Sabbatical Announcement

By the time you read this I calculate that I’ve played or directed music for roughly 850 liturgies since coming to St. Paul’s in August 2013. Now in my tenth year here, first as Associate Organist, and now as Organist and Director of Music, I am fortunate to have sabbatical leave to renew and refresh and gain new perspectives on my work here. My three-month sabbatical is February 22 - May 24: Ash Wednesday through the end of the choir term. 

I believe the parish is also fortunate in this opportunity with the music left in the capable and competent hands of Dr. Jacob Taylor, our wonderful Assistant Organist. In addition to the excellent musical leadership he shows each Sunday, Jacob will be in charge of the daily running of the music department. I hope you’ll offer special thanks to Jacob as he takes on the yoke of additional work while I am away. I am especially grateful to him as a colleague and friend. 

During the fourteen weeks I am gone, Jacob will be joined by Dr. Jeffrey Smith, professor of organ and sacred music at Indiana University, who will lead the choir in Wednesday and Thursday rehearsals and on Sunday mornings. Dr. Taylor’s good work is familiar to you all each week; Dr. Smith brings expertise in choir training for children and adults, as well as his renowned skills as an improviser and service player at the organ. Dr. Smith brings extensive experience in the Episcopal Church, as Organist and Choirmaster of several distinguished music programs in our denomination — most notably at St. Paul’s Parish, K Street (Washington, D.C.) and Grace Cathedral (San Francisco), and as interim director at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis. He joined the faculty at Indiana University in the fall of 2022 (read more here) and was the guest director of our Three Choirs Festival at Trinity Episcopal Church in February 2020. Please welcome Jeffrey to St. Paul’s next month!

So, what will I be doing with this time away, you may ask. The centerpiece of the sabbatical is realizing my longtime dream of exploring the Orkney Islands off the northern mainland of Scotland. It is a mystical place with lots of natural beauty and ancient settlements dating from the time before the Egyptian pyramids. This is a time for me to be still, listen, walk, meditate and read. My family will join me afterwards for a week in Edinburgh, where we will take in the history of the city. We will experience part of Holy Week together and worship at St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral (and sit in on rehearsals with their intergenerational mixed choir that serves as a model for our own St. Paul’s Choir) and attend Evensong at Durham Cathedral together. The rest of the sabbatical is open to visiting family in Atlanta, attending the national convention for the American Choral Directors Association in Cincinnati, and various trips to Chicago and Lake Michigan. I am grateful to St. Paul’s and Father Denson for this enormous gift of rest and renewal, and at the same time grateful to all the singers in St. Paul’s Choir, Jacob Taylor and Jeffrey Smith for keeping the home fires burning and gaining different perspectives on singing together. I look forward to sharing my experiences with you all when I’m back this summer.