Voices October 26, 2022
Stella Maris concert choir will sing its finale in December
By Julie VanSpall – Home Front
Since 2006, I have been a member of the Stella Maris Concert Choir based in Surrey. The choir provided me with opportunities to sing in venues throughout the Lower Mainland and Oregon and in several countries in Europe.
Most of our concerts, however, have been held right in Good Shepherd Church, our home, and on Sunday, Oct. 16, I was part of a particularly special one.
First, it was our first full concert since Christmas 2019. Second, it was the last time our choir would perform music from our tour repertoire. With our director retiring at the end of 2022, the next few months sadly will bring the days of the Stella Maris Concert Choir to an end.
The choir began in 2000, the Church’s Jubilee Year, when our director, Trudi Stammer, aspired to use her passion for music and her educational background in voice and piano to further witness her faith. Her dream to evangelize through music began to come to fruition as she assembled a choir, initially named the Jubilee Choir.
Using her Sunday choir at Good Shepherd Church as the basis for her group, Stammer recruited members of other parishes in the deanery and people from the local community to join in song every Wednesday evening. The choir’s members were eclectic in terms of age and background: some were very knowledgeable and experienced in terms of choral music, while others couldn’t read a note! What they all shared was a love of music coupled with strong faith. Under Stammer’s leadership, this was all they needed.
In December 2000, the choir presented its inaugural Christmas concert, which aimed to remind people living in a predominantly secular world of the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. The success of this and subsequent Christmas concerts led to the choir’s “One Hour” choral meditations, which were held yearly on Palm Sunday, affording audience and choir members alike the opportunity to “watch with [our Lord] one hour” (Mt 26:40) and enhance their personal Holy Week experiences.
Over the years, the choir shared its gifts throughout the community, spreading the Christian message through interfaith concerts and performances at Guildford Mall, VanDusen Botanical Garden, and the annual tree-lighting ceremony in White Rock. Proceeds from its concerts have supported local charities such as the food bank and Peace Arch Hospital, and the global community with their sponsorship of foster children through Chalice.
As the choir continued to develop and expand over the years, its name was changed to reflect its foundation in Star of the Sea Parish, rather than its connection to the Jubilee Year. The Stella Maris (Latin for “Star of the Sea”) Concert Choir became the choir’s new label – a name it carried to Europe in July 2009. The choir also travelled to Europe in 2012, 2014, and 2017. A trip to Ireland, planned for the summer of 2020, was cancelled due to the pandemic.
At first, I was one of the younger choir members, but after 16 years, my own grey hairs are showing and even my children have joined the group sometimes. Through this choir, I have grown. I have benefited from the friendships I have made and from the pieces I have sung and prayed – for as St. Augustine said, “The one who sings, prays twice.” I will miss our Wednesday rehearsals and the fun we have had performing and sharing fellowship. This choir has forever changed my life, not only with music but with love.
Now that our “ordinary time” concert is behind us, I find consolation knowing that there will still be one final Christmas concert for this choir. In what will be a bittersweet performance, our group will don our black formal attire (and surely a bit of “bling”) to assemble at Good Shepherd Church for our grand farewell. I will hide some tissues inside my binder.
For anyone interested in sharing the Stella Maris Concert Choir’s final moments with us, please come to Good Shepherd Church on Sunday, December 18 at 3:00 pm. For details about tickets and pricing, check the parish website (https://starofthesea.ca/) over the coming weeks.