Comments from Founding Director, Monte Mason.

In the thirty-third year of this organization, The Gregorian Singers can look back on a variety of events that help to define the organization. Even before the group's first year, I had travelled to Seattle, Washington, where it was my privilege to hear Peter Hallock's Compline Choir, at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. Based on this, and a colleague's urging, I formed a men's chant schola to sing Compline at another St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, in Minneapolis.

The choir was formed for many reasons, most importantly to be a liturgical choir. It sought to understand both music and plainsong within the context of the Church's liturgies. Additionally, there seemed to be no local Episcopal training ground for chant, where its performance and attending spirituality could be made evident through a commitment to a continued practice.

Over the years, the organization has never really lost the thread of this mission. But its _expression has changed somewhat, and is perhaps better explained that to experience the holy is to immerse one's self in the beauty of God. This is a conscious and on-going process, but in an ever increasingly secular age, The Gregorian Singers serve to provide the soul with intimations of some of God's beauty. Thus our motto - Sacred Music, Sacred Places.

As to the ensemble's history, the group was originally a men's choir. Early on, it distinguished itself through its tone and musicality. In an era before the popularity of male choral groups, our repertoir included first area perfomances of the Poulenc motets for male voices, music from the Eton Choirbook, Leonin, Perotin, Machaut, Tavener, and Durufle. There was also a national premier of Herbert Howell's ATB setting of the canticles for Evensong. The choir was invited to sing for the American Choral Director's Association national conference, New Orelans, 1983, and received enthusiastic reviews. The ensemble also appeared with Claudia Schmit on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion.

Independent arts organizations need to challenge themselves if they are going to last three decades, and The Gregorian Singers has been no exception. For instance, women were added to the group, immensely increasing the possibilities for repertoire selection. Out of this fortuitous combination came collaborations with Lyra Concert, a Twin Cities period instrument group. Concerts with this ensemble included performances of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Handel's Messiah, Ode to St. Cecilia, and two of his Chandos Anthems.

Other forays took us into the realm of pre-Reformation liturgies, and included a two-and-a-half hour Sarum Liturgy for the feast of Candlemas, 1996. It was almost entirely sung, or chanted, and included and a mass by Fayrfax. In order to give some context to this service, a series of lectures gave some "heft" to the context of why liturgies from the English cathedral, Salisbury, might be so interesting. These events were surprisingly popular, and well over three hundred souls attended the service on February 2, in spite of the 25 degree below zero weather.

This event was preceded some years earlier by some serious discussions and a collaboration with Dr. Lawrence Archbold, then head of the music department at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, and whose studies had begun to reveal the possibility of some revisionist - and excitingly alarming - thinking on pre-Solesmes tempi of chant.

More recently, last season's Day of the Dead event at St. Christopher's Epsicopal Church, Roseville, was notable. The choir's procession alone, with conch shells, drums, whistles, and dance - made the evening memorable. These are only a few things that have interested and occupied The Gregorian Singers. Concerts, liturgies, shape-note and Norwegian hymns, Spanish Renaissance music, newly composed pieces, all have a spot in our repertoire.

In closing, I add that many of our events and liturgies are unique to the ensemble. Developed over many years, such experiences as our Advent Procession, and Great Paschal Vespers, are sung nowhere else. And the Beauty of God is indeed evident through them. I urge you to take advantage of all that The Gregorian Singers offer this season. There is much in it for believers, and non believers. We require no pre-conceived notions of anyone's spirituality; we seek only to enrich an understanding of God's beauty.