Lenten Supper Church: The Healing Spirit of Music

Wednesdays at 6:30-7:45 PM, February 21-March 20

During the Lenten season of introspection, prayer and repentance we turn to music as a creative agent of healing. Each Wednesday we will enjoy dinner together, and our guest artists will share how music serves as a beautiful source for renewal, peace and contentment. 

FEBRUARY 21

Featured Artist: Kathleen Kalogeras (Viola)

Kathleen Kalogeras has been playing viola in the New England area for more than 30 years.  She is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace College and Boston University, and her dual career in performing and teaching has taken her on many adventures through the United States and Europe.  She is an experienced soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician, but her love is teaching, which she has done in many different capacities.  During the season, she maintains a private studio in Sharon Massachusetts and performs in the New England area.  In summers, she teaches and performs extensively during a 10 week summer camp on the island of Naxos and a major festival on the island of Chios, Greece.  That being said, performing in and around her adopted home town of Sharon, for her friends and neighbors, holds a special place in her heart.

FEBRUARY 28

Featured Artist: Anton Faynberg (Piano)

Anton Faynberg (artist name: Anton Fine) is a Russian-American pianist, whose performances are permeated with fresh originality and a deep sensitivity. Having graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and completed a doctorate in music, Dr. Faynberg continues to perform, record, produce, and lecture on all aspects of classical and contemporary music. Dr. Faynberg specializes in music for academic dance, improvisation, continuous music, and original and novel presentations of traditional music. His music is ever guided by the Holy Spirit and inspires a meeting with the transcendent. 

MARCH 6

Featured Artist: Jagan Nath Khalsa (Violin)

Jagan Nath Khalsa is a versatile violinist in the MetroWest region of Boston.  He plays for community and school theater productions, is a musical participant at benefit events, a soloist for church services of many denominations, a founding member of Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra (Milford MA), and is a leader of Seele Musicale Chamber Ensemble.   He plays for Sounds of Stow and Assabet Valley Mastersingers in their choral\instrumental programs.    He is an avid lover of the music of Bach, Handel, and the Baroque genre, and has lately become a big proponent of Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Beethoven.  His motto is “Beauty, above all.”

MARCH 13

Featured Artist: Joanne [Sharpe] Sheehan (Mandolin and Ukelele)

Joanne Sheehan grew up in Easton on a small family farm as one of 6 siblings. She attended Oliver Ames High  school, and went on to become a Process Engineer for Motorola and Unicom in the electronics industry. As a child she took mandolin and violin lessons from an Italian teacher Fortunato Menga. Music was a daily tradition for her family and still continues to be a healing gift in her life. Ron and Joanne Sheehan raised their children in Stoughton. One son is now in New Hampshire with 4 children and another daughter is in Connecticut with 2 children. The couple moved back to Easton 25 years ago, and Ron passed 6 years ago. Joanne now shares her life with her boxer dog, Sam. 

MARCH 20

Featured Artist: Ingrid Yen (Vocalist)

Ingrid Yen received her Master of Arts in Music Performance at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern studying violin with Bartek Niziol and singing with Efrat Alony. She began learning violin in Boston, USA, later serving as section leaders of the Boston Youth Symphony and the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic. In 2011 her piano trio won the bronze medal in the Junior division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In New York and New Jersey, she played in the Chelsea Symphony and Symphony in C. Previous teachers include Peter Zazofsky of Boston University and Masuko Ushioda of the New England Conservatory, and she has attended renowned masterclass programs such as the Banff Arts Centre and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Princeton University, where she was a member of the orchestra, concert choir, and chamber music society.

Holy Trinity to welcome award-winning Abeo Quartet on December 16th

Friday, December 16th at 7 PM
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, North Easton, Mass.

The Abeo Quartet: Rebecca Benjamin, Violin, Brian Gadbow, Cello, Nijioma Grevious, Violin, and James King, Viola.

The award-winning Abeo Quartet will perform a concert in North Easton to benefit the Rose Conservatory, a local musical program that transforms the lives of school children in Brockton through high quality musical instruction. The concert will be followed by a reception, and donations will be accepted at the door.

The Abeo Quartet, formed at Juilliard in 2018, is the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware, under the mentorship of the Calidore String Quartet. The quartet finished an exciting 2022 summer, participating in the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute, the McGill International String Quartet Academy, and the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Rose Conservatory nurtures love of music, transforming the lives of Brockton children after school through low-cost, exceptional musical training. Students learn to read music, play piano, violin, hand chimes, West African drumming, and more. Academic time, tutoring, chess lessons, and daily dinner are also provided.

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is an Open and Affirming congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. We welcome all God’s creatures of every race, ethnicity, heritage, culture, age, gender identity, gender expression, sexual identity, physical or mental ability, socioeconomic status, or where you are on your faith journey. You are embraced by us and God exactly as you are.

$1000 Matching Challenge to Support Rose Conservatory

Children from Rose Conservatory sing at the front of a church with a yellow and black balloon arch. A guitarist stands to the left playing, while a director conducts. The bright church sanctuary features colorful banners and large windows.

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