$1000 Matching Challenge to Support Rose Conservatory
An anonymous donor is willing to match member’s donations to the Rose Conservatory up to a thousand dollars. The goal to reach $1000.00 is October 9 – the Sunday on which the Rose Conservatory students will be in worship at HTLC to perform.
Checks should be made out to “Holy Trinity” and please write “Rose Conservatory” on the memo line. Special envelopes marked “Rose Conservatory” are on the table in the narthex or outside. You can also put cash in these envelopes. If you would like credit for the cash donation, please write your name on the envelope, too.
In the future, on the weeks we sing a spiritual, a red rose will be placed on the altar as a reminder of the challenge grant and envelopes marked “Rose Conservatory” will be available.
About The Rose Conservatory and the Spiritual Royalties Project
Back in the fall of 2021, an organist acquaintance at United Parish in Brookline began a Negro Spiritual Royalties Project at her church. When the congregation or choir sang spirituals, an amount of money was set aside. Parishioners were asked to donate on that particular Sunday, with all proceeds going to Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy in Boston.
In February 2022, I found out that Covenant Congregational Church in Brockton had adopted this model. In the Fall of 2021, Rose Conservatory started using their Parish Hall and classrooms every weekday from 3-6:45 PM. The School Department of Brockton buses 28 children, grades 2-5, to the church, provides them with a dinner and funding for the teachers. There is an academic component, an hour of music where you can learn African drumming, singing and piano, and a half hour of theory which is learning to read music, rhythms, etc. Greg Fernandes is the director of the program.
Greg would like to greatly expand the program in September. But there won’t be any additional funding from the Brockton School Department to do this. So he is trying to raise money to provide scholarships for these students. This fall he is planning to offer string instruments, guitar, etc.
The United Church of Christ in Norwell and their organist Karen Harvey have already helped by first lending their 3 octaves of Handchimes to the Conservatory and then by surprising Greg and the children with a 3 octave set of their own Handchimes at the end of their Spring Fling Bell Choir Concert in June. You can imagine how happy that made Greg and the children!
At Holy Trinity, during the winter, a committee formed to work on this project. Members are Karen Danielson, Becky and John Paolin, Allison Krajcik and Charlotte Rydberg.
We invited Greg to our service on Pentecost, June 5th. He spoke about his background and how and why he started the Conservatory. He invited Pastor and members of our committee to come and see it in action in June. Julie Un, her husband and I went to their final concert, which was terrific! Since then, Diane Ross found an article in the Bridgewater State University Alumni magazine about Greg and the Conservatory. You may have seen it on the Music & Arts bulletin board.
Pastor and I talked about starting this project last fall. It has evolved slowly but we are ready and eager to finally launch it, going all the way back to when it was first discussed. Between Advent 2021 and June 12th, we have sung 7 spirituals 18 times because some were new and we repeated them to really learn them.
–Rita Corey, Director of Music