Music Ministry

Music Ministries by Joel Martinson

Transfiguration’s Music Ministry began 2020 with a high level of enthusiasm and energy following the beautiful liturgies of the Christmas season. Our five choirs enriched services through March 8 with their singing and ringing. Then the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus caused a succession of remain-in-place orders to be issued by Dallas County beginning on March 13 and cast doubt about the safety of singing and group activities. Our choirs and live worship services went on hiatus.

The adult groups met monthly in the spring via Zoom. Following the release of two studies on the relationship of playing wind instruments and singing to the spread of the coronavirus in early August, the musical leaders met to discuss the possibility of singing together. On September 16 we began 30-minute, masked, widely- spaced rehearsals in the nave of 18-20 singers in three sub-choirs. We continued these rehearsals until Thanksgiving. An octet of our professional singers rehearsed and recorded anthems for Christmas services in December.

Beginning in May, Artist-in-Residence Stefan Engels and I have video-recorded organ voluntaries for each Sunday.

A Surprise – the Gilding of the Organ Carvings

Robert and Frances Martin gave a generous donation in October of 2019 to fund the gilding of the organ carvings in honor of the church building’s 50th anniversary and the Godwin Organ’s 10th anniversary in 2020. Bruce Fowkes came Memorial Weekend to remove the carvings from the case, and Debra Miller of Austin, Texas, undertook the gilding work in July and August. The carvings were replaced over Labor Day Weekend, and the organ was revealed in its intended splendor during the recorded services over Holy Cross weekend September 13-14.

Music Fund of the Church of the Transfiguration Endowment

The 2020 Music Fund disbursement from the Endowment Trustees enabled 10 chairs to be ordered from New Holland Church Furniture for the Performance Hall. Donations from parishioners added 10 more chairs to the order.

A Thank You…

This year I am especially thankful for all the Sound Techs who ran the soundboard during worship services and gave us 12 years of digital audio recordings from which music is chosen for our recorded worship services each week. The members of the Music Ministry have also been so tremendously patient and supportive during this very trying year. We all miss being able to sing in our beautiful church to lead you in worship of our God.

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