Born in London, James Healey Willan moved to Canada in 1913 where he quickly established himself as a distinguished player, composer, teacher and church musician. A prolific composer, Willan is chiefly remembered today for an extraordinary number of works for organ, many of them impressive syntheses of the contrapuntal and the romantic. The monumental Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (1916) is both his masterwork for organ and the most played of his works. Its sequel, the Passacaglia and Fugue No. 2 (1959), is equally impressive, and is quite a remarkable achievement for a composer almost eighty years of age.