Meet Our Music Director

Karen Crosby is a native of Osterville and descended from a long line of Cape Cod boat builders. Starting at age seven, Karen took her first two years of piano lessons from Virginia Fuller, born in Osterville, longtime organist at St. Andrew’s-the-Sea, and a member of St. Peter’s Church.  Her maternal grandmother, Carrie Murphy, born in Yarmouth Port, was the organist for 55 years at the Christian Science Church in Hyannis.  Karen continued her local piano study with Jacqueline Gourdin, Dorothy McKenna and Katharine “Kit” Tuttle at the Cape Cod Conservatory. It was Mrs. Tuttle that prepared her successfully for her audition for the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Karen graduated, cum laude, in 1986 with a Bachelor of Music degree and last spring received her Master of Music degree, with distinction. During these two degree studies she served as a teaching assistant in the college and on the faculty of the school’s community division.

Arthur Winograd, the founding cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet and former conductor of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra has coached Karen in chamber music, as had the world-renowned cellists Bernard Greenhouse, Leslie Parnas and collaborative pianist Irma Vallecillo. Members of the Grammy Award winning Emerson String Quartet have also worked with her. She performed extensively throughout Southern New England in a cello piano duo.

She has studied group vocal technique and choral conducting with Dr. James Jordan at the Westminster Choir College, New Jersey.  She has been a student of the organ for the past twelve years, studying with Hope Mehaffey, John Bishop and Christopher Babcock.

Karen performed piano solos in both the 1983 and 1985 International Music Festival in Gerona, Spain. She has been a regular organ performer in the Wonderful Wednesday’s music series at Oak Bluff’s Union Chapel, Martha’s Vineyard. She is an internationally licensed Kindermusik Educator, specializing in education for the newborn through 9-year-old involving music, creative movement and self-expression. For ten years, she was on the piano faculty of the Cape Cod Conservatory and Cape Cod Community College.

For two years in the late eighties she worked in the office at the Crosby family boat business and from 1990 through 1994 was the Osterville Historical Society’s museum director.

Karen is currently the Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church (Episcopal) in Osterville, where she began her tenure 12 years ago She is in charge of a vibrant, eclectic music program with a 20 voice Adult Choir and a multi-generational Family Choir. The repertoire of the church’s program varies from Palestrina Masses to contemporary Christian.

When not honing her church work, Karen enjoys playing chamber music, singing with the Chatham Chorale and learning the idiom of jazz.  Outside of her musical pursuits, she keeps busy with the upkeep and nurture of her late grandparent’s home with gardens; traveling; and doing therapy work and obedience training with her German shepherd, Ayla.

Children’s Choir

A chance for me to meet and enjoy St. Peter’s next generation of choristers, the Children’s Choir “rehearses” once a week for a limited time in the fall and spring.  Broad concepts such as vocal awareness, vocal exploration, music and movement, steady beat, etc. are only a few of the activities enjoyed by all for the 45 minutes spent  together. Family Choir classics are introduced to young choristers and lots of at-home listening and sharing are encouraged. An anthem for a Liturgical Feast Day is a goal worked towards. Even the focus of the group is truly the process and journey of making music, the end result always exceeds expectation and is truly an appropriate celebration of a Feast Day.

Fellowship is an important aspect of choir membership and both choirs get together regularly for rehearsals followed by social gatherings.  A highpoint for both choirs is the opportunity for both to work together and participate in a vocal ensemble with 45+ members.  Easter, Bishop’s Visits and Choir Appreciation are occasions when this is possible.  Future opportunities are being explored.

For more information regarding the above or any aspect of St. Peter’s music program, please contact Karen Crosby by phone at home:

508-428-6577 or via email kecrosby@aol.com

The Music Program at St. Peter's

The music program at St. Peter’s Church is a vital and integral aspect of parish life. It comprises about 55 choristers, musicians and soloists who participate, in one form or another, in all services but the 8:00 am Sunday Rite I Eucharist, and daily services in Lent. 

Choirs

Adult Choir

The 15-20 member Adult Choir rehearses once a week on Wednesdays, from 7:00-9:00.  Group vocal techniques that are covered range from diction, resonance, period performance practice, choral blending and intonation, to an individual’s vocal response to breath control, range extension, legato singing, etc.  An eclectic repertoire is chosen from:

• the 16th  and 17th century a capella Renaissance anthems
• Baroque classics such as the “Messiah”
• Classical Mozart pieces such as “Ave Verum”
• Romantic favorites by composers such as Saint Saens and Faure
• Contemporary leaders of the Anglican tradition such as Mathias, Elgar and Rutter
• Classic spirituals arranged by William Dawson and Moses Hogan
• Early American folk-tune settings by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw

Membership is open to high schoolers and above.  Previous vocal and choral experience is not necessary, but encouraged.  A strong time commitment is necessary to perform the high level of music in the Adult Choir program.  Extra help is available to all who would like it.  CD’s of performances of the anthems are available, as well as tapes of individual part lines that I perform and record for the individual members as needed. 

The Adult Choir sings for the 10:00 Holy Eucharist service on Sunday mornings, with the exception of the first Sunday of the month, which is Family Eucharist.  The ensemble  presents a Service of Lessons and Carols before Christmas, and sings for the Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Easter, and Bishop’s Visitation/Confirmation services.

The Choir also takes their “show on the road” occasionally and has participated in collaborative Evensongs at St. Mary’s in West Barnstable; led Evensong services at St. Andrew’s in Hyannisport, and sung Christmas programs for St. Peter’s own Women’s Association, as well as area nursing homes.  

Family Choir

The multi generational Family Choir rehearses Sundays after the 10:00 service for approximately 30-40 minutes.  Occasional special Saturday rehearsals are also scheduled throughout the year.  With ages ranging from 6 to 50+, pedagogical goals vary for this group.  Selections with “refrains” work well for including everyone in their own comfortable level of music making.  The youngest can just learn the words for the refrain (usually only two lines), which appear regularly throughout the music.  Older children can contribute the verses, which change every time the music repeats.  Adults and the more advanced younger singers can add harmony with alto, tenor and bass lines.  All choir members learn proper singing posture with poise and appropriate behavior for leading music in church worship.

Repertoire chosen for this group comes from the Hymnal 82, as well as the Episcopal Church’s supplementary hymnals:  Lift Every Voice and Sing II, Wonder, Love and Praise, and other multi-cultural and ecumenical sources.  Membership is open to anyone in the church aged 2nd grade and older.  Individuals, as well as families, are encouraged to join.   Opportunities are available for instrumental and vocal coaching as well as solos during services.CD’s are given to support learning the material. 

The Family Choir leads the music for the first Sunday of every month. The Family Choir also sings on Christmas Eve, Easter, Choir Appreciation Sunday and Bishop’s Visitation/Confirmation services.

Members of this group have been very successful ambassadors of St. Peter’s church in various school programs and talent shows. A highlight of the Osterville’s Christmas celebration is the Annual Stroll.  Several soloists from St. Peter’s Family Choir have sung anthems between the readings in the ecumenical crèche service for the past two years.The children certainly did our church proud!