{"id":18,"date":"2012-01-10T06:33:11","date_gmt":"2012-01-10T06:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/public\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2024-09-07T16:28:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T20:28:16","slug":"who-is-virgo-music-canada","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/?page_id=18","title":{"rendered":"Who is Virgo Music Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are\u00a0a pair of\u00a0Canadian composers who each bring our own unique talents and skills to the creation of original liturgical music and drama. As a collaborative, we share responsibility for creating the music and lyrics, as well as the arrangements and engraving. Although one of us may take the lead on a particular work, we\u00a0both contribute to the creative process. Many thanks to Faith United for bringing us together!<\/p>\n

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Brian Stevens<\/h1>\n

Brian is currently the Minister at Hope United Church in Toronto. He holds a music degree from St. Francis Xavier University and a Certificate in Youth Ministry and Masters of Divinity from the Atlantic School of Theology. Brian is the co-founder of the Charlottetown Music Studio, Charlottetown Chamber Music Series, Triple Threats Musical Theatre School, Theatre Festival 1999 and the Georgetown Theatre Festival and also produced the 1991 Festival of The Arts. He spent five seasons as pianist, musical director and orchestra musician with the Charlottetown Festival and his television and video credits include \u201cSounds of the Island\u201d, Canada 125 Television Special, IWK Telethon, and \u201cWord Monster\u201d.<\/p>\n

As a musical director, Brian has worked with theatre companies throughout Atlantic Canada and has over 100 productions to his credit. His compositions include 20 musical plays for children, Christmas Cantatas, numerous works for choir, liturgical dramas and service music. His musical plays have been produced and toured throughout Atlantic Canada and New England. In 1999 he was awarded the Lucy Maude Montgomery Prize for Children\u2019s Literature.
\nAs a pianist and musical director, Brian has performed throughout Canada, New England and the Caribbean. He has also been heard in concert on CBC Radio\u2019s, \u201cAll for the Best\u201d with the Nova Gospel Ensemble. In Brian\u2019s extensive career as a liturgical musician and choral conductor, he has shown his passion for liturgical music, composition and improvisation making him an energetic and inspiring choral conductor and musician.<\/p>\n

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Diana Chappell<\/h1>\n

Over the past 30 years, Diana has worked with vulnerable and marginalized people in a variety of roles. It was the experience of being with these people that caused her to start writing and she hasn\u2019t stopped, producing songs and arrangements that speak to the heart as well as the head.<\/p>\n

Musically, she started out as a classically trained pianist, but over the years she has had the opportunity of playing and singing in a very eclectic series of bands \u2013 everything from 1960s folk, through bluegrass and country, to jazz and swing.<\/p>\n

During the Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, Diana formed the all-woman group, the Angels. Together, they played across southern Ontario at worship services, workshops, and conferences producing an album that sold out quickly. She has had music published in a variety of compilations as well as a book of her own. Diana also had the honour of writing a song for the Women’s Ministries consultation in 2000 and performing it at General Council that year. The UCW has chosen her song “A Tapestry of Love” as the theme song for their 50th anniversary in 2012.<\/p>\n

More recently, Diana has been working as music director and vocal coach with Silly Stages and Mansfield’s Cabaret on shows such as Next to Normal, Mamma Mia, We Will Rock You, The Little Mermaid and Evil Dead, the Musical – all professional productions at various locations in Oshawa and throughout southern Ontario.<\/p>\n

In 2006 Diana received a Woman of Distinction Award not just for her professional work, but also for her work with Faith United (Courtice) and with local community schools. She has a Masters in adult education and is active at Faith United in planning and facilitating programs for faith development. Through it all, she says that the glue that holds her together in a life that has had its ups and downs is her relationship with God \u2013 her comforter and her friend. This is what she brings to her music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are\u00a0a pair of\u00a0Canadian composers who each bring our own unique talents and skills to the creation of original liturgical music and drama. As a collaborative, we share responsibility for creating the music and lyrics, as well as the arrangements and engraving. Although one of us may take the lead on a particular work, we\u00a0both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":747,"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/virgomusic.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}