Choir News

Been a while!

Hey all, I am on my usual February break (2023) during which I usually update my Blogspot. Many of my linked recordings are no longer functional on 'Box.net' so I aim to remedy that situation. I'll also be placing final touches on 4-5 pieces for submission in hopes of finding an interested publishing house. 

New Advent Song Published!!!

My first with GIA Publications, this piece was written some years ago for Guadete (3rd Sunday of Advent) and has been joyfully performed by our rag-tag groups here at St. Joachim Church. Now it's available to all!

On Summer Break

After this Sunday's 10:00 farewell mass for Fr. Steve we will break it down to duets for July/August, returning the day after labor day for rehearsals. Our first Sunday for the '22/'23 season will be the following Sunday, September 11th.

Some Sound-bite Links Inoperable 

I'm trying to figure out why many of the sound-bite links in the 'Album' section of the website are failing to funtion. I'll be digging into my 'Box' account to try and remedy the matter. (The bug seems to primarily affect the 'I'll Follow' album and a few of my secular banjo works) Until then, many cuts are fully available on line via Spotify (see below) or the video section of our choir website accessible HERE

We're up on Spotify! (and most other web music services) 

Go ahead and ask Alexa for any song on the 'Water' album or the 'I'll Follow' album, along with our lastest YouTube sensation 'What a Great Day It Will Be'. Just include my name, perhaps along with  'St. Joachim Choir'.

 

OC Catholic Radio Interview:

Click HERE to access the OC Catholic Radio interview for a deep dive into the song 'What a Great Day It Will Be". I was live on the air with Rick Howick and it includes call-in interviews with Ariana Garcia (School Choir Mom of Giana) and our own Cynthia Morehouse from our evening choir. Scroll to the bottom of that page for the podcast.

What a Great Day It Will Be!

We Are Live on Youtube! 

(As well as Spotify, Google-Play, Itunes etc,)

Link: What a Great Day It Will Be

5/21 Update:

We are 20 days into the plunge with our new choir music-video, which is up on YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, Google-play, Itunes etc. We've cracked the 5K mark on YouTube and several choir directors from coast to coast have petitioned me for manuscripts so that their choirs can learn/sing the song as well.

I participated in an OCP Webinar which shoulld be available soon. Also, I was interviewed by St. Joseph Radio on the Christ Cathedral campus and this interview is set for broadcast this coming Saturday morning, 5/23 at 9:30am PST. In the SoCal area tune into 930am, Relavant Radio. (It will be available in Podcast form shortly after broadcast and I'll post that link here.) Rick Howick hosted the interview and we included Ariana Garcia, mother of an 8th grade school choir member, and Cynthia Morehouse who gave us the perspective of an adult choir member.

While we are all hoping for greater exposure for this great music-video, it has already surpassed all  expectations and done great things for St. Joachim Church and School!

5/2 Update:

Greetings! What a great day it is!

It was just a month ago when I sent out a mass email to all St. Joachim music ministers letting them know the sad news that we would not be singing together for Holy Week. This is our 'Super-Bowl' and we would miss being together for these important liturgies. Holy Thursday with its beautiful Eucharistic procession, Good Friday, with its impassioned tones and massive turnout, Easter Vigil, where the choir has front row seats as dozens of new Catholics are baptized, and then finally a very festive Easter morning with a horn quartet, Easter bonnetts and a joyous rendition of 'He Is Risen'. All of this lost to a dangerous, invisible virus.

That email ended with these sponteneous words: 'What a great day it will be when we sing together again!' Within minutes after hitting 'send' those words had a tune, and within hours it was developing into a full fledged song, and within a day I was passing a full arrangement around to my fellow 'Southern California Composers Forum' peeps for review. 

I then got it to the choir and we swung into action immediately to get a solid recording going. 9 of us showed up on March 31st for a 'social-distance' outdoor rehearsal followed by a base-line recording in the church. It was all videotaped. (Don't worry! We kept our social distance!) The folllowing Thursday, April 2nd Frank Calabretta and I set up an outdoor, drive-by recording station beside Nevin Hall. About 15 members of the student choir and many members of the adult choirs pulled up in their cars and sang the part they had learned at home online, all of it recorded and videotaped.

This gave us the critical mass necessary for a great recording, though Frank had his hands full, purging from all recorded tracks all the extraneous outdoor sounds of such things as passing aircraft, passing cars, motorcycles, sirens, and a noisy flock of parrots!

After all that, we took on the task of collecting Zoom recordings from both student and adult choir members who couldn't make it by our outdoor recording station. This added a little more beef to the sound and enabled us to include many more faces in the final product. 

Frank spent days synchronizing all these varied tracks together. He has been tireless in his efforts to get this all to work under some of the craziest recording conditions ever. He was the one with all the 'homework' after long recording days.

After all this, the audio tracks went to Rich Mouser, who has done most of the post-production on our 3 prior CD's. Frank had already taken care of much of the post production this time around, lightening the load on Rich. We finished the audio mix on April 15, just over 2 weeks after the song was written.

Countless hours of video-tape which were recorded during the process by Frank, as well as my daughter, Colleen, landed on the lap of Joe McDonald, a parishioner and videographer who volunteered his time/expertise to the task of sorting through all of this and come up with a great video to go with the new song.

This went from nothing, to an idea, to a song, to a recording w/video on YouTube in just over 4 weeks! (This under the duress of quarentine!) The one great thing about recording during this time has been the answer most everyone has given me as I ask for favor-upon-favor: 'Sure, what else have I got to do?'

You're going to love this song along with all those familiar St. Joachim Paarish/School faces in the mix! Be sure to shower it with 'likes' and 'shares' as I think this is a song the whole world needs to hear right now!

AE

Dwell Within Me

My 6th from World Library Publications and my 10th overall. ('Good to be in the double didgets club!) We use this one from Pentecost to the Feast Day of the Holy Trinity as its Trinitarian text invites God's presence to live within us. This is the sixth published song from the 'Water' CD; Do you own this CD? It's packed with good things so please swing by the church office and grab one or go to the CD section of this web-page and order up a few! (Hear our choir perform this one by clicking HERE.)

Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

My 5th  from World Library Publications! This piece brings the sounds of a Southern Spiritual to our Funeral and Memorial masses here at St. Joachim. These past five songs are all a part of the "Water" CD, so get a copy from the 'Albums' sections of this website! Click HERE to listen to our choir's recording from the "Water" CD. More to come!

The Sound of One Voice

This is my 4th with World Library Publications and 8th in overall publishing. This is also the 4th published song from the "Water" CD, which can be purchased either at St. Joachim or from this website. A quick sound bite can be heard in the album montage HERE at the 4:44 mark. More in the Fall!

My Experience With Meniere's Disease

I have recently been diagnosed with Meniere's Disease which is a disfunction of the middle ear on my left side. The effect thus far has been an appreciable loss of responsiveness in the mid to low range frequencies. I've been through many treatments thus far including inter-ear cortosone injections and a complete MRI to rule out the presence of a tumor. I continue treatment now with a low salt/low sugar diet, a regiment of dietary supplements and a series of experimental drugs, each of which I will try out, one at a time. 

Update: 2022: At this point I'm getting along with a bit of a compromise between growing accustomed to the new normal while keeping this new normal under control via diet/supplements. I'm 4 years into this and managing OK. I still look into any new developments regarding this condition. In doing so I learned that Huey Lewis (of  'The News') has a more pronounced version of  this condition and had some words concerning it to this effect: The medical definition of Meniere's Disease is: We don't know what the hell is going on! I'm hoping that this changes, but making the best of things in the meantime.

If you'd like the full story CLICK HERE

 I appreciate all prayers (or good vibes if that suits you)

AE

Water!

"Water" has become the standard setting for the sprinkling rite for masses here at St. Joachim over the past few years. Now it is published by World Library Publications for parishes everywhere! This is the 3rd of 5 songs currently in the pipeline.

Heaven and Earth Are Wed! 

By now this is a standard Christmas carol here at St. Joachim's Church but it is now freshly published for the rest of the world by World Library Publications. 'Here's to selling a boat-load!

Published on

'Call On the Lord' Has Arrived!

... and so have I as a composer for World Library Publications! Here is to hoping for truckloads of sales for this piece and many others!

America The Beautiful

Upon re-reading this article which seems to resurface every 4th of July I feel moved to post it here. 'America the Beautiful' is among the greatest marriages of text and music ever written in the English language. This article tells the unlikely story of how the text met the music. Divine providence? I thinks so! Click Here

A Fresh Batch of Manuscripts

I am now finishing up final editing on five manuscripts which will go 1st to WLP, who has published "Call On The Lord" recently with 4 more to come (see below). I am so glad to have a new home for my music! The new package going out will include "The Sun Never Sets On Your Kingdom", "Dwell Within Me", "From the Wood of a Manger", "I'll Follow", and "Is There Anything Love Can't Carry". 

These have all become standards here at St. Joachim, but some of them have also found their way into other local churches/choirs as well, among them St. Paul the Apostle with Christopher Walker who sees my work regularly at the Southern California Liturgical Composer's Forum.

Wish me luck!

5 More Songs To Be Published!!!

"Call On The Lord" is my personal debut in a series of 5 songs to be published by World Library Publications (See abaove). 5 songs from the "Water" CD have been accepted for publication. They are scheduled to be released as follows: 

3/17: Call On The Lord

8/17: Heaven and Earth Are Wed

11/17: Water!

3/18: The Sound of One Voice

11/18: Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled

'Great to know that our music will have the chance of reaching the greater church in the coming years!

Psalms, Psalms, and more Psalms!!!

Are you still using that booooring, lifeless book of responsorial psalms, lulling your assembly to sleep, week in and week out? Well, over the years I've created many responsorial psalm settings which liven the place up quite well here at St. Joachim in Costa Mesa. They could provide a nice change of pace at your parish as well! I am self publishing these now and making them available here at this website. For a full list of settings CLICK HERE. 

New CD Release!!! 

Be sure to pick up your copy of our latest CD "Water" at the parish office if you are local, or by hitting the"Paypal" button above if you're an "outa'towner". We'll ship you copies promptly. We are approaching the 200 mark in copies sold. (Doubling that number would sure help the books balance a bit!)

It turned out Spectacular!!! The release concert was a hoot and we posted the performances here at the Choir Website and on my Youtube channel.  (The Choir website seems to be working better than the Youtube option at this time)

Get a quick listen to sound-clips from the new album by Clicking here 

In addition to celebrating the new CD with a concert we also celebrated my 25th anniversary as Music Director here at St. Joachim Church! I was modestly lampooned with old photos and stories from my sister that Frank Consoli dug up. 

Yes, it was about this time 25 years ago that I packed up my green truck with all things musical and a few things to wear, left Colorado behind and headed for CA. I was after a crazy "banjo" dream, but God had other plans.

After sending out many resumes I was hired part time at St. Joachim's and my only responsibility was to cover music for the Sunday evening mass. That went pretty well and the job description slowly hemorrhaged into its current form. 

I love this work which nicely combines my love of music with my love for the Catholic faith. While following Christ into this avocation meant getting by on a modest income, the personal benefits have been incredible, as are the people who I am privileged to work with in creating music each week. AE

A little BANJO blast from the past:

My professional level banjo playing is a thing of the past due to an overuse injury, but my former band-mate, Barry Thorpe, passed along some rare footage of my banjo antics from early 1990. Click here and you'll see/hear an aspiring Bela Fleck junkie with the band "Shrink-to-Fit".

New Mix! Irish Blessing

Rich and I have been back at it up in Altedena and 5 fresh mixes are coming down the pike. Click the title above and hear my setting to the old "Irish Blessing". (Starring my wife Diane with a big debut solo!) As a young lad an Irish linen with these words embroidered were on the living room wall of my house, as in any good Irish household, right next to the portrait of the pope and a photo of John F. Kennedy. (The crucifix hovering all of these)

Speaking of new CDs, you must pick up the new School Choir CD! 
At just $10.00 it's a great deal and you will love the performances turned in by our young singers. The production quality on all five songs is second to none. Click Here for sound clips. The songs are: Lean On Me, Give Jesus A Dwelling Place, Ave Verum Corpus, I'll Follow and He Ain't Heavy. You'll be quite blessed in hearing these recordings. (More info on the "Student Choir News" page. (Upper Left)

Latest Publication!

"Good and Faithful Servant" has been published and is now available from Oregon Catholic Press! Click on title to hear new mix! 

This is our 4th song published by OCP, and the 3rd song from the "I'll Follow" collection to make the publishing cut. "Good and Faithful Servant" has been distributed in OCPs' choral packet #75 making it known and available to choirs everywhere in the English speaking world. Hopefully we will continue to receive good news like this on others works that serve our parish well.

To all who attended our "Adopt-A-Song" concert, thanks for a great evening!!!
If you missed it, YOU MISSED IT!

Hopefully we'll do this again for another CD!

What else is new?

A few new pages up recently for your perusing:
"Poetry, Lyrics and Song Background" will give you just what it says on most of my music. "Andrew's Arsenal" will give any musical instrument junkies more info than most would want about the instrumental contents of my garage!

"I'll Follow" CD sales have surpassed 600 mark! That might just be a "teflon" record according to Billboard standards! I believe that sales will more or less stay around there unless and until I can get something more substantial happening in the publishing world.

There is a great review of the "I'll Follow" CD up at a Catholic music website called the Grapevine. Click here to dial it up. It's rather short, but flattering none the less. (Look it up under "A" for Andrew, not "E" for Everson) The same review has also appeared at Catholic.net. This article though, allows you to comment on the review, so go on and say something nice!

Those interested in joining the ministry this season can contact me at my office number 949-574-7400 ext 413 or email me at www.andrew@andreweverson.com


Choir Members Only!!! 
Click here for last Tuesday's rehearsal recordings, as well as other recorded material from the choirs. (Or to review all of our material performed over the last 4 years.) 
Email me if you need password info to log on. (Address just above)

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