Christmas Choir Thank Yous
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“Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!”
This melody and many others still resound in our hearts and minds from our Christmas celebrations. It takes a lot of musicians to make our liturgies at Christmas such glorious ones. Starting on Christmas Eve at 3:00 mass in the church, Rosie Aitken, music teacher in our school, led 9 students in song along with 2 cantors. They were also accompanied by a flute. They faithfully attended rehearsals and sounded like angels. We are truly blessed. The 3:00 mass in Valker Hall and the 5:00 mass in church were accompanied by Olga Lunetta. We had a cantor and flautist at both of these masses. Olga also played at the 6:30 AM mass with songs led by Fr. Merold. Thank you, Olga, for all you do for us and thank you to these musicians who made the Christmas music come to life! The midnight mass was led by a quartet accompanied by a violin and cello. It was wonderful to hear the congregation sing prelude songs along with our solos. A handbell player, Jocelyn Purtell, played a solo on the bell tree. Truly beautiful music. The 11:00 mass had a trio, choir, handbells, and violin and cello. Thank you to Dave Strutzel for playing organ for us! With his help, I was able to direct everyone. Thank you, musicians, for your countless hours of rehearsal. You made it possible for all of us to truly celebrate the birth of “Our Newborn King”! The 9:00 Christmas Day mass was led by our high school/college students. How wonderful it is that our young people want to come home and share their talents with us! Led by Chris Misik, we heard beautiful voices sing “O Holy Night”. They were accompanied by Matthew Nerenberg on oboe and Elizabeth Vinnes on flute. We can never forget to thank our cantors. They, and their families, give of their time and talent so that we can all sing the music of our church. Thank you for your leadership and all you give to this ministry! We could not have done it without you! So I give a big “Shout-Out” to all of you. Thank you, beautiful job, and Happy New Year.
Patricia Stewart,
Director of Liturgical Music
