MUSIC

An Outstanding Opportunity for Children and Teens Who Love Music

Girls (aged 8-16) and boys with unchanged voices (normally age 13 or younger) are invited to attend a Choir School Camp at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, on the Green in Middlebury, on Saturday, August 22 from 9 am – 4 pm. The day will include a mixture of learning new music, work on music literacy and vocal production, and fun activities. The camp is open to all, regardless of religious affiliation, though some Christian music is a part of the camp experience. Repertoire will include One Voice by The Walin’ Jennys and Badgers and Hedgehogs, a piece written by English composer Andrew Carter in celebration of the restoration of carvings in the ceiling of York Minster.  There is a registration fee of $20 and campers are asked to bring their own packed lunches. 

The St. Stephen’s Choir School Camp is led by Robert Ludwig, who has devoted his career to working with young singing voices. Ludwig served as director of professional choirs of boys and girls at Long Island’s Cathedral of the Incarnation, as well as serving as artistic director of the Bangor Area Youth Choir and director of choral music and music theory at New York’s Garden City High School. He is being assisted by two public school teachers.

Music is an integral part of our services at St. Stephen’s as well as part of our ministry to the community.

The mission of the music ministry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is to support and enhance the worship life of the congregation while also providing an engaging, educational, and inspirational experience for singers of all ages. 

St. Stephen’s is a Singing Congregation! Our 10:30 am (9:30 in the summer) Sunday service is filled with energetic congregational singing of an unusually wide variety of music. Any given month may see hymns and service music ranging from medieval chant to pieces composed this year; 16th century German chorales to Black Gospel Music; South African Freedom Songs to favorite traditional English hymns. The Congregation is our principal singing group. 

The St. Stephen’s Choir is a four-part choir of adults and high school students. They normally sing for services from the Sunday after Labor Day through the Day of Pentecost and rehearse on Saturday mornings from 10-11:30 am. On several occasions during the year the choir also sings for a special musical service, often  Choral Evensong, usually on a Sunday afternoon. Services on the major Holy Days of the church, sung as Christmas Eve, Holy Week, and Easter Day, also involve the musical leadership of the choir. St. Stephen’s Choir is always looking for additional singers. We are a team of skilled volunteers, eager to explore new and challenging music. The choir sings approximately 100 different anthems and canticles each year, including music by composers such as Tallis, Victoria, Bach, Handel, Mozart, Elgar, Wesley, Stanford, Darke, Rutter, Chilcott and Stopford. Singers do not need to be a member of the parish or the Episcopal Church. They do need to have an awareness and desire to be a part of our rich religious tradition that involves music (often sung in foreign languages), liturgy, and scripture. Singers need to be comfortable in the choir’s role of helping lead worship. 

The St. Stephen’s Treble Choir is for girls (aged 8-16) and boys with unchanged voices (normally age 13 or younger). The Treble Choir normally sings as part of the St. Stephen’s Choir for all services, and more senior members are encouraged to also attend the Saturday morning rehearsals. The Treble Choir rehearses on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30-4:30 pm, and a key part of those rehearsals is a training and educational component of the church’s music ministry – providing a free education in music theory, singing technique, liturgy and spiritual life. Members of the choir progress through a series of training levels of the Royal School of Church Music, and they are recognized with various ribbons and medals that they wear for Choral Evensongs.   

What are some of the benefits of this program?

·         Free training in singing and musicianship

·         The Treble Choir includes regular training in sight-singing.

·         Make new friends

·         Singing is good for the body and mind – as well as the spirit

·         Teamwork – not to win or lose, but to present our best offering to God

·         Learn how to read music

·         Poise and responsibility

·         Christian education – members are constantly learning about the traditions of our faith.

·         Ministry – your singing in church is a ministry to the congregation through your stewardship of time and talent

·         Variety of music – you’ll sing the finest of choral music from the Middle Ages to music newly composed for our choir. There are good reasons why music written by composers such as Bach and Mozart is still so highly regarded, and children and youth have a great time learning this “adult music,” and singing alongside accomplished adult musicians.

The church’s Wm. Johnson & Son 13-rank pipe organ, their Opus 460, was built in 1875. It was rebuilt by William Baker in 1978-80. The principal piano of the church is a superb Steinway Model A-3, built in 1940. The piano was given in memory of Charles Kreiser.