By Carly McIlvaine-York | Correspondent

Attendees at a concert Jan. 16 in St. Mary Church, Middletown, were not only there to enjoy a wide variety of music, but also to show their support for their parish school and its music program.

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The concert was the brainchild of parish finance committee chairman Hank Pekarsky, who explained that its goal was to provide updated classroom teaching tools, such as computers, interactive whiteboards, and musical instruments.

Instead of just asking the parish community for funding, he envisioned a benefit concert where parishioners could contribute to the school as well as enjoy an evening of entertainment and inspiration provided by talented students, alumni and community members.  In his program address, he wrote, “How rewarding it is to hear our children say: ‘You are the reason we are having all these great experiences.’”

The concert began with a performance by the “Saint Mary Singers,” the school’s fourth through eighth grade chorus, who were accompanied by the “Sound Waves Band,” a talented group of instrumentalists in grades four through seven. Sixth grade students, Kiera and Bridget, proudly shared that the chorus practices twice a week and also noted that it recently recorded its third Christmas CD, which is available on both iTunes and Spotify. School music director, Mike Kabash, said that the CD project was both an academic project as well as a fundraiser for the music program and his goal for recording the CD was “to make music cool again.”

At the concert, the Saint Mary Singers and Sound Waves band performed two energetic African songs as well as one from their CD, “Saints Are Great,” which is the students’ own lyrics set to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” The crowd responded with a hearty standing ovation at the conclusion of the set.

Another selection highlighted Father Jeffrey Kegley, pastor of St. Mary Parish and director of St. Mary School, who played his guitar and sang a moving rendition of the Irish hymn “Lady of Knock.” Father Kegley shared that he learned to play the guitar while in seminary and made “a promise to God to only play songs for church and also Irish folk music.”

Noting his full support of the parish school and desire to promote the musical talent of students, Father Kegley told of how St. Mary School was founded in 1952, with only an eight-classroom building. Now 64 years later, the school holds a reputation as a preeminent Catholic school, offering both academic excellence and solid spiritual formation for more than 500 students.

Other parish and school musical groups and talented individual artists who participated in the benefit concert included the parish adult choir. Under the direction of Doris Ramme, the choir sang Laim Lawton’s “Sing of a Lady,” a piece which they had previously performed in Carnegie Hall. A talented group of Filipino doctors and nurses called “Musical Connection” performed, and the concert concluded with a fun assortment of Jazz standards performed by the VFW Jazz Band.

Pianist Jessica Kortenhaus, a graduate of both St. Mary School and Mater Dei Prep said, “I spent many happy years growing up in the parish schools, and it was nice to be able to give back something that could benefit future generations of students.”