Spring 2024 Choir School News

Choir School NEWS A NEWSLET TER FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF SAINT THOMAS CHOIR SCHOOL

SPRING 2024

Saint Thomas Church was filled to capacity as the Choir of Men and Boys led Easter morning worship.

A Message from the Head of School Dear Alumni, Families, Friends and Supporters of Saint Thomas Choir School, I write to you today in the midst of the Eastertide and the restart of school after a well-earned Easter Vacation. As they have for generations, our choristers beautifully and tirelessly led the Saint Thomas congregation in worship throughout the solemnity of Passiontide and the joyous triumph of Easter. The festive weekend concluded with the installation of our three newest choristers at Evensong on Easter Sunday. Celebrations like these have always highlighted the vitality of the choral tradition here at Saint Thomas; this year in particular, they have reinforced our commitment to the School’s mission and to the remarkable boys we serve.

You are likely aware that in recent weeks the Vestry of Saint Thomas Church has called into question the future of the Choir School in its current model. According to a recent letter from the Vestry to the Saint Thomas community, the current financial model of the Choir School has not been sustainable for at least the past 50 years. Historically, the Church has funded the Choir School by relying upon donations, bequests, and its unrestricted general endowment fund. This fund has now been depleted to a critical point, necessitating a process of discernment to determine the best path forward for the Choir School. The Vestry has committed to operating the current school model through June 2025; by October 2024, a sustainability task force will make recommendations to the Vestry about its vision for the school for the 2025–26 academic year and beyond.

As we await the task force’s report and subsequent recommendation, I ask for your continued prayers and support as our faculty, staff, and students conclude the current school year. Life on West 58th Street continues at full tilt: the boys sing five services per week, balance a robust academic course load, and, as the weather improves, spend as much time as possible in Central Park. (They recently enjoyed a friendly cricket match against the Children of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal during their historic visit to NYC and our Choir School.) We look forward to the year-end traditions of Camp Incarnation, Prize Day and Leavers’ Service, and we hope that many of our alumni and friends will attend our Spring Concert on Thursday, May 16th, as the Choir of Men and Boys sing works by Hallock, Thompson, and Vaughan Williams.

In all these things, we remain firm in our belief in the transformational experience that is the Choir School and committed to the lives that have been and continue to be transformed by the mission of our school. Our admissions team is busy recruiting and enrolling new students for the fall, and we are buoyed by the faith and confidence that so many of our past, current, and prospective friends have in our school. Even in the face of uncertainty, we call to mind the words of our school hymn:

Come, labor on!

Away with gloomy doubts and faithless fear!

No arm so weak but may do service here: By feeblest agents may our God fulfill His righteous will.

In faith and gratitude, I remain, Sincerely, Christopher A. Seeley Head of School

The Sustainability Task Force welcomes your questions and comments as they engage in their work.

Please email sustainability@SaintThomasChurch.org.

If you would like to be added to the Church mailing list, please contact Blake Martin, Director of Communications, at bmartin@SaintThomasChurch.org.

Choristers awaiting the start of Easter morning services.

2 | Choir School NEWS | A NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF SAINT THOMAS CHOIR SCHOOL | SPRING 2024

Welcome, New Students!

The Choir School has gained five new students since January 2024: Ephrem H., grade 5, from North Carolina; Jacob and Jayden H., grade 6, from New York; Edric B., grade 5, from Florida; and Thoreau P., grade 4, whose family recently moved to NYC from Tokyo.

Please join us in welcoming them to our community!

Reflection: Rachmaninoff/ Poulenc Concert CANON CARL TURNER, RECTOR

The Passiontide Concert was truly extraordinary! For a start, we had a very large audience, and you could feel the expectation growing in the church before the concert. Dr. Jeremy Filsell’s playing of Rachmaninoff’s 3rd Piano Concerto—which many say is the most difficult of all piano concertos for the soloist—was masterful, and the instant roar of gratitude from the audience well deserved. Poulenc’s deeply spiritual and emotional setting of the Stabat Mater brought some of us to tears; our choir excelled itself and our soprano soloist, Laquita Mitchell, captivated everyone with her exquisite voice and interpretation of those sacred words.

In my almost ten years, not even a performance of Messiah has received such an extraordinary response from an audience with two standing ovations. Well done to our Choir of Men and Boys!

Fr. Turner chats with the boys as they await their entrance.

Soloist Laquita Mitchell, Modus Operandi Orchestra, and the Choir of Men and Boys perform Poulenc’s Stabat Mater under the baton of Dr. Filsell.

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Beloved Community at the Choir School The 3rd and 4th Graders focused on the metaphor used by Martin Luther King Jr. of a “world house”. He explained that just as a family lives together in a house, people who come from different backgrounds, races, religions, and cultures must learn to live together on this planet. Each student created their own World House Collage that represented their vision for diversity, kindness, and unity.

Packaging meals for Rise Against Hunger.

LISSY HODGE, Social Justice Coordinator

The Social Justice classes have recently focused on creating and sustaining a Beloved Community as envisioned by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year on King’s birthday, we observed the National Day of Service along with many others across the country. In the morning we partnered with Rise Against Hunger. We learned about world hunger and the organization’s impact in the world through their Gather For Good program.

Following this, students, teachers, families, and members of the parish joined together to package 20,000 meals for Rise Against Hunger to distribute to communities in need around the world, enough meals to feed 100 children for an entire school year.

In the afternoon, the students divided by grade levels and engaged in special Social Justice programming to explore the idea of building a Beloved Community of Kindness.

The 5th and 6 th Graders read and listened to the last section of King’s final public speech, “I Have Been to the Mountaintop”. The class discussed how King used the Good Samaritan parable to challenge his audience to practice “a dangerous unselfishness” in the face of violence and discrimination, and how they might apply this lesson to their own lives everyday.

The 7th and 8th Graders brainstormed, created, and launched three “Community Kindness Campaigns’’ within our community.

These included cultivating a collection of motivational quotes and posting them around the school; creating a diversity board which every few weeks highlights a country or culture that is connected to a member of our community; and a kindness bulletin board where students can post acts of kindness that they have witnessed or experienced.

At the end of our service day, the students gathered together to share what they learned in their grade-band groups with the rest of the school. In addition, we brainstormed ways to ensure that our work towards creating a Beloved Community of Kindness extended past our service day and throughout our school year.

The STCS community celebrating the National Day of Service.

4 | Choir School NEWS | A NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF SAINT THOMAS CHOIR SCHOOL | SPRING 2024

Squash at STCS MOTHER ALISON TURNER, Chaplain and Theology Faculty

As part of our ongoing bicentennial project work on Saint Thomas Church, Grade 7–8 Theology class recently welcomed visitors: Ms. Pamela Lewis, longtime parishioner, head lector, and tour guide; and Fr. Ryan Bennett, former member of the Saint Thomas Church clergy. The choristers shared with our guests their research on the various figures represented in the reredos and the Fifth Avenue facade of the church: people who lived with a passion for the gospel and commitment to serving their communities with a conviction for justice.

Similar to the way members of the parish have proposed names of figures to be represented in glass, wood and stone, each student was invited to advocate for a person they hoped to see included.

This could be anyone world famous or locally known, someone who has made a difference to humanity and in so doing has represented what it means to be part of a beloved community.

Their choices included a range of figures from multiple eras and backgrounds including musicians, scientists, and activists who have served or continue to serve as exemplars of the concept of Beloved Community.

We asked students to complete the prompt, “A beloved community is…”. Here are a few of their responses: …love, happiness, joy, and friendship. (Grade 3) … God’s love spread around the world for all people.

(Grade 4)

Students sang “America, the Beautiful” at the opening of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions at Grand Central in January. The boys were especially excited to sing at this renowned tournament, as they spent their fall sports season learning squash. Ms. Bebe Morrissey, Assistant Head of School and an accomplished squash player herself, spearheaded this initiative, partnering with Open Squash to offer our students access to their beautiful facilities and lessons with talented squash professionals. Our other squash aficionados, Mr. Seeley and Dr. Filsell, enjoyed spending time on the courts with the boys throughout the season.

…to be loved to be like you belong here. (Grade 5) … a place where people live in harmony, nothing is lost, and everyone has each other. (Grade 6) … a community who would do anything for each other and would help each other with any conflict.

(Grade 7)

… made to love one another and to treat each other nicely even in moments that are hard for them or for you. (Grade 8)

Father Ryan Bennett and Ms. Pamela Lewis presenting to Grade 7 and 8 Theology students.

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Winter Highlights

We welcomed prospective students from Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and NYC to our “Chorister for a Day” admissions event.

William H., Grade 8, was chosen as the standby for the treble soloist in the “Orchestrating Maestro” concert at David Geffen Hall. He was honored to rehearse with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the New York Philharmonic.

Visiting students were fitted for cassocks and seated with the choristers for the Evensong service.

The 6th, 7th and 8th grade basketball team competed against several of our fellow NYC independent schools this season, playing hard and improving with each game!

A snowy evening in Central Park called for winter fun!

6 | Choir School NEWS | A NEWSLETTER FOR ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF SAINT THOMAS CHOIR SCHOOL | SPRING 2024

LEIF PEDERSEN ‘16 attended Kaufman Alumni Music Center’s News Special Music & Notes School High School as a vocal major and then headed to Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), where he will graduate in May 2024 with a degree in Music Education. He will return to New York after graduation to teach music at the St. Thomas More Play Group. He writes, “I am so grateful to the choir school and St. Thomas for all of the training and musical memories. I look forward to being back in NYC and getting to see and hear the choir in person.”

ZACHARY FLETCHER ‘07 writes, “These days, as a freelance singer, I often find myself at Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue singing as a sub in the back row. It’s a special kind of ‘blast from the past.”

Alumni & Friends event in Cambridge

JOSHUA ROSS ‘10 graduated from Manhattan School of Music in 2018 and has been working in the hospitality and real estate industries while also pursuing a career in musical performance. He shared the following exciting update: “Last year, I was blessed with the opportunity to audition in front of Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan on American Idol. It was a wonderful experience… life has been good to me since the Choir School days. I will always credit John Scott, Charles Wallace, and Forest Warren for helping to form me into the man I’ve become.”

In February, the Admissions team caught up with EDWARD LANDIN SENN ‘02, at the Eastern Regional conference of the American Choral Directors Association and hosted a gathering for STCS Alumni & Friends in the Boston area. Interested in planning an event near you? Contact admissions@choirschool.org

We’d love to be in touch!

Scan to get connected!

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Calendar of Events

All events take place at Saint Thomas Church unless otherwise specified.

For complete information regarding the details of events and services, please refer to saintthomaschurch.org/events or choirschool.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 16 5:30pm Alumni reception and student art show at the Choir School (Alumni, check your email or contact admissions@choirschool.org for details)

SUNDAY, JUNE 2 11am Valedictory Mass for Graduating Choristers (Leavers’ Service)

Contact Us Saint Thomas Choir School 202 West 58th Street New York, NY 10019 212.247.3311 | www.choirschool.org Christopher Seeley, Head of School

JUNE 9–13 Choir School exhibit at the Association of Anglican Musicians convention in Minneapolis, MN

7:30pm Concert: The Place of the Blest (music by Hallock, Thompson, JUNE 21–27 and Vaughan Williams) Choir School exhibit at the 81st General Convention of the FRIDAY, MAY 17 Episcopal Church in Louisville, KY 9:15am Alumni coffee, tour and forum with church leadership JULY 1–4 (Alumni, check your email or Choir School exhibit at the contact admissions@choirschool.

American Guild of Organists org for details) convention in San Francisco, CA

Nora Thomson, Director of Outreach and Enrollment Margaret White, Assistant Director of Enrollment admissions@choirschool.org

For news & events, visit our website Scan

SATURDAY, JUNE 1 11am 105th Commencement Exercises (Prize Day)

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