Trinity Music Program

​ Trinity Church has a vibrant music program highlighted by our music director, James Smith, choral singers and many talented Trinity Church member musicians.   Our music program includes Adult Choir, Children's Choir, special choral services, and a 30-year musical relationship with Haiti.  

Adult Choir

Children's Choir

Special Choral Services

Trinity & Haiti

 

Adult Choir

The Adult Choir sings at the 11:00 Choral Eucharist.  We invite anyone, parishioner or not, to join us in the Adult Choir's community of work, praise and fellowship.  Some music reading skills, a true voice and a willingness to work hard are required. But the rewards of this work are boundless, and it's a lot of fun!  Contact Music Director James Smith at 215-964-2550 or  raymondlesbains@gmail.com for more information.

"You shall love the Lord Your God with all your mind, and with all your soul and with all your heart." - Deuteronomy
"This passage defines the purpose  of the liturgical music at the 11:00 Choral Eucharist at Trinity Church and at other special choral services throughout the year:   to offer to God something that we have made as beautiful as we can.    God asks us to draw on all our faculties - heart, mind, soul and voice - and to become especially aware of God's presence during the liturgy.  Choristers at Trinity Church take upon themselves the engagement to put mental, physical and emotional capacities, often battered and refined through a long process of rehearsal, at the service of something they hope will transcend day to day activities.  This process is not an escape, but rather a movement toward a fuller realization of the gifts one is called on to put at the disposition of God and the Church, as well as the understanding of art as a gift from God to human consciousness.  The choir's goal is to make each Sunday liturgy a memorial and a foretaste where 'Christ's passion is recalled, the mind is filled with grace and the shadow of future glory is given to us.'" - James Smith, Music Director

Children's Choir

The Trinity Children's Choir sung  at the 9:15am service and at special liturgical celebrations such as Advent, Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday and the Spring Liturgical Breakfast.  Since the pandemic, the Children's Choir has been on hiatus, however, we hope to rebuild the choir anew in the year ahead.  If you have interest in joining the Children's Choir,  please contact Fr. Ted.

Special Choral Services

Apart from Sunday Liturgies during the academic year, the Adult Choir of Trinity Church offers special liturgical and non-liturgical activities throughout the year.  These include an Advent Evening Service - either Evensong in the Anglican tradition or a Service of Lessons and Music - as well as a full cycle of sung Holy Week liturgies.  The parish draws on its talented section leaders, guest artists and the choir itself to offer programs of secular music every year.  These provide musical variety and offer both the congregation and the community the opportunity to hear musical performances in the town itself.  

Trinity Church and Haiti

Trinity Church, Swarthmore, and particularly our music program, has enjoyed a special relationship with musicians and students in Haiti for thirty years.  Groups from Haiti have performed at Trinity,  Music Director James Smith has returned often to teach in the summers, and the Adult Choir was instrumental in finding and shipping a grand piano to the town of Jacmel.  These years of association were crowned in January of 2019, when our Adult Choir, plus other Trinity musicians, traveled to Haiti for a three-day workshop and performance with Haitian choirs and instrumentalists.  We hope to be able to maintain this beautiful and mutually rewarding relationship through the help and understanding of Trinity parishioners and the Swarthmore community.