Sharing Our Stories: Robert McCormick

This month’s story comes from Robert McCormick at Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont (outside of Philadelphia). Robert is a leader in our profession, having run successful chorister programs at other parishes. Good Shepherd is a unique situation. Fifteen years ago, the parish was nearly decimated after a schismatic group tried to break from the Episcopal church and hold onto the parish property and assets. Depleting the parish’s endowment on lawsuits, they were eventually forced to return the property to the diocese. I served as organist-choirmaster for a little over three years in the aftermath of this, when there were more people in the chancel than in the nave, so I rejoice in the success and growth of this rebirth under the leadership of Robert and Fr. Kyle Babin.

“This week we began rehearsals for the Good Shepherd Choristers, a choir for children ages 7 and above. We have 14 children already registered and room for more!

As in many similar Episcopal churches, the choir of men and boys folded at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont sometime around the early 1990s. Therefore children are singing here and rehearsing in our choir room for the first time in over 30 years.

This is in a parish that five years ago had only 1 child among its ranks. Even over the pandemic, attendance (and giving) steadily has(/have) grown, with adults of all ages and families with children. I rejoice at this resurrection and sign of health. God makes it happen, but we have to play our part, doing our own hard work.”

Sharing Our Stories: Becky Taylor

I have been working in one capacity or another with Children’s Choirs in the Episcopal Church, with a couple of detours, for over 60 years. About two years ago, my Rector wanted to do a simple Compline service on Wednesday nights, following children’s rehearsals.

My first reaction was not enthusiastically positive. I knew that I needed that 15 minutes between children and a two-hour adult rehearsal to breathe, but I cooperated, and I want to share that the service has evolved into the best thing that I have ever experienced with children.

After a few weeks of youth and adult readers not showing up, and the subsequent construction of a new rehearsal space, we have settled into a really wonderful habit that is growing and becoming part of our church life together. The children read the service, two at a time, with an adult pointing out the sharing of the reading and helping with unfamiliar words. As parents come to pick up the children they join in the service. Adult choir members have begun coming 10 minutes early to sing with the children the Barnby “Nunc” and Ana Hernandez’ exquisite “Guide us waking.” We have a tutoring/mentor program with neighborhood children, and we have one of those students that loves to read. More and more tutors have shown up with their students.

The readers do not always know the meaning of what they’re reading, although I do try to pull one word or idea (i. e., “hide me under the shadow of your wings” “apple of your eye”) to talk a little about each week. The younger children sometimes play or run around the adults and children seated on the floor or standing around the edges. Our singing is mostly in unison, depending on the numbers of adult choir members. We have begun FB streaming the service.

It is now my favorite service and I am so thankful that these worshippers are learning one more of the abundant liturgies that we have available in the Episcopal church. Reports from parents have been of children quoting or asking to sing parts of the service at home during the rest of the week. I invite you to try this practice!”

Becky Taylor
Church of the Ascension
Montgomery, Alabama
beckytaylor@coascension.org

RSCM America Co-sponsors Sacred Choral Clinic at Duke

On Saturday, January 20, 2024, Duke University Chapel hosted a sacred choral music clinic featuring Dr. Anton Armstrong of the renowned St. Olaf Choir as the guest clinician. The event was co-sponsored by RSCM America and the North Carolina chapter of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). The clinic, the first of its kind at Duke Chapel, invited area choir directors and singers to collectively learn four pieces of music selected by Dr. Armstrong, all of which were liturgically appropriate to the upcoming season. The pieces selected were Director of Chapel Music Zebulon M. Highben’s Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days, Roland Carter’s O Lord, Have Mercy, Eric Nelson’s When Memory Fades, and Rollo Dilworth’s I Sing Because I’m Happy. Highben also announced that the 2025 choral clinic will happen on Saturday, January 25, 2025, with guest clinician Dr. Pearl Shangkuan, professor of music at Calvin University, chorus master of the Grand Rapids Symphony, and president-elect of the ACDA.

Photos below taken by RSCM America Staff Specialist Katelyn MacDonald.

RSCM America Elects New Board Members

RSCM America welcomes Amy Crawford, Jared Johnson, and Jason Overall to its Board of Directors. Elected during the November Board meeting, these new Board members will have three-year terms that run until November 2027.

Amy Crawford

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Jason Overall

Over the last twenty years, Amy Crawford has worked as a therapist, pastor, and organizational work with several nonprofits, and is currently in the process of being ordained in The Episcopal Church and receiving an M.Div. from General Theological Seminary. Jason Overall is a composer, organist, and choral conductor based in Knoxville, Tennessee. His extensive catalog comprises mainly choral and chamber music, and it includes representative works with symphonic forces as well. His most recent completed project is a two-act opera The Doctor and the Devils, setting a libretto by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Jared Johnson is a graduate of Oberlin College, with degrees in English and organ performance. After graduation, he received a Watson Fellowship for conducting in London. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University and is currently serving as the Canon Director of Music at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA.

Jared Johnson

In 2023, the RSCM America Board of Directors also welcomed two new members in the roles of Treasurer and Representative to the Summer Choral Residency Committee. Stephen Gibson (Treasurer) is a retired lawyer. He graduated from the University of Iowa and Harvard Law School, after which he practiced international trade law in Washington, DC for 40 years. He has served as volunteer treasurer for a number of non-profit entities, including his local parish, as well as serving two terms as Chair of the Finance Committee of the Diocese of Washington. Brent Erstad (SCRC Representative) serves as Director of Music and Organist at St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. where he conducts the fully professional St. John’s Choir, a robust volunteer Parish Choir program, and the children’s Choristers. Before moving to Washington DC, he served as co-manager of the RSCM training course in Newport, Rhode Island. Brent holds his undergraduate degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and graduate degrees in sacred music and education respectively from Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania.   

RSCM America also thanks outgoing Board members Marissa Hall, Nicole Keller, and Susan Jane Matthews for their many years of dedicated service to RSCM America on its Board of Directors.