With Hearts and Hands and Voices

by Paolo Bordignon on April 21, 2023

Dear Friends,

Amidst the bustle of this great city, in one of the world’s crowded corporate canyons, St. Bart’s has stood as an oasis of light and spiritual refreshment. With doors open for worship and pilgrimage, it is home to a range of offerings for members, seekers, and visitors.

At the heart of it all is how we gather for worship, keyed to the rhythms of the church, week by week, season by season, year by year. The music we sing and hear in liturgy plays such a moving and powerful role, quite literally setting the tone for what we believe, who we aspire to be, how we seek to grow in faith, and how we might be the hands of Christ in the world.

St. Bart’s has a long tradition of musical excellence and has had an uncommon influence on American musical life. Past Organist-Choirmasters shaped The Hymnal 1940 and The Hymnal 1982, composing anthems and hymns in the repertoire of practically every choir and congregation in the country. These include Leopold Stokowski, David McK. Williams, Harold Friedell, Jack Ossewaarde, James Litton, and William K. Trafka. Supported by one of the world’s great pipe organs, our Choristers, St. Bart’s Singers, and St. Bartholomew’s Choir help us carry this inspiring work forward every week.

Our services called A Choral Feast carry on a tradition for which St. Bart’s has been known for decades: offering major choral works, often with orchestra, in worship. Our 2023 Sacred Music campaign aims to infuse new energy into our Choral Feast series and to support all the ways that sacred music brings us together and inspires us. Your generosity makes it possible to carry forward this great legacy.

Sincerely,
Paolo Bordignon, Organist and Choirmaster

About the Author

Paolo Bordignon

Paolo Bordignon is Organist & Choirmaster of St. Bartholomew’s Church and harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic. He previously served St. Bart’s as Associate Director of Music and Director of the Choristers for eight years.

In 2019-20, he performed with Camerata Pacifica, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the MET Orchestra Musicians, the All-Star Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Festival appearances include Aspen, Bard, Bridgehampton, Grand Tetons, Mostly Mozart, and Palm Beach, as well as New York Fashion Week. He has collaborated with Renée Fleming, Sir James Galway, Wynton Marsalis, Bobby McFerrin, Midori, and Itzhak Perlman. He has appeared on NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, NPR, the CBC, and on Korean and Japanese national television.

Paolo has performed organ recitals at venues such as St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and St. Eustache in Paris, and he has been a frequent recitalist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including a 10-recital residency.

Born of Italian heritage, Paolo’s early musical training was at St. Michael’s Cathedral Choir School in Toronto. He studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music before earning a doctorate from the Juilliard School. He is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

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