Music
Thank you to our Parish Choir for their continued service to St. Edward’s.
They are the backbone of our music program, presenting over sixty anthems throughout the last year. Holy Week alone saw the choir singing in five services in eight days! The choir meets each and every Thursday for an hour and half to rehearse. (That plus rehearsals on a Sunday morning is about 100 hours a year, on average, JUST IN REHEARSAL TIME!)
Thank you to our Parish Instrumentalists who add their skills and talents to our services as their schedules permit. They too put in many, many volunteer hours each year.
What beauty they add to our musical lives!
St. Edward’s is blessed with a multitude of wonderful musicians who regularly sing and play over three congregations’ worth of services each Sunday. Their dedication and the joy they bring with them to our
rehearsals and services are vital to the quality of music we enjoy on a weekly basis. St. Edward’s is also blessed with a congregation that SINGS! (As I sit on the piano and organ benches on Sunday I hear your singing, and it just makes my heart soar.)
Thanks to the generosity of many parishioners, we enjoyed guest musicians throughout the year, and thanks to Matt Bonaker, who stepped up to restart St. Ed’s handbell program.
Our facilities continue to be used for performances by various outside groups for recitals, lessons, and performances. It is the hope that lessons here at the church will nurture a new generation of musicians at St. Edward’s. We hope to continue to expand that program in the future to include piano, voice and guitar lessons.
Thank you to St. Edward’s for making it possible for me to attend the Sewanee Church Music Conference at The University of the South. This past summer was my tenth year attending this gathering of Episcopal musicians, and it plays a vital role in my personal spiritual formation as well as my music & liturgy formation.
(Surely I have the equivalent of a tacked-on Masters’ Degree-Lite by now!)
2019 Parish Choir: Lee Ann Sipe, Pat Bratton, Mikki Dillon, Comfort Manobah, Gary Daniels, Betty Kristoff, Joy Sibley, Hugh O’Neil, Navar Steed, Frances Hart, Matt Bonaker, Mary Lu Rogers, Hillary Saunders, Marvelle Martin, Stephanie Epps, Lorenzo Clarke, John Talipsky Sr., Sanya Simmons, Jay Franks, John Ruch, Wendell Dillon, Jeannette Best-Nunez, Vanya Davis, Janet Perkins, Charles Rogers, Denise Robinson, Charlene Walsh.
2019 Parish Instrumentalists: Guitar: Rich Van Slyke; Flutes: Lee Ann Sipe, Holly Sipe, Sanya Simmons; Keyboardist-in-training: Serene Harris; Assistant Organist & Conductor: John Ruch; Director of Handbells and Resident Percussionist: Matt Bonaker
Thinking of joining the choir?
Please contact us if you’re interested and your schedule allows you to attend most midweek rehearsals. You don’t have know how to read music or be a solo-quality vocalist. If you can match pitch (tell if you’re singing the wrong note or not), can attend most Thursday evening rehearsals and Sunday services, and you have a desire to be a part of this group, let Carla know! We always have a chair open. (If you don’t drive at night, we can help arrange “choir carpools.”)
Are you an instrumentalist? Would you like to play with us on Sundays?
See Carla on Sunday, or send her an email – she can find a way to help you put your gifts and talents to good use for the glory of God!
Respectfully submitted,
Carla Strott, Director of Music, Choirmaster & Organist
Bless O Lord, us your servants who minister in your temple. Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.