon is leaving St. Jude’s with everyone’s good wishes for his professional future, a sentiment shared by the wider musical community in the GTA.
Contact:
The Rev’d Mark Andrews, Rector, St. Jude’s Anglican Church, 160 William Street, Oakville ON L6J 1C5 (905) 844-3972