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St. Philip’s Episcopal Church

Sharing Joy, Hope, Love.

Music

Music is an integral part of worship at St. Philip’s and is one of the means by which we enter into the beauty of Holiness, where we listen to the Holy Spirit and experience the grandeur of God. The Anglican Church has a rich musical tradition. We honor this musical tradition, and we also explore music from other idioms, such as music from Taizé, Iona, and Contemporary music in Spanish and English. Our music reflects the many voices in our community—we are of many different ages, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with a common mission to bring glory to God through our music.

Our Director of Music and Liturgy, Christopher Harrell, oversees the various choirs and instrumentalists who provide music for our services. Our parish is affiliated with the Royal School of Church Music, and we incorporate the Voice for Life curriculum in our rehearsals, which is an excellent introduction to singing and reading music, both in the adult and children’s choirs.

Parish Choir

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The St. Philip’s Parish Choir sings at the 10 a.m. Eucharist on Sundays and for special liturgies throughout the year. The choir sings a varied repertoire of choral anthems, ranging from Byrd, Hancock, Howells, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Howells, and other composers, along with arrangements of African American Spirituals.

Throughout the year, the choir sings the psalm to Anglican chant or plainsong.  The various groups of choristers join the Parish Choir in singing for the 10 a.m. Eucharist on a regular basis throughout the liturgical year, following the Royal School of Church Music VOICE for LIFE program.  In 2013, St. Philip’s commissioned an anthem based on the George Herbert poem “Easter: Rise Heart” by composer Richard Webster in honor of the 10th anniversary of Christopher Harrell as Director of Music.

The Parish Choir rehearses each Wednesday from 7:30-9:00 p.m. and also at 9:00 a.m. before the 10:00 a.m. Eucharist.  The Handbell Choir rehearses Wednesdays from 6:30-7:15 using our three octave set of Schulmerich handbells.  Contact Christopher Harrellcharrell@saintphilips.net to learn more about opportunities to be part of the choirs at St. Philip’s.

Choristers

St. Philip’s has four ensembles of choristers that use the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) program as its model, including three groups at St. Philip’s School (3rd, 4th, 5th grade choristers) and a Parish Chorister Choir (grades 3rd through 12th) that rehearses after church on Sundays 11:15-11:45.  Through the chorister program, singers of all ages learn to love singing while learning music reading skills, solfege, with a solid theological grounding that will benefit them through their whole lives.  Music and singing are an important part of Christian formation, as the expression credit with St. Augustine states “He who sing prays twice.”

There are five levels in the Voice for Life program: white (preparatory level)
light blue,
dark blue,
red, and yellow.  Young singers begin with the white level, which teaches basic rhythms and five-note patterns.  At the light blue level, they will learn to sight sing in the keys of C, G and F major.  The dark blue level introduces more challenging musical intervals, dotted rhythms and keys with three sharps or flats.  This progresses through the red and yellow levels.  As students obtain the skills needed for each level, they wear the choir medals with the corresponding colored ribbon with the emblem of the Royal School of Church Music and St. Nicholas.

In April of 2015, our Fifth Grade Choristers sang Choral Evensong at Washington National Cathedral (pictured above).  In April 2016, our choristers will return again to the National Cathedral to sing Evensong.  In February 2016, St. Philip’s is hosting a Festival of Treble Voices for students from our sister Episcopal Schools to work with Mr. Michael McCarthy, Director of Music at Washington National Cathedral.  If you have questions about our chorister program, contact Christopher Harrell at charrell@saintphilips.net.

Concert Series

St. Philip’s host’s many concerts throughout the year as an outreach ministry to the community. The reverberant nave of St. Philip’s has excellent acoustics for music.

Each year, St. Philip’s host’s several concerts by the GRAMMY-nominated professional choral-orchestral chamber ensemble Seraphic Fire.  For ticket information for this season of Seraphic Fire concerts visit http://www.seraphicfire.org/about/

St. Philip’s also hosts concerts as part of the Tropical Baroque Festival presented by the Miami Bach Society each spring.  For information on these concerts visit http://www.miamibachsociety.org