Music

The Choirs

There are three choirs at All Saints: The Choir of Men & Boys, The Chamber Choir, and the St. Cecilia Choir.

The All Saints’ Choir of Men and Boys, directed by Frederick Backhaus, consists of boys aged 7 to 18 – most of whom live in the Dorchester area – and professional and volunteer singing men from the greater Boston area. The Choir strives to give urban boys a safe place in which to make new friends, experience the uplifting power of great music, discover the value of teamwork and responsibility, and learn musical skills that will last them a lifetime. The Choir sings the ten o’clock Solemn High Mass at All Saints’ most Sundays during the school year, featuring the finest in sacred music from plainsong to the present. In addition, it seeks to enrich the life of the greater Boston community through its concerts and recordings.

In 2003, the Boys were chosen to perform in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at Symphony Hall for the Eastern Division Convention of the American Choral Directors Association. The full Choir has recently performed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, spent a week at the Washington National Cathedral as the choir-in-residence, appeared on Fox 25 TV, and sung the National Anthem at Fenway Park. The Choir has released two compact discs: Saints’ and Angels’ Delight (1999), directed by Michael Kleinschmidt, and His Beauty Doth All Things Excel, Music for Advent and Christmas (2003), directed by Jeremy Bruns.

Auditions for boys currently in the second through fourth grades are held at the church each January. For more information, please contact Frederick Backhaus at 617-436-3520, ext. 212, or at organist@allsaints.net.

The Chamber Choir is a mixed-voice ensemble co-directed by Kathleen Blixt and Frederick Backhaus, which specializes in the a cappella repertoire for Mass and Evensong. They perform on alternate Sundays during the summer and monthly during choral term. Admission to this Choir is by audition. Please contact the Music Office (617-436-3520, ext. 212) to express your interest.

The St. Cecilia Choir, directed by Kathleen Blixt, consists of women from All Saints’ Parish who sing on alternate Sundays in the summer and on occasion during the school year. St. Cecilia Choir is open to any woman who enjoys singing and would like to work on vocal and music-reading skills. Weekly rehearsals during the summer are on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. To learn more, please contact:
- Kathleen Blixt (617-298-8681) or
- Frederick Backhaus (Music Office: 617-436-3520, x212)

Biographies

Frederick Backhaus, Organist & Master of Choristers, joined the staff at All Saints in January of 2005. Previously, he was Director of Music for sixteen years at Christ Church, Oyster Bay, Long Island. He has held faculty positions at Hofstra University, and at the George Mercer School Of Theology, where he taught courses in choral rehearsal techniques for church musicians. In the summer of 2004, he was a guest lecturer for the Hutton House Lectures at C.W. Post, Long Island University.

His organ study was with Miriam Clapp Duncan at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating with Distinction in Performance, and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with David Craighead and earned the coveted Performer’s Certificate. He has performed in the United States, Great Britain, and Eastern Europe, and is a past Dean of the Nassau chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

From 1999 to 2004, he was the Assistant Director and organist of the Long Island professional vocal ensemble Voci da Camera, participating in their tours of Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom, and serving as organist when they were the choir-in-residence at Gloucester Cathedral.

Mr. Backhaus has been a children’s choir trainer for over twenty-five years and has served for several years on the music staff of the King’s College Training Course of the Royal School of Church Music in America under David Briggs and Andrew Lumsden. Choral conducting coaches include Sir George Guest and Stephen Cleobury. His choirs have given repertoire workshops for the American Guild of Organists, released two compact discs, and were chosen by filmmaker Ken Burns for his History Channel documentary on Theodore Roosevelt. He is married to the distinguished soprano and choral conductor Kathleen Blixt, who generously contributes her expertise as the program’s vocal instructor and assistant.

Kathleen Blixt, Vocal Instructor & Assistant, holds degrees in both Music Education and Vocal Performance. Prior to joining the Conducting and Voice faculty of Hofstra University in 1978, she taught general and vocal music at the elementary and secondary school levels, and was on the music faculty at Long Island University. In addition to her classroom responsibilities at Hofstra, she conducted the University Chorus and was the founder and director of the Hofstra University Chamber Singers, which toured at home and abroad, and performed as a featured ensemble for the American Choral Director’s Association. As a freelance singer she has performed regularly in the United States and in Europe as soloist and with the Sine Nomine Singers. She is the artistic director of Voci da Camera, a New York-based professional ensemble of eighteen singers which she founded in the fall of 1999 and which has just completed a seventh successful season.

Since moving to Boston she has established a private voice studio in Milton, serves as vocal coach for the choirs at All Saints, particularly in the training of the Boys’ Choir and assists with conducting responsibilities. She continues to be an active clinician, guest conductor and adjudicator for NYSSMA, ACDA, the Catholic College Association, and other professional organizations. She has served in an advisory capacity for several theatric and choral productions and recordings, while maintaining a full performance schedule as singer and conductor. Ms. Blixt has appeared in concert in many regions of the United States, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, and Germany, including the Halle Handel Festival in the former German Democratic Republic, and has recorded for Nonesuch, Newport Classics and Polygram.

Recordings

Saints’ and Angels’ Delight (1999)
No longer available
sung by the All Saints’ Choir of Men & Boys
directed by Michael Kleinschmidt

Christ, whose glory fills the skies (Candlyn)
Sicut cervus (Palestrina)
Ain’t got time to die (arr. H Johnson)
There is a balm in Gilead (arr. Dawson)
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day (Gardner)
Exsultate Deo (Palestrina)
Magnificat & Nunc dimittis in C (Stanford)
There is no rose of such virtue (J Johnson)
Blessed city, heavenly Salem (Bairstow)
Ubi caritas (Duruflé)
I was glad (Parry)

........................................................................

His Beauty Doth All Things Excel (2003)
sung by the All Saints’ Choir of Men & Boys
directed by Jeremy Bruns

This CD is available from the Parish for $12 (including postage and handling).
Please make check payable to "Choir Fund."

Matin Responsory (after Palestrina)
Organ solo: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (Bach)
This is the Record of John (Gibbons)
Magnificat in G (Stanford)
A Maiden Most Gentle (arr. Carter)
O Magnum Mysterium (Victoria)
Shepherd's Pipe Carol (Rutter)
Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (Poston)
The Lamb (Tavener)
In the bleak mid-winter (Darke)
A babe is born (Mathias)
Manger Carol (Sowerby)
Coventry Carol (Leighton)
Bethlehem Down (Warlock)
Nunc dimittis in G (Stanford)
Organ solo: Fantasie and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542 (Bach)

The choral selections were recorded at the Church of the Advent, Boston, and accompanied by Nancy Granert on the G. Donald Harrison Aeolian-Skinner organ. The two organ solos were performed by Jeremy Bruns on the C. B. Fisk organ at the Parish of All Saints', Ashmont.

Other Music Groups & Events

Ashmont Hill Chamber Music, Rachel Goodwin, Founder and Artistic Director. In 2006, AHCM celebrated its 20th season of presenting varied programs balancing innovative works, some never before or rarely performed, with traditional classic chamber music, both vocal and instrumental. Their regularly appearing performers include members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, faculty from New England Conservatory and Boston University, and singers including Robert Honeysucker, D'Anna Fortunato, and Joan Heller. For more information, please call 617-436-3646 or e-mail Florence Rawls, Program Director at floprawls@aol.com.

Boston City Singers’ mission is to provide children and young people with extraordinary choral music experiences, regardless of a child’s musical background or socio-economic circumstances, which lead to informed, expressive, and empowering performances.

Boston City Singers teaches young singers to learn and perform a dynamic, distinctive and challenging repertoire, supporting the Boston community's rich artistic diversity by performing in a variety of settings and for diverse audiences.
Web site: http://www.bostoncitysingers.org/

Friends of Music at All Saints (FOMAS)

Alumni

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We have started a list of former choristers which appears below. If you are on it, or know someone who should be on it, please call the Music Office and let us hear from you! We especially need phone numbers, so we can re-connect with people.

Partial List of Former Choristers
If you’re on this list or know someone who should be on it, please contact the Music Office (617-436-3520) and give us their contact information. Thank you!

Music List

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