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- Julian Wachner conducting Part 1 of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on Dec. 26, 2011 at St. Paul’s Chapel as part of the Bach at One series.
BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | The catalog for Trinity Wall Street’s 2011-2012 season of music and arts programming, published in the fall of 2011, was 40 pages long. But on Jan. 6, 2012, the Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee announced during a Bach at One performance at St. Paul’s Chapel that much of the scheduled programming wouldn’t be happening.
After calling the first year of programming under the direction of Julian Wachner, “ambitious and wonderful,” Mallonee went on to say, “Bach at One [a series of free concerts on Mondays at St. Paul’s Chapel] will be on a short hiatus as we begin assessing the best ways to sustain music and arts programming at this level of excellence to which Trinity is committed.”
Bach at One was not the only Trinity Wall Street music program to get the axe. The New Music Festival announced for May 24-June 3 has also been cancelled.
Linda Hanick, a spokesperson for Trinity Wall Street, said, “We are still exploring whether we will proceed with [Bach’s] St. John’s Passion,” which had been scheduled for performances on March 31, April 1 and April 2. Candlelit Compline services of new music on Sunday evenings at St. Paul’s Chapel were cancelled. Choral music at Trinity’s 9 a.m. Sunday services was also cancelled, but retained for the 11:15 a.m. services.
The problem appears to be funding.
“We’re not doing drastic budget cuts,” Hanick said. ”We’re still funding the [music] program at the level we’ve always funded it but it’s become more expensive.”
Bach at One will get a temporary reprieve starting on Monday, March 5 and running for five consecutive Mondays at St. Paul’s Chapel when the Trinity Choir and Trinity Baroque Orchestra will perform a series of concerts for Lent. These concerts were underwritten with earmarked donations from private donors.
Holy Week observances will also take place, beginning with a procession from St Paul’s Chapel to Trinity Church on April 1, Palm Sunday and ending with Easter services at Trinity on Sunday, April 8.
Trinity’s Family Choir, Youth Orchestra and Youth Choir along with other congregational music and arts programming will continue as will Concerts at One of emerging artists on Thursdays at Trinity Church. For the winter of 2012, three performances of Handel’s “Messiah” have been scheduled — always a sell out.
Should this be the sum total of Trinity Wall Street’s music programming, it will be more or less what it was before Julian Wachner was hired as Director of Music and the Arts in July 2010 after a two-and-a-half year period in which there was no music director.
Wachner embarked on an ambitious schedule of programming that included bringing in new musicians, starting the Bach at One and Compline series, planning several music festivals and taking the Trinity Wall Street “Messiah” to Alice Tully Hall, where it was well received.
In an effort to upgrade the quality of the already excellent choir, Wachner added some singers and some who had been there previously were dropped.
Trinity Choir is over a hundred years old. Choir members are part-time employees of Trinity, and always sing at the church on Sundays. They are paid on an hourly basis, so the abbreviated music schedule cuts into their income but not into their relationship with the church. The members of the Trinity Baroque Orchestra are freelancers.
Trinity hopes that donors will come forward to allow Bach at One and other concerts to continue. The Concert at One program at Trinity Church on Thursdays has been running for more than 40 years. “In 1980, it received a very significant gift from a donor and we’ve been able to add to that over the years,” said Hanick. “One of the things we’ll be looking at is whether we can partner with donors for the Bach at One series. Both are given freely to the public. Our heart wants to continue the Bach at One series.”
She said that within the next couple of months, Trinity Wall Street would be hiring a staff member to work on funds development. “Music and the arts would be a prime candidate for attention,” Hanick said. She added that anyone interested in donating to Trinity’s music program can email the rector, Dr. James Cooper, at jCooper@TrinityWallStreet.org. Donations of any size would be welcome and would be tax deductible.
“Music and the Arts plays a vital role in the parish’s life,” Rev. Mallonee said in the introduction to the programming catalog for the 2011-2012 season. On a previous occasion, she had remarked, “We believe the arts are transformative and in our world, beauty is much needed. It feeds people’s souls – and that’s what we’re about.”
Hanick said that Trinity Wall Street remains committed to the music program. “It’s balancing doing excellent programming with the economic realities,” she said.
