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Music 2010-2011: How you can help 1 September 2010 Dear Members and Friends of Saint Ignatius, write today with news of our 2010-2011 Music Programs, the brochures for which you will find enclosed. Organist and Choirmaster Douglas Keilitz, has continued to out-do himself in formulating 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 New York's cultural landscape. In addition to our own Choir, fifteen ensembles-in-residence and other groups will perform a record-breaking thirty-three concerts this season. The series begins on Tuesday, September 23rd with the Gotham Early Music Scene's showcase, Project 2010, featuring Parthenia, Four Nations Ensemble, and Saint Ignatius ensemble-in-residence Tenet. Our own choir will present important works by Bach and Victoria, while new old friends including Amuse, Polyhymnia, the New York Virtuoso Singers, and the Blue Heron Renaissance Choir will add to the richness of our offerings. 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+ |