Eric N. Robertson, Organist and Director of Music

ERIC ROBERTSON, A.R.C.T., F.R.C.C.O., has been a church musician since the age of ten. He studied in Edinburgh, Scotland with William Minay, who had been a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and with Francis Thomas, whose teacher had been Hans Gal. When he immigrated to Canada as a young teenager, Eric was a scholarship student at the R.C.M.T. with Samuel Dolin and Charles Peaker, and was the first recipient of the IBM Electronic Music Scholarship.

As an organist and choir director, Eric has held positions in the Church of Scotland, the Lutheran Church of Canada, and from 1966 to1990 at Humbercrest United Church in Toronto. In 1990, he was appointed co-Music Director and in 1993 Music Director of one of Canada’s largest churches, St. Paul’s Bloor Street Anglican Church in Toronto.

While at St. Paul’s, Eric played and was curator of the church’s famous Blackstock Memorial Organ and conducted it’s 60-voice choir which he built from an original group of 10 singers. Under his leadership, the choir developed a comprehensive repertoire stretching back more than five hundred years.

Eric is the Artistic Director of the Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation [website»] (formerly SPFA), a not-for-profit organization that presents inspirational concerts for the benefit the community. Presentations have included concerts featuring groups such as the Choir of Westminster Abbey, the Kings College Cambridge Choir, the St. John’s College Cambridge Choir, and the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral, as well as homegrown concerts featuring local talent such as Colin Fox, the Gryphon Trio, and NEXUS. From 1990 till 2008, Eric and the Foundation were involved in the presentation of the Toronto Star Christmas Concerts, a large charity event that raises money for needy children in the Toronto area.

Eric is an Adjunct Professor of Composition at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music and a Juno and Gemini award-winning film composer. He has also written extensively in the field of sacred music, receiving commissions from choirs such as The Elmer Iseler Singers, the Orpheus Choir, and the Amadeus Choir of Toronto. His book of praise songs, “Worship Songs in a New Key”, is used regularly at church services across Canada.

Eric began his duties at Christ Church on Sunday, May 3, 2009. Contact Eric at 416-920-5211 ext 25 or email » Download this bio here »