Saint Mary’s has a strong musical tradition and we’re blessed with the use of a beautifully restored Gern organ and two choirs, lead by our Organist and Director of Music, David Taylor.
Saint Mary’s is also the home of the Eastern Sydney Chamber Orchestra and Choir, part of the Waverley and Randwick Philharmonic Society, who rehearse in the church on Monday and Tuesday nights respectively and put on concerts throughout the year. They also join our choirs for the annual festival of Carols and Readings at Christmas.
The music ministry at Saint Mary’s centres on the two choirs: St Mary’s Choir and the Parish Singers.
Saint Mary’s Choir is a group who sing alternate Sundays to the Parish Singers, they also sing at special services, feast days and weddings. Singers in the Saint Mary’s Choir are all either semi-professional musicians or music students and Saint Mary’s provides the choir with four paid positions. The choir is pivotal to the music ministry at Saint Mary’s, taking a larger roll in the service: singing the psalm, a motet or anthem, leading the hymn singing and undertaking a different setting of the mass for each service. Repertoire ranges from the early renaissance to the twentieth century, including as you might expect, all the usual characters: Byrd, Victoria, Palestrina to Bairstow, Howells, and Stamford.
The Parish Singers sing, in general, every other Sunday at the 10am Mass and is open to all who are enthusiastic about singing and want to participate further in the worship. The Parish Singers mainly concentrate on hymn singing and leading the congregation but do also sing the occasional anthem or motet during communion. Rehearsals are every other Friday afternoon at midday.
If you are interested in joining St Mary’s Choir or the Parish Singers, please contact David Taylor to discuss and arrange an audition.