Transforming an Inner-city Church: History and Attitudes Surrounding a Paid Children’s Choir

Authors

  • John Michniewicz Sacred Heart University

Abstract

At various religious and ecclesiastical institutions, individual choir members singing in boys, girls, or mixed groups receive weekly compensation of various amounts for their participation. Typically, members are paid to attend rehearsals and to present choral music at religious services, as well as at other concerts and special events. The practice has been both lauded and criticized, even though it has been in existence for many years. There are some that feel singing in a children’s choir should be a voluntary activity, primarily for enjoyment and educational purposes only. Others feel that children learn responsibility and pride through their participation in such a group. Many religious organizations take pride in the groups they are able to foster and promote and feel it is part of their mission. Through interviews with children, parents, choral directors, and adults who participated in like programs as children, answers to the following points are explored: Do children who would not otherwise be attracted to sing in a choir learn to value their participation in a musical activity? Are successful members of these choral ensembles populated with singers who would likely be participating anyway? Does the compensation affect the children’s attitude and behaviour in the choir rehearsal? Does the compensation increase the numerical participation level, as well as the musical level of a given group? Does participation in such an ensemble have life-long effects? How do ecclesiastical and civic communities really view and respond to such groups?

Author Biography

John Michniewicz, Sacred Heart University

JOHN MICHNIEWICZ is the Director of the Academic Music Program at Sacred Heart University. He directs the Liturgical Choir, the University Concert Choir as well as 4 Heart Harmony, the University’s select chamber choir. Along with administering the department, he teaches courses in music history and theory. John completed the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where he was awarded the John Cerevolo prize in performance. He is also the Minister of Music and Organist at the historic United Congregational Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he directs the Adult Chancel Choir, and the United Chorale. He is the founding director of the church’s Norma Pfriem Children’s Choir. John has performed solo organ recitals and concerts in the United States, Austria, Italy, Spain and Ireland, including recent recitals at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Princeton University, and the Cathedral of Acala de Henares. He has been featured as an organist and recitalist at conventions of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. John has also been a recitalist and accompanist with various choirs on tour, and has performed at St. Stephen's Cathedral and the City Hall in Vienna, Austria, St. Peter's Basilica, the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome, the Cathedrals of Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, and Galway Cathedral in Ireland among others. He accompanied the Bridgeport Diocesan Children's Choir as they sang in that city's Harbor Yard Arena celebrating the 50 year Diocesan anniversary, and was the organist and accompanist for the official diocesan rededication mass of the Bridgeport Diocese’s St. Augustine Cathedral. He performed with the Fairfield County Children’s Choir on their recent Gospel CD recording entitled This Is The Day. His children’s choir anthem, "Halle, Hallelujah" is published by the Chorister's Guild, and was one of the selections sung during the procession at the Papal Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI in Nationals Park in Washington, DC in April, 2008. His anthem, “Honor, Glory” was commissioned by the Connecticut Chapter of the Chorister's Guild, which performed it at their tenth anniversary Festival of Choirs. As a member of the New York Archdiocesan Commission on Church Music, John directed the New York Archdiocesan Youth and Children's Choirs, and conducted a choir of 185 children as they sang in Central Park preceding the Mass celebrated there by Pope John Paul II.

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Published

2013-10-29

Issue

Vol. 7 (2009): The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium VII

Section

Articles