Roland Graham

Hailed “an excellent conductor and inspiring educator”, Roland Graham is an accomplished liturgical musician, conductor, educator and impresario. Originally from London Ontario, he began piano lessons at the age of seven with the Sisters of St. Joseph’s, and later sang as a boy chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

His formative experiences included training in composition, with an emphasis on sacred choral music. He has composed music for the mass, settings of psalms and canticles, anthems, descants, hymns and more. In 2005, his original composition, Canterbury Canticles, was sung for the office of Choral Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral in the UK.

Roland pursued advanced music studies at the Universities of Ottawa and Montréal, obtaining Honors Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Music Performance, studying under pianists Jean Desmarais and Marc Durand among other exceptional mentors.

During his formative years he also sang in many excellent choirs, including the Ontario Youth choir under Ivars Taurins, the Ottawa Bach Choir in its inaugural year under Lisette Canton, the Euphonia Chamber Choir under Matthew Larkin, and Musica Divina under Wayne Riddell.

As a music director and keyboard player, Roland has served in Anglican, Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Canada and abroad, most recently, from 2009 to 2022, as Director of Music of Southminster United Church in Ottawa, during which time, he developed the volunteer choir into an competent a capella vocal ensemble capable of rendering nuanced and artful interpretations of music by the greatest polyphonic masters from the Renaissance to present day.

In 2015, he founded Rideau Chorale, a 60-member community choir dedicated to musical excellence and the education of members. He led the choir from its foundation until 2021, establishing the ensemble as the respected community chorus it is known as today. Highlights among the dozen or so concerts during his tenure include performances of Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Requiems by Mozart and Duruflé and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Roland began producing Ottawa Choral Workshops in 2015 as a fun activity for singers – especially ‘choral neophytes’ – in the summertime choral ‘off season’. Over the years and through many permutations that have grown to include intermediate and advanced levels, Roland’s workshops have supported countless choral singers in broadening their skillset and appreciation of choral music. Past workshops have culminated in presentations of masterworks including Fauré’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Cantata 140, among other works.

As part of his commitment to encouraging excellent music in the community, Roland is also a talented and passionate music promoter and presenter. In 2023, he oversaw the 10th anniversary season of Doors Open of Music at Southminster (DOMS) a series he founded and stewarded through 10 successful seasons – Including uninterrupted through the Covid19 pandemic – presenting upwards of 40 free concerts every year from September to June.

In parallel to DOMS he founded the Master Piano Recital Series, a concert series dedicated to showcasing superb, usually internationally renowned, concert pianists in the Nation’s Capital. Through these concerts has presented artists including Charles Richard-Hamelin, Dang Thai Son, Sofya Gulyak, Serhiy Salov, George Li, Simone Dinnerstein, Bruce Liu, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko and many others, usually on their area debut appearances.

In 2020, he embraced the opportunity to secure a permanent home in the Ottawa Community for Steinway D606, a spectacular new 9’ concert grand piano that many artists have described as among the finest instruments in Canada. In under three months that year, he raised $140k to secure the purchase and the piano now permanently resides at Southminster United Church in Old Ottawa South where it supports a broad range of programming by community presenters and touring artists.

Aside from these, and other artistic themed projects, Roland dabbles in carpentry and auto mechanics, and, with his wife and three children, loves to travel. In 2022/23 he lived for four months in Nicaragua, an experience that motivated and helped lay the groundwork for the upcoming 2024 Nicaraguan International Choral Tour.

Bio Updated July 2023.