Scotland 2023: Adding our voices to the never-ending song | The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

by Liz Coley

Our choir had big plans for 2020. We had been accepted for a choir residency at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. Twice disappointed by pandemic postponements, we finally committed to going this summer. Musicians from Hyde Park and Terrace Park joined forces as longtime friends Brett Scott and Carleton Monroe combined their church choirs to create a merged 24-voice ensemble with two directors and our organist Michael Delfin. The goal was to present four different Evensong settings (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis), four complicated psalm chants, and four anthems at the cathedral services for July 17-20. We practiced together for months in advance, and getting to know the charming folk from a few miles east on Route 50 was half the fun of preparing.

We arrived a day in advance, or some of us did. Greg Miller arrived without a suitcase, but with great foresight had packed his choir robe in his hand luggage. Brett and his daughter Kenna missed the London to Edinburgh flight but made the trip by 4-hour train. We all crossed our fingers as news of the Neely’s flight cancellations and wild rides through Boston, Atlanta, and Amsterdam (the scenic route?) spread through the group. They arrived, breathless, with cassocks and cottas in hand fifteen minutes before we were to leave the hotel for the cathedral.

After morning sightseeing excursions, each afternoon we warmed up, reviewed our music, and worked on our biggest challenge - singing across an aisle from each other in split sections. The cathedral acoustics were challenging in the choir loft, but forgiving out in the nave. Tourists stopped in their tracks and sat down to listen. Family members who had travelled with us, and in my case, family members who lived in the UK, worshipped from the congregation. Each night, the music moved all those who listened and all who sang, but there were several glowing moments. Brett’s and Carleton’s daughters Kenna and Catherine each took a solo line the first evening with their sweet, ethereal soprano voices. On the Thursday night, we presented an exceptionally beautiful program of all Ohio-grown sacred music by local composer Howard Helvey. On Friday, our plainsong settings and unaccompanied anthem gently floated words of worship and peace throughout the space. Michael’s postludes on a cathedral organ were his usual level of amazing. Finally, the cathedral clergy offered truly resonant prayers for the world at the close of each evening, with special emphasis on the climate catastrophe, on marginalized people, and on regions torn by conflict; these were “move you to tears” prayers.

Carleton put our special role in perspective with these words: “At every hour of the day, every day, around the globe in their own time zone, someone is singing Evensong. This week it is our privilege to do so at five-thirty in the evening in Edinburgh.”