Notre Dame Sacred Music does Chicago! The piece we sang at Saint Clement on the afternoon of May 12 at 5:30 is a participatory Vespers service, one of the most ancient of Christian traditions. The style is that of chanted psalms, but adapted into English, and for the idiom of jazz. Thus we combine the traditional and the modern, and through this artistically well-informed blending, have created something truly new. This service proudly highlighted many distinctive features of our Sacred Music program at Notre Dame. It is the composition of choral conducting student J.J. Wright, who performed it here with his jazz trio including Chicago musicians Matt Ulery on bass and Jon Deitemyer on drums. Also featured in the service was the Notre Dame Children's Choir, Dr. Mark Doerries, Director. Joining the children was cantor Benjamin Liupaogo, a master's degree voice student, and other members of our graduate program, singers, conductors, and organists, one of whom, Kevin Vaughn, offered a short organ prelude before the singing began. The joy of joining the children's voices with the practiced voices of the graduate musicians was very special, and something truly unique to our program.
