Our Lady of Lourdes Parish choir members are honored for their longevity in music ministry

Friday, Dec. 25, 2015

SALT LAKE CITY — Father J.J. Schwall, pastor, and the parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes recently honored Heidi Slagle, choir director and pianist, and members of the choir for giving their time and talent to the parish; some for more than 50 years.

“Singing is part of the liturgy,” Fr. Schwall said. “Heidi and the choir members not only sing during the Masses, they show up each week for more than two hours for practice. Their commitment to the liturgy is very substantial and the liturgy is always so much richer with music sung, not performed.” 

“Being part of a group that has a creative mission gives us an outlet for expression, thus creating happiness in the singer,” Slagle said. “Of course, we pray in song, but the setting of prayers, supplications and praise to God brings us closer to the spiritual in which we express our love for God and God’s love for us.”  

Slagle began singing in choirs when she was 7 years old, she said. 

“We were living in Europe and the choir director in the military chapel in Munich, Germany was quite ambitious, she said. “She managed to produce, each Christmas, a production that involved children and adults; for example, Amahl and the Night Visitors, a short opera set on Christmas Eve, at the time of Jesus’ birth. That was my ‘come to Jesus and sing’ moment, and I have been singing ever since.”

Florence Holtshouser was an honored choir member; she joined the choir in the early 1960s when Mass was celebrated in Latin before Vatican II. 

“I could say the words and I knew the music, but I didn’t know what they meant,” Holtshouser said.

The Our Lady of Lourdes Parish choir initially sang in the church’s loft, which is now the cry room. The choir was moved down near the altar because the acoustics are better there, Holtshouser said.

“Being in the choir is meaningful to me. I enjoy going to church and I try to get there every weekend and on holy days to sing. The music adds so much to the Mass, and it’s a real joy to be a part of the choir,” Holtshouser said, adding that she has made many new friendships during her years in the choir.

Joy Nunn, a choir member for 40 years, and Mary Smit, a choir member for more than 50 years, have become good friends as well; Nunn gives Smit a ride to rehearsal and Mass every week. 

When Smit first arrived in the United States from Holland just after World War II, she spoke Dutch and didn’t understand English, she said. She was a newlywed and came to Utah because her husband’s family was here. She and her sister had been in the choir in Holland, so she joined the choir at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. 

Smit’s husband, Pete, also sang with the choir until he died in the 1990s. Smit fondly remembers one Christmas Mass when she and Pete sang in Dutch, “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” she said. 

Nunn joined the parish and the choir in 1974, when she and her husband moved into the neighborhood, she said. “I started singing in church when I was in the eighth grade in a Catholic school. I would rather sing than sit still.” 

Nunn likes learning new songs, she said. “I’m amazed that we can learn them in less than three minutes. That’s pretty good for our brains; it keeps us young,” she said. “We’ve also been known to sing a few new songs for the first time on Sunday.”

A core group of choir members has been through many changes with about eight directors or no director. 

“We accept what comes along,” said Nunn. “Choir members have to like going to church, like to sing and be flexible.”

The members all agreed, as did Fr. Schwall, that the choir is in need of new and younger members; they would like to see the choir continue and get bigger.