Save the Date! Christmas Concert - December 6, 2015 at 3:00pm

Save the date for the upcoming 8th Annual Christmas Concert at St. Pius X to be held this year on Sunday, December 6th at 3:00pm 

featuring 

the St. Pius X Choir

School Children’s Choir and Middle School Choir

Handbell Choir

St. Pius  X Concert Orchestra

Tickets will be available beginning November 14.

Advertising in the Concert Program is now available. Further advertising information is available here.

Children's Choir and Middle School Choir Opportunities for Thanksgiving and Christmas

As with years past, all children are invited to sing for the 4:00pm Christmas Eve Mass in the Parish Center. In addition, this year we are inviting all children who are in town and able to sing for the 9:00am Mass on Thanksgiving Day.

Notes
- All students K-8 are encouraged to come and sing.
- There is no expectation that any of the singers are already in a group at St. Pius X. Please just sign up and sing!

Thanksgiving Day
This year we are trying something new, a parish-wide choir for Thanksgiving Day. Any students in town and available are invited to sing for the 9:00am Mass on Thanksgiving Day. We'll have one rehearsal on Monday, November 23, 5:30pm-6:15pm in the church and we'll meet at 8:30am on Thanksgiving Day before Mass.

Christmas Eve Mass
Again this year, we will have a parish-wide Children's Choir for the 4:00pm Christmas Eve Mass in the Parish Center. We will have three rehearsals and ask that each student attend at least two.

Rehearsals in Parish Center:
Saturday, December 19 - 4:00pm-4:45pm
Monday, December 21 - 5:30pm-6:15pm
Wednesday, December 23 - 5:30pm-6:15pm

Mass:
Thursday, December 24 - 3:00pm Rehearsal for 4:00pm Mass

Concert for the Feast of All Souls - Sunday, November 2 - Tickets now available.

On Sunday, November 2 we are having a concert as a uplifting celebration of the Feast of All Saints and All Souls featuring the beautiful Faure Requiem sung by the St. Pius X Choir and friends with additional music by the St. Pius X Children's Choir and Handbell Choir.

Tickets are now available here. Students in grades 12 and younger are free. All other tickets are $20.

What I did this summer - Part 3 of 3 - Summer Music Camp

My last post outlined my time in Assisi this summer with Assisi Performing Arts. Once back home, I had a few weeks of planning time for upcoming fall programs. Stay tuned for Looking Ahead posts this week.

From August 18-22, my wife, Alexandra, and I ran the first ever Summer Music Camp at St. Pius X with the help of Alex Palting. Under the auspices of Musical Collaborations, the camp welcomed 11 students in grades K-4 for a musical journey around the world. It was an exciting week that culminated in an end of camp concert featuring the music from each country 'visited' during the week. We look forward to Summer Music Camp 2015!

What I did this summer - Part 2 of 3 - Assisi Performing Arts

My last post outlined Organ Tour Italia 2014 and was part 1 of 3 that I'm writing to outline all of the exciting things that happened this summer. In July, my wife and I went to Assisi, Italy for the annual Assisi Performing Arts music festival. I've been working with the festival since 2001 in a variety of roles including organist, pianist, conductor, and teacher.

This year, the festival featured 20 concerts and I played 15 of them. There were several highlights this year including the chance to play two performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. In addition, I conducted Verdi’s Otello from the piano and I performed Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C-minor, Op. 15.




As we do each year, the festival choir sang and I played for Mass one Sunday at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi as well as Mass at the Cathedral of San Rufino. The final night in Assisi, we performed the Schubert Mass in G at Santa Maria Maggiore in Assisi.

The St. Pius X Choir needs you!

The beginning of the 2014-2015 choir season is here - have you considered joining? This fall the choir is preparing some exciting new music. In addition to the music for 10:30am Mass each Sunday the choir is preparing the Faure Requiem for the upcoming Concert for the Feast of All Souls on Sunday, November 2 at 3:00pm. In addition, they will sing for the 7th Annual Christmas Concert at St. Pius X on Sunday, December 14 at 3:00pm before making final preparations for Christmas.

Come to a Thursday rehearsal at 7:30pm in the church to see how it all works - rehearsals start Thursday, September 4.

What I did this summer - Part 1 of 3 - Organ Tour Italia 2014

This summer, I had some great opportunities for travel and concerts. In the next three posts, I'll share some of the highlights. In June, my wife and I spent a few days in Bangkok, Thailand to celebrate the beautiful wedding of a friend from my high school. On the way back we went to Lake Como in Northern Italy where we spent a week running Organ Tour Italia 2014. We created the Organ Tour program in 2013 as an educational opportunity for organists, pianists, and all those interested in the pipe organ.




This year, we were based in Gravedona (on the western side of Lake Como) and we concentrated on instruments in nearby towns including Varenna, Consiglio di Rumo, and Brenzio. There were several highlights on this trip including the opportunity to see and play historic Serassi instruments from the 18th and 19th Century as well as an Antegnati organ from the end of the 1600s. In addition, we spent one day on the road - traveling a bit further afield for a visit to Sotto il Monte, home town of Pope John XXIII just a few weeks after his canonization to sainthood. In addition we went to Bergamo to visit the historically significant Serassi organ in the church of S. Alessandro in Colonna with a stop on the way back to visit the wonderful harpsichord workshop of Carlo Mascheroni. Each day, our group played diverse instruments of varying time periods all while seeing the beautiful landscapes, art, and architecture of northern Italy.



Pictures of the tour are available here.