Discovery Trail: Octobass, Organ and the Maison symphonique ^{Summer 2025}

Eric Chappell studied with Theodore Mayer, Joel Quarrington and Mike Leiter at McGill University. He caught the “music bug” while playing in the Niagara Youth Orchestra, and a summer internship with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada combined with the training he received at McGill confirmed his musical career. As a student, he had the opportunity to hear the OSM at Notre-Dame Basilica in a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5. He joined the Orchestra in 1999, and among his favourite memories is the concert to inaugurate the Maison symphonique, as well as his first concert at Carnegie Hall with the OSM. A low-frequency champion, Eric dreamt of playing an instrument that was even bigger and lower-sounding than the double bass; his dream came true in 2016 when the Canimex company commissioned an octobass for loan to the OSM. It is the only instrument of its kind actively played by an orchestra.

Winner of the second prize, the Audience Award, and the Raymond-Daveluy Prize at the Canadian International Organ Competition in October 2024, Henry Webb holds a master’s degree in harpsichord from McGill University, where he studied organ with Isabelle Demers and harpsichord with Elizaveta Miller. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music under David Higgs, he also studied at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg with Johann Vexo and Benjamin-Joseph Steens. His former teachers also include Christina Harmon, Scott Dettra, and Nathan Laube.

In 2023, he won second prize and the Audience Award at the Ottumwa University Organ Competition. In 2025, he was named among Diapason magazine’s “20 under 30,” which highlights the most promising young musicians. Henry has already performed recitals in Canada, the United States, and France, notably at the Montreal Baroque Festival, on Pipedreams Live, at the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, the national convention of the Organ Historical Society, and the Stras’Orgues festival in France.