Music Ministry

St. Vincent's Music Ministry currently involves many music volunteers who minister year round. A diverse variety of dedicated musicians call our worshippers to full and active participation in song at all seven Sunday Masses.

When one joins one of our music ministry ensembles, they find themselves welcomed as the newest addition to a musical family with a long tradition of service to the parish.  We have many opportunities for both vocalists and instrumentalists to add their talents to our worship. 

All we ask of a beginning vocalist is:

1. the ability to consistently "match pitch" with your voice to the others in your same voice section (i.e. be able to sing the exact same notes as the other vocalists in your section) "one choir - one sound."
2. eventually be able to accurately reproduce learned harmony parts amidst the other singers within an ensemble.
3. for all who minister in Music Ministry, each is expected to be a team player, partnering with all ... to accomplish a goal bigger than one's self - "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts." You will grow in your musical skills as you regularly invest your time rehearsing and singing at worship.

 

Admittedly, the music ministry will make demands on your time. You will enjoy learning alongside other singers who may also be beginners, or who may be experienced volunteers who may have had the benefit of extensive training.  At St. Vincent de Paul we try very hard to find a place for everyone who makes a commitment to regular participation in our music ministry.

St. Vincent de Paul's Music Ministry-who are we and what do we actually do? 

Each week subsets of our music ministry volunteers worship at our string of weekend Masses. Our larger ensembles worship at the Sunday 9, 11 am, and 3 pm Masses; yet some musicians will be present at every weekend Mass, and some volunteers will even serve at multiple weekend Masses. For seasonal celebrations, musicians from all groups are invited to join into single large ensembles for the celebrations of Christmas, Holy Week, Easter, other parish worship events during the year, and are frequently invited to minister in music outside our parish in the Archdiocese.

Saturday 5 pm and Sunday 7, 9, 11 am , 1pm; and first Sunday Night Prayer 7:30 pm are sung with the music of Taizé: First, we currently have 50-60 music volunteers at St. Vincent, who might bring one or multiple skills to the table, participating from seasonally to multiple times per Sunday, at five of our seven Sunday Masses (Sat. 5pm, Sun. 7, 9, 11am and 1pm), and at our first Sunday Night Prayer (7:30 pm) sung with the music of Taizé.

Rehearsals for these worship events are: 
 

1. the weekly inter-ensemble rehearsal Thursday 7-9 pm
2. plus a 30 min pre-Mass/Night Prayer rehearsal specific to each of the worship events listed here. 

 
Sunday 3 pm Spanish Mass: Add to those musicians who faithfully support our worship in Spanish each week, at our 3 pm Sunday Mass, who are directed by Ms. Beatriz Dutari
(abdutari@earthlink.net).

Sunday 5 pm Life Teen Mass: Add to those a three to five piece worship ensemble that supports the music at our 5 pm Life Teen Mass.
 
St. Vincent de Paul School Choir: And finally, add to the above another 45-55 school students from our parish school. Our award winning school choir sings for school liturgies and performs for various Sunday events throughout the school year. In addition to participating in contests, they completed a trip to Italy, during the 2012 Christmas season, singing in St. Peter’s, and St. Eustache in Rome, and the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. Again, the SVdP school choir went to Rome for the Pueri Cantores 40th International Festival for Christmas of 2015-2016. 

Taizé Night Prayer 7:30 pm every first Sunday of the month: Night Prayer is Compline from the Liturgy of the Hours for Sunday night, sung on first Sunday of each month, year round; sung with the contemplative music of the monastic community of Taizé in France, and others. People of all faiths are welcome. First Sunday Night Prayer concludes with a candle light procession, in the twilight of sunset, and typically ends with the chanting of the Salve Regina by all.

Cantors support the assembly in their musical worship at all Masses. Typically, our cantors are also members of the specific music ministry ensembles at each Mass. There are several volunteers within each music ensemble who are also trained as cantors to lead congregation in song. 

Our mission most simple:

Volunteers work to call forth song from the assembly, at our community’s worship. The Church asks of her musicians that their primary work always be to call the Assembly to full and active participation with their song. Thus, each of us who minister in music must ever embrace this holy work as our first responsibility; ... and thus the choir "can never just be about the choir." Yet no less, each singer still must ever work to become skilled in "creating musical beauty within a communion of perfectly balanced voices" ... that their music inspire the prayer of God's people at worship.

Our successes are in no small part due also to the presence, wisdom, faith and support of our pastor Msgr. Bill Young, who most personally embraces the quest for sung worship as the living prayer of his flock.

St. Vincent de Paul's Music Ministry can extend beyond our parish boundaries; yet our mission remains focused on humbly serving our Lord’s people within worship. In October 2008, we were invited by the Knights and Ladies of the Holy Sepulcher to sing Night Prayer with the music of Taizé at their gathering of the Southwestern Lieutenancy in Houston. In May of 2008 and 2010, we were fortunate to sing Night Prayer with the clergy of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston at the
bi-annual Priest Retreat in Galveston. On January 25, 2011, St. Vincent de Paul's musicians were invited to sing Night Prayer with the music of Taizé at the University of St. Thomas in St. Basil's Chapel by the Institute for Faith and Culture at the University of St. Thomas, as the Catholic contribution to Houston’s celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Later in the spring of 2011, the Institute for Faith and Culture hosted a lecture at St. Mary's Seminary, given by the chair for the Office of Ecumenism in the Vatican, we again provided Night Prayer with the music of Taizé at St. Mary's Seminary chapel. In August of 2011, we were invited to perform a half hour program of Taizé chants for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center which was recorded as an on-demand video for their closed circuit TV network for their patients. This recording was produced in their studio-chapel at the M.D. Anderson Hospital. On September 25, 2011, we were invited to provide the music ministry for the Archdiocesan Mass celebrating 25th Wedding Anniversaries at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. On May 8, 2012, we were invited to sing Night Prayer with the music of Taizé at the bi-annual Archdiocesan Priest retreat in Galveston for our archdiocesan clergy, with our own Msgr. Bill as Presider. (We were also blessed to sing Night Prayer for the previous two bi-annual priest retreats in 2008 and 2010.)

St. Vincent de Paul's Carolers have sung annually since 2013 for the Sam Houston Historical Society's Candelight Christmas tour of the 19th-20th century Historical Village and Muesum at Sam Houston Park in downtown Houston. Also, we have caroled several seasons for the Family Christmas tour of the Bayou Bend Home, Houston Museum of Fine Arts. 

Before you leave, please don't forget to check out our documents and links located below.

Thank you for visiting us!! But before YOU go, do YOU have a song in your heart, waiting to get out in the midst of God's people? If so, come check out the Music Ministry!!

For a special treat, from wherever you might want to stream some of the beautiful contemplative chants from Taizé, - just click on Taizé link in the Links navigation bar- but be careful, if you're at Starbucks or Barnes&Noble, most people can't resist joining in singing the chants - out loud wherever they are!

May the presence of Christ within us, illuminate our ministry.

For more information, our parish music director is Daryel Nance and can be contacted at: dnance@svdp-edu.org or (713) 663-3539 (music office).