Church of the Holy Comforter | June 30, 2025

In this issue:

New Music Classroom Update
Growing Up in Choir

Holy Comforter’s New Music Room to be Ready This Fall

A view of construction on the third floor of McGill Hall, looking towards the wall near the playground, on June 22. [Photo by David Boulware-Kelley]

Choirs are eager to have a new home, five years after the old choir room became unusable.

Holy Comforter musicians are in a hallelujah mood after hearing that Holy Comforter will have a new choir room sometime this fall. Thanks to the generosity of the Holy Comforter community and a tax credit that closed a funding gap, renovation of the third floor of McGill Hall and construction of a “multipurpose music classroom” is underway.

“Our goal is to have it done by the end of the summer,” Bob Picardi, a parishioner serving as project management for the renovation, told a Vestry Town Hall meeting on June 1. Based on the current timeline, completion is scheduled for late August or early September, depending on permitting and timely receipt of equipment and materials.

The Music Ministry has been without an adequate, dedicated space since COVID-19 shut down the adult choir and choristers’ rehearsal space near the Lilian Croy Room in March 2020. The pandemic underlined the need for adequate ventilation for some 30 singers who rehearse up to three-and-a-half hours a week, nine months a year, to beautify worship at Holy Comforter.

The choirs’ former home, a windowless basement room, is also vulnerable to mold, endangering the church’s extensive music collection.

Taking note of the problem, the Holy Comforter community made construction of a new music classroom one of four goals of the capital campaign launched in 2022. Two of the four goals — retiring debt incurred to build the Ministry Center and solarizing the church campus — are already complete.

The music classroom was put on hold in late 2023 after the Vestry received higher-than-expected bids from contractors — in part because the third floor needed to be brought up to current zoning and code requirements. That meant installing new and improved HVAC systems and making bathrooms universally accessible. The third floor had not been updated since its original construction.

Fortunately, the church had applied in mid-2023 for a tax credit for businesses that retained employees during the pandemic, despite their usual activities being disrupted. The Federal Employee Retention Credit (ERC) arrived a year and a half later.

The Vestry quickly moved ahead with the third-floor renovation project, reviewing proposals from four construction firms, then voting in May to go forward with a $291,000 bid, Senior Warden Kathy DeSanti-Paulini told the Vestry Town Hall. In addition to closing the music classroom funding gap, the tax credit will be applied to the final goal of the capital campaign — stewardship of the campus, with a focus on long-term maintenance and repair of Holy Comforter’s facilities, Kathy said.

The new room will have windows, adequate ventilation, music storage, and robing space, a whiteboard to support music teaching, and a separate, adjoining office for Music Minister David Boulware-Kelley, at the playground end of McGill Hall.

The renovated third floor will also contain several multi-purpose rooms that will serve as classrooms or possibly rental office space, singer and Vestry member Kerry Gilpin said. “I’m looking forward to a space the choir can truly call home. A place to rehearse, vest, and store music, of course, but it will also serve as so much more than that: it will be a place dedicated to the idea that music serves as an integral part of our Episcopalian worship,” he said.

“The progress that’s been made already is exciting,” said Karen Murray, a soprano and lifelong parishioner. “I’m optimistic that being in this new space in the fall will help the Music Ministry continue to excel and enhance the worship experience for all.”

Growing Up In Choir

Choristers line up in the sanctuary in 2019. From left to right: Gwendolyn Mehigan, Jo Tromans, Clara Wood, Julia Lee, Hank Tromans and Gillian Boam. [Photo by Lolly Mixter]

Graduating chorister Jo Tromans reflects on worshiping God with song.

On Pentecost, Holy Comforter’s choir took a moment before the service to bid farewell to chorister Jo Tromans, who has graduated from the program after singing continuously, starting in second grade, all the way through high school. Now she is heading to George Mason University to study global affairs. Bravo!

Jo recalls being “very nervous” when she first started choir, then learning to pay attention, work with others, and “admire God through song.” She kindly shared some thoughts about growing up in choir.

How old were you when you joined choir and what made you stick with it?

I remember being about eight years old, when I first stepped into the church choir room. I was very nervous when I was first starting, since I barely knew anyone and this was all just a new experience for me. Before choir, I had always enjoyed singing. I began to sing from a very early age, even when I was a baby. My mom saw children singing in the Holy Comforter choir and thought it would be a great opportunity for me to learn about singing and music.

Choir was very hard for me at first since it involved a lot of standing, paying attention to Dr. Boulware-Kelley, and learning to sing with other people. However, as the years passed, I started to see an improvement in my singing. I was able to project my voice, use correct diction, understand cues, and so on. I started to really enjoy singing the pieces that we were being taught … This pushed me to continue down the path of participating in church choir.

Has growing up in choir shaped you or your faith journey?

I think one of the key things that choir helped me with is learning how to pay attention, follow instructions, and work well with others. Part of being part of a choir involves learning how to blend your voice with others so that the audience can hear and understand all the different voices in the song.

Choir has also helped me admire God through song… Our choir sings songs that congregations have heard for generations. Since they can be elegant but complicated, this helps me further appreciate the beauty that God has put in the world, and the fact that we are given the ability to sing in worship.

What’s your favorite part of being in choir, or your favorite piece of music?

I would say that my favorite part about being in choir are Evensongs and the Christmas Eve services. Both of those atmospheres are quite wonderful since the lights are dimmed and there are often candles and incense.

My favorite piece is “Since By Man Came Death.” It is very special that the choir gets to sing something from Handel’s Messiah. I love the contrast in the song between it being slow and dramatic, to all of a sudden very fast paced, with all of the parts building upon one another. It is an incredibly enjoyable song to practice and perform.

What are your future plans, and will choral music be part of them?

I don’t know what my future holds, but I most certainly hope that it involves singing in some capacity. I am planning to audition for my university's choir, partly in the hopes of being able to make new friends, and also because I want to develop my singing skills even further.

I don’t really know what I would do with singing after university. I do know, however, that I want to be able to still do something musical, no matter how small it is… I hope that, one way or another, I will continue to worship God through music for the rest of my life.

Learn More About the Music Ministry