Music

Trinity Church, Meade Parish has a diverse membership of about 350. The church itself was built by hand of native sandstone in the style of 12th century French and Swedish country churches.   It has excellent acoustics and is an inspirational place to sing.  The organ is a 55 rank Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ which is ideal for accompanying a wide variety of sacred music styles.  We employ a Director of Music Ministries, an organist, a church music assistant, and four student section leaders in the choir.  Our current music program continues to build on a long tradition of great music with hopes of further perfecting our praises and nurturing each other.

Contact Christian Myers, Director of Music Ministries, for more information.

Our music ministry includes the following choirs:

Junior Choir
Age 4 - 2nd Grade
Children’s Choir Room

Children are introduced to the fundamentals of pitch and rhythm as they begin to develop their singing voices. They also learn the basics of worship practice as they prepare to sing in church once a month. Discovering a joy of singing is the primary goal.

Choristers
Grades 3 - 8
Children’s Choir Room

This choir is designed to correspond with the Choristers Guild (the national organization of children’s choirs). We will be attending Choristers Guild events, presenting our annual Christmas concert at the Austrian Embassy and singing in church once a month.

Adult Handbells
Adults
Parish Hall

The Adult handbell choir plays a variety of traditional handbell music, as well as accompaniments to choral anthems and congregational singing, on our 4-octave set of Schulmerich Handbells. Music reading ability is helpful but not essential.

Chancel Choir
Any and all Adults
Choir Room

The Chancel Choir is the focal point of our ministry of music, providing offertory anthems and congregational leadership each Sunday for the 10:30am worship service and all major liturgical occasions. Group vocal development, musical interpretation, worship practice and spiritual growth are all emphasized.

Concert at Trinity!

May 1, 2011

Dorothy Hester:  Her career was launched when she accompanied a choir anthem as a teenager.She studied piano for eight years.After years as a self-taught organist and director, she played a calliope in parades in Orange County, California.From 1936 to 1938 she was accompanist for concert violinist Vladimir Lenski, performing concerts from Los Angeles to San Diego.She was a singer with “Ray Raymon and the Seven Voices,” making appearances at Balboa Pavilion and on radio.She also sang in a chorus of 50 women and later became their accompanist.She played with a jazz combo and played piano with a dance band.After her marriage to Ben Hester in 1948, she moved to Riverside, continued as a church organist and became interested in playing recorders.She was a member and leader of a recorder quartet that went on a month-long tour in Scandinavia with a group of Loma Linda University singers.She was accompanist for three large civic choruses:the Brahms Chorus in San Bernardino for ten years, the Riverside Chorale for another ten years, and the John T. Hamilton Chorale for thirteen years.The latter chorus went on music tours twice to England, twice to Hong Kong, once to Australia and New Zealand, and in 1992 to France.Dorothy says it was a real thrill to play the large organ in Chartres.Highly regarded as an accompanist, Dorothy played for many combined-choir festivals in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, including two festivals at University of Redlands, each with combined choirs numbering 600 singers.Although Dorothy started as a self-taught organist, she began studies with Clarence Mader at the age of 35 and coached with him for twenty years.Dorothy served multiple terms as Dean of the Riverside-San Bernardino Counties Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and has played many recitals in southern California.Newspaper reviews include accolades such as “presented an ideal recital” and “It was indeed perfection in Mrs. Hester’s hands and feet.”Dorothy was organist of First Methodist Church in Riverside for 17 years, playing the church’s three-manual Aeolian-Skinner organ, Opus 1304.She was then organist of First Congregational Church in Redlands for 13 years, playing the first Austin organ on the west coast, the three-manual Opus 68.Composer Dale Wood recognized her talents and frequently asked her to play newly-composed works before he sent them to the publisher, to ensure he had written what he intended.Wood dedicated his setting of the tune Irish to Dorothy.She has received accolades from luminaries such as J. William Jones and Leslie P. Spelman of University of Redlands.She continues to receive rave reviews, including one from 2006 that concluded, “I learned after the performance that Mrs. Hester had celebrated her 90th birthday this summer; no one watching her on the stage would have guessed that, as she played with the strength and sparkle of youth.”And from a 2009 review:“Dorothy Hester is remarkable.Just watching her hands work the piano is a thrill.No age in those hands, heart, or mind.”Dorothy is also a newspaper columnist and can be read every third week in the Siskiyou Daily News in Yreka.