“(Catholic music) is steeped in tradition but sung in
different languages,” said Corinne Monogue, director of the
diocesan Office of Multicultural Ministries. “Why not make it
easily available to share with others in the diocese?”
Monogue said that she and her assistant, Elizabeth Tauke,
have the job of listening to “rich, moving and beautiful
Catholic music” from around the world. Together, they work
with African, Asian, Portuguese and Brazilian communities to
make their liturgical norms, including worship music,
possible in Arlington. Yet these celebrations cannot always
be shared with the greater Catholic community.
Hence Monogue’s plan for a diocesan Multicultural Choral
Concert, an effort that last occurred about 15 years ago.
This free event will take place April 25 at Bishop Ireton
High School in Alexandria.
When Monogue pitched the idea to Ireton earlier this year,
Pete Davey, the school’s directior of operations, immediately
agreed.
“This concert is about promoting diversity as part of the
school’s curriculum and formation,” said Davey, who expects
more than 220 performers and about 1,000 people in the
audience.
Those 1,000 may include any of Ireton’s 803 students and
their friends and families, plus members of the multicultural
communities represented that night.
Performers will include the Filipino Serenata Choir, Holy
Martyrs of Vietnam Choir, the Ghanaian Choir, Good Shepherd’s
Hispanic Charismatic Choir, Heartsongs: Tam Tinh Ca, St. Paul
Chung Korean Choir and St. Joseph’s Gospel Choir.
“The choirs will be performing songs that represent (their
communities) and their faith,” said Davey. “I’m just the geek
behind the scenes.”
Davey added that Ireton is well-equipped to produce
large-scale performances, with country singer Taylor Swift
performing there in 2009 after the school won a nationwide
texting contest.
While Ireton will oversee the concert’s production logistics,
the Office of Multicultural Affairs has organized choir
outreach and event promotion. Each choir will perform one or
two songs representative of its culture.
“We feel privileged as an African-American community to add
our voice to the musical gifts of the church,” said Eugene
Harper, director of the St. Joseph’s Gospel Choir of St.
Joseph Church in Alexandria. “It’s important for everyone to
hear these various sounds as a means not only to be educated
but to increase (their) faith.”
St. Joseph’s Gospel Choir will perform two songs – one
“surprise” song, as well as “Resurrection Jubilee,” an
African-American hymnal.
“I love (‘Resurrection Jubilee’) because it talks about the
resurrection,” said Harper, who grew up in Portsmouth, Va.,
when the South was still segregated racially. “It’s very
fitting during this time (of year), the apex of our faith.”
In addition to the African-Americans, Ghanaians, Koreans,
Filipinos and Hispanics performing, two Vietnamese choirs
will perform. Heartsongs: Tam Tinh Ca, directed by Thanh Le,
will sing “Con Co Mot To Quoc”(“I Have One Nation”),
while Holy Martyrs of Vietnam Choir, directed by Han Pham,
will perform “Psalm 23.”
“We would like (everyone) to feel (Psalm 23), even if we’re
singing in (Vietnamese),” said Pham. “It is well-known across
the world, composed by many different composers in different
rhythms.”
Pham, who studied at Saigon’s conservatory of music before
Vietnam’s 1975 fall to communism, directs nine other
Vietnamese Christian choirs in Northern Virginia.
Holy Martyrs’ performance will be accompanied by three or
four violinists, including Pham’s children and Nhu-y Tu, 26,
a youth group leader for the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth
Movement who began studying violin at age 9.
“I’m excited to hear participation from the other cultures
(because) Vietnamese worship music is totally different from
American worship music,” said Tu.
For the grand finale, all of the choirs will join voices in
singing “Celtic Alleluia.”
The National Repertoire and Standards Committee at the
American Choral Directors Association began reviewing
minority participation and inclusion in U.S. choirs starting
in 1979.
“In the ’70s and ’80s, there was a great push in diocesan
choirs (across the nation) to bring in Latinos (and other
multicultural groups),” said Grayson Wagstaff, dean of the
school of music at Catholic University in Washington.
Wagstaff pointed out that it is important for Anglo-American
Catholics not to generalize other ethnic groups and their
musical traditions. He cited the example that Mexican
mariachi music might not be enjoyed or appreciated in all
Spanish-language Masses, where the faithful may come from a
variety of countries and cultural backgrounds.
According to CARA, Georgetown University’s affiliated
research center on Cultural Diversity in the Catholic Church
in the United States, in 2010, about three in 10 U.S.
parishes reported celebrating one or more Masses a month in a
language other than English – a number that continues to grow
as immigrant populations, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic,
grow.
The choir members performing at Arlington’s Multicultural
Choral Concert agree that the evening will be about
education, faith and unity.
“The tapestry of our church is filled with many cultural and
ethnic identities from across the spectrums of the world,”
said Harper. “Many voices, many languages.”
The Multicultural Choral Concert will start at 7 p.m.
Stoddard can be reached at [email protected].
Find out more
To learn more about the Multicultural Choral Concert and the
Arlington Diocese’s multicultural choirs, call 703/841-3881
or email [email protected]. Follow @CDAcultures on
Twitter. Bishop Ireton High School is located at 201
Cambridge Road, Alexandria.
