By Paul Dobbyn
PLAYING a constant refrain in Roland Bartkowiak’s life was a dream to run his own church choir.
The dream was realised when he took charge of Red Hill’s renowned St Brigid’s Church choir in 2004, building on the work of the previous choirmaster John Hopsick.
Prior to that Roland had been employed from 1997 as an organist in the church.
But more was to come.
In early August, Roland helped lead the choir in one of its crowning moments of glory, celebrating the iconic inner-city church in song and music at a centenary Mass.
Conducting the choir was his wife Tricia whom he met through their mutual love of devotional music.
And, singing their way through complex harmonies under their mother’s exacting direction, were daughters Lauren, Monique and Ingrid.
As always, Roland was accompanying them and the rest of the 30-strong choir on the church’s historic Whitehouse organ.
The much-admired organ, built by Brisbane’s B.B Whitehouse and Company, was installed for St Brigid’s blessing and opening in 1914.
A four-piece brass section augmented the choir for the historic occasion, giving another flourish to this most extravagant realisation of Roland’s long-held dream.
“I had never imagined having brass in my dream choir,” Roland said. “Let alone leading it before an archbishop (Mark Coleridge) on such an auspicious occasion.”
Roland was about 10 when he first auditioned for a choir.
“I was going to Adelaide Christian Brothers College, across from St Francis Xavier Cathedral at the time,” he said.
“I auditioned with about 20 other kids and remember being extremely impressed with the cathedral’s organ.”
Roland was accepted and was hooked then and there, quickly learning not only how to sing in a choir but also gaining the basics of playing the church organ.
In 1981, his love of devotional music still strong, he arrived in Brisbane.
He quickly became involved in the Royal School of Church Music where he met the chairman Charles Clark.
Roland’s musical interests were by now ecumenical.
“I was involved in playing music at events such as Evensong at St John’s Cathedral,” he said. “One day after Evensong I went to a barbecue where I met Charles Clark’s family – three girls and a boy.
“I became friendly with them all, Tricia in particular, and the rest as they say, is history.”
As well as leading him to another love of his life, devotional music and choir involvement helped Roland through some tough times in his adolescence.
“It wasn’t that I was going wild or anything, it was more a time of questioning the relevance of Church in my life,” he said. “But my love of music kept me connected to my faith.
“I’d always came back to it as a safe place, a second home if you like.”
This sense of Church music as home has stayed with Roland. Indeed in St Brigid’s choir he has created this special place for others, most notably young people.
The benefits have been mutual.
“When I took over the choir, it wasn’t long before I was almost tearing my hair out trying to get people involved,” he said.
“It was almost like having to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to keep it going.
“The turning point came about 10 years ago when a teenage girl Elise Nally and her dad Peter turned up.
“I was on organ preparing some Christmas carols and they asked if they could join.
“They said: ‘We hear you sing decent hymns here’.
“Soon after this, Elise asked if her sister and friends could come along and gradually more and more younger people started joining.
“The older members of the choir got to love having this new life and energy around them.
“Eventually the choir sang at Elise’s wedding, and her sister Bethany is still with the choir.”
Roland said involvement in the choir had provided a unique way for families to bond.
“It’s an activity that can involve everyone – parents, grandparents and children,” he said.
“The key components are commitment, social connections and fun.
“We have choir camps once a year which are a great way of team-building.”
Another secret to the choir’s ongoing success is a very supportive parish priest.
“Father Peter Brannelly even shouts us pizza when we have workshops and gives tickets to movies for the kids if they have to give up a Friday night for a special event,” he said.
“If I need to buy new music, he’s very generous and has improved singing conditions with better lighting.
“What’s really good too is we’re given a lot of freedom.”
Yet there’s a serious side to the St Brigid’s choir enterprise.
Roland’s philosophy also involves challenging the choir members.
“It’s about giving the kids as much opportunity as possible to do things – for example, conducting and cantoring,” he said.
“I find choir members also enjoy the challenge of learning sometimes difficult four-part harmonies and so on.
“The music is not a whimsical choice; it’s certainly not just about pretty patterns.
“I spend as much time selecting the music as I do practising it.
“It’s about a marriage of the music with the liturgy and worship.
“My faith and the music are inextricably linked – each feeds and supports the other.”
Roland also extends this faith-based approach to potential choristers.
“I always stipulate to those wanting to join the choir that it’s mainly about belonging to the Church’s worship community and in a sense the singing is secondary,” he said.
“I encourage the kids to be involved in the Mass and listen to the homily and so on … this can be difficult because we’re stuck up the back, out of sight and out of mind.”
Yet this was very much not the case when the choir took centre stage to celebrate St Brigid’s centenary recently.
Roland said after the event, the choir was exhilarated, “on a high to be a piece of the church’s heritage”.
“The Centenary Mass was a bit different, though still in the mode of praising God,” he said. “The main criteria was that there were a lot of visitors so the music had to be more generally known.
“The opening hymn ‘All People That On Earth Do Dwell’ is also known as ‘The Old Hundredth’ because the tune was written to go with the words of Psalm 100.
“Of course it also had a numerical connection to the event being celebrated.
“Then there were the old party favourites like ‘Panis Angelicus’.
“There were also some particularly challenging musical pieces such as one featuring an antiphonal effect between brass and organ.”
That triumph past, St Brigid’s choir is now rehearsing for an event important on a personal level. It’s the marriage of one of the choir’s sopranos in early October.
“Bethany started with us as a 10-year-old … she’s now 21,” Roland said.
“So we’re rehearsing for that, and I believe her music selection will keep us in the church for two hours.
“And once again we’ll all be coming together like a big family to celebrate.
“We’ll all be there for that joyful day, with bells on.”
