Chant, Sacred Classics Reverberate Again in Parishes
Our choirmaster is the best ever -- doctorate in organ performance from Juilliard, Fulbright to study at the Lyons Conservatoire . . . and he's a splendid teacher to boot (and former prof. at Juilliard). We are SO lucky to have him!
Choir has really increased in size since he came on board. We are now up to around 30-35 members. Sorry no recordings . . . my old (ECUSA) choir used to make them all the time . . .that's next on The List . . .
We are a small parish, maybe 40 people at the average service. Music is one of our strengths. It's really made a difference for me. When I first joined, there were 9 of us and I was the only male singer. We've gone back and forth since then. Right now we are a perfect double quartet, 2 of each voice. We'll sing a praise song one Sunday, a gospel the next, and then Tallis the week after. We do a fair number of Bach chorales as well; they sound great and are quick to learn by now. Holy Week is heavy on the classics, but there'll be a contemporary number in there. We're doing a fairly simple motet for Good Friday. We had started work on a more complex one, but too many people missed too many rehearsals and we had to go a little simpler.