Music Notes -March 2022

Hi, and welcome to the Music Notes newsletter, your source for all things musical at Saint Boniface! We’ll be bringing you choir updates, stories of your favorite hymns, musician profiles, listening recommendations, and so much more. Interested in learning more about a particular hymn or other piece of music? Email cindy.wilmeth@gmail.com and we’ll look into it for an upcoming issue! Today we’re going to get to know Derick Dalhouse, who graciously agreed to be our first musician profile. 

Musician Profile: Derick Dalhouse

Many of you know Derick as our friendly junior warden and a mainstay of the tenor section in the St. Boniface choir, but did you know he got his start singing in the Kingston College Boys Choir in Kingston, Jamaica? As part of the Boys Choir, Derick had the opportunity to sing for many important events, including as part of a small group that sang for the British Royal Family on their visits to Jamaica! 

Derick sang in his high school’s all-male choir, moving from treble, to alto, to bass (!), before settling in the tenor range. As a busy science major in college, Derick didn’t think he had time for choir until one night when the choir director heard him singing some favorite songs alone in a practice room. The director knocked on the door and said: “I’ll see you at my next choir rehearsal.” When Derick didn’t show up for the rehearsal, the director sent another choir member to retrieve him! Derick sang for the rest of his time in college and performed the graduation solo his senior year (W.A. Mozart’s beautiful “Ave Verum Corpus”).

When Derick and Doris started attending St. Boniface, Derick didn’t initially join the choir. But our trusty “choir recruiters” heard him belting out a favorite hymn in the pews one Sunday morning, and after some convincing (special thanks to Rick Bate), we were blessed to welcome Derick into the group. Some of Derick’s favorite musical memories are singing for the Royal Family and participating in the Kingston Opera Society, and the song he’s most looking forward to singing when we can sing together again? “Ave Verum Corpus,” of course. Thank you, Derick! 

Listening recommendation: “Ave Verum Corpus,” W.A. Mozart, sung by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjn6srhAlY

Be sure to check out our St. Boniface Music Facebook page for more music-related content and new recordings every Monday and Friday morning! 

Yours in song,

Cindy