Welcome to the St. Tarcissus Liturgical Music Program!

The music program at St. Tarcissus Parish embraces the mission of service to one another and the larger community in the name of Jesus Christ.

Commissioned to spread the Word, our musicians respond by making music for the “honor and glory of God.”

Musicians serve as leaders in the most important gathering of the church, the liturgy, enabling the faithful to experience their faith through music.

Article from Bulletin dated on January 29, 2012

You have probably noticed over the past weeks that at the Saturday evening and Sunday morning Masses that we have both a cantor and keyboard player in addition to a rotation of various instrumental and vocal ensembles. We are committed to offering music that is diverse in style and high in quality in our liturgies here at St. Tarcissus.

As I have written before, it is important that the instrumentalist (pianist, organist, guitarist) and cantor are two different people. If we do two jobs simultaneously, we do not execute them as well as we would if we only focused on one. There are visual cues that the cantor gives in support. When we use music that alternates between the assembly and cantor, we sing with more confidence when we see the cantor breathe with us and invite us to join.

Here at St. Tarcissus, we are blessed with many dedicated volunteers who practice weekly to learn and prepare well to serve in the music ministry. We continue to seek musicians from the parish to join us. However, we also have five Masses a weekend with music. There are times where we need to engage additional musicians from outside the parish to ensure that we consistently offer a quality musical and liturgical experience. When we engage the services of professionals, we are obligated to compensate them for their time, just as we pay our teachers, secretaries, clergy, and maintenance staff. This is common practice at parishes across the archdiocese who invest in providing well planned, quality liturgical experiences for all who join them for worship. There will a music envelope in the March packet; contributions will help support the cantor program as well as musical events such as the musical Stations of the Cross service which we will share in March.

It is important to keep in mind that our goal is a quality music ministry where the talents of volunteer musicians from the parish collaborate with our professional colleagues. It would be wonderful to have more musicians from the parish step forward to offer their time and musical talent to serve as cantors and sing in the choirs. Interested musicians are welcome to contact me at any point to find out more information about serving as a part of the music ministry. Perhaps you have had the opportunity to observe the cantor’s role within the liturgy and now feel you have a better idea of how to fulfill that role. Scheduling is flexible, and musical and liturgical training is provided.

The documents from the Second Vatican Council remind us that the liturgy is the “source and summit” of our lives. As a parish, we will continue to invest the necessary resources into liturgical preparations so that our liturgies reflect this. I look forward to collaborating with many of you to continue to develop the musical prayer life of St. Tarcissus together!

Laura Kempa, Director of Music and Liturgy

For more information, contact Laura Kempa, Director of Music at the Rectory at 773-763-8228 or via email at lkempa@sttars.org