PHOTO BY CHRIS O’DONOVAN
North Castle residents are in for a treat at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, October 29 at 4 p.m. A concert of choral and instrumental music featuring Vivaldi’s Gloria and additional works by Handel and Parry will be included in the concert to celebrate the founding of the church and the town of Armonk 175 years ago. The concert will also introduce a world premier commissioned by St. Stephen’s from acclaimed British composer Paul Mealor titled “How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place.”
Mealor rose to fame in the U.K. after composing and performing Ubi Caritas et Amor at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. His song “Wherever You Are” performed by the Military Wives Choir became a #1 single in the U.K. and he has worked with choirs and orchestras all over the world.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, located in the historic Mile Square center of Armonk, is celebrating 175th year, with a year-long series of special events and concerts. Rev. Nils Chittenden stated “In 1842, a small group of Episcopalian Christians founded a parish in the town of North Castle, built a beautiful sanctuary in the Greek Revival style and, in so doing, established a community that led to the founding of modern-day Armonk.” Armonk, which means “the fishing place between the hills” derived its name from the word Armonck, the name used by the Native Americans known as the Siwanoys who were based on the Byram River.
The piece by Mealor is an adaptation of the New International Version translation of Psalm 84. “A psalm was chosen so as to be as inclusive as possible to all of Armonk’s faith communities: both Christian and Jewish. We invite everyone to join us as we celebrate all of the good that St. Stephen’s has brought to Armonk,” noted Rev. Chittenden.
Tickets for Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ are $15/$10 online at www.ststephensarmonk.org or $20/$15 at the door. The concert will take place in the church from 4p-6p.
A reception follows the concert and is included in the ticket price.
For more than two decades, husband and wife team Pete and Maura Kennedy have performed on stages in the U.S. and the U.K., as a folk/pop duo and as members of Nanci Griffith’s Blue Moon Orchestra. Now for the first time ever the show will be one of the inaugural events in a special benefit concert at the new Chappaqua Performing Arts Center (ChappPAC), formerly known as the Wallace Auditorium on the Reader’s Digest campus. The benefit concert titled “Life is Large” at 8 p.m. on Friday, September 22 will raise funds for the Axial Theater, a professional theater company founded in 1999 that is a member of the Westchester Arts Organization. Axial Theater presents contemporary theatrical hits, timeless stage classics and original works in addition to hosting a bi-monthly Sunday Writers Series for play development.
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