Madeleine Choir School students spread message of peace at Christmastime


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SALT LAKE CITY — The bells at the Cathedral of the Madeleine chime the hours of each day. During the Christmas season, they summon hundreds of people to the magnificent church to hear Madeleine Choir School students perform the traditional music of the season. It's the young choir members' gift to the community.

Cathy Cann attended the choir's performance of "A Ceremony of Carols" by Benjamin Britten earlier this week and said, "I love it, it's Christmas now. This is my start of Christmas every year."

Cann's daughter, Shannon Crawford, agreed. "Every time I hear them start singing and walking in, I just get a little lump in my throat and it brings tears to my eyes; it's so beautiful," she said.

Choir members like seventh-grader Madeleine Klement love to perform for friends, family and the Utah community.

"It changes other people's lives because of the music they hear, and it just makes me feel happy to make other people happy," said Klement, who sang a difficult solo during the "A Ceremony of Carols" performance.

"You can use your voice to help people to celebrate, help people to grieve, help people to just come together," said Melanie Malinka, who has directed the choir for the past 14 years.

Concerts at the Cathedral of the Madeleine offer the public a rare chance to listen to the choir and to meditate on the meaning of the season. People are often amazed at the sound this group of 11- to 14-year-olds can generate at such a young age.

Cann believes it's all the training. "It's so refreshing to see such discipline and desire and talent," she said.

The choristers' talents are developed and then mastered through hours of practice. Seventh-grade choir member Calvin Mumm said it can be overwhelming during the holiday season if you are not organized.

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"We have to be able to learn the music, remember the music and learn different music, and still keep it all in your memory at the same time," Mumm said.

Choir members have had plenty on their minds and in their memories since returning last month from performances across Italy, including a Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

"Just knowing that you were near the Pope — that was amazing," Penelope Dalton, a fifth-grader in the choir.

Sam Brown, a seventh-grader who has sung with the choir for two years now, said, "It was very rewarding. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

It was another rare opportunity for choir members to spread and to receive joy from their audiences. Some are admirers of the choir from around the world, while most are right here in Utah.

Robert Knutsen's son graduated from the Madeleine Choir School more than five years ago but he and his wife still attend as many performances as they can.


Coming (to Madeleine Choir School), I think, has made me a better person because there's a lot of giving back to the community.

–Sam Brown, 7th grader


"They're lovely. I think they are absolutely fabulous," Knutsen said.

"It's a busy time but it's very rewarding," Malinka said. "It's a joyful time for us. It's beautiful music that we get to sing."

Dalton compared her performances to to "sharing peace, because it makes me really happy and peaceful and I feel like we're sharing that."

"Coming (to Madeleine Choir School), I think, has made me a better person, because there's a lot of giving back to the community," Brown said.

The Madeleine Choir School offers a pre-school through eighth-grade education in the liberal arts. Beginning in the fifth grade, all students sing in one of the school performance choirs that can be heard at daily Masses, at special concerts in Utah, and even around the world.

Contributing: Debbie Dujanovic

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