Carlow Choir to perform at St. Joseph’s Cathedral

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Oct 17, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Call it “a scattering of people from here to yonder.”

That’s how it started out, because John DeChiaro founded the Carlow Choir immediately after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

Well, make that the Carlow Choir Part 1.

Parts two and three were added when DeChiaro moved to Hattiesburg, Miss., then Alexandria. Then all came together in 2008 to travel to Italy to perform for Pope Benedict XVI.

“We had 144 people on that trip,” DeChiaro said.

He’ll bring those 144 to Baton Rouge on Sunday to perform a concert at St. Joseph Cathedral. The concert begins at 4:30 p.m. and is free.

“The Cathedral of St. Joseph is such a beautiful church, and the acoustics there are wonderful,” DeChiaro said.

In 2005, DeChiaro was the choir director at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Biloxi, Miss. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and many of the residents’ homes were destroyed.

“So many people were displaced, so I talked to the priest about starting a choir,” DeChiaro said. “I thought it would be something that might help the people, and it would give them something to look forward to.”

The choir met for an hour once a week, and many of its members followed DeChiaro when he left Biloxi for a job as choir director at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Hattiesburg, Miss.

The group’s repertoire was somewhat unusual, bypassing contemporary Christian music for sacred anthems.

“They’re basically scripture set to music,” DeChiaro said. “There are Scriptures from the Old Testament and New Testament, and this music is moving. I’ve seen people cry when listening to it, and in this way, our choir members consider this as their ministry.”

Not everyone in this choir is Catholic, though it meets in Catholic churches. DeChiaro started a branch at Sacred Heart Catholic Church after moving to Pineville.