Choirs in DC Area
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    A protegée of mine has moved to the DC area in the last year. She is finally getting settled and wants to join up with a choral ensemble, preferably an ensemble that actually sings for Mass and also sings Gregorian Chant and sacred polyphony. Someone has pointed her to two groups:

    Chantry
    Countertop Quartet (actually a larger, associated ensemble, not the quartet)

    If you all know anywhere this young lady might be welcome, I will only say that she is proficient at reading chant notation and knows her solfège quite well; she was trained at church by me and in college by a prominent choral director who believes firmly in solfege for instilling sight-singing skills. She is a recent college graduate. She is sweet and funny and very intelligent, also has an excellent attitude for ensemble. She sings soprano and is comfortable up to high B.

    Advice?
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    I know folks in both of those groups. Neither are liturgical choirs, but both are very good early music groups. Contact Michael Holmes at holmesms AT msn.com.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    I know both of these groups. As far as I know, CTQ has never sung for a Catholic Mass. Chantry does sing polyphony at special EF Masses a couple times a year. That said, and knowing the directors and their usual personnel, I would say both groups are more Anglican oriented than Roman.

    As for liturgical choirs in regular parishes, it is the usual mixed bag in the DC area. The only choir that sings Gregorian chant and Latin polyphony (of various periods) regularly and exclusively is St. John the Beloved, McLean, Virginia, which has a weekly EF Mass at noon on Sunday. DC's St. Matthew's Cathedral has an OF Latin Mass choir, which is probably still doing reasonably decent things. And, of course, the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has a long history of quality liturgical music, though they have not done much Gregorian chant over the years.
  • JDE
    Posts: 588
    We have only just started with chant ourselves in our parish, even though I have been trying for several years -- there is a lot of "pushback" against it from the usual suspects. So she is familiar with lots of different kinds of music - even sang in a blues band. So are you saying (generally) that McLean is the place to go for regular chant and polyphony?
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 835
    The Parish Choir at Saint Bernadette's Church in Silver Spring sing chant and polyphony every week at their OF Solemn Mass. The organist is superb, the acoustics excellent, and the three priests extremely supportive of excellent liturgy, music, and preaching. This Mass is packed with bright young single people and families who go there for the quality of what happens on Sunday mornings. You wouldn't expect this in a very ordinary suburban parish, but the pastor has moved the parish in this direction through careful, energetic cultivation.
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