‘The time is right’

Candace Montesi will retire on July 31 after 17 years as music director and organist at the First Congregational Church in Springfield.


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Help Wanted: Organist/Choir Director
First Congregational Church of Springfield, VT 
Part-time

The First Congregational Church of Springfield, VT seeks an organist, music/choir director. This is a part time position. Duties will include: Coordinate the planning and implementation of a music ministry for the congregation and community. Promote the spiritual life of the congregation and its members through music ministry. Guide the work of the music program through the year, Meet with the pastor, at least quarterly, to plan for worship. This cooperative planning, led by the pastor, will outline all worship services, including the use of Scripture, music, and special services. Help develop and support effective musical leadership in the church. The Church has an experienced choir, extensive library of anthems and an Austin Organ rebuilt in 1982. This organ is 3 Manual, stop key console (on dolly) with 32 ranks, 35 stops and an Antiphonal at the rear of the church.

2016-07-23 / Front Page ‘The time is right’ 17-year music director retires from Springfield church By Tory Jones Bonenfant toryb@eagletimes.com Candace Montesi plays a hymn on the organ console on Friday, July 22 at the First Congregational Church in Springfield, where she will retire on July 31 after 17 years as music director and organist. — TORY JONES BONENFANT Candace Montesi plays a hymn on the organ console on Friday, July 22 at the First Congregational Church in Springfield, where she will retire on July 31 after 17 years as music director and organist. — TORY JONES BONENFANT SPRINGFIELD — Candace Montesi is wondering what she is going to do with her Sunday mornings beginning next month. With the exception of an occasional winter trip to Florida, the Proctorsville resident has been going to work every Sunday morning for the past 17 years as the director of music at the First Congregational Church in Springfield. Sunday, July 31 will be her last day, as Montesi retires from her duties as director and organist with a final celebration and brunch. “It’s been a great ride,” Montesi said on Friday, July 22 at the church. “I’m kind of sad, but the time is right.” Montesi has lead the music program, conducted the choir, played the organ and piano for Sunday worship, funerals and weddings since 1999. The organ console she plays is an electro-pneumatic organ, which operates with air pressure controlled by an electric current and operated by the keys of the organ. That organ was rebuilt in 1982, and has floor-to-ceiling pipes and ascending size pipes behind the screens at the front of the church, along with the antiphonal, a second set of pipes at the back of the church that are connected to an upper keyboard on the console. “Organists are more and more a rare breed,” she said. In 1974, she recalls, her university had a full organ department with three full-time professors and 20 students in the liturgical music organ department. “Now, it doesn’t exist anymore. People don’t play the instrument,” she said. “It’s very demanding ... you need skill.” She currently oversees 13 members of the choir, including one who plays the trombone. Occasionally, a church member will play the flute, she said. “They are talented, loyal, steadfast and true,” Montesi said of the church choir. “The choir is the backbone of all the things that go on here.” Some have retired, moved away, or passed away since she first began directing the music program, “but we still have a strong group,” she said. The choir member who has been with the group the longest is Jane Morin, 84, who has been singing for 75 years, according to Montesi. “The music is a tremendous ingredient in the worship service,” she said. “Music speaks to everybody. I try to recognize that with the anthems I pick, and my interpretation of the hymns.” She has been slowly packing up her shared office space in the church, where she has bookshelves with years’ worth of her personal musical literature and an extensive collection of anthems in print. Montesi, a 1968 graduate of Berlin High School in Berlin, Connecticut, lives in Proctorsville with her husband David in a house they have owned for 45 years. They moved from Connecticut to Vermont permanently in 1999, when her husband left his career as an independent data processing consultant to work in real estate appraisal. Montesi earned her Bachelor of Music in liturgical music and organ from the University of Hartford- Hartt College in 1974. She has worked as an organist, choir director, and director of music in several churches in Connecticut since 1970, before moving to Proctorsville in 1999 and taking the job at the Springfield church. She learned of the job because she used to attend the church’s services for Christmas Eve, and knew community and church members. In the summer of 1998, Russ McCormick, a choir member who owned a nearby paint and wallpaper store, mentioned that the job of director had opened up. Montesi said she came up to Springfield, auditioned, and met with the pastor. “And they hired me,” she said. She left her job of 14 years to take the new position, with a goal of staying longer in Springfield than she has at her last church. She has made many friends in the choir and in the church community over the nearly two decades in her job, she said. “The music program has always been an extremely important part of this church, historically,” she said. The acoustics and how sound carries inside the church are also fantastic, she added. Montesi is also a private studio instructor for piano and organ, and served as music director of the Springfield Community Chorus from 2008 to 2012. Church administrators are searching now, through a search committee, for a replacement music director and organist. “She will certainly be missed by all who have worked with her and heard her at work producing superb music for those many years. Her bright smile and sense of humor is always evident to all who know her. Many in the choir have expressed their sincere appreciation to Candace for having the opportunity to work with her during her tenure,” church administration stated in a press release. Montesi’s last day as First Congregational Church’s music director is scheduled for Sunday, July 31 at a worship service and celebration of her music ministry. All who have been involved with Montesti in the choir or impacted by her ministry are invited to join the celebration beginning with a Sunday worship service at 9:30 a.m. followed by a brunch to wish her well in her future endeavors, according to church administration. “It’s been a wonderful time,” she said. With retirement approaching, Montesi said that her plans include “a little bit more traveling” than she was able to do before, including a trip to Colorado to visit her husband’s two sons and two grandchildren. In December — a time that has always been busy for the church music program — she plans to take a cruise in the Panama Canal, she said. Montesi said she and her husband are considering moving to Florida in the next few years, as they have been visiting that state for the past few winters. She still plans to play music, possibly as a substitute organist or director even after her retirement. She will also continue to offer private instruction in her home studio. “That’s what I like to do,” she said. “I’m not done.”