Dear People of St Paul’s:
As our Fall program season arrives, I am glad to have this opportunity to update you on a number of happenings in the music department.
The Cathedral Choir has returned to singing Sunday morning services after a well-deserved summer break. All of us involved in the choir are glad to be back to singing the wonderful choral music of our tradition, and to be back to the routine of regular rehearsals and time spent together. The Cathedral Schola has continued to offer glorious music at Evensong throughout the summer months. Did you know that those evensongs are produced without any separate choir rehearsal sessions? It is a testament to the ability and dedication of our wonderful musicians who are able to present this service, rich with the finest choral music, with only a brief warm-up rehearsal before the service.
Our Chorister program has also resumed for the season and is off to a great start! These boys and girls are building on the skills learned from last year’s re-opening season and are eager to take on the new and more challenging music they are being presented with this season. The Choristers will sing their first Evensong on Sunday, September 29th at 5:00pm. The chorister program is open to all children, regardless of music experience or ability. Membership at the cathedral (or any other religious institution) is not required – simply a desire to sing. We are accepting new choristers throughout the season. Simply contact Canon Martin Green for more information.
Our Great Hall Chamber Concert Series gets it’s 3rd season underway this month, too. The opening concert will be Saturday, September 21st at 5:00pm in the Great Hall. Pianist Bryan Verhoye is excited to return to this series and has a wonderful program planned to showcase our beautifully rebuilt Steinway and the wonderful acoustics of the Great Hall.
Another exciting development this Fall is the upcoming completion of several of our commissioned choral works. These new commissions will complete the series of compositions produced for the cathedral’s Sesquicentennial celebration. Our two composers, Stephen Sturk and Bruce Neswick are fixtures in the choral music community, and especially beloved within the Episcopal church. As always, exciting projects like these would not be possible without the generous support of our music donors, and the support of the congregation. Thank you again to all of you who helped to make this possible!
Read on for more information about the composers and about the projects they are working on for St Paul’s.
Juggling careers as conductor, composer, tenor, and teacher Stephen Sturk has been a fixture on the San Diego music scene for more than three decades. He has been conductor/music director of several important churches and community choirs in Southern California. After serving on the faculty of the University of San Diego, he became the Founding Director of the Pacific Academy of Ecclesiastical Music (PACEM) at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Before settling in California in 1991, Sturk had a successful 17-year career in New York City. Now retired, Dr. Sturk resides in Palm Desert, California.
“For St. Paul’s Sesquicentennial celebration, I chose to compose an anthem on “Be thou my vision,” scored for SATB choir, organ and (optional) solo viola. The popular tune SLANE appears in the 1982 Hymnal twice: Hymn 482 “Lord of all hopefulness,” and Hymn 488 “Be thou my vision.” I have always loved this tune and both texts. The tune appears in most sources in 3/4 time. My research revealed that the tune has also appeared in 4/4 time. Intrigued by the possibilities, I decided to combine the 3/4 and 4/4 meters in this anthem. As a Sesquicentennial touch, the anthem is exactly 150 measures long!”
Bruce Neswick is producing a new “Missa Brevis” setting for the Cathedral Choir, and a new Anthem for the Choristers. We very much look forward to premiering these new compositions!
A note from the composer-
“I’m enjoying working on two pieces for the cathedral music program and remain ever grateful for the commissions. The first is a choral mass setting, in Latin and with organ accompaniment, while the second is an anthem setting of the beloved evening text ‘The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended.’ Knowing the cathedral’s beautiful liturgical and musical traditions, I’m excited to hear the premieres of these pieces and honored to know that they will be sung by such wonderful singers!
“After a long career of serving in the Episcopal cathedrals in Buffalo, Lexington, DC, Atlanta, NYC and finally Portland, OR, I am thrilled to have entered a more relaxed stage in my life here in San Diego. My husband Texu Kim and I moved here three years ago, because of his appointment to the music faculty at San Diego State University, and I am now the Artist-in-Residence at Saint James By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, La Jolla. Texu just had three Carnegie Hall performances this past spring and his new piece Welcome Home!, commissioned by the San Diego Symphony, will be the opening piece when the refurbished Symphony Hall re-opens on September 28. For my part, I am continuing to enjoy playing and conducting around the country and just spent this past season in lengthy interim appointments at Saint Mark’s Episcopal School, Dallas, and at Christ Church Cathedral, Indianapolis. This past summer, I was the guest director of the annual Girl Chorister Course, at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, NYC. Whenever I can, I love coming to Saint Paul’s Cathedral and stand in awe of the dynamic leadership of Dean Penny and Canon Martin Green, and of the devotion of the congregation.”
St Paul’s has a long tradition of commissioned works for our choirs. I am extremely honored that we are adding these new compositions by such deeply talented composers to our library. The choirs and I will greatly enjoy learning them and premiering them in upcoming services, and I know they will continued to be performed and enjoyed by generations to come!
Martin Green
Canon for Music
