Music Notes

Welcome to Music Notes, a new weekly blog discussing the music in support of our weekly worship services! Music Notes will be included in Field Notes and available on our website. Each week, we will explore the history, context, and relationship to liturgy which our service music has. We will learn fun facts about composers’ lives and their output, as well as diving into context and the important relationships between music and liturgy.
Read the latest editions of Music Notes below:
Special Announcements From Our Director of Music
Music Notes: Palm Sunday - Year C
Music Notes - The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year C
Music Notes - The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year C
Music Notes - The Third Sunday in Lent, Year C
Tyrone Whiting
Director of Music
(215) 247-7466 ext. 105
Tyrone (he/him) writes, “I am beyond excited to have been appointed as the next Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and I cannot wait to begin working with you all. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work in such a faithful, progressive, and musical church with such a wonderful tradition. My husband, Sean and I look forward very much to meeting you all.”
A prize-winning organist and conductor, Mr. Tyrone Whiting is a graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and the Royal College of Music, both in London, UK.
In September 2017, Tyrone was appointed Director of Music at Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey, USA and began work there in February 2018. At Grace Church, Tyrone extended the Chorister Choir School program, developed and expanded the adult choir, and founded a brand-new adult chamber choir, Brick City Chorus, raising the profile of music at Grace Church and the Arts in Newark, NJ.
He has been fortunate to perform at some of the top churches and venues including Westminster Abbey, the Royal Albert Hall, St. Sulpice and Le Mans cathedral in France, as well as featuring in Trinity Wall Street’s Pipes at One series last summer.
Prior to Tyrone’s arrival in the USA, he was Director of Music at St. Mary’s Parish Church, Battersea from 2012 to early 2018. At St. Mary’s, Tyrone established a biennial recital series as well as a new fully funded choral scholarship program, and conducted several large-scale concerts including Mozart and Fauré’s requiems, J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion, and Stainer’s Crucifixion. Collaborative work included conducting a recent commission by prominent British composer Simon Bainbridge written for the Choir of St. Mary’s, as well as working as accompanist for the Philharmonia Chorus under conductors Stefan Bevier and Yaron Traub.
Passionate about teaching, Tyrone was awarded the Licentiateship diploma of Trinity College, London (LTCL) in Instrumental/Vocal Teaching with a high distinction and worked in and around London as a teacher of organ, piano, and theory. He was formerly Head of Music at Elmhurst Independent School for Boys for 3 years and worked as an animateur in London schools and the London Mozart Players.
As a pianist, Tyrone has studied with Philip Fowke, Andrew Zolinsky, and Alvin Moisey. He performs often as a soloist, accompanist, and répétiteur, holding the Licentiateship diploma of the Royal School of Music (LRSM) in Piano Performance.
More information about Tyrone can be found at www.tyronewhiting.com.
Music
Music is an integral fundamental part of the worship and life of St. Martin’s. A typical Sunday Eucharist will include two anthems, and a psalm sung by the choir, as well a congregational mass setting (sometimes choral settings are used) and hymns. Congregational singing is an important part of our worship; music adds heightened meaning to texts and scripture and is a wonderful medium for expressing the inexpressible in times of joy and gladness, or in time of difficulty and sadness.