Choral Festival will bring the best voices of Buffalo together

The Church Musicians’ Guild will host a Choral Festival that will unite some of the diocese’s best voices in celebration of liturgical singing. The April 21 concert will be held at St. Louis Parish in downtown Buffalo beginning at 5 p.m.

Featured performers include St. Joseph Cathedral Choir led by Tim Socha, St. Louis Choir under the direction of Frank Scinta, Queen of Heaven Choir with Kevin Capanyola, Blessed Trinity Choir with Elizabeth Clay, and The St. John Paul II Schola Cantorum, an a capella choir in the Catholic tradition led by Steven Quebral.

Each choir will perform two or three songs, then will join together along with some individual singers for a finale of 100 voices.

“We can accomplish more in greater numbers,” said Bill Fay, interim director of the Church Musician’s Guild and music director at Fourteen Holy Helpers.

Festivals such as this have been a part of the Church Musicians’ Guild dating back to the 1940s. Every few years the guild would sponsor a festival “in celebration of liturgical music and as a means of getting choirs to know each other’s repertoires and for choruses to meet each other from other churches,” according to Scinta.

“A choral festival like this, one of our aims would be to inspire parishes to do this kind of music, to have choirs,” said Quebral. “Vatican II said choirs should be diligently fostered. That hasn’t really happened the way the counsel fathers would have liked. It’s gone the other way. Choirs are disappearing. So, a choral festival like this we hope will inspire parishes and other music directors and singers to participate. And if they hear the beauty and inspirational nature of this kind of singing together, hopefully they will be inspired to carry that on in their own parishes.”

The mission of Schola Cantorum is to “preserve and promote the great treasures, as Vatican II said, of the Catholic Church. We don’t want this music to be relegated to the concert hall, museums, archives. This is music that should be heard, and should be used in the liturgy,” explained Quebral.

St. Louis Parish, the mother church of the diocese, was chosen due to its hard surfaces, long narrow nave, and high ceilings offering sensational acoustics.

“Choirs sound much better in resident acoustics,” explained Fay. “A lot of our contemporary churches are carpeted and acoustical choirs don’t sound as well in those. Also, St. Louis has a beautiful grand piano which will be utilized. And the pipe organ has been extant for over 100 years. It was made by the Kimball Company in Chicago. It’s been refurbished and it has a wonderful romantic sound.”

The guild’s 150 members hope the performance gives the audience a greater appreciation for choral music and an understanding of the hard work that these mostly volunteer choirs do to create liturgical beauty.

“We hope the audience will help support the growth of music ensembles in the parishes,” Scinta said.

There is no charge for the festival. A free will offering will be accepted.Listen to Michael Mroziak’s report: