All Saints Parish uses Christmas music to unite community
The pews at St. Paul Church on North McKean Street filled up with guests Sunday, Dec. 22 to enjoy the gift of music with multiple musical performances during the All Saints Parish Christmas concert.
It was the fourth annual show All Saints Parish has put on. Cadie Brown, the director of music at the parish, said she helped start the parish choir and the concert after five churches, Sts. Andrew, Conrad, Peter, Paul and Michael, merged in 2021.
“When those churches all merged as one parish, I started this, kind of as a way to unite the community,” Brown said.
The Rev. Kevin Fazio talked about people being blessed “through the gift of music.”
The concert included songs from All Saints Parish choir, as well as its children’s chorus. Songs included “Away In a Manger,” “Baby Born in Bethlehem,” and “The First Noel.” The children sang “Christmas Makes Me Sing” and “Merry Christmas Bells.”
A Windsor brass quintet performed “Sleigh Ride” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Soloist Ashley Trott sang “Mary, Did You Know?,” and Vince Tavolario played the piano and sang “L’Iammacolata.” All performers joined to sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.”
“It’s great to be able to have people come and celebrate music in our community. Something outside of the Mass too. It’s a nice time to kick off their Christmas week with music, and I try to involve as many parish groups as I can,” Brown said.
At the concert, the parish presented the Cookie Salak Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship, organized by All Saints Parish, is awarded to graduating high school seniors who are active in music programs at their school, church or community. The scholarship is named after Cookie Salak, a longtime music director in the Butler church community, including St. Conrad and St. Paul churches. Maeve Berry was this year’s recipient of the scholarship.
The performance has had different variations of participants in the past, but has always been made up of groups from All Saints Parish that have played Christmas music.
“It’s a nice time for people throughout the entire community, not just the parishes but Butler as a whole, to come and celebrate through Christmas music.” Brown said.
