Many members of the Calvary choir had been preparing for our trip to the East Midlands of England, to sing at Lincoln Cathedral. We had a cohort of just under four dozen singing, and I’m counting on it being a great experience, musically, spiritually, culturally, and socially. The residency consisted of our singing Evensong daily for the week from August 12 – 18 (excepting the 14th, when we had a day off for a bit of tourism, a day-trip to York), plus the morning Eucharist on Sunday. It’s the Choir’s first trip “across the Pond,” and we were very excited about the opportunity. If you wish to watch the choir while they were in England, videos are posted at www.youtube.com/@LincolnCathedraluk. The videos have also been posted on this page.
Musical Notes
Work on repairing the organ-damage from last summer’s lightning strike. Photos of the work in progress are below. (June of 2022)
Ed Helgerman installs the console input boards and prepares over 800 wires to be individually attached to quick connectors that will allow for ease of access for future service work.
In the North Transept, output driver boards have been installed, and around 750 wires have been attached to quick connectors and await testing and final trimming. Every board is individually fused for added electric surge protection. Each location that contains pipes (North, South, Reredos, and Antiphonal) will have a panel similar to this. Fibreoptic cabling will transmit data between each location.
Music at Calvary
On June 16, 2019 the Calvary Choir sang for the 11 a.m. service at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Below are two pieces of music from that day. The entire service webcast is available here.
Our Instruments
We are lucky to have a number of wonderful instruments to complement our choirs. The principal instrument in the church is the Organ by Casavant Frères Limitée, Opus 2729, 1963. Other instrumental resources include a continuo organ (Taylor & Boody, 2007) Bechstein grand piano, ca. 1890, an Italian-style harpsichord (Dupree, 1984), a pair of Ludwig timpani, a set of Dutch-style handbells, and a dozen cast-bronze bells housed in the tower.