Category Archives: Concerts at St. Mary’s

Concerts and other special musical events

The St. Cecilia Society at St. Mary Church is pleased to present its annual benefit St. Cecilia's Day Concert on Friday, 20 November 2009 at 7:30 P.M. The St. Mary's Schola Cantorum, under the direction of David Hughes, will sing polyphony of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance:

anonymous (XIV C.): Messe de Tournai (excerpts)
Josquin: Missa L’homme armé sexti toni (excerpts)
Byrd: Factus est repente
Byrd: Miserere mihi Domine
Philips: Ave Maria
Victoria: Ave Maris Stella

First Vespers of the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady will be sung by the St. Mary's Choir at 7:00 P.M., and a festive wine & cheese reception will follow the concert. Suggested donation is $25 general admission, $15 for students & seniors; all proceeds go to support the work of the St. Cecilia Society throughout the year. For more information, please visit stmarynorwalk.net/music, or call the music office at 203-866-5546 x115.

A PDF flier is available here.

St. Mary's is very pleased to present a recital by the excellent pianist Jason Cutmore on Friday, 25 September 2009, at 7:30 p.m.   Mr. Cutmore will play works of Schubert, de Severac, de Falla, and Poulenc.  A flier for the recital is available here.  The suggested donation is $10.  Visitors are invited to be seated in the choir loft of the church in order to more closely listen to and watch the artist at work.

Copies of Mr. Cutmore's recent CD of piano music by Manuel de Falla will be available for sale at the recital.

The recital is presented by the St. Cecilia Society of St. Mary Church.

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Canadian pianist Jason Cutmore has performed solo recitals and collaborative concerts throughout North America, Europe and India. Mr. Cutmore made his Chicago recital debut in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in 2005 with an all-Liszt programme that was broadcast live on WFMT radio, and shown on Chicago Cable TV 25. Since then he has appeared in Canada’s Colours of Music Festival, the Elora Festival, the University of Calgary’s Celebrity Series, as well as at venues in Cleveland, Chicago, New York City, and elsewhere in North America. His concert performances, and an ardent interest in foreign travel, have frequently taken him abroad to Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, and India, including concerts at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai, India, and the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest.

In 2008, Mr. Cutmore’s debut commercial CD, an album of piano music by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla on Centaur Records, was released to critical acclaim. Gramophone magazine declared that “more than a few orchestras can learn from Cutmore’s perfectly placed accents and ideal dance tempi” and Classicstoday.com called it “a first-rate release.”

Mr. Cutmore holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Music in New York. His major teachers have been Robert Shannon, Stephanie Brown, and Michael Massey. Originally from Edmonton, Canada, Mr. Cutmore now resides in a suburb of New York City.

Please join us for a ceremony of Advent Lessons & Carols on Friday, December 12th, at 7:00 p.m. Anthems, chants, and carols of the season will be interspersed with nine readings from Holy Scripture prophesying the birth of Our Lord. The St. Mary’s Choir (11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass), the Coro Hispano de Santa María (1:15 p.m. Mass), St. Mary’s Children’s Schola, and the Anchor Academy Schola Cantorum will sing; Isabelle Demers (Trinity Church, Wall Street) is the guest organist. For further information, please contact the music office: music@stmarynorwalk.net or 203-866-5546 x115.

Fresh from this past Sunday’s breathtaking recital by the New York Piano-Organ Duo, we are very pleased to present the next offering in the St. Mary’s Recital Series: a piano performance by the Rev. F. John Ringley, Jr. on Friday, November 9th at 7:30 p.m. Fr. Ringley, who is parochial vicar at St. Lawrence Church, Shelton, is an accomplished concert pianist. On the program are Bach’s French Suite No. 6 in E (BWV 817); Mozart’s Sonata in C (K. 545) and Rondo in a (K. 511); Chopin’s Three Etudes (Op. 10); Liszt’s Consolation No. 3 in D-flat; and Fr. Ringley’s own Variations on a Nursery Rhyme. Prior to the recital, the St. Mary’s Choir will sing Vespers of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica at 7:00 p.m. A reception will follow the recital. The concert is free and open to the public; there is a $10 suggested donation. For further information, please call the St. Mary’s Music Office at 203-866-5546 x115, or visit www.stmarynorwalk.net/recitals.

St. Mary’s is very pleased to present a concert by the New York Piano-Organ Duo on Sunday, October 14th, at 4:30 p.m. Jason Cutmore, piano, and Daniel Sullivan, organ, will play works of J.S. Bach, César Franck, Jean Langlais, and Jeffrey McCune. The concert is free to the public (suggested donation: $10), and will be preceded at 4:00 p.m. by Solemn Vespers of the Twenty-Eighth Sunday of the Year, sung by the St. Mary's Choir. For further information, please call the St. Mary’s Music Office at 203-866-5546 x115, or visit stmarynorwalk.net/recitals.  A flier is available here.

Please join us for Vespers this Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. to commemorate the great Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The Second Vatican Council asked that the laity join in the praying of the Divine Office, and particularly Vespers, and today affords a splendid opportunity to participate in this beautiful prayer of the Church.

“The Divine Office, because it is the public prayer of the Church, is a source of piety, and nourishment for personal prayer. And therefore priests and all others who take part in the Divine Office are earnestly exhorted in the Lord to attune their minds to their voices when praying it. The better to achieve this, let them take steps to improve their understanding of the liturgy and of the Bible, especially of the psalms.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 90)

“Pastors of souls should see to it that the chief hours, especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and the more solemn feasts. And the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office, either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually.” (SC, 100)

Following Vespers, at 4:30 p.m., all parishioners are invited to join Organist & Choirmaster David Hughes for an informal lecture/demonstration on the King of Instruments: what it is, its construction, how it works, and how our instrument at St. Mary’s fits into a 2400-year tradition. The program will be interspersed with several short works to demonstrate the range of the organ.

For further information about the St. Mary’s Concert Series, please contact the music office: (203) 866-5546 x115 or music@stmarynorwalk.net.

On Sunday, 13 May at 4:00 p.m., St. Mary's is very pleased to welcome the brilliant young organist Isabelle Demers to offer a recital as part of its newly formed concert series. Miss Demers, a native of Montréal who is currently pursuing a doctorate at the prestigious Juilliard School, will play works of J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, Max Reger, and Maurice Duruflé on St. Mary's 1994 Austin pipe organ. The St. Mary's Choir will sing Solemn Vespers of the Sixth Sunday of Easter at 4:00 p.m., and Miss Demers' hourlong recital will begin at 4:30. A flier is available here. For more information, please contact the Music Office.

Immediately following the Holy Hour for Divine Mercy Sunday this Sunday afternoon, 15 April, at 3:00 p.m., Organist & Choirmaster David J. Hughes will offer a short recital of works for Eastertide. The recital will begin at 4:00 and end at 4:30. The concert is free and open to the public, and all are warmly invited to attend.

A poster for the 6:00 p.m. recital by David J. Hughes, Organist & Choirmaster of St. Mary's, is available here. The program includes works for Lent by Buxtehude, Bach, Tournemire, and Messiaen.

The program will be followed at 7:00 p.m. by the beginning of Fr. Paul Check's Lenten Mission at St. Mary's. The schedule of talks for that week is available here in PDF format. Each evening will include a 30-minute spiritual conference on Our Lord's parables, Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and time for private prayer. Both the recital and the evenings of recollection are without charge; everyone is most welcome!

For further information about the new St. Mary's Recital Series, please see here.