Both events will be held at St. Paul the Apostle, 2750 Burton St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546.

Click here for additional details and registration.

Friday Evening: March 6

6-9 p.m.

NPM-GR Soup Supper, Members Meeting, and Lenten Retreat

We'll begin the evening with a simple soup supper and social time followed by a short chapter business meeting. (The convention core committee will share details of the July event.) At 7:30, Fr. Phil Shangraw and Sr. Mary Ann Barrett will lead us in a Lenten retreat, focusing on our liturgical ministry and ending with sung Night Prayer.

Free

Saturday Morning: March 7

9-12 p.m.

Choral Directors Workshop: Working with Aging Voices

Aging is part of life. As singers get older it can become more and more difficult to consistently produce good vocal sounds, but it's not impossible.  Choral directors are faced with bringing out the best possible sounds from their singers, including seniors. Younger choral directors often find themselves working with singers twice their own age or more. Let this clinician help, no matter which side of 50 you are on these days.  He'll offer techniques that will bring out the best in singers of every age.
 

Clinician, Cal Langejans, is the founder of the Holland Chorale, and served as its conductor from 1960 until 2000. He currently conducts the Evergreen Chorale, an audition only ensemble of 100+ singers ages 50 and above.

Check out this YouTube performance at St. Adalbert's from a few years ago.

Workshop fee: $25 / NPM Members: $20

The 2015 NPM National Convention in Grand Rapids is a rare opportunity!  Not in a generation has the incredible range of shared experience, comprehensive knowledge, inspired wisdom, and uplifting enjoyment taken place in a city this close to Byron Center.  No, it's not Kentwood.  It is, of course, Grand Rapids!  On July 6-10, right in the heart of Grand Rapids' city center, you and over 2,000 of your closest liturgical & musical friends will have the week of a lifetime.

The Grand Rapids NPM National Convention includes both familiar and unique features.  Plenum sessions by noted, dynamic, and knowledgeable speakers, Worship Space tour and Organ Crawl, Rockin' Rosa Parks Circle (the Rockin' is familiar, but the locale is unique), and a powerful, prayerful, and uplifting Eucharistic celebration are the familiar parts. 

But there are events in this convention that could only happen in Grand Rapids: Picnic at Lyons Square, a hands-on service opportunity, and Wednesday's "Dinner and the Symphony," featuring the renowned Grand Rapids Symphony and chorus, and preceded by your own dinner arranged at one of the many downtown restaurants offering a significant discount for those presenting an NPM Convention badge.

If handbells are your passion, you might come early for the National Catholic Handbell Festival.  This is a separate registration, but it includes the Independence Day fireworks show and the opportunity for Sunday Mass of course.

Opportunity on so many levels

Here is what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for your parish music ministers.  If you're anywhere within a reasonable drive of Grand Rapids, you can have your entire music ministry attend this convention together at a very manageable cost.  Nothing forms a cohesive group as well as a shared experience, especially one of this magnitude and quality.

To control expenses even further, there are volunteer opportunities that can offset some of the registration costs.  For every four hours an individual volunteers, one day's registration is free!

No matter how you get to the Grand Rapids convention this year, you'll be glad you came.  Make plans now to register early for the best rates, reserve your hotel space if you need it, and invite friends from near and far to meet you there.  It's a reunion, a retreat, a renewal, and overall boost for your spirit and your ministry.

Want to Help?

Here are two ways you can help make this convention an even bigger success and even more rewarding for you:

1. Volunteer:  An event of this quality and magnitude takes a ton of work.  But if there are a lot of workers, it's only a pound or two of work for each. Volunteer to help, either in advance or on site.  Click here to sign up.  Whatever you can do, it's appreciated in advance!
2. Contribute:  The Symphony event is NOT funded by the National Office, but by local contributions from businesses and individuals.  Your contribution to this effort is tax-deductible.  Please consider a gift as a part of our local hospitality to the many who will visit our area next summer.  Click here for complete information.

Click here for a copy of the Convention Brochure.

Symphony Fundraiser Update

NPM Members, it's time to step up! Everyone who reads these words is urged to donate to whatever degree you can to support the Wednesday Night Symphony experience at the 2015 NPM Convention. This is our local gift to our 2,000 convention visitors. We are at 2/3 of our $20,000.

This Wednesday Evening experience will be our "night on the town," the 2015 convention's Dinner and Symphony Event. With a 2 � hour window for dinner prior to the concert, leading Grand Rapids restaurants are offering NPM convention attendees a 20% dinner discount!

And if you don't know much about our Grand Rapids Symphony, be amazed: check it out.

Here's what is collectively being asked of each of us:

• make a personal donation
• ask those in your music ministry to contribute
• determine whether or not your parish can support this effort as part of its outreach (several already have)
• explore the potential for support from the business community

Remember, gifts of $100 or more include a pair of general admission concert tickets, $500 or more gets you tickets in the reserved section.

You can pledge a donation by sending an email to: contactus@npm-gr.org

Or simply make out your check to NPM and send it to

            Phil Konczyk, Treasurer

            c/o St. Francis de Sales Parish

            195 West 13th Street

            Holland, MI  49423

For more information click here

Over the past year, the two-tiered NPM-Grand Rapids membership program has efficiently evolved.

Parish Membership:

• The parish joins the Chapter at the $150 level, becoming a sponsor/benefactor of the Chapter. Anyone in the  parish who chooses, may register to become a regular voting member of the Chapter at no addition cost*. Moreover, every member of the parish's music ministry: choir members, cantors, instrumentalists, will receive the monthly newsletter, announcements of events, and be eligible for member discounts at Chapter events.

Individual Membership:

• Pastor, Music Director, or any other member of a parish music ministry is eligible to join as a regular voting member of the NPM-GR Chapter. The annual dues is $20, renewable annually on the anniversary of joining. You will receive our monthly digital newsletter along with all the benefits of full membership.

All memberships renew on the 12 month anniversary of their being established. Become a major supporter of the work of our chapter in the Diocese of Grand Rapids.

Click here for membership application.

*Voting membership is recommended for, but not limited to, pastor, director of music ministries, assistant directors, accompanists, and anyone with a leadership role in the parish music ministry

Parish musicians...

• Are you new at your job?
• Are you trained in another area of music, but have no church music experience?
• Are you an experienced church musician who has never before served in a     Catholic parish?
• Are you simply struggling with certain issues related to your job?

Friendly, competent, help is at hand. Read more