Saint Vincent concert series streams special sacred music performance

Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica is the setting for a special virtual installment of the Saint Vincent College Concert Series, with a quartet of musicians performing sacred classics.

“An Intimate Evening in the Sacred Space of the Saint Vincent Archabbey Basilica” is available for viewing on the college’s YouTube channel.

The concert by organist J. Christopher Pardini, cellist Anne Martindale Williams, violinist Christopher Wu and baritone Thomas Octave includes classics of sacred music, such as Schubert’s “Ave Maria” and hymns like “Be Still My Soul” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

“We hope that presenting this music to our audiences at this time will be uplifting and hopeful as the world continues to work with this pandemic,” Octave said. “We hope that this music will touch their souls and hearts and give them some peace and beauty in these days.”

“(The musicians) were very excited about the idea and eager to be a part of the performance,” he said. “This was a concert intended to bring some comfort with music that is somewhat familiar and sacred.”

Octave is the Saint Vincent College chair of fine arts and associate professor of music and director of the Saint Vincent College Concert Series. He conducts the Saint Vincent College Singers and is the Westmoreland Choral Society music director and director of sacred music for the Diocese of Greensburg. He has collaborated with Pittsburgh jazz legend Joe Negri, River City Brass Band and renowned choreographer Maria Caruso.

Williams has been Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra principal cellist since 1979, is a regular soloist in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York City and performs internationally. She teaches cello in Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music.

Wu is an orchestral and chamber musician, teacher and soloist. He joined the first violin section of the Pittsburgh Symphony orchestra in 1988 and holds the Nancy and Jeffery Leininger First Violin Chair. Wu has played with artists including Nancy Williams, Joshua Bell and the Muir String Quartet.

Pardini performs as a concert organist across the United States and abroad, while serving as organist and director of music at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg and as a music lecturer at Saint Vincent College. He took first place in the 1998 San Marino Organ Competition in San Marino, Calif.

The video was produced by Brother Placid Sellers, assistant director of Saint Vincent Archabbey media.

“Brother Placid was instrumental in helping us create a safe, artistic and sacred setting for the recording,” Octave said. “Truly, we did not have a lot of opportunity to rehearse beforehand, so we relied on our shared musical experiences, individual rehearsal and one brief group rehearsal.”

Until the concert series can resume live performances, Octave said he plans to continue virtual music performances.

“Our hope is to record two more for the spring semester,” he said.