March 5, 2018
Last Thursday night, after Mass and having dinner with my friend Karen, I drove to St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Stillwater to listen to a talk by Sebastian Modarelli about his recently recorded work "What I have Seen and Heard". The work was performed by Vocal Essence, conducted by Phillip Brunelle.
It’s hard to write about this without sounding cliché: transcendent, beautiful, stunning, thought provoking . . . Arvo Part comes to mind.
He projected perfectly chosen, classical (for the most part), art work shown in synchronization with the music. The church was darkened for each piece as a small engaged group of people, some of whom I have come to love very much, listened. The words were primarily from the Gospel of John with Just enough explanation from a musical point of view to pay attention to things I’d likely have missed.
Tears were running down my face.
I will definitely purchase his work.