The St. Michael’s Choristers finish up their season this Sunday at 9:00 am, singing an anthem all on their own during communion. Their anthem, “Ching-a-Ring Chaw,” arranged by celebrated American composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990), is one that requires some context.

Good Shepherd Sunday brings us one of J.S. Bach’s most iconic works: “Sheep May Safely Graze.” Originally composed as a soprano aria, the choir will sing an arrangement in four-part harmony with the text “Flocks in pastures green abiding.”

Happening this weekend in the sanctuary is another WEKA (Western Early Keyboard Association) event on Saturday, May 3, at 2:00 pm, open to the public and FREE for St. Michael’s parishioners. “Continental Connections: from Mount Vernon to Leipzig” is a harpsichord recital featuring Joyce Lindorff (pictured) of Temple University.

Thank you to all our choirs at St. Michael’s for bringing such power and passion to our Holy Week services. We sang in English and Spanish (and Latin), enjoyed participation from young and old, combined or shared musical responsibilities with multiple choirs, and provided the score to our journey through the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Join us for Holy Week as we reflect and celebrate through music and singing. On Maundy Thursday, April 17, the St. Michael’s Singers and Choristers will join forces to provide two anthems (and lead many hymns) as we experience foot-washing, the last supper, and the starkness of the stripping of the altar.

This week’s offertory anthems are Mary-centric, as Sunday’s gospel describes Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with perfume. At 9:00 am, the St. Michael’s Singers offer an arrangement of the spiritual “O Mary, Don’t You Weep” with soloists Palmer and Beth.

Upcoming music for Holy Week includes a wide variety of choral repertoire from the English Renaissance to the 21st century. You’ll hear selections by English composers William Byrd (c. 1540-1623) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695) as well as anthems by Canadian composer Stephanie Martin (b. 1962) and American legend Alice Parker (1925-2023), and lots more in between!

We’ve programmed a truly classic anthem this Sunday: Herbert Howells’ “Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks.” Written in 1941 and sung in Anglican churches and cathedrals throughout the world during Lent (the text is based on Psalm 43:1-3), it describes the psalmist’s spiritual thirst for God, comparing it to a deer searching for water.

Sunday’s offertory anthem is by Imogen Holst (pictured), the only child of British composer Gustav Holst. In A Hymne to Christ, she sets the first two verses of one of John Donne’s Divine poems, including the text “In what torne ship soever I embarke,/ That ship shall be my embleme of thy Arke.”

This Sunday is Woman Composer Sunday, as recognized by the American Guild of Organists, the Society of Women Organists, and other organizations. The organ prelude and postlude are by Brenda Portman and Maureen Howell, respectively, who are both winners from the American Guild of Organists’ 2025 Woman Composer Sunday Organ Composition Competition.