Great News! Our new Music Director will be Jesse Ratcliffe who currently serves as the Director of Music and Organist at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene, TX, as well as the choral director and carillonneur at McMurry University. He will join our staff on February 8, 2023.
Here’s a note from Mark Gibson, chair of the Music Director Search Committee: The Music Director Search Committee received fifteen responses to our posting. We interviewed six candidates and conducted two auditions. Both auditions involved the Historic Church Choir. The Committee recommended Jesse based upon our own strongly positive feelings about his interview and the unanimous positive feedback from the choir. In addition to Jesse’s excellent qualifications, he has extensive experience building music programs and working with youth. He also has great experience with handbells and even plays the carillon and knows Frederick’s carillonneur. He’s very familiar with the Frederick area and will be active and present in the community. However, apart from all this, the committee and choir simply feel Jesse is the right fit for All Saints’. One choir member said after his audition that we haven’t experienced that level of energy for a long time. We are delighted to welcome Jesse to be All Saints’ next Music Director!
Here is a brief bio from Jesse Ratcliffe:
I am most excited to meet all the folks of All Saints and become more familiar with the city of Frederick. My childhood home is the tiny town of Hinton, West Virginia and as a child we would often make trips through Frederick to visit family in Sykesville. Additionally, Frederick was an often made stop on trips to Philadelphia from Warrenton, VA to study carillon.
At age twelve I played my first church service and haven’t looked back. I am a proud graduate of Concord University (Athens, WV); Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA); and the first recipient of the Performance Diploma awarded by the North American Carillon School (Springfield, IL). Over the last eighteen years, I’ve spent my career as a musician building or revitalizing music programs ranging from community choruses, parish music programs, a collegiate choral program as well as renewing an interest in carillons and carillon music. After meeting the choir and other musicians in the parish, I know the possibilities are endless at All Saints. I look forward to meeting you all and please know, once I’ve settled in, my office door is always open for conversation and any questions.
