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From the Rector's Desk August 2017

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August 2017 St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church 82 Kimberly Drive, Durham, NC 27707 From the Rector’s Desk Dear Parish Family and Friends, The prophet Isaiah has long been one of the most quotable of the Old Testament sages. See if this passage sounds familiar: The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6) I was thinking about this after a recent meeting of our new Membership and Stewardship Committee, during which we talked about how wonderful it is to have so many younger families coming into the parish. While we have always offered children’s programming, our children seem to be more and more visible during the service and in parish activities. Start counting up the programs we have that involve children in one way or another and you quickly run out of fingers: the Nursery, Sunday School, Sunday morning Children’s Chapel, the St. Stephen’s Preschool, Children’s Choir, our new St. Stephen’s Choir School which began last year, our Acolyte program, our Youth Program, our “Youth Readers” who take responsibility for reading the Epistle at the 10:30 service each week, the Preschool Garden, the “Baby Comfort Corner” in the narthex, the children’s tract rack, the Sunday morning “activity bags” at the 10:30 service, the yellow “Pennies for Change” contraption in the narthex, family coffee-hours each week after the 10:30 service, and perhaps the most unusual, at least based on my experience in the Episcopal Church – the warm and welcoming environment children and their families find at the 8:00 a.m. service on Sunday mornings. Parish and Preschool staff provide needed support for these programs and activities, but it is the work of parents, volunteers, and faithful parishioners that really makes it all so wonderfully possible. Even just seeing the list makes me think of powerful and often heartwarming moments of witness. Several years ago one of our little ones developed a special relationship with Uriel Reid and proudly introduced me to Uriel as her “other grandfather.” Uriel continues to treasure that relationship, even though he and Lorraine have moved back to New York – such bonds are not easily broken. Perhaps we have room at St. Stephen’s for a “Parish Grandparents” program. As families move (both for reasons of employment and in retirement) their blood relations may be far away, but family is more than just blood and our parish family is a rich and varied resource. When we make room in our hearts for others, we do God’s work, and it is a wondrous thing to behold. Returning to Isaiah 11:6, it often is our children who lead us in this way, to deeper and more fulfilling relationships not only with one another, but also with those whom we have never met, and with our God, whose children we all are. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Keep the faith. Share the joy. See you in church. Faithfully, Stephen’s Window August 2017 New Season of the Concert Series The 2017-2018 season of the St. Stephen’s Concert Series promises to be an exciting one. It features series veterans like Andrew Tyson and the Borromeo String Quartet (BSQ), plus exciting newcomers. Both Andrew Tyson and Nicholas Kitchen, first violinist of the BSQ, grew up at St. Stephen’s and have performed in concerts at the church since they were teenagers. By any reasonable definition, they are concert series “veterans.” New to the series is the 20-year-old sensation, Raymond Hawkins, who will be giving the annual Frank Hawkins Kenan Memorial Organ Recital. Hawkins is a student of Dr. Timothy Olsen at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. The slightly older 22-year-old pianist Alexander Beyer will be giving his first solo recital at the church, but he already has loyal fans here as the result of performing in three previous seasons with the husband-wife team of Nicholas Kitchen and Yeesun Kim. Pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, who first performed at the church last season, will once again join Kitchen and Kim in the performance of piano trios. Here is the concert schedule: Alexander Beyer, piano: Sunday, September 24, 2017 Raymond Hawkins, organ Saturday, November 11, 2017 Borromeo String Quartet Sunday, January 21, 2018 Liu-Kitchen-Kim Trio Sunday, April 8, 2018 Andrew Tyson, piano Sunday, April 29, 2018 All concerts will begin at 4:00 p.m. In an earlier newsletter April 15 was given as the date of the trio concert. The date has been changed to April 8 to accommodate pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, who will be performing in China. At the four Sunday concerts there will be half hour Pre-Concert Discussions with the artists at 3:00 p.m. The organ recital will take place on a Saturday to accommodate both Hawkins and Olsen, who play for Sunday morning church services in Winston-Salem. There will be no Pre-Concert Discussion before the organ recital. Detailed information about the concerts can be found in recently printed brochures, due to be mailed at the end of July. Brochures can also be picked up in the narthex and the church’s reception area. The brochures contain ticket information, a season ticket order form, and a donation form. The BSQ at Fletcher Academy In addition to giving about 100 concerts each year, the BSQ engages in various educational activities. A day after their concert here on April 23 the quartet appeared at the Fletcher Academy in Raleigh. Here is an account of their activities at the school: ————————————————— Borromeo String Quartet Performs at the Fletcher Academy by Yemi Adewuyi | Apr 27, 2017 Students from The Fletcher Academy filed into the gymnasium this past Monday morning, amid a rush of voices and the sound of heavy rain outside. Despite the dreary weather conditions, excitement was stirring in the room as a special music performance was about to begin. Of course, this was no ordinary school assembly—the featured performers for the day were the members of the Borromeo String Quartet, an award- winning group of musicians that has played chamber music all over the world. And as the audience would soon learn, the instruments in their hands were no ordinary ones, either. August 2017 2 Stephen’s Window New Season of the Concert Series (continued) The morning began with a few remarks from Fletcher Academy Board Chair Jim Goodmon, who explained the Fletcher Foundation’s unique connection to the Quartet’s first violinist, Nicholas Kitchen. “In 1987, the Foundation received a letter from a professor at UNC- Wilmington, and it said there was a terrific violinist in Durham named Nicholas who was going to have a terrific career. All he needed was a great violin. We’d never received a letter like that but we were so curious…We looked into it and eventually purchased a Stradivarius violin.” That violin is now on loan to Nicholas Kitchen. Nicholas has performed for many years on the A.J. Fletcher Stradivarius, but currently plays the Goldberg Del Gesu violin. The Foundation has allowed Kristopher Tong, the second violinist of the Borromeo Quartet, to use the Fletcher Stradivarius. Throughout the program, Nicholas told stories about the rich history of all their instruments and the musical selections they played. Their musicianship was captivating and vibrant, evoking a wide range of emotional responses from the audience. The students were attentive over the course of the assembly. But at the end of the concert, they erupted into thunderous applause, and even gave a standing ovation! The students took part in a lively question and answer session following the performance, asking engaged and thorough questions. Paul Atkinson, Headmaster of the Fletcher Academy, shared a story with us from later in the day that really spoke to the impact that the performance had on the audience: After the concert, the Quartet led a Science of Sound workshop in the Physics classroom at the Fletcher Academy. At the end of the workshop, I chatted with members of the quartet. During a pause in the conversation, I noticed a student standing off to the side, eyes fixated on Nicholas Kitchen. I called her over and asked, “Do you have a question you wish to ask?” She nodded yes and stepped up close to Nicholas. In a soft voice she asked,” Do you ever get chills when you play music?” Nick smiled and answered, “Oh, yes! Sometimes I do, and when I get them, that’s a very special feeling, indeed.” The student smiled and stood there, reveling in the moment. Wanting to know more, I asked, “Did you get chills at the concert?” “Oh, yes!” she eagerly replied. For the students of the Fletcher Academy and everyone who was present in that room, Monday morning was deeply moving. We had a great time with the Borromeo Quartet and are grateful to work with such inspiring people. Bravo! ————————————————— Chills, Goose Bumps, Wows, and MTEs Chills and goose bumps are well-documented reactions to performances by the BSQ, “the rock stars of chamber music.” Don’t be surprised if they occur on January 21. And you can expect similar reactions at the other concerts this season. “Wow!” is likely to be the response to Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in D-flat major, and jaws are bound to drop during the Toccata from Le Tombeau de Couperin. Then again, you might experience something deeper. You might have what Kurt Leland, in his book Music and the Soul, calls an MTE, a “musical transcendent experience.” Mr.
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