Merton in America

Benjamin Nicholas and the Choir of Merton College, Oxford head stateside in September for concerts at St. Ignatius Loyola, New York and other historic venues
Tour programme includes Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor and works with strong royal connections in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee

Sacred choral music from both sides of the Atlantic will travel with the Choir of Merton College, Oxford on its first tour since before the Covid pandemic. Merton’s choral scholars and their Director of Music Benjamin Nicholas are bound for the United States this autumn to perform at the New York City Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue (15 September 2022). Their itinerary opens with Choral Evensong given jointly with Harvard University Choir at the Memorial Church of Harvard University (11 September), followed by a concert (12 September), and also includes performances at Trinity Church on the Green in New Haven (13 September) and Princeton University Chapel (16 September).

“Touring is very important to us on so many levels,” comments Benjamin Nicholas. “Our university terms are quite short, so working together in a concentrated way outside those three eight-week periods is invaluable to the choir’s musical development. It’s also hugely important socially for this age group. I think any of our choral scholars would say that touring is one of the advantages of being in a collegiate choir. We’ve missed that enormously since we last toured in December 2018. The new generation of Merton singers, who joined us in autumn 2019, has never been on tour as a group. That makes this US trip doubly important.”

Nicholas has chosen works that bring out the best from his singers and are sure to connect with the choir’s American audience. His compelling programme includes the motet Senex pueram portabat and again (after ecclesiastes), respectively by New York-based composers Nico Muhly and David Lang. The latter work, a setting of Hebrew verses freely adapted by the composer from the Book of Ecclesiastes, unfolds as a short meditation on the strands of hope and futility woven into the pattern of natural and human cycles. The choir is also set to perform English sacred works with impeccable royal connections, chosen to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.

Merton College Choir’s concert bill opens with the Mass in G minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Creed from which was performed at the Queen’s coronation service in 1953. O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth and Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei, majestic masterworks by William Byrd and Henry Purcell, evoke the golden age of music from England’s Chapel Royal. They are prefaced by Ave Regina caelorum, originally written in 2014 by

today’s Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir, to celebrate the 750th anniversary of Merton College and included in the Merton Choirbook, a compendious collection of new choral compositions. The royal theme runs through the programme’s second half in the form of Bring us, O Lord by William Harris, organist of St George’s Chapel Windsor, who taught piano to the young Princess Elizabeth and was assistant conductor at her coronation, and Hubert Parry’s I was glad, performed at every coronation since Edward VII’s in 1902.

Nicholas and his choir recorded an album of contemporary American music shortly before the pandemic began. It is scheduled for future release on the Delphian label. “We haven’t had the chance to sing our new American repertoire in concert, so I chose two representative, neatly contrasting pieces from the recording for our tour,” comments Merton’s Director of Music. “The Muhly and Lang works make a very good fit with the rest of the programme.”

The next Merton College Choir album, scheduled for release by Delphian on Armistice Day, 11 November 2022, couples Ian Venables’ Requiem with anthems for choir and orchestra by Herbert Howells. Venables added orchestral parts to his Requiem setting, first performed two years ago with organ accompaniment, which receives its debut recording here in company with the world premiere recording of his anthem God be merciful. The album also includes the first recording of Howells’ The House of the Mind in its version for choir and orchestra, and premiere recordings of newly orchestrated versions of O pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks.

“This is an exciting time for Merton College Choir,” says Benjamin Nicholas. “We’re busy making recordings and looking forward to our tour to the States. This is on top of our regular work of singing Evensong every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday in Merton Chapel. This will be the choir’s fourth tour to the USA since its formation in 2008. I know from past experience that they are a great way to build morale, raise standards and reach new audiences.”

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US TOUR 11-16 September 2022

Sunday 11 September 2022, 4pm
Memorial Church of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (Choral Evensong sung jointly with Harvard University Choir) Event link

Monday 12 September 2022, 12.15pm
Memorial Church of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Event link

Tuesday 13 September 2022, 7.30pm
Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, CT

Thursday 15 September 2022, 7pm
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York City (also to be live-streamed) Event link

Friday 16 September 2022, time TBA Princeton University Chapel, NJ

Benjamin Nicholas conductor, organ | Choir of Merton College, Oxford

Vaughan Williams Mass in G minor (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus & Benedictus, Agnus Dei) Lionel Rogg Air from Homage to Takemitsu (organ solo)
Judith Weir Ave Regina Caelorum

Byrd O Lord, make thy servant Elizabeth
Purcell Jehova, quam multi sunt hostes mei
David Lang again
Duruflé Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons (organ solo) Nico Muhly Senex pueram portabat

William Harris Bring us, O Lord Parry I was glad

THE CHOIR OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD

The Choir of Merton College consists of 30 undergraduate and graduate students at Oxford University reading for degrees in a variety of subjects. The choir's primary duty is singing regular services in the famous 13th-century Chapel.

Since the establishment of Merton’s Choral Foundation in 2008, the choir has gained an international reputation for offering the best of choral music through tours, recordings and broadcasts. The choir won the 2020 award for best choral album at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for its recording of Gabriel Jackson’s The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The choir’s discography on the Delphian label has seen numerous five-star reviews and many recordings have been named ‘Editor’s Choice’ by Gramophone magazine.

The choir has recently appeared at The Three Choirs Festival, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the concert series at St John’s Smith Square, Cadogan Hall and The Temple Church. The choir is regularly heard in concert with orchestra: recent collaborations have seen the choir perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Elgar’s The Apostles), Instruments of Time and Truth (Bach’s St Matthew Passion) and Oxford Baroque (Bach’s Mass in B minor). The choir’s annual festival, Passiontide at Merton, has an established place in Oxford’s musical calendar, and has led to exciting collaborations with such groups as The Cardinall’s Musick and The Marian Consort.

Merton College Choir regularly tours overseas, recently visiting the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore, France, Italy and Sweden. In 2017, the choir sang the first Anglican Service in St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

The choir’s commitment to contemporary music has seen numerous composers write for the choir. It has premiered works by Kerry Andrew, Birtwistle, Chilcott, Dove, Ešenvalds, Frances-Hoad, Kendall, MacMillan, McDowall, Rutter, Tabakova and Weir. In 2021, the choir gave the world premiere of a new work by Daniel Kidane.

Earlier this spring, Friends of the Green distributed sunflower seeds in solidarity with Ukraine.

We want to see and share your sunflowers! Images should be emailed to friendsofthegreennewhaven@gmail.com email. If you would like photo credit, please say so in your email.

Joan’s Clothing Closet, part of Loaves and Fishes, offers clothing to our guests each Saturday morning. We are now experiencing a dearth of clothing. We are in great need of women’s and men’s summer casual clothes: short sleeved tops and Tshirts, men’s and women’s shorts, new underwear for both genders, jeans. We also give out bed linens, towels and toiletries. Delivery can be before 9 AM each weekday morning and from 7-10AM Monday through Saturday. This is an important mission for those who come to us –often after sleeping outside or in insecure locations. Delivery is best in the St. Paul & St. James undercroft –down the driveway to the kitchen door. Thank you!

Volunteer sandwich-makers needed! Come make sandwiches for Chapel on the Green parishioners at 12:30 on Sunday in the undercroft! All supplies will be provided—we just need some extra hands. Depending on how many people we have, it shouldn’t take more than an hour. It’s July 4th weekend, so if you’re in town and could help, that would be incredible!   Please email Lisa at cotg@trinitynewhaven.org for more information or to sign up!

PROGRAM

Sinfonia from Cantata 29 - J.S.Bach ( 1685-1750)  Transcription  Daniel Ficarri (b.1996)
Laudate Domine - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  (1756-1791)

Pie Jesu from Requiem  - Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)
Pie Jesu from Requiem- Gabriel Fauré (1845- 1924)

Prelude Modal -Jean Langlais (1907- 1991) 
Salve Regina -Giacomo Puccini (1858- 1924)
I Hate Music! from I Hate Music!  -Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
I'm a Person Too from I Hate Music! - Leonard Bernstein

Alleluia from “Exsultate, Jubilate" -  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart  Transcription  Daniel Ficarri 

Berceuse - Louis Vierne (1870-1937)
Carillon De Westminster - Louis Vierne 

Biography

Colombian soprano, LUISA FERNANDA TORRES, praised for her “big, attractive, dramatic voice” (Voce di Meche), has been seen on stage performing the roles of Mother in Hansel and Gretel, Pamina and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Mimi in La Bohème and most recently originated the role of Malka at the world premiere of The Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto. After her early training as a violinist, Luisa continued her studies at Rutgers University, the Universität Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria), the Conservatorio di musica A. Pedroll (Vicenza, Italy) and with tenor Marcello Nardis in Rome.

In addition to singing in recitals throughout the NY/NJ area, she has made appearances at the InFondi Music Festival (Fondi, Italy) and Angels Vocal Art Festival (Los Angeles, CA), performed as a featured artist in the internationally acclaimed Macerata Opera Festival (Macerata, Italy) and made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist. As an active liturgical musician, Luisa serves as cantor for parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdioceses of New York and Newark and is the Director of Music at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Paterson, in her native New Jersey.

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Jeremiah (Jerry)  Mead is a second  year graduate student of Dr. Chris Young in the Masters of Music Organ and Sacred Music program at The Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University) Jerry was awarded the “Artistic Excellence Award” scholarship at Jacobs. Jerry is a native of Madison, Connecticut, and studied organ with Mr. Paul Jacobs at The Juilliard School in New York City, Dr. Ezequiel Menéndez at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, Connecticut and Dr. Andrew Kotylo here at Trinity. He studied piano with Ms. Victoria Reeve of Guilford, Connecticut, and Ms. Laura Richling of Hamden, Connecticut. He sang for ten  years as a member of the Men and Boys choir here at Trinity. 

Jerry has performed at various locations in New York, including  Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Marble Collegiate Church and Hitchcock Presbyterian Church. He has given solo organ recitals at many Connecticut venues, including The Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford, Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Stamford, Christ Church in Guilford. Jerry is looking forward to  his solo performance at The National City Christian Church in Washington, D.C. in May of 2023. 

Jerry serves as the Director of Music and Organist at the First Presbyterian Church, Bedford, Indiana.When Jerry is not at the organ, you may see him photographing trains around the area or spending time at the Columbus Area Model Railroad Club in Columbus, Indiana.

This week, Walden has been using his special magic with 28 lucky boy choristers from across the country as the Director of Music at the inaugural session of the Royal School of Church Music Boys Course in Dallas! If you know a boy in Connecticut who loves music, contact Rachel (rsegger@trinitynewhaven.org) to explore the unique opportunity to sing with Walden regularly in the Trinity Boys Choir!

On Sunday, June 12th, we need your help to make and serve sandwiches at Chapel on the Green! We will gather at 12:30 pm in the undercroft to assemble approximately 100 sandwiches. Trinity will provide the supplies—all you have to do is show up! If you would like to make cookies or bring something else special for the Chapel on the Green parishioners, you are welcome to do that. As always, the service will take place at 2:00 pm, lunch will happen at 2:30, and cleanup happens between 3:00 and 3:30 pm. We would love to have you with us for any part of that process. If you are interested in volunteering with us on June 12th, please contact Lisa Levy, Outreach Coordinator, at cotg@trinitynewhaven.org. Thank you!

Going on a pilgrimage has always been about finding a way of renewal, healing and restoration by walking to and visiting a sacred site. After two years of this pandemic, God knows we are all ready for renewal. In a way, we have all been pilgrims during this time of hardship, struggling to make our way through the fog of pandemic rules, virus fears, and, for those of us who contracted the virus, charting our path toward recovery.

Our Trinity pilgrimage to France from June 14-28, 2023 will connect with this basic desire for renewal, but unlike an ordinary pilgrimage, the focus will not be on merely reaching sacred sites, carrying backpack and camera. Rather, this pilgrimage will focus on sensory inspired contemplation, as suggested by Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

Find out more at an informational meeting, in the church’s undercroft on Sunday, June 12, after the 10:30am service. Come and see, listen and learn about a sampling of sites we will visit, such as Paris, Chartres, Vézelay and Taizé. Our meeting will be accompanied by a sampling of French pastries! This pilgrimage concept is conceived as a small group travel format. The maximum number of participants, therefore, is set at 25 people. Pricing per person will be +/- $3000.00. (Airfare is additional.)

Suffering and Remembering

Adult Education Theme for June 2022

Charles Lemert

This coming Sunday we will be at the eve of Memorial Day. Other modern nations may celebrate Victory Day as Russia did, ludicrously, earlier this month. France celebrates Bastille Day; Canada celebrates Canada Day. But none other, so far as I know, celebrates a Memorial Day as we do. But what are we remembering on Memorial Day? The Day began shortly after the Civil War in which some 865,000 soldiers were killed—more than in any war since. Not a community North or South was untouched by death. Drew Gilpin Faust, an historian of the Civil War, wrote The Republic of Suffering, a book that concludes: “We all live in the world of death the Civil War created.”

Suffering and Remembering are, obviously, central to Christian thought. I will take this as the theme for my sermon on May 29 but with special attention to the place of suffering and remembering in American culture. The Sunday after, June 5 at 9:30, Bob Sandine and I will begin a month-long Adult Education course covering Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and John Brown—and their roles is representing different versions of Christian thinking about slavery and the suffering it entailed.

Selma Nancy Oxford was born into the world to the Rev. Heidi Thorsen and Will Oxford on May 25, 2022 at 4:47pm. Everyone is healthy, tired, and happy. Prayers are welcome as Heidi begins maternity leave for some important time with family! Many thanks to all those who have helped them along the journey, including the wonderful staff at Yale New Haven Hospital and our Trinity community.

We are pleased to announce that applications for the Justina O. Anako Memorial Scholarship are now open to all women of color bound for STEM fields.

Started in 2021, the Justina O. Anako Memorial Scholarship is a $1,000 grant awarded annually to a graduating high school senior planning to enroll in college to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) or an undergraduate majoring in a in STEM field of study. Student must identify as a woman of color and can renew the scholarship if the listed requirements are met.

We are tremendously grateful for the generosity of the Anako family for honoring Justina's legacy through this program. Applications are due July 1st. Please spread the word and share this application widely!

Apply here: https://www.trinitynewhaven.org/the-justina-o-anako-memorial-scholarship

We will begin our Summer Worship Schedule at Trinity on Labor Day weekend, starting Sunday, May 29. Note the following changes:

Sundays

7:45am – Quiet Eucharist, Rite I

10:30am – Community Eucharist, Rite II

2pm – Chapel on the Green

*note: 9am Morning Prayer and 5pm Music and Prayer services will resume in the fall

Wednesdays

The 12:10pm Wednesday Eucharist will go on hiatus starting June 1, until the fall

We wish you safe travels, rest, and meaningful worship, whatever your summer plans may be – and we hope to see you around Trinity this summer!

You've heard this one before: rising COVID numbers have forced a change of plans! Your family's health and safety come first so instead of meeting in the Undercroft for Sunday Spark (School), we'll be meeting at this New Haven park for play and prayer instead: College Woods: East Rock (The address of the park is 41-125 Cold Spring St., New Haven, CT 06511.)

9 a.m. - 10 a.m., Sunday, May 15

Vaia will join us to play with the kids as the adults sip, chat, and pray. Juice, water, coffee and breakfast goodies will be available for your family at 9:00 a.m. -- look for Angela near the playground. Please bring a chair(s).

Dr. Susan Alsamarai, Trinity parishioner and mom of two, will lead this free, 6-week discussion based on the book, "The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times." All are welcome to join us at the Woodbridge Library on Thursday evenings through June 23, 6:30-7:30 PM. If you are interested in attending, please contact Angela: family@trinitynewhaven.org.

In response to increasing local COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the CDC now indicates that the New Haven area is now an area of relatively high risk. Trinity on the Green will now recommend — but not require — masking for all those attending services and other functions in person. We hope that summer weather will help tamp down on this newest rise in COVID cases and that we will be able to relax these heightened recommendations soon. In the meantime, we’ll handle this as we have handled the rest of the pandemic: together, physically or otherwise, and confident in our community and our church.

Teens and Adults: Serve the children of our community by volunteering at our Vacation Bible Camp from Aug. 1-5, 8:15 AM to 12:45 PM daily at Trinity. Teens: This is a great opportunity to earn Service Hours for your high school. Contact Angela for details; no pressure, just information! family@TrinityNewHaven.org

This week, many people have been impacted by the news of possible changes to the legal decision of Roe v. Wade, which has protected women’s reproductive rights since 1973. These issues of unborn life, childbirth, abortion, and legal access to abortion are especially heavy in light of Mother’s Day, this coming Sunday.

Our faith is a resource for how to approach these difficult matters of sanctity of life, freedom of conscience, and gender equality – reminding us to place love of God and love of our neighbors at the forefront of how we live and pray. Other resources include past resolutions of General Convention, the governing body of the Episcopal Church (see below). These statements both affirm the sacredness of life and the need for special care to see that individual conscience is honored and protected:

• Summary of General Convention Resolutions on Abortion and Women’s Reproductive Health

• Resolution #1994-A054

Please know that the clergy and pastoral care staff are available for further prayer and emotional support. We also offer this prayer:

Loving God, ground us with a sense of wonder for the sacredness of all human life. Help us to be attentive to the needs of pregnant people, so that we may support their health in body, mind, and spirit. Give us wisdom to pursue just legislation that opens doors for compassionate care, while honoring the complexity of human decisions. May the power of your resurrection be a source of strength, healing, and renewal; in the name of God who made us, loves us, and walks on this journey with us. Amen.

Trinity Book Group is meeting via Zoom on Monday, May 9th at 7:30pm to discuss The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. The first line of the book is ‘My name is Anna, the wife of Jesus’. It provides a woman centered version of the New Testament.

Our end of year pot luck is on Sunday, May 29that 4pm at the home of Veronica and Dieter Soell. We will be discussing Pullitzer prize winning March by Geraldine Brooks, a powerfull love story set against the backdrop of the civil war. We are excited at the prospect of meeting in person for the first time since last June

If you would like to know more about either of these events please contact Jenny Briggs jenniferobriggs@gmail.com