Gateau and Grace at St. Andrews begins with drummer Kalam Elgersma Wednesday

It’s time for Gateau and Grace again at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on Simcoe Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

The summertime series that brings the NOTL community together over cake and music began four years ago at the behest of St. Andrews interim minister Clyde Ervine in 2021. 

St. Andrews music director and organist James van den Brink has booked some interesting performers for this year’s troika of Wednesday night gatherings. 

Kicking it off tonight is young Grimsby drummer and percussionist Kalam Elgersma, a third-year student studying performance and production at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. 

“It might seem odd to have a drummer in a traditional Presbyterian setting,” says van den Brink. “But we’re doing some cool stuff, including a baroque sonata on the David and Goliath story, and some old Simon and Garfunkel. It will be a nice, varied program.”

Elgersma says it was a connection that van den Brink made through his mother, Jennifer McKillop Salmon, who runs a Grimsby music school and teaches at Cairn Christian School.

“My Mom teaches his kids in a choir, and he found out I was a percussionist,” says Elgersma. “He sent me an email and we messaged back and forth about some pieces to play, and it went from there.”

The David and Goliath adaptation will be a duet with van den Brink on the organ and Elgersma on the drums. 

“It’s a very interesting piece,” says the 19-year-old. “I really like the sound of it, and I love playing it. James sent me a recording of it and then sent me the sheet music. I think it’s something he’s wanted to do for a long time. There’s a lot of cool things going on in it for sure.”

Besides his drum kit, Elgersma will also set up his vibraphone at St. Andrews. 

“I’ve been drumming for about 15 years, but I’m mainly studying vibraphone at Berklee,” he explains. “I was kind of forced into it in high school (Grimsby Secondary) because our jazz band already had a drummer. My teacher (Mark Saresky) got me to play vibraphone, and I developed a passion for it from there.”

He’ll be playing a couple of jazz and classical numbers on the vibes tonight, as well. 

Next up in the Gateau and Grace series is Danish-born vocalist Victoria Gydov on Wednesday, August 14.

“I always like to include at least one vocal or choral sing because I think the voice is the most beautiful instrument, next to the organ of course,” says van den Brink. “I heard Victoria in Grimsby last year. She was super impressive.”

Gydov has performed in stage productions and appeared at music festivals, private, corporate and special events and fundraisers. She has sung in churches since the age of seven and loves to share Christian contemporary songs and hymns along with entertaining favorites from Disney and other animated films.

The final instalment of Gateau and Grace on August 28 features pianist Brock Hewitt with the Quintessence Ensemble.

“He’s spent a lot of time writing movie scores,” says van den Brink of Hewitt, who lives in the Burlington area. “He did an internship with (composer) Hans Zimmer in California. He has collaborated with the string trio Quintessence recently, and we have had them here before, so this made sense. It will be a nice, smooth night for the closing event.”

Each of the Wednesday evenings begins with gateau, or cake, on the lawn in front of the Georgian-style church. Van den Brink says the church’s volunteers have been baking up a storm to be ready for this evening. 

“It’s obviously to bring community and church members together,” says van den Brink about the purpose behind Gateau and Grace. “It was born coming out of the pandemic, trying to rediscover what human connections felt like. And Clyde will be here tonight filling in for our current minister Bernie Skeldinng.”

The 41-year-old  says attendance has been growing. Van den Brink remembers about 60 people showing up for the first one in 2021. Last year he estimates the average crowd for each of the three eventswas about 120.

“There might even be more than that,” says van den Brink. “It’s not a ticketed event. It’s just a free-will thing. But it feels good, it’s an enthusiastic crowd who come to hear a lot of good music and great performers.”