Choristers Need Your Help for the Festival of Choirs

The Festival of Choirs at St. John's Church October 19 and 20 will present 80 choristers from Connecticut and Rhode Island to meet and mingle with peers from other churches and to sing under the direction of the acclaimed Richard Webster before they sing Evensong at St. John's at 4 p.m. on October 20. Matthew Brown, formerly an intern in church music at Grace Church in New York City, will be the organist during this festival.

This event will need church wide support. Chorister Academy director Maria Coffin needs your help in the following ways: *food for Saturday snack break,
*food for Saturday lunch,
*home stays for about 25 children, and
*help coordinating rooms for our visitors to St. John's.

Please contact Maria at St. John's 203-754-3116 if you can help. Click here to download a flyer to print and display.

Three Choristers will Participate in the Saint Thomas Girl Chorister Course in New York City This Summer

Three members of the Chorister Academy of St. John's Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut, will participate in the third annual Saint Thomas Girl Chorister Course in New York City from July 29 to August 5. This year’s Director of Music is Sarah MacDonald, Director of Music in Chapel, Selwyn College, Cambridge. She will conduct all rehearsals working toward a Treble-only Evensong on Thursday and the Sunday morning Eucharist which is sung with the gentlemen of the Choir of Men and Boys of Saint Thomas Church. Left to right: Diana Hernandez of Waterbury, Ofelia Torres of Waterbury, and Susy Cromwell of Southbury.

Evensong at St. Mark's, Bridgewater, Connecticut, on May 6, 2007

The Chorister Academy of St. John's Episcopal Church, Waterbury Connecticut, sang during the Evensong service at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Bridgewater, Connecticut, on Sunday, May 6, 2007, at 4 p.m.

St. Mark's will donate the offering from that service to The Dominican Literacy Project, which was established to help Haitian children living in the Dominican Republic to help pay expenses such as building maintenance and midday meals for 120 children trying to receive an education. Haitian children in the Dominican Republic are denied status, birth certificates, and public education, according to St. Mark's.

Evensong, one of the oldest services in the Anglican tradition, dates back to the original Book of Common Prayer of 1549, and combines the monastic offices of Vespers and Compline. It is drawn almost entirely from the Bible and includes Psalms, Hymns, Anthems, and the Magnificat and Nuc dimittis. The service is a sacred method of singing praise to God, according to St. Mark's.

"O Domine, Jesu Christe"

Choristers Look Forward to a Busy Spring

Chorister Academy Director Maria Coffin has many plans in the works for the spring. The choristers will be conducting fundraisers, preparing for concerts at St. John's and elsewhere, and rehearsing every week until the end of the school year. Chorister parents, keep an eye out for the details here and in Maria's newsletter.

(Here are the Choristers on Palm Sunday, 2007.)

Maria Coffin, Director

Director Maria Coffin has worked with choruses of children in Greater Waterbury for many years. A graduate of Calvin College, she has done graduate work in the organ and choir leadership in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the School of the Chorus of Westminster; and the University of Connecticut. Ms. Coffin is in her third year as director of the Chorister Academy, which formed in 2004.

Ms. Coffin is the Region One (New England) director of the Association of Anglican Musicians. The Association of Anglican Musicians is an organization for professional musicians and clergy who are members of the Anglican Communion or who work in a cathedral or parish within the Communion.