Choir News
Our choir has continued to grow! We have welcomed several new singers this fall; please welcome Lisa, Gabrielle, Peter, and Marion! And thanks to Tony and Katie for joining us when they can! The choir has tackled some of the classics of the sacred music repertoire, and continues to develop in sound, blend, and confidence. The choir met for our annual fall retreat in October, and continues to meet weekly on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, with additional rehearsal as needed. In November we participated in the annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving service. This December's Advent Service of Lessons and Carols drew a substantially bigger response; if you missed it, check out the audio link on our website! I have developed a webpage for the choir, containing rehearsal aids and other resources. Other highlights of the year included this past Easter's Schutz anthem for strings and choir, and the Buxtehude cantata for voices and strings that we sang on Christmas Eve. I am deeply grateful to each and every member of our choir for their commitment to Christ Church and their willingness to work towards providing the best music we can each Sunday morning
It is always a highlight of our year when we are able to include some of our young instrumentalists in our services. The choir was joined by string players for this past Easter and at our candlelight Christmas Eve service, and a larger ensemble played for the Pageant service, and this past spring supplied music for the last Sunday of our program year. We look forward to creating additional opportunities to include our instrumentalists in our worship. Our grateful thanks to Suky Bryan for her time and effort in this regard -- it would be impossible without her!
In an effort to conserve our limited resources, I have begun taking advantage of the vast quantities of sacred music masterpieces that are in the public domain and are now available on line for free. This past year we have added classic settings by Schutz, Loosemore, Gibbons, Tallis, Attwood, Byrd, and others.
Working with Laurie Varley and the Sunday School teachers, we have initiated a weekly “music time” with the Sunday School students, with the goal of including them in meaningful ways in our Sunday morning liturgies. The kids have thus far learned age-appropriate settings of the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and the Magnificat, have sung at services several times this fall and Advent, and were featured in the Christmas Pageant and out Epiphany Evensong. This spring we will be preparing a presentation of the Good Shepherd story, featuring the Sunday School acting out the story and singing the 23rd Psalm; we will continue to look for opportunities for the children to participate in our services.
Christ Church's “Concertato” series is in transition. In the next few weeks, we will be finalizing plans for this season's series (announcements soon); but looking towards next year, we hope to create a concert series that will be supported by the community (financially and otherwise), adequately funded and publicized, and that will bring folks from outside the Christ Church family into our church. If you might be interested in assisting this effort, please contact me!
Our organ is in good health, and continues to be a joy to play (and, I hope, to listen to)! We have continued to expand our repertoire of hymns and service music, with the aim of enriching our liturgies. I am blessed to work in a church with a congregation of such willing singers! I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve Christ Church.
--Mark Sullivan
It is always a highlight of our year when we are able to include some of our young instrumentalists in our services. The choir was joined by string players for this past Easter and at our candlelight Christmas Eve service, and a larger ensemble played for the Pageant service, and this past spring supplied music for the last Sunday of our program year. We look forward to creating additional opportunities to include our instrumentalists in our worship. Our grateful thanks to Suky Bryan for her time and effort in this regard -- it would be impossible without her!
In an effort to conserve our limited resources, I have begun taking advantage of the vast quantities of sacred music masterpieces that are in the public domain and are now available on line for free. This past year we have added classic settings by Schutz, Loosemore, Gibbons, Tallis, Attwood, Byrd, and others.
Working with Laurie Varley and the Sunday School teachers, we have initiated a weekly “music time” with the Sunday School students, with the goal of including them in meaningful ways in our Sunday morning liturgies. The kids have thus far learned age-appropriate settings of the Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and the Magnificat, have sung at services several times this fall and Advent, and were featured in the Christmas Pageant and out Epiphany Evensong. This spring we will be preparing a presentation of the Good Shepherd story, featuring the Sunday School acting out the story and singing the 23rd Psalm; we will continue to look for opportunities for the children to participate in our services.
Christ Church's “Concertato” series is in transition. In the next few weeks, we will be finalizing plans for this season's series (announcements soon); but looking towards next year, we hope to create a concert series that will be supported by the community (financially and otherwise), adequately funded and publicized, and that will bring folks from outside the Christ Church family into our church. If you might be interested in assisting this effort, please contact me!
Our organ is in good health, and continues to be a joy to play (and, I hope, to listen to)! We have continued to expand our repertoire of hymns and service music, with the aim of enriching our liturgies. I am blessed to work in a church with a congregation of such willing singers! I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve Christ Church.
--Mark Sullivan