ORA et CANTA Pray and Sing WOR DS IMAGE S
Sherrie Voss Matthews
Sisters of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles and De Montfort Music
WHEN MARTINA SNELL BECAME A BENEDICTINE NUN, SHE LEFT BEHIND A LIFE AS A PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN, OR SO SHE THOUGHT. GOD HAD DIFFERENT PLANS. TODAY, SNELL, NOW KNOWN AS MOTHER CECILIA, PRESIDES OVER A SMALL GROUP OF NUNS WHOSE RECORDINGS OF SACRED HYMNS AND CHANTS
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HAVE LANDED THEM ATOP THE BILLBOARD CLASSICAL CHARTS.
uring her years at Rice, Martina Snell ’99 was known as a quiet French horn player with a bright smile and a calming presence. Marty Merritt, facilities manager at the Shepherd School of Music, recalled someone who was not quite the typical horn player. “Horn players are a loud, confident bunch,” he
said. “Martina was kind and friendly, but by the standards of her classmates of the horn studio, she was very much reserved.”
Bill VerMeulen, professor of French horn, remembered a fresh-faced student from upstate New York, an “insanely gifted” performer who was nonetheless naïve about professional musicianship and culture. He watched her grow within the horn studio, moving from last chair to first, becoming the
reserved leader of a tight-knit group. “She was respected on every level — musically, personally, professionally, you name it,” said VerMeulen. She planned outings and study groups and was widely viewed as the heart of the horn studio during the late 1990s. Snell, though, felt off-measure in her life.
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