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Music 2008-2009: How you can help 25 August 2008 Dear Members and Friends of Saint Ignatius, I write today to share with you news of our 2008-2009 Music Programs. Our Organist and Choirmaster, Mr Douglas Keilitz, has been hard at work developing both our round of liturgical music and an extraordinary concert series, the programs for which you will find enclosed. The Choir of Saint Ignatius of Antioch continues to enrich our worship each week with traditional liturgical music performed within the framework of the Mass. The Choir, a small, professional ensemble, usually of eight voices, sings at the 11 o’clock Solemn Mass from September to June and at special services throughout the year. The large repertoire of mass and other liturgical settings, motets, and anthems is mainly drawn from the glories of Medieval and Renaissance music and from the Anglican choral tradition. Indeed, Saint Ignatius is one of the very small number of churches in the country that regularly performs this particular repertoire in the context for which it was written. The Concert Series was founded several years ago and has now grown and attracted the attention of many in the music community in New York. In addition to our own Choir, eight ensembles-in- residence and other groups will perform. The series kicks-off on Sunday, September 21 with a diverse program from our long-time friends, Amuse. Although mainly featuring early and sacred music, the concerts will also present some important twentieth-century works, including a hundredth birthday celebration honouring Elliott Carter, performed by one of our newest ensembles-in-residence, the New York Virtuoso Singers. We are also very pleased that the Tiffany Consort, Amor Artis, and Cerddorion are also joining our musical family this year. Our liturgical music program and our Consert Series are vital parts of our ministry. Regularly offering choral music of the highest quality enriches the experience of worship and is much more than an ornament added to the serious business of the liturgy. Through the beauty of music, people can experience the presence of God, understand instinctually the goodness of creation, and appreciate the achievements of men and women who have been endowed by God with the talent and creativity that is itself indicative of God’s own very nature. Our concert series is also an intergral part of our ministry, presenting sacred and other music in a sacred setting, opening our doors to our neighbours, and welcoming people from all walks of life who seek an experience of the transcendent under our roof. Our ensembles-in-residence and the other outisde groups in our Concert Series are self supporting. Indeed, their presence and their financial contributions help make our Choir’s participation in the Series possible. These funds do not, however, meet all our Choir’s needs. Furthermore, presenting week-in and week-out the high quality of liturgical music that has enlivened our worship is not cheap. We rely, therefore, upon your stewardship, your desire to share your resources with us, to make our music ministry possible. If you believe that music is important in worship, if you believe that keeping our doors open to one and all to experience God’s very presence offered in music is important, then I hope that you will share the gifts you have been given with us and contribute financially to our programs. You can support liturgical music by sponsoring a mass or you can contribute more broadly to our music program—including to our own choir’s concerts as well as the costs of presenting litutgical music of the highest quality—with a donation to our Music Fund. Either way you are helping to maintain a significant and historic arts ministry that makes us all richer by far than gold. Faithfully, |