From the Director of Liturgy and Music
Mark Steinbach, DMA
Organist and Choirmaster

“Tidings of Joy, a Christmas Choral Festival”  is the title of the Concert to be performed by the Choir of St. Paul’s Wickford, Dr. Mark Steinbach director, on December 9^th, celebrating 300 years of Music at St. Paul’s.

This not to be missed concert will feature the upbeat “Sinfonia Sacra” (Christmas Cantata) by New England Conservatory composer and director of music at Boston’s Kings Chapel,  Daniel Pinkham for brass, organ and chorus as well as the lush “Fantasia on Christmas Carols,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams for solo cello, organ and chorus.

An exciting new work  - “Harmonice Mundi” – has been commissioned and has been composed for our 300^th anniversary by Jesse Antin, a San Francisco composer.  Jesse was a soloist at St. Paul’s Purcell Festival in 1996, while still a student at Brown University.  The choir has sung his ‘Annunciation” in concert.  He has gone on to sing with the Grammy Award – winning group Chanticleer, and most recently founded a new early music group, Clerestory.

To quote the composer from the title page:

“Harmonice Mundi” – “the harmony of the world” – is the name of a book written in 1619 by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.  In it, Kepler attempts to explain the proportional motion of the sun, planets and stars by relating them to musical harmony.  This notion had been in circulation for over 2,000 years, most famously by the greek philosopher and scientist Pythagoras, and was also known as the “music of the spheres” – musica universalis.  According to Kepler, each celestial body produces a particular, sustained pitch in its orbit.

The text is an excerpt from the “newly discovered gospel of Judas”!

This concert promises to be a thought and ear – provoking spectacular not to be missed, which we wish to share with the wider community of North Kingstown and beyond in keeping with tradition in the ongoing 300 -  year history of St. Paul’s! 

The concert is to be held Saturday evening December 9 at 7:30PM at St. Paul’s Church, 55 Main Street, Wickford, RI. The church is handicapped accessible and child care will be available in the Parish Hall.  A reception will follow.  Tickets are $15, $10 seniors and students.  For information and tickets call the church office at 294-4357.