Music Ministries
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Our Musical Leadership
St. Columbkille is blessed with a wonderful core of dedicated volunteer musicians. In addition to Music Director, Jon Thibo, BS in Music Education from University of Indianapolis, five other music members have degrees in Music/Music Education and several more have studied Music in undergraduate school. Our cantors range in age from late middle school through senior citizen and provide wonderful leadership for our various liturgical celebrations. The Cantors are all members of one or more choirs and must be selected and approved by the Director and Pastor. Mr. James Burian, BFA in Music from Ohio University, is our Assistant Music Director and we are grateful for his leadership and many years of service to our parish.
Our Instrumentalists
In addition to guitar, percussion, woodwind and string players, we have three Handbell/Chime Choirs. Our Handbell Choir is composed of members who are high school aged and adults. The Handbell Quartet is composed of especially skilled ringers from the Handbell Choir with occasional guests. And our last instrumental choir is the Middle School Chime Choir. The musical talent of these instrumentalists and our accompanist enhance our Masses, concerts and special liturgies.
Our Ensembles & Rehearsal Schedule
Presently, rehearsals for individual choirs are held on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with combined rehearsals on several Thursdays through the school year when major celebrations or concerts are drawing nigh. All rehearsals are held in the church. The schedule for the coming year is:
- Monday—Chime Choir 4:00-5:00 pm, Handbell Choir 7:00-9:00 pm, and Handbell Quartet scheduled individually.
- Tuesday—Children’s Choir 4:00-5:00 pm, Contemporary Choir 7:30-9:30 pm
- Wednesday—Chorale 7:00-9:00 pm
Men’s and Women’s Choruses meet on several Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, respectively, throughout the year from 6:00-7:00 p.m. These two ensembles are by invitation of the Director.
New members are always welcome, and an audition/appointment needs to be scheduled with the Director by phone at 216-524-1987 ext. 27 or through email (j.thibo@cox.net), to determine appropriate placement. Student Choir members will be given a permission form via PSR and Day School Back-to-School Packets and should just plan to come on the first day of rehearsals, usually in mid-September. A calendar based upon the 9 month school year and showing all rehearsal, mass dates and times is printed and available from the Director of Music in mid-August.Our Concerts, Prayer Opportunities & Stage Productions
In addition to Liturgical life of the parish, our choirs present concerts at Christmas each year and one or two additional presentations each year. Musical theater productions are presented on triennial or biennial schedule, depending upon the discretion of the Director. Recent productions were A Broadway Review (June 2017) Feast of Life (November 2016) Fiddler on the Roof (October 2014) and The Sound of Music (October 2011). Coming in 2019, fall, Nunsense.
The Christmas Concert, presented annually near the end of Advent, combines all the Music Ministry musicians of our parish along with soloists and guests. The last concert, "Hope is Born in Our Hearts" was presented in December 2018. We have also presented two of the four Mysteries of Bob Hurd’s Contemplative Rosary as prayer events and will again do this on the Feast of St. Columbkille, Sunday June 9, 2019 with soloist Mrs. Barbara Henning of Louisville, KY.
We are pleased to have wonderful instruments in our parish, including: a full drum kit, grand piano and 2008 Allen Organ 4 Manual Quantum Q465C. We were privileged to host the "First Lady of the Organ," Ms. Diane Bish in 2009 as part of our four concert organ series held in conjunction with our installer, Pellegrino Music of Canton. We were also host in 2010 for Christine Anderson, an amazing Handbell Soloist, and in 2012, renowned composer for Catholic Music. Also appearing and giving master classes were Mr. David Haas and Ms. Lori True, also renowned composers of liturgical music. We welcomed the Notre Dame Glee Club in concert here in October 2017. In 2018, Oregon Catholic Press contemporary composer and artist, Curtis Stephan was with us in concert
Come Travel with Us
In November of 2018, we were thrilled to sing Mass at the Altar of the Chair, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome, Italy. We presented concerts to standing ovations in Rome at San Andrea de Valle and in Florence at St. Philip Neri. Other highlights for the 51 travelers were Padua and Assisi. In the summer of 2014, we were privileged to have 53 musicians and guests travel to Ireland, the ancestral home of our Parish Patron Saint, Columbkille, for a ten day Concert Tour and Pilgrimage. We presented a concert and Mass at the famed Apparition Chapel of Our Lady of Knock, Ireland’s documented apparition. Other performance sites include: St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney, St. Andrew's Church, Dublin and St. Patrick’s Cathedral—Church of Ireland.
In the fall of 2022 we will go to Germany in time for Oktoberfest and tour Austria, visiting Vienna and Salzburg moved off of the itinerary for our last European tour. Concerts will be planned for major cities including Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. Please watch this space for information on how to join us.Join Us!
We sincerely desire to have more gifted musicians join us for our faith-filled Music Ministry and hope you will feel free to contact, Jon Thibo, at musicstcolumbkille@gmail.com, James Burian, or any of our members for more information.
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