Rod+Kettlewell

A New Event -- on Wednesday, "The Music of Holy Week and Easter"

Many of you have met and will remember Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell as the composer of our service music. Canticle 9 (Ecce Deus), Benedictus, Sanctus etc. were commissioned by Bernie Reisenauer in memory of her husband Bill. As we started to figure out what the music could be, we asked Rod that it should be both ancient and American, and have a touch of the jazz Bill loved. We asked that it should be profound, and get more profound each time it was sung.

When Rod came to introduce the music to us, I had already heard it, but not in context of the people of St. Paul's who would sing it. He is a masterful musician who gets more joy out of the participation and voices of the most ordinary singers than anyone I know. Those two evenings were magical. And did he achieve the commission we gave him? Well, I cannot wait to sing our Alleluia at Easter again, so I think he did. More than that, Angie Parsons, whom a number of you will know, tells me she sings the Canticle every night as she heads for bed -- "Surely it is God who saves me, I will trust in him and not be afraid."

On Wednesday 27th March next week, at 6:30, accompanied by desert, Rod will lead us in some music that will carry us through Holy Week and Easter, songs that we will sing together on that night and all the way through Easter Sunday. And there may be a new piece of music written for us too… we'll have to wait and see.

This is the sort of evening that only occurs once every 10 years. Don't miss it!

[Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell is a renowned composer, choral director and pianist. A graduate of the Guildhall, London, and Julliard, his range is wide; he has performed at Carnegie Hall, and in Minnesota with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Symphony. At one point he was musical assistant to Bobby McFerrin! He lives and works in Boston with his wife Marilene.]