Matushka Laura Schmidt, Choir Director
"In the wondrous blending of sounds it is Thy call we hear; in the harmony of many voices, in the sublime beauty of music, in the glory of the works of great composers: Thou leadest us to the threshold of paradise to come…" (The Akathist Hymn, Glory to God for All Things)
The choir at Christ the Saviour has experienced many changes since this time last year. We are grateful to have members returning to sing together again as pandemic restrictions have eased. Our current membership includes about twelve singers (two basses, two tenors, five altos, and three sopranos). Rehearsals have also begun again on Sundays after Divine Liturgy.
We again congratulate Theodora Gramkow on her retirement from directing this past June. We thank her for her many years of dedicated service as choir director, and we are grateful for all the ways she continues to support the choir in its work of beautifying the services of the church.
Finally, as director I thank all who have assisted in caring for our children during services. Many hands have truly made the work much lighter, and I am grateful to you all for your kindness and patience.
Glory to God for all things!
With love in Christ, Matushka Laura
Theodora Gramkow, Choir Director (2010-2021)
“O sing unto the Lord a new song; I will sing praises to him as long as I live!” (Ps. 149)
In celebrating the 50th Anniversary of our Parish I am the only Nehrebecki child who has had the privilege of being a lifelong member of Christ the Saviour Church. As the youngest of the six, I was born and baptized in Paramus; in fact, my baptism took place in the “Legion Hut.” So it is with great humility that I recently accepted the position of choir director.
It is awe-inspiring to follow Professor David Drillock, +Father Nicholas Solak, +Father Michael Irwin, Father Stephen Kopestonsky, Father Paul Kucynda, Matushka Eugenia Nehrebecki, and our own Michael Ciavaglia.
Our choir has made a recording every five years for the past forty years. Nine recordings is quite an accomplishment, and we thank Matushka Eugenia for instituting this practice. I pray that we can continue with this tradition and the more recent traditions introduced by Michael Ciavaglia. Although they have both left a legacy that will be difficult to follow, I pray that God will guide me along the same path they have so devoutly paved.
Above all else, only with the joined efforts of the choir members at Christ the Saviour can we continue to joyously sing praises to our Lord surrounded in our beautiful church by the company of His Saints. May He Bless us to do so!
“Praise the Lord for He is good; It is delightful to sing psalms to His Name!” (Ps. 134)
Michael Ciavaglia, Choir Director, 2006–2010
The singers of the choir of the Orthodox Christian Church of Christ the Saviour take to heart the Lord’s mandate to use their talents for the glory of God. The choir’s responsibility is great: to lead the assembly in liturgy, offering adoration and supplication; praise and petition. Every Orthodox service includes singing, whether melodies are sung by a group of singers or one person reads a psalm. When we make our offerings of song to God in corporate worship we enter the ancient tradition of the early Christian and pre-Christian church. We recall and reenact the songs of the Hebrew people who crossed the Red Sea, “For He has been greatly glorified”; of the three faithful young men in the furnace “Praise the Lord! Sing and exalt Him throughout all ages”; and of our Lord and His Apostles, who “sang a hymn and went to the Mount of Olives” before His passion (Matthew 26:30, NIV).
In our current practice, on Holy Tuesday, when we go with Christ to participate liturgically and spiritually in the acts of His passion, the assembled people of God sing this hymn, found in Holy Tuesday Matins:
Come, O faithful, let us work zealously for the Master,
for He distributes wealth to his servants.
Let each of us, according to his or her ability increase the talent of grace:
let one be adorned in wisdom through good works;
let another celebrate a service in splendor.
The one distributes his wealth to the poor;
the other communicates the word to those untaught.
Thus we shall increase what has been entrusted to us,
and, as faithful stewards of grace, we shall be accounted worthy of the Master’s joy. Make us worthy of this, Christ our God, in Thy love for mankind.
—The Bridegroom Services of Holy Week, Department of Religious Education, OCA.
