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Music 2009-2010: How you can help 2 September 2009 Dear Members and Friends of Saint Ignatius, I write today with news of our 2009-2010 Music Programs, the brochures for which you will find enclosed. Organist and Choirmaster Douglas Keilitz, has once again formulated an impressive schedule of liturgical music and an extraordinary concert series. The Choir of Saint Ignatius of Antioch—an all-professional ensemble that sings at our 11 o’clock Solemn Mass and at special services throughout the year—continues to enrich our worship with traditional liturgical music. Their large repertoire is mainly drawn from the glories of Medieval and Renaissance music and from the Anglican choral tradition. Indeed, Saint Ignatius is one of a very small number of churches anywhere that regularly performs this music within the context for which it was written. The Concert Series is now a fixture of the New York music scene. In addition to our own Choir, ten ensembles-in-residence and other groups will perform this season. The series begins on Sunday, October 3rd with a program of Medieval and Renaissance music from Amuse. Given our commitment to presenting important and rarely performed works from this period, we are especially pleased to host a concert on October 18th by Boston’s premier early music ensemble, Blue Heron, who will perform music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, a treasure trove of Tudor music for Canterbury Cathedral. Our own choir will continue to present rare delights, including works by Brumel and Josquin des Prez, and new addition Cascata and old friends Polyhymnia will add to the richness of early music offerings. We are also pleased to welcome Tenet, formed this year by a band of virtuoso professional singers, many of whom have sung here regularly with our choir and other groups. Our liturgical music program and our Concert Series are integral parts of our ministry. Regularly offering music of the highest quality enriches the experience of worship so that people can feel the presence of God, understand instinctually the goodness of creation, and appreciate the achievements of those endowed by God with a talent and creativity that is itself indicative of God’s own very nature. Our concert series presents sacred and other music in a sacred setting, opens our doors to our neighbours, and welcomes people from all walks of life who seek an experience of the transcendent under our roof. Our ensembles-in-residence and the other outside groups are fully self supporting. Indeed, their presence and financial contribution help make our Choir’s participation in the concert series possible. These funds do not, however, meet all our Choir’s needs. Furthermore, presenting high quality liturgical music is not cheap. We rely, therefore, upon your stewardship, your desire to offer thanks to God, to make our music ministry possible. If you believe that music is important in worship, if you believe that keeping our doors open to 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 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—to our own choir’s concerts as well as to the cost of presenting important liturgical music in context—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, Andrew C. Blume+ |