So . . . she's paid for a gig where she can rehearse live before an audience?

You may need to appeal to her vanity.

The bottom line is that it appears she isn't doing her job, nor is she serving the church to the best of her abilities. That should be your angle to Fr. Donation or not, if she isn't doing the job well, it needs to be considered that she participate less or not at all if she cannot reconcile her attitude. That doesn't sound very Christ like but your job is to consider the service of the church as a whole. If there is an individual detracting from that, it must be remedied. Always remember, even though you must listen to the opinions of others, you do not have to act on them. If this cantor has suggestions that she expects you to implement, she can go find her own music program.

Charles is catching my drift....

MONEY... it's either a blessing or a curse

If her participation in rehearsals is a help to the choir, remind her of that too.

Choir is a team sport. Rehearsal isn't about the individual- it's about the group. Sure, she can learn her music, but what is she learning? Just notes. Making music w/ others is more than knowing the notes. Not coming to rehearsal means she's missing out on important interpretative information you may give (when to breathe, for example) and she's also missing out on that "magical something" (I don't have a name for it) that happens when a group sings together and just... "jells". I recommend explaining this to her in a way that inspires her to want to be part of the team.

Thank you for your responses. I did finally speak with the the pastor who agreed that she was being quite a diva. His answer was to start looking for a replacement and in the meantime, leave her off the schedule as much as possible. I do have a couple other cantors with huge hearts and desires to serve who recently approached me, so the new schedule is out and Little Miss Know It All and Doesn't Have to Come to Rehearsals has been given few masses over the next few months. Father also feels that doing it this way may cause her to re-think her participation anyway and she'll leave on her own when she realizes she's not the alpha and omega of our music ministry.

Arrg. Steve Q. beat me to the infamous A.I. clip.

Perhaps baking her some muffins or giving a small bribe would encourage her to show up for practice. Even if it doesnt work perhaps you can recommend them to some other skilled singer besiders her who will show up again and again and eat them.

:-)

I'm reminded of that great self-styled diva who rented Carnegie Hall out of her own pocket to give a concert for her closest friends.

Of course, I mean Florence "Flo-Jo" Foster Jenkins.

http://youtu.be/V6ubiUIxbWE

Even she practiced.

Tell her the rehearsal is part of her job; she is needed at the rehearsal; as a strong voice, she is an essential part of the ensemble, you cannot achieve a proper ensemble without her.

Professor Mahrt, with the one I have, I can't achieve a proper ensemble with her there: she's such a loud voice, and not a team player.

My diva is mad at me because I wouldn't transpose the offertory hymn for her.

Because they fulfill a valid and necessary function.

And, of course, song leaders and cantors are quite distinct species. The former have no place or legitimacy in Catholic worship. The latter do.

So when you are using material from By Flowing Waters or one of Andrew Motyka's Communion antiphons, who sings the verses?

Or you "volunteer" a choir member to do the job based on ability.

A volunteer choir member or the director, from the loft.

I don't think there's anything wrong with singing the psalm from the ambo, (I used to shlep down and back three flights of stairs, singing and playing weddings,) but that's an exception - the loft, if there is one, is a better, less visually distracting place for most of the music ministry, most of the time.

What do you call a screen behind the chancel from which some choirs sing? (I know a rood screen is at the front of the nave, does the kind in back have a name?)
That's not a bad place for verse singers of whatever title to sing from.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Unlike little children who are to be seen and not to be heard, singers at Mass are perhaps (and often) to be heard and not to be seen?

I would never put my choir in front. They are too badly behaved and are resistant to any attempts to change them. LOL.

The choir at my local Anglican Use parish sings from the loft, and they appear to be quite well behaved. ;)

Our actually has huge doors that separate it from the nave. They must be opened for the choir to sing into the church during Mass. It is also in an incredibly awful organizational state as they have children's liturgy of the word up there on Sundays. We're I the director of music for the entire parish and not just the school, I would definitely get my adult choir up there. The issue is also one of line of sight between the choir and the organist, as there is no gallery organ, just in a chamber up front behind the altar. The console is on the floor to the right. If there was an assistant director (or even just another organist) I could be either at the console or up in the loft with the choir. Bottom line is that in order to use the loft, we would need a second person to direct the choir during Mass. I don't dare take the children up there for obvious reasons.

"Choirs belong 'in choir', 'down front', in choir vesture and engaged totally in the liturgical action,"
That's fine if you have boys, or an adult male choir. And a sanctuary built for it. In both matters, "that ship left port a long time ago".
I haven't noticed "messing around" in the loft, anywhere I've been. There's always a tension between worshipping and singing, but that's functional, and doesn't change with where you're seated.

There's a general trend that an organ builder friend has observed: people are returning to the Church.

And what about in a huge church with no mics in the loft? I should just turn around and sort of yell the psalm while im playing?

I don't understand your question.
We were talking about cantors/psalmists, and choir placement.
If you are by yourself and required to sing and play at the same time and can't be heard, what do you do?

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Charles: I am puzzled by your remark above: when you say that your choir gallery is to the east, surely you don't mean over the sanctuary and altar??? Or, do you??? When I say east and west in reference to churches, I mean 'liturgical east', etc.