Serving Your Parish

Jenny Ubl, Director of Sacred Music

Jenny holds degrees in music theory and vocal performance from the University of Notre Dame (Bachelors and Masters in Sacred Music). She worked for the University as a vocal coach and cantor at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart and editor of the Notre Dame Newman Hymnal. She subsequently served on the music staff at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica and the Cathedral of St. Paul.

In addition to serving as Director of Sacred Music at Transfiguration, Jenny maintains an active performance schedule as a soloist and ensemble singer. Appearances include the Rose Ensemble, the Mirandola Ensemble, La Grande Bande, First Readings Project, the Apollo Master Chorale, and the Bach Society of Saint Louis.

Madeline Van Havermaet, Children’s Choir Director

Kyle Ubl, Organist and Choirmaster of the Transfiguration Festival Choir

Carolyn Price, Organist

Richard Gray, Organist

Patrick Henning, Organist

The Children’s Choir is open to children in Grades 2–6 (beginning in Grade 7, students are invited to join the Parish Choir and/or the Transfiguration Festival Choir).

The choir offers music at approximately one to two 10:30 am Sunday Masses per month from September through May.

Rehearsals are held approximately two Mondays per month from 5:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. during the choir season.

The music program also hosts a summer choir camp for children.

If you are interested in enrolling your child, please contact Madeline Van Havermaet at mvanhavermaet@transfigurationmn.org.

The Transfiguration Festival Choir is a project-based, semi-professional ensemble consisting of eight professional singers and volunteer choristers. The choir is open to all parishioners who are able to read music or learn music efficiently by ear.

The choir offers music at liturgies throughout the year, including Christmas Eve, Holy Week, Ascension/Pentecost, and the Feast of the Transfiguration.

If you are interested in joining the Transfiguration Festival Choir for one or more of its project sessions, please watch the parish bulletin for details, or contact Jenny Ubl at jubl@transfigurationmn.org.

To support robust singing by the choirs and congregation, the music program relies on skillful use of the pipe organ.

Second only to the human voice—the instrument created by God—the pipe organ holds “pride of place” in Catholic sacred music for well-established reasons.

First, the pipe organ, by its very design, uses a collection of pipes to emulate a choir of voices that create sound through the use of air, in the same way that the human voice creates sound. In this way, the pipe organ relies on the basic mechanics of the instrument created by God himself. The air blower functions as the lungs, the wind chests as the air pathway (throat), the pipes as the voice box, and the echoing acoustic of the sanctuary as the resonant space of the singer’s mouth. No other instrument functions in this way!

Second, the sheer breadth of the pipe organ’s tonal palette (from very quiet to very loud) reminds us of the immensity and the magnificence of God. At the blessing of the new organ at the Basilica of the Nativity of Our Lady (Regensburg) in September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI observed:

The organ has always been considered, and rightly so, the king of musical instruments, because it takes up all the sounds of creation—as was just said—and gives resonance to the fullness of human sentiments, from joy to sadness, from praise to lamentation. By transcending the merely human sphere, as all music of quality does, it evokes the divine. The organ’s great range of timbre, from piano through to a thundering fortissimo, makes it an instrument superior to all others. It is capable of echoing and expressing all the experiences of human life. The manifold possibilities of the organ in some way remind us of the immensity and the magnificence of God.

Psalm 150 . . . speaks of trumpets and flutes, of harps and zithers, cymbals and drums; all these musical instruments are called to contribute to the praise of the triune God. In an organ, the many pipes and voices must form a unity. If here or there something becomes blocked, if one pipe is out of tune, this may at first be perceptible only to a trained ear. But if more pipes are out of tune, dissonance ensues and the result is unbearable. Also, the pipes of this organ are exposed to variations of temperature and subject to wear. Now, this is an image of our community in the Church. Just as in an organ an expert hand must constantly bring disharmony back to consonance, so we in the Church, in the variety of our gifts and charisms, always need to find anew, through our communion in faith, harmony in the praise of God and in fraternal love. The more we allow ourselves, through the liturgy, to be transformed in Christ, the more we will be capable of transforming the world, radiating Christ’s goodness, his mercy and his love for others.

Third, because the pipe organ creates sustained sound (unlike the piano), the pipe organ is much more effective at encouraging and supporting robust congregational singing.

For these reasons and many others, the Church places special significance on the use of the pipe organ in sacred liturgy. The Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy provides that in the Latin Church, the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things. (Article 120.)

Transfiguration maintains a roster of cantors and organists who offer music at liturgies throughout the year. Training and experience is required. If you would like to audition to serve as a paid cantor or organist at Transfiguration, please contact Jenny Ubl at jubl@transfigurationmn.org.