I am pleased to announce that Parker Kitterman has accepted my call to be the Director of Music for Christ Church, Philadelphia. Currently, Parker is Organist and Choirmaster of the Church of the Good Shepherd in New York City. He will begin his ministry with us in mid-August, 2010.
John Binsfeld, our Organist and Choirmaster for 45 years, retired last June, and we put ourselves in the very caring and capable hands of our Interim Organist and Choirmaster, Diane Meredith Belcher, who has continued the fine musical traditions of Christ Church. Susan Richardson and I, aided by a grant from the Calvin Institute of Worship and the Lily Foundation, began a careful discernment process involving the congregation in reflection on worship itself, and involving both familiar and newer forms of worship and music, seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance for the directions in worship to which God might be calling Christ Church.
In late November, we posted nationally a job announcement that stated:
We are seeking a director of music who is skilled in offering music solidly in what can be seen as traditional Episcopal music, but whose awareness of the worship in other traditions and other musical resources in our city, country, and world, including newer music by contemporary sacred-music composers, might make our experience of worship even more beautiful and more moving.
We made clear that we were seeking a Director of Music who could work with professional choristers and involve volunteer parishioners in the choir and who could teach our children and youth to sing and offer their musical gifts in worship.
We were grateful for, and overwhelmed by 55 magnificent applications from all over the world (including Australia!). The search was brilliantly and lovingly coordinated by Susan Richardson, who before the ministry studied to be a church organist and earned her Ph.D. in music. Not only a tremendous resource to me, she could really talk shop with the applicants.
From the beginning, Parker Kitterman's application materials stood out. We could hear that he was a magnificent organist, a 2008 graduate of Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music where he studied with Thomas Murray and Jeffrey Brillhart and also dedicated himself, under the tutelage of Patrick Evans, to learning about and using congregational song from various Christian musical traditions from around the world. In his ministry, Parker has distinguished himself as skilled at teaching a congregation to sing with heart, body, and soul.
Almost everyone who met Parker during his recent visit to Christ Church used the same word to describe his musical gifts: exciting. I felt that excitement when I first visited Parker's church in February for a Wednesday evening service, and I was deeply moved by how beautifully the congregation sang. We worshiped with traditional hymns, Gospel hymns, and hymns of Parker's composition, which themselves were transcendent. His small choir, which included children with both volunteer and professional adults, sang from Haydn's The Creation.
During his recent audition visit, Parker had our choir sing one of his own compositions, a musical meditation of Jesus' words to Doubting Thomas that followed the melodic scale of the gamelan, a musical instrument native to Southeast Asia. My nine-year old daughter, Sarah, was sitting in the back pew, rather unhappy that she had been dragged to an organ and choir audition. But when the music began, she sat up, looked to the organ loft, and listened intently. On the way home, she said, "I'd like to sing that song in church."
And in addition to hearing the excitement in his music, almost everyone who met Parker used the same ideas to describe his character: humble, with great depth and an unusual ability to listen. I expect that we will all find that Parker, through his ministry as a church musician and pastor, will comfort us, challenge us to sing, and bring us to new places of worship, while never losing sight of the historical traditions still very much alive at Christ Church.
I asked Parker to write a biography, and after listing his many accomplishments and awards, he added: "A native of rural Georgia, Parker is married to Dr. Imali Sirisena, who is completing her residency at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. Together they take care of five houseplants and in their spare time enjoy bicycling, tennis, cooking weird vegetables from their co-op, fighting over the New Yorker, and watching junk TV."
I suspect he'll fit right in around here.