The value of residency
Dear Friends—
Last week, I wrote about the invitation for the Saint Nicholas Choir and Schola Cantorum to serve as the Visiting Choir at Wells Cathedral in July of 2022. This week, I want to offer a fresh perspective as to why this opportunity is so important for our youths.
Why support this cause? Well, just have a look at the picture of our choristers from the last residency at Ely Cathedral. Can you imagine what it was like for our youngest choristers to work in such a place? I hope for them to tell you in the weeks to come, but for the moment, I’ll try to communicate it:
It was both overwhelming, and strangely familiar. Our choir was welcomed into the cathedral and told to make it their home. We rehearsed daily (usually twice) in the tiny Singing School and sang full services in the choir stalls and in the magnificent Lady Chapel during most days of a full week.
At each service, we would line up outside the School door and the Dean would pray over the service and our choristers, who were often quivering with excitement and a sense of occasion. Then, the Verger — consummate professional liturgists that they are — would smartly ring the bell, and we would march with utter seriousness through the great lantern crossing and rood screen, taking our place in elaborate wooden stalls in the choir. An electric current surged through the air between us and the locals who came to worship. Only when the first notes had been sung was the charge transformed into a surge of momentum that carried us through the liturgy.
It was just another day at Ely Cathedral, like thousands before it, where daily services had been sung for centuries — yet we felt the joy of offering those prayers!
Singing in such an acoustically live and historically active center of worship, culture, and learning flung our spirits to profound heights — heights we could actually discern in the lofty arches and columns above.
Musically, you could say we were in heaven, but at the same time, our work anchored us to the earth. After all, this was the same music the choristers had learned over months and years, that they had grown to love, and to associate with Saint Philip’s, with worship, and with you all. Now, these young people were able to connect their work to the very places where that music had been birthed, and where it had been sung for centuries.
That’s powerful. That’s ecclesiastical “staying power” you can’t create easily. This kind of experience cements young people to the church, and that’s what we are in real danger of losing altogether in our time. So, I would say that your support of this choral program can make a lasting difference!
Of course, our choir could not have gone to Ely Cathedral without the generous support of donors from our congregation, for which we give our humble yet effusive thanks! You blessed our young people tremendously, and they are better for your kindness.
Dr Justin Appel, Director of Music
