Our Lenten concert was a wonderful success, a very Spirit-filled evening of prayer and song. Thank you so much to all of you who were able to attend. Your presence means more to us than you can know.
One of the decisions that we and Jeff Bush, IHM's director of liturgy (and choir director), made early on in the planning of the concert was that more than just a concert, we wanted the event to be a prayer service for our community of faith, and we're confidently hopeful that we were able to achieve that. The only downside to this decision was that, unlike a traditional concert setting, there was never an opportunity to publicly acknowledge and thank the many people who volunteered to make last Saturday night possible. So we'd like to take a moment here to do just that and thank all the wonderful, generous people without whom the concert would not have happened.
First, a special thank you to Jeff Bush, IHM's director of liturgy and our choir director. From his behind the scenes work like printing tickets and programs to running the rehearsals and then to ultimately directing the choir and ensemble at the concert, Jeff did it all. We are so blessed to be able to work under his direction, and we very well might not have started collaborating on songwriting without his support and encouragement.
Thank you to the writers and speakers who contributed their time and talents on the spoken Gospel reflections: Fr. Stephen Vrazel, B.J. Abraham, Drew Denton, and Cory Labrecque. Each reflection was beautiful and moving, and they really helped tie each section to our overall theme of the Scrutiny stories from the Gospel of John.
Thank you to Paul Tate and Mark Scozzafave for writing the arrangements on several of the new songs we debuted. The music was beautiful, and frankly, concert or not, it's always fun to have an excuse to talk music with those guys.
Thank you to our sound technician, Brian Hutcheson, and to Jeff Brugger for recording the night's proceedings. And thank you to both of them for helping to pack up afterwards, an unsung task if ever there was one.
Thank you to our sound technician, Brian Hutcheson, and to Jeff Brugger for recording the night's proceedings. And thank you to both of them for helping to pack up afterwards, an unsung task if ever there was one.
And finally, thank you to all the musicians and singers in the IHM music ministry who contributed their time and talents to bringing this music to life. Several folks who couldn't participate in the performance still attended to help in other ways, like selling tickets and greeting visitors. What a glorious gift these individuals are to our parish! Now after weeks of preparation for this concert, these same folks will jump right into preparing for the Triduum. We are honored and privileged to work with such a talented and selfless group. Thank you all!
