Joe Carere, Organ Soloist

Organist, Joe Carere began his musical studies at the age of four. He has spent thirty- one years with the Dioceses of Hamilton. He launched his professional musical career at St. John’s Church in Guelph, has served as Organist in Residence at Chalmers United Church, and as organist and choir director at St. Mary Immaculate, Elora. For the past fourteen years, Mr. Carere has been the organist and choir master at the Basilica of Our Lady. As a teenager, Joe found time to be the Hockey Game Organist for the Guelph Platers and the Kitchener Rangers Hockey Clubs. In 2013, his Basilica of Our Lady Choir travelled to Vienna where they participated in the Vienna Choir Festival, performing at both St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the City Hall Auditorium. In May of 2019, Joe and his choir performed at the Vatican in Rome.

The organ at the Basilica of Our Lady, Opus 796, was built in 1919 by Casavant Freres of Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec, who were then, as now, the leading company of organ builders in Canada.

With its 2950 pipes, it is thus uniquely suited to the “symphonic” organ music written in the second half of the last century, which called for a rich blend of a range of sonorities, similar to an orchestra. The symphonic organ also has the ability to crescendo from a quiet, warm, lush sound to a thrilling climax, capped with blazing reeds, such as trumpets. As is clear from the stoplist, there is a preponderance of 8′ stops. They are voiced so that the majority will combine together to provide a remarkably wide palette of tonal colours