When Christ Church Cathedral music director James Calkin reached out to clergy in the diocese to see if a parish would like to host the Cathedral choirs singing the Fauré’s Requiem, the Rev. Matthew Brown of the Parish of the Valley responded right away to say Holy Trinity Pembroke would love to host the choirs.
The clergy already had ample evidence that people in the parish and the wider community love sacred choral music. An advertised performance by a visiting choir from Christ’s College, Cambridge in July had phones at the church ringing non-stop, and it was a packed house for on the concert on that hot summer evening.
And when Calkin offered Nov. 11 as one of the possible dates, the Rev. Gillian Hoyer recounted: “We thought what better way to mark Remembrance Day in a military community than to offer this Requiem for All Souls with the music of Fauré’s Requiem sung by the combined cathedral choirs?”
Much planning and rehearsing later, the combined choir arrived in Pembroke on Nov. 11, including members from the girls and boys choirs, mens’ choir and the lay clerks. Hoyer estimated there were 35 to 40 altogether.
Remembrance Day services are always important services at Holy Trinity because of Pembroke’s deep connection with the military. “Many of our parishioners are veterans or are active members of the military… and right now our curate in the parish, the Reverend Claire Bramma, is in her two-year civilian posting before becoming a military chaplain herself,” said Hoyer.
More than $1,300 in donations were collected for Wounded Warriors Service Dogs. “We know that there are a lot of veterans in our communities who have been beneficiaries of that organization, and in the absence of a specifically local veterans’ charity, we wanted a veterans charity that has a local connection,” Hoyer explained.
The service was very well attended, and Hoyer said many parishioners said how moved they were to hear the music in a service as Faure intended.
Parishioner Lesley Lancaster wrote to thank the clergy for making the special service possible. “The level of musicianship totally blew us away and to be so close to the singers was a real joy. I have sung this requiem in the past and heard it in concert. Some movements were sung at my father-in-law’s funeral in 2001 by his church choir in England…but I have never heard it before as part of a full Requiem Mass and found it very moving.”
The Holy Trinity Anglican Church Women group went all out preparing a ham and turkey supper as thank you to the choirs before they travelled back to Ottawa.
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