Music/Singing

A life shaped by singing

Music has been part of my life since childhood. From 1986 to 2018, I sang in the Choir of Men and Boys at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Buffalo. I served as Head Chorister from 1991 to 1993 and as a Lay Clerk from 2001 to 2018.

Weekly services, rehearsals, chant, psalms, hymns, and canticles shaped my ear and my sense of ensemble. The Anglican cathedral tradition taught me discipline, listening, and the responsibility of leading through music.

St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buffalo

The cathedral where I grew up singing has a story that reaches back to Buffalo’s early years. The congregation was founded in 1817, and its present church was consecrated in 1851. Designed by Richard Upjohn in the English Gothic tradition, its red Medina sandstone walls survived the devastating fire of 1888. Architect Robert Gibson led the rebuilding, adding the soaring hammer-beam ceiling and clerestory windows.

The Choir of Men and Boys was established in 1867. Its history is rooted in the Anglican and American Episcopal choral traditions, from music for worship to Handel’s Messiah and the candlelit Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. The choir’s travels have included residencies at Westminster Abbey, York Minster, Durham Cathedral, and St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. That wider tradition is the backdrop to my own years in the choir and the tours remembered below.

Explore the cathedral’s choral history at Pro Organo and its architecture and history at Hello Buffalo.

Beyond the choir stalls

Highlights include singing the national anthem for the Buffalo Sabres, performing with the Eagles and the Buffalo Philharmonic, and singing in musicals and operas. Performances have taken me to Artpark, Shea’s Theatre, Kleinhans Music Hall, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and venues across America and Europe.