SAINT BENEDICT MUSIC SERIES

Periodic concerts at Saint Benedict Catholic Church offer high-quality music to parishioners and serve as a powerful tool for evangelization, providing non-Catholics with a window to the Catholic faith.

Concerts of sacred music "Create in churches a setting of beauty conducive to meditation, so as to arouse even in those who are distant from the Church an openness to spiritual values,” and "keep alive the treasures of Church music which must not be lost; musical pieces and songs composed for the Liturgy but which cannot in any way be conveniently incorporated into liturgical celebrations in modern times."

(Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,

Music in Churches Other Than During Liturgical Celebrations, 1987)

Upcoming Events

Friday, October 10, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.

Three Notch’d Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble in

“Jesu, Joy”

Bach Cantatas 131 & 147

Utilizing period instruments, organist and Bach expert Todd Fickley guest directs the opening concert of Three Notch’d Road’s 15th season. The program features two cantatas, the organ solo Fantasia in G, BWV 572, and the cheerful instrumental Sinfonia from BWV 29.

Cantata 147 is a mature masterwork from Bach’s late Leipzig period and includes the beloved “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” melody and festive virtuoso writing for trumpet. Cantata 131 is a setting of Psalm 130, full of pathos, and possibly the earliest cantata we have of Bach.

Todd Fickley, organ and guest Artistic Director

Katelyn Grace Jackson, soprano

Kim Leeds, alto

Robert Petillo, tenor

Jared Swope, bass

Steven Marquardt, baroque trumpet

Fiona Hughes and Natalie Kress, violin

Matvey Lapin, viola

Benjamin Wyatt, cello

Sam Suggs, double bass

Gaia Saetermoe-Howard and Sarah Schilling, oboes