Ayer en Parroquia San Cristóbal: Mothers' Day Program

Yesterday the Choir of St. Christopher's hosted a U.S. Mother's Day program (Panamanian Mother's Day is December 8) and it was well-attended and lots of fun. Quite often these events are dominated by Gospel Music, but this program was different; we had some Classical Music, and all the Classical Music was performed by the younger performers. The Lovely Mona is usually the photographer for Padre Mickey's Dance Party and she always does a great job, but she's in the U.S.A. for a few weeks taking care of granchillins, so this left Padre to do the shooting. I didn't have things on the right setting, so the first group of photos have a blueish hue which gives the impression that we held the event in a swimming pool rather than the church. Well, as the Rector, I also had to set-up cds for some performers and keep an eye on the p.a. system, so I didn't get photos of everyone. Also, to make things even better, I forgot to bring the program home with me last night, so I probably won't get everything right. Nonetheless, A Wonderful Time Was Had By All. Oh yeah, we also had a tómbola, or raffle afterwards which had Thousands Of Winners! Thank your lucky stars I didn't take photos of that.

So, here we go:

Padre Cáceres gives the Invocación

Ms. Clara Edwards welcomes everyone

The audience (the place was full in another ten minutes, but I didn't feel comfortable running about with the camera)


Mr. Percival Thomas, Head of Music and Liturgy and Former Choir Director and Organist of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church. He told many jokes, but he also had me tell a few.

Young Mr. Thomas and Ms. Harris. Because I forgot the program, I don't remember their first names. Young Mr. Thomas is the son of Percival Thomas. They did three incredible pieces, and that keyboard set-up sounds like an entire orchestra.

Suddenly, Mariachis invade! Las Mariachis Azteca de Panamá. I was happy to finally hear them as they have banners strung about several intersections in Parque Lefevre. Men wearing hats in church? I don't know about that. (Ya know, muchos años pasados, when I was a Church Musician, the band which played at the Spanish Mass at St. Patrick's, San José, was also the house band for parties for that congregation, and I learned to play Mariachi-style bass. But I never got to wear one of those outfits or sombrero, but I digress. . .)





Mrs. Catón, Orchestra Director at Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal, brought a String Quartet from the school. IESC is the only school in Panamá which offers Orchestral Music in the entire country.





Cool earrings!

Señorita Sadie Taylor, daughter of our Choir Director and organist Reynaldo Taylor. We've all watched her grow up (she turned 18 last week) and enjoyed listening to her voice mature. She has a sweet soprano with an incredible range. She used to sing mostly pop music but last night she sang two pieces in Italian. Of course, since I don't have the program I can't tell you what they were, but, lucky you guys, here is a video I shot of her last night.



The Choir, as host of the evening, also performed and, as usual, were wonderful.


You may remember a few months ago when I posted a photo of Mr. Ansel Gold, who was teaching Steel Pan at the church. Well, he's back in the Islands, but we now have new classes started, and Milsa Barrows and the new teacher performed as Génesis (not the prog-rock guys but our Génesis). They performed Amazing Grace, The Girl From Ipanema and Besame Mucho.



Because I was working the cd player, I was unable to get photos of my buddy Elder Marcelino Marshall singing, but I do have a photo of him being acknowledged. Heck, if you wanna see a photo of Marshall performing, just look at these photos from the Easter Brunch. It was only a few weeks ago and he hasn't changed since then. And, you know I'm gonna fix all this once I getaholda that program.


We had another performer whose name I don't recall and whose cds I had to monitor. His performance was very interesting as it is not the kind of thing we hear here very often. He sang yer Country Gospel music, like the Gaither Brothers kinda stuff. And, like everyone else, he was great!

Ms. Carol Bilanfanty expressed the gratitude of the choir for all the performances and, after the Tómbola That Would Not End, I told another joke and then gave the Benediction and dismissal. Too bad you missed it!