Dear Parishioners and Friends,
I am delighted to announce that we have a new Director of Music Ministries! David (pronounced Dah-VEED) Garrido Cid will join our community at the start of September and will begin playing for weekend Masses on September 6th. Our choir season will start a bit later this year than usual, and the Gallery Choir will resume on Sunday, September 28th, with the Treble and Bass Clef Choirs starting in early October.
It has been a long process to bring our search for a suitable replacement of Gabriel Löfvall to a successful conclusion. However, we are very happy that such a worthy successor has been found: someone who understands the emphasis we place on excellent liturgical and choral music in our parish. In fact, David and his wife, Alice Matteson, were married here on September 13, 2013.
David comes to us from Saints Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury where he has served as Director of Music Ministries since 2021. Prior to that, he served at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Harford, from 2015 to 2021. He has also worked at Catholic communities in East Hartford, at Northwest Catholic High School, and St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Simsbury. From 2006 to 2013 he was the co-founder and co-artistic director of Vallis Musicae, an ecumenical community choir.
David studied piano and chamber music at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid in his native Spain, as well as at the Hartt School here in Hartford and at Yale University in New Haven. Since age seven, David has performed piano, both solo and collaboratively, in Venezuela, Brazil, Spain, Italy and the United States. He began organ studies when he was 21, and has performed on organs spanning the Ba- roque period to modern “romantic” American instruments in several countries. He is a member of the Greater Hartford Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and the Musical Club of Hartford.
David first came into contact with our parish back in 2000 when he played piano for rehearsals and concerts for the Church Street Sing- ers, under the direction of Br. Kevin McGoff, O.F.M. He has admired our parish’s fine music ministry as well as our commitment to social justice. “The work of the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry, and its collaboration with neighboring social work entities, is one that speaks to my heart,” he said. “The parish’s motto perhaps epitomizes what I would like to create with music: to openthedoorswith up- lifting music, to encourage people to approach music with an openmind, and for music to opentheheartsof all believers,” he added.
I wish to express my deepest thanks to the members of our search committee who spent many hours over the past six months reviewing applications and résumés, arranging interviews and auditions, and helping to keep the music program going with interim and substitute directors and organists. Please join me in thanking Joanne Huelsman, Beverly Boyle, Zachary Gilbert, Allison Holst Grubbe and Marc Sherer for their dedication and commitment to ensuring our parish’s musical future. I want to offer particular thanks to Zach Gilbert for serving as interim music administrative assistant, as he faithfully produced weekend songsheets, engaged substitute organists, and carried out a myriad of tasks.
Losing Gabe to the cathedral was a tough loss for all of us, as well as for me personally. But I am confident that we have entered a new phase of joyful and excellent music-making for the years to come.
Blessings on your week ahead!
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M.
Pastor