MUSIC IN MARYLAND
Catonsville, Maryland, Monday, June 30, 2008

St. Mark’s-on-the-Hill

This past weekend has been a culmination of sorts for us in terms of music. Kathleen has been the interim music director at St. Mark’s-on-the-Hill Episcopal Church in Pikesville, Maryland, like Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore. (http://www.saintmarks.ang-md.org/) It is a beautiful old stone church with a very good pipe organ. The congregation is very multi-culti; in addition to “home-grown Americans” (I use this term because I am not sure if I mislead when I say “native Americans”; maybe I should say “native-born Americans”), probably a good half of the 80-100 worshippers in the congregation of a Sunday morning are from either West Africa (Nigeria, Liberia) or the Caribbean. This has been a wonderful mix of people whom we have come to cherish. (The mix of Anglican traditions was never more obviously or interestingly on display as at a double funeral at the church a few weeks ago. The deceased were a father and a daughter who by chance had passed away of illness in the same week. The family was from St. Thomas in the British West Indies.)

Kathleen has repeatedly said how she has loved being the church musician at St. Mark’s. The choir had dwindled over the years to next to nothing. With a new rector however, the super Reverend Adrian Dawson, the parish seems to be getting a new lease on life. It was going to take a while to find a permanent musician and they needed a temp. This fit perfectly with our own plans; we are in Maryland for the summer, will be travelling to Ontario in July for a family wedding and reunion and will be returning to Ecuador in September to take up our cruising life again. Yesterday was Kathleen’s last Sunday.

A permanent organist and choirmaster has been recruited and we hope he has a much enjoyment working in this parish as Kathleen. Of course, his task will be somewhat more difficult since, unless he can bring as many family members to church as Kathleen has done, his choir is going to be starting small. Yesterday for example, of the dozen singers present, seven were provided by the Blackwells (Kathleen’s parents, her sister and her niece) and the Birds (me and two of my children; Kathleen was the organist and conductor). Judging by the number of pre-schoolers in the church, I reckon there is the makings of a good children’s choir there in about three or four years. This is thinking long-term, of course, but they do eventually grow up to be adult singers.