An important ministry Teach Bhríde spearheaded back in Season I is music workshops. We usually host about three a year – one at the diocesan level and two at the parish level. Last weekend, Season V hosted their first parish-based workshop for a youth choir from the parish of Templetown/Poulfur. Normally we would travel out to the requesting parish for a workshop. However, they decided to travel out to Wexford to have us host it for them at Clonard. We were grateful to be on “home turf” for this first one so that we could really feel at ease with our surroundings.
The director, Paddy, had requested we teach them a couple of psalms, one for Advent and one for Christmas, and perhaps a Christmas hymn. Teach Bhríde has a wonderful working relationship with World Library Publications (WLP), and they graciously donate all of the music for our workshops. Paddy had told me that the older kids were very good at picking up music and teaching it to the others. In light of this, we decided to get them an entire book of psalms, Sing Out! A Children’s Psalter edited by Alan J. Hommerding, so that they would have several to learn and choose from over the liturgical year. The hymn we selected is a contemporary one, called We Behold Our King by Kimberly Wargo, arranged by Ed Bolduc. Since their group has a couple of guitarists and a banjo player, we wanted to pick something to highlight them, too. Jim, our good friend from Folk Group, graciously agreed to assist the banjo player during the workshop, since none of us have any experience playing or arranging for the instrument. The day chapel was jam-packed that afternoon, completed by Steve and Michele, who were still visiting.
Twenty-five members, aged 7-16, and several parent volunteers were there. (There are actually almost forty members in the choir!) It was a real treat for me, since I direct our own youth choir at Clonard, and therefore really enjoy working with this age group. I started out the workshop by leading the kids in some warm-ups, including my childhood favorite, “Mama Made Me Mash My M&M’s.” I even taught them my pop bottle-on-the-head posture trick that has become a favorite among the children of Kennedy Park. By the end of the short session, they really were taking to the various exercises.
I love to make funny faces during vocal warmups. (That makes for a pretty sound later!)
We took turns taking the lead on teaching the psalms and the hymn. Mary did a fabulous job working with some of the older girls on harmonies, while Cameron kept the instruments and singers together by working back and forth between the two. By the end of the hour, we had some of the older girls volunteering to come up and practice cantoring the new psalms, and the little ones were expertly navigating their octavos. They were even singing descants!
I couldn’t have been prouder of Teach Bhríde for the patience we all showed with the younger crowd. It’s not always easy to work at the pace of a child, and trying to teach three songs within the time constraint of an hour was a challenge we were anxious about. No, we didn’t get through everything in its entirety, but we gave them a good start on all of the pieces. There really wasn’t much more we could do, and we knew that they’d take the pieces home with them with the intent of working on them more.
Cameron’s checking in on the instruments, while Mary’s working with some of the older girls on learning a descant!
At the end of the day, it was really the kids who made the entire afternoon for us. During my closing remarks to them, three of the littlest ones came up and presented us with a tin of Cadbury Roses, (the best chocolates EVER,) as a “thank you” for the workshop. I just stopped mid-sentence and tried not to cry – such a simple gesture really moved me, and it reminded me of the immense wealth of musical knowledge we’ve been gifted with in order to help others participate in it, too. We share in music so routinely with Clonard that we sometimes forget that not all churches are as blessed as we are. Helping this already-established group make their Sunday worship a little musically stronger is so affirming. It’s one of the many ways that shows us our work here is doing greater good for people outside of our parish, too.
My favorite part of this story actually occurred almost a week later. While walking down the main shopping street in Wexford, I suddenly heard someone shout, “Joy, Joy!” I turned around to find a woman eagerly running towards me. I didn’t recognize her, which startled me – “Who is this lady and what does she want?!” was the thought running through my head.
As it turns out, she was one of the moms who had been at the workshop! She wanted to thank me, again, on behalf of the kids, and also wanted to share with me that, the day after the workshop, the kids began their Sunday morning rehearsal by warming up with “Mama Made Me Mash My M&M’s” and putting the imaginary pop bottles on their heads! They also took it upon themselves to teach the Advent psalm to the ones who couldn’t be at the workshop. The giddy grin on my face was all that the mom needed to see to know how pleased I was. She told me that what we had to offer them was truly a gift, and wanted us to know just how much they appreciated it from the bottoms of their hearts.
Our next workshop, coming up in February, is our diocesan-based one, which will include choirs from all over the Diocese of Ferns. The four of us have enthusiastically started planning for it, and I am especially eager to see what kind of a turnout we might receive. If we could assist one parish so significantly, I cannot even begin to fathom the good that might come out of working with several at once!
Peace,
–Joy.
P.S. A huge thanks to Steve and Michele for the photographs!
