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Music at A&P

Sacred music in the heart of our city

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If you are passionate about choral and instrumental sacred music, The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul is your home. Under the leadership of Conductor Léa Moisan-Perrier and Interim Director of Music Stephanie Manias, every Sunday morning from 10:45 a.m. is an important musical moment. The Choir of The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul is among Canada’s most celebrated choral ensembles and sings every Sunday and at many other concerts and special services throughout the year. The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul is a multicultural Presbyterian congregation in Montreal, at Bishop and Sherbrooke Streets. All are welcome! Our services are also streamed live on YouTube.

The Music Department is excited to announce that we are launching a newsletter for all music lovers! Follow the link here or email apmusicloversnews@gmail.com to get exclusive news and information on your favorite musicians.

Upcoming Events

Browse our Recordings

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Lux
Requiem CD
A New Heaven CD

The Choir

The Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul

The Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul is one of Canada’s most advanced choral ensembles. Led by conductor Léa Moisan-Perrier, the hybrid professional and volunteer choir includes some of the finest singers from the greater Montreal area. Current members and alumni of the Choir include professional choristers, opera singers, instrumentalists, and conductors. The Choir offers a collegial, fast-paced environment in which to experience great choral music within a vibrant, welcoming church community. The ensemble, known for its warm sound and clarity of texture, is acclaimed for its innovative programming and diversity of styles. The Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul can be heard on several recordings, including LUX (ATMA, 2017), REQUIEM (ATMA, 2018) and DISTANCE (ATMA 2021).

Auditions

Our next round of professional auditions will take place on May 16. Details TBA. Volunteers for new volunteer singers will occur in August.

The Organ

The organ of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul was built in 1931 by the renowned Casavant Frères of Ste. Hyacinthe, as that firm's opus #1457. It is one of the largest instruments on the island of Montreal, containing nearly 7,000 pipes. About 70% of the pipes are located in the chancel; the other pipes speak from the rear gallery. Only the Trompette en chamade (installed in 1992) is visible, mounted prominently below the Black Watch window.

The instrument was cleaned and overhauled by Casavant in 1976-77, and several stops and a new console were added by Caron, Gagnon, Baumgarten in 1992. The tonal work of these rebuilds lent the instrument a neo-baroque flavour, but was unfortunately of uneven technical and musical quality. The console was rebuilt by Casavant in 2001. A gradual tonal renovation of the organ has been ongoing since 2010, whose goal is to replace the 1970s and 1990s-era neo-classical stops with pipework of the early 20th century, of superior material and tonal quality. Like all of the Casavant instruments built between ca. 1890 and 1960, op. 1457 was conceived in the late-Romantic Anglo-American style, and remains a monumental essay in the genre.

The tonal design of the instrument was conceived for the playing of orchestral transcriptions and orchestrally-inspired solo repertoire and accompaniments; the Wagnerian orchestra, with its kaleidoscopic yet seamless colour changes, was the aesthetic ideal for many organists of the period.

Fast Facts
  • Built in 1932 by Casavant Fréres Ltée, Opus 1457
  • Rebuilt in 1977 (Casavant) and 1992 (Caron-Gagnon-Baumgarten Inc.)
  • New Main Console, and addition of a 3-manual Tower Console in 2001 (Casavant)
  • Ongoing restoration with vintage pipework, 2009-present
  • Main Organ: 4 manuals, 87 stops, 80 ranks
  • Tower Organ 2 manual, 26 stops, 30 ranks
  • Total: 113 stops, 110 ranks
Console of the 7,000-pipe Casavant organ, built in 1931.

Music Staff

Interim Director of Music & Choir Manager

Stephanie Manias

Based in Montreal, soprano Stephanie Manias is heard regularly as a soloist and chorister with some of Canada’s most celebrated ensembles, such as la Chapelle de Québec, The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Stephanie is at ease in many styles of music, and specializes in music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. A recent tour saw Stephanie performing with chamber ensemble La Cigale in Quebec, British Columbia, and Mexico. She also recently made her National Arts Centre and Carnegie Hall debuts. A prolific and versatile performer, she has been deemed at turns “angelic” and “fiery” (Montreal Gazette). Stephanie has been a member of The Choir of The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul since 2008. Here, she has performed as a soloist in orchestral masterpieces by Bach, Handel, and Mozart, among others. Since 2016, she has held various management positions in the A&P Music Department and was recently appointed Interim Director of Music in the Fall of 2024, where her passions for clear communication, musical excellence, and spreadsheets converge.

Choir Conductor

Léa Moisan-Perrier

Léa Moisan-Perrier, Artistic Director and Conductor of Orchestre symphonique de l'Estuaire, is distinguished by her energy on stage and her skills as a communicator. In recent years, she has been invited to conduct numerous ensembles, including Orchestre symphonique de Laval, Orchestre classique de Montréal and Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke. Her career also features significant collaborations as an assistant conductor, notably alongside Jacques Lacombe at the Opéra National du Rhin in 2018 and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre métropolitain (OM) for the 2024 summer season. Dedicated to her pursuit of excellence, she participates in numerous master classes, including with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Rafael Payare in spring 2024. She is also mentored by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as a part of OM Academy since fall 2023. In addition to her orchestral endeavors, Moisan-Perrier has an accomplished career as a choral conductor. Since 2022, she serves as the Choir Director and Conductor of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. She was the Artistic Director of the Chœur des enfants de Montréal from 2017 to 2023 and the founder and Artistic Director of the choir Les Voix parallèles until May 2022. Moisan-Perrier holds a master's degree in orchestra conducting from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where she studied under Jacques Lacombe and Jean-Marie Zeitouni, graduating in the spring of 2023. She is also a trained pianist, singer, and choral conductor, with a bachelor’s degree in piano from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, a master's degree in choral conducting from the Université de Sherbrooke, and a bachelor's degree in classical singing from the Université de Montréal. Her accolades include a scholarship of excellence from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in 2022, the Moulin Seigneurial scholarship in 2016, and the Iwan Edwards Prize in 2017. For information and updates, visit Léa's website.

Organ Scholar

Áron Sipos

Originally from Budapest, Hungary, Áron Sipos is currently an undergraduate student at McGill University, where he studies organ with Isabelle Demers. Previously Áron studied organ with László Stachó and Ferenc Monostori, and music theory and composition with Boglárka Terray and Márton Levente Horváth. Between 2021 and 2023, Áron was organist at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in Ecser, Hungary. Since his arrival in Canada, Áron has been organ scholar at The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul in Montréal under the guidance of Interim Director of Music Stephanie Manias and conductor Léa Moisan-Perrier. At the church Áron helps the Director of Music with the organization of the library, plays for Sunday services once or twice a month in addition to smaller weekday services, and assists the music team in rehearsals and other events as needed. In the 2023-2024 academic year, Áron was also organist at the chapel of the Montréal Diocesan College. Áron is the recipient of third place and a special distinction for sight-reading in the 2022 National Hungarian organ competition. In 2024, Áron appeared in a solo recital at The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul as part of their Organ Intermezzi Summer Organ Concert series, as well as two solo recitals in Budapest. Áron is recipient of multiple awards and scholarships, including McGill University’s Hugh Brock and Schulich scholarships, and Cambridge University’s Undergraduate Trust. A student with varied interests, Áron is also profoundly interested in history, mathematics and philosophy.

Interim Associate Organist

Henry Webb

Henry Webb is a second-year Master's degree student at McGill University, studying organ with Isabelle Demers and harpsichord with Elizaveta Miller. In 2023, Henry completed a bachelor's degree in Organ Performance with David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music; he also received a diploma of Specialization from Johann Vexo at the Strasbourg conservatory in 2022, where he also studied harpsichord with Benjamin-Joseph Steens. From 2016-2017, Henry served as Organ Scholar at the Church of the Incarnation in his hometown of Dallas, Texas, USA, under Graham Schultz and Scott Dettra, then worked with Stephen Kennedy and William Porter at Christ Church in Rochester, NY. Henry's other former teachers have included Christina Harmon, Scott Dettra, and Nathan Laube. In October 2024, Henry won the second prize, audience prize, and Raymond Daveluy prize in the 2024 Canadian International Organ Competition, and before that received the second and audience prizes of the 2023 Ottumwa National Undergraduate organ competition. Henry has been featured as a recitalist in Texas and other parts of the United States, Canada, and France. He was heard on Baylor University’s Pipedreams Live, at the 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022 East Texas Pipe Organ Festivals, at the 2019 Organ Historical Society National convention, and at the Stras'Orgues festival in France.

Interim Organist-In-Residence

Isabelle Demers

A native of Québec and a doctoral graduate of the Juilliard School, Isabelle Demers is Associate Professor of Organ at McGill University (Montréal, Québec). She was formerly the Joyce Bowden Chair in Organ and Head of the Organ Program at Baylor University (Waco, Texas). She has appeared in recital throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Canada, and was recently a featured performer of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Dr. Demers is in continual high demand by her colleagues as witnessed by performances for numerous regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Institute of Organ Builders and International Society of Organbuilders, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Organ Historical Society. She has released multiple CD recordings on the Acis and Pro Organo labels.