Education
Did you know that our Music Ministry not only can offer you singing lessons but also several band/orchestral instruments such as beginning flute and guitar, beginning and advanced clarinet and saxophone, beginning/intermediate/advanced voice development and sight reading skills, as well as performance based vocal coaching. Beginning, intermediate, and advanced conducting skills are also offered. Current lists of keyboard, string, bass, and woodwind private teachers are also maintained for you.
Performance
This included hand bell instruction, small group singing that includes weddings, special anniversaries, funerals, large scale community chorus and orchestra that includes Handel's Messiah in early December as well as performance in a praise-worship ensemble and madrigals - a weekly rehearsal and Sunday morning service, singing traditional and Praise music as well as solos, duets, trios, quartets and traditional choir repertoire.
Liturgical Music at St. Mary's
The St. Mary's music program has had a reputation, since 1964, for excellence which is focused on providing the highest standard of music for our liturgies with a smaller balanced and focused group of singers ranging in numbers from ten to thirty. The sound this choir is able to achieve is, as stated by many visitors, "unbelievable; can understand every word they sing; so in touch with the liturgy; so many familiar hymns but also many newer harmonies and upbeat rhythms." The choir has a repertoire ranging from Gabriela, Purcell, Bach, and Palestrina to contemporary settings by composers such as Butler and Marshall. Members of this choir also participate as members of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the East Mountain Choral Society with their annual presentation of Handel's Messiah in December. The women of St. Mary's choir also participate in the Madrigals at various congregations.