TAP: What is exciting about leading children in a choir?
MP: It’s incredibly rewarding to share the gift of choral music with kids and witness them discovering the joy of singing together. In less than a year, the choristers have shown remarkable growth and progress. We started in September [2023] with simple solfège exercises and some easy hymns from other traditions programmed as our “anthems.” Since then, our choristers have sung repertoire such as the first movement of Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, the soprano/alto duet from BWV 15, Simon Lole’s The Father’s Love, and Charles Villiers Stanford’s A Song of Wisdom. Kids who had hardly done any singing prior to the Fall are now requesting to rehearse their favourite pieces, singing high notes effortlessly, and answering complex music theory questions, all while forming new friendships.
TAP: What is particularly challenging about leading a children’s choir?
MP: I’d say the biggest challenges so far have been recruitment (despite the program being free!) and maintaining consistent attendance. Every choir struggles with attendance, but it’s especially crucial with smaller groups. We currently have eight children who sing with one parent who provides some extra support and leadership, usually soprano MerryAnne Stuart and occasionally Suzanne Coultes. Sometimes, due to illness or other extracurricular conflicts, we’ve only had five choristers, but these days are also an opportunity for those present to practice leadership. The kids step up to the plate and that’s when the most growth happens.
TAP: Were you a child chorister yourself?
MP: Yes, I was a chorister at St. Michael’s Choir School [in Toronto] from Grades 3-12. It’s where I discovered a love for sacred choral music, especially Renaissance polyphony and plainsong, which attracted me to St. Thomas’s later in life. It’s very exciting to be passing this tradition on to the next generation. Our vision for the St. Thomas’s Choristers is equally inspired by the chorister programs at Truro Cathedral (Cornwall, England), Trinity Church on the Green (New Haven, CT), and Trinity Church (Boston, MA).
TAP: Do the older choristers help the younger ones?
MP: Absolutely! Given our wide age range, we aim to foster a culture of mentorship. We are very lucky to have a head chorister who is already quite experienced and can help the younger ones find a piece, page, or bar number; demonstrate how to mark their scores; and remind them about posture etc. As the junior choristers gained experience in the Fall, they were also given mentorship opportunities when even younger children joined the choir. Kids love to help teach and lead. Not only does it encourage good behaviour and engaged participation, it’s a really wonderful way to help a child develop confidence and leadership (and that’s what choir is all about!)
TAP: Are other adults helping you with the children’s choir?
MP: Yes. There is also mentorship from the other adults involved in the program. We would not have been able to do this without Ms. Stuart, who has been a spectacular co-teacher all year round. Crystal Sayler, another soprano who sings with the High Mass choir, has led one-on-one and small group vocal coaching sessions with some of the kids while others do music theory. This kind of individualized instruction on vocal technique from such a qualified and competent singer is one of the reasons the choir has shown so much musical growth in a relatively short period of time.
The choristers also occasionally get to sing with other adults, sometimes even in four-part harmony. On Christmas Eve, they sang with the ATBs [Altos, Tenors and Basses], with repertoire including Darke’s In the Bleak Midwinter, an Anglican Chant, and some of the well-loved Christmas descants by David Willcocks. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to witness professional choral singers in action. Our Director of Music, Elizabeth Anderson, also directs and sings with the Choristers from time to time, and it’s always a really formative experience for them. I think the best part of our new Chorister program at St. T’s is that it’s being nourished, supported, and encouraged, by all of these folks, and the kids see that they’re making music in the context of a larger musical community. TAP
This will be Bp Critch’s inaugural sermon as the newly
elected bishop of the Diocese of Mahajanga in St Luke’s
Cathedral in the seaport city of Mahajanga in north-
western Madagascar on December 1st. It will be interpreted from English into Malagasy.
continue reading
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH of Canada is about to have a big conversation. The Primate’s Commission’s seven Hypotheses will likely dominate the work of COGS and General Synod (meeting June 23-29 in London, ON).
continue reading
FOR TOO LONG, we have danced around the reality of the Anglican Church of Canada’s decline in finances and attendance, with Church House releasing statistics only sporadically, and various leaders offering soothing sermons on how God is doing something special — along the lines of our declining numbers being a picture of the upside-down kingdom.
continue reading
THE VEN. Darrell Critch, a priest of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), was elected August 24 as Bishop of Mahajanga, Madagascar, a diocese of the Church in the Province of the Indian Ocean. Critch’s new diocese is part of an Anglican church in communion with the See of Canterbury, unlike the ACNA. This will likely make his ministry the first of its kind amid deep division across the Communion.
Now there is a fine annotated edition of this war memoir from priest and historian Dr. Ross Hebb, a fellow Maritimer, and the author of A Canadian Nurse in the Great War.
EVERYONE experiences grief. We have grieved the deaths of friends and family, including our only son, Sean, who died at the age of eleven. For Canadian Tim Challies, a Christian pastor, author and blogger, the sudden death of his son, Nick, on a playing field at the age of twenty, led him to process his grief by keeping a journal of reflections published as Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God.
In July 2023, Fr. Nathan Humphrey, rector of St Thomas’s in Toronto, was pleased to announce the appointment of Manuel or “Manny” Giovanni Piazza as Assistant Organist and Choirmaster. He had studied under John Tuttle, the Organist Emeritus at St Thomas’s.
The single largest initiative launched in the parish in 2023 was the St. Thomas’s Choristers program. Children ages seven to 17 (in grades two to twelve) rehearse every Thursday and sing at the 9:30 a.m. Sunday Low Mass. The young choristers bring in family members, which swells the congregation somewhat. Currently there are about 60 people in attendance at the 9:30 a.m. B.A.S. service.
Sue Careless spoke with Manuel Piazza about the St Thomas’s Choristers.
Copyright © 2024 The Anglican Planet. All rights reserved
