olps schola cantorum update from fr. gerry del prado

ronny,

i have been following the different blogspots of olps alumni. it's one of my major leisure activities here on staten island. let me congratulate you for all those wonderful posts - pictures and memorabilia that you seem to attract from everywhere. they make for wonderful memory trips down nostalgia lane. not just for your batch and contemporaries, but most everyone who has walked through the corridors of olps.

which brings me to the small matter of the schola cantorum. in fairness to all those who have studies in the seminary before you - even before us - (as in waaaay before) the seminary did have a grand and respectable tradition of music and choral performance, by way of the olps schola cantorum. by no means was the group that sang at the ccp the first generation -redoubtably the best or one of the best, but certainly not the beginning of the schola cantorum. i just mentioned this because some feathers may be ruffled. fr tony pura trained and conducted that choir, much to his credit, but he will be the first one to tell you that the seminary already had the schola cantorum even in his own days in the minor seminary.

'schola cantorum' actually referred to the seminary choir as a whole. so whenever the olps presented a concert, the performers were always presented as the olps schola cantorum. and we know of course that the seminary has presented a lot of concerts. as for pictures, i am sure you could find a few around. i have a whole album of the schola cantorum concert directed by the late fr ben dino. junie taclan must have memories of that concert. he played the banduria, as one of the instrumentalists. fr ernie mendina will also remember concerts presented in his own time as a seminarian. and we also presented our own concert when we were seminarians. frs pura and ernie, who are both excellent musicians, can give you very good information.

please keep on enriching our present lives by the memories you bring from the past. the future will thank you for it.

regards to chin, the next time you see him.

fr gerry del prado