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Dear Choir Alumni Families,

I want to update you on a new musical opportunity for your high schooler who loves to sing!

For years I’ve wanted a way to offer something fun and musically rewarding for our graduates and high school age young people. We have started slowly and now, working with Micaela and Mr. Mahabir at the new High School Division of Grace Church School, I think we are in a place to move to the next level and see what develops. So here goes:

• Here’s what we envision: The new offering will be open to all Alumni of the Grace Church Choir and members of Grace Church currently in High School and to all students attending the High School Division of Grace Church School. Other High School students are welcome to apply to join, they just need to contact me with their parents’ permission.

• Initially, our High School singers will participate as part of the Girls’ Choir. Young ladies singing either soprano or alto and young men singing either alto, tenor or bass all depending on where voices are in their development. Singers will get the added experience of working alongside our professional adult singers in the same way members of our historic shaving club have done for the past several years. This solution allows all high school young people to be together and won’t require us to split up young men and women.

• Our plan is to get started this year and make adjustments and tweaks as we go along. Whatever we develop must continue to uphold the traditions of the existing choir program that make it so exceptional.

The plan is to hold one-hour rehearsals on Sunday afternoons after church and lunch roughly twice a month when the singers are already present to sing at the 11 a.m. service. The rehearsals will be run by Mr. Fergus, our new organ scholar, who is working on his Master’s degree at Yale. Once we see who comes together to form this new group Mr. Mahabir and I will see if we can find a time during the school day for an additional regular rehearsal. I hope it can happen but think the Sunday after church idea the best to start as it also lets our friends who attend other schools be with us wholly as part of the group.

Please let me know if your High School Student wants to give it a try. If we get good responses we could have lunch and a first rehearsal on 21 September and get them singing on Sunday as early as 5 October. The Sunday commitment for the fall semester would cover the following days:

October 5
October 19
November 2
November 9
November 23
December 14 (Girls only, Britten Evensong, Boys could help with candles and ushering)

I’m very excited about this coming together and hope we can build some great energy to start this new musical endeavor at Grace Church.

With all my love, Patrick