10 May 2007

Dear Friends,

It is my pleasure to announce the joyful news that we have called a new Organist and Choir Master to Trinity Church. A gifted organist, musician, singer and leader, he will begin his music ministry among us during the summer.

Led by Whit Biggs, the Search Committee worked for nine months on this process. Many of you completed the Parish Music Survey last autumn or expressed your views to members of the committee, to the Vestry and to me. The committee, at every step, faithfully represented the views and opinions of this parish, as it listened to you and to the Holy Spirit in defining what the role, character and goals of the music ministry is to be.

Based on the Parish Music Survey, suggestions by the Vestry's Executive Committee and specific skills that I sought, the Search Committee advertised the position throughout the late autumn and early winter. We were blessed with several extremely strong applications. The Committee evaluated the candidates' materials and narrowed down the list to four. With each of these four candidates, the committee had face to face meetings, including playing on our organ and teaching the committee a hymn. Members of the Committee visited their home parishes so the candidates could be "seen and heard in action." They met with organists and choir masters from across the Eastern Seaboard - and came home to Trinity enriched.

By late February, the Search Committee reached consensus on three candidates to recommend to me as finalists. These candidates made a second visit here in March to meet with a Selection Advisory Committee and me. Our meetings included a tour of the church, a junior choir rehearsal, an interview, and a dinner with discussion.

After our meetings with the finalists, after prayerful discussion and reflection, the Selection Advisory Committee and I agreed enthusiastically on the candidate to call. I have called Alan Murchie as our next Organist and Choir Master, and I am very pleased to write that he has accepted the call.

We are truly blessed to have a new Organist and Choir Master of Alan's capabilities. Alan is the Louise H. Maclean scholar at Yale Divinity School, where he is currently concluding a Master of Divinity degree. He is school chaplain and director of music ministries at St. Thomas's Episcopal Church in New Haven. Alan is also Organist and Choirmaster at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale.

Alan is a versatile musician whose performance schedule includes regular appearances as a solo pianist, organist, choral and orchestral conductor, chamber musician and lecturer. Recent chamber music performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Players at Merkin Hall and with Silk Road Project violinist Colin Jacobsen. As a solo pianist, Alan has toured Morocco and has performed in Europe, including Vienna, Berlin, Edinburgh, Venice and Florence. Alan made his Lincoln Center debut as an organist performing works by Mozart at Alice Tully Hall.

Alan's musical career began early, at age 10, when he joined the renowned St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. He appeared as treble soloist on St. Thomas' 20th Century Services. He was graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was named "most promising and gifted composer". His Paean for brass and woodwinds was chosen to open a concert dedicating the new Yale School of Music campus. After college, Alan returned to St. Thomas as Organ Scholar and as a member of the Choir School faculty. He later served St. James' Church, Madison Avenue, as organist and director of the church's professional choir, which in 1999, released Christmas at St. James', produced by Bejun Mehta.

Members of the Selection Advisory Committee and I have described why we felt personally called to invite Alan to become our Organist and Choir Master. The reasons included his optimism and excitement about what he feels God is calling us to be through and with choral music, his vision of a music ministry, and his sense of humor. For me personally, as I sat listening to Alan lead a choral piece, I felt refreshed and inspired by his sense of new possibilities and expressions for our Anglican-Episcopal musical heritage.

Alan will join us here around August 13th, in time to plan and prepare for the new choir season in September. Trinity Church is truly blessed to have a new Organist and Choir Master with such great gifts. I look forward to our growing in our own spirituality, to growing closer to God and closer to each other in the months and years to come.

Pax Christi,
The Rev. Nicholas T. Porter +
Rector