Make Music
One of the core values of St. Mark’s is to challenge each member to practice faith in daily life, to build community, share gifts and talents, and reach out in love and concern for others. Music is an integral part of worship and community at St. Mark’s. We seek to offer praise and adoration to God and to bring the Word of God to life through song as a way to spread the good news. Part of the heritage of St. Mark’s and the Episcopal Church is that we are a parish and a denomination that values and treasures many forms of music. At St. Mark’s, the Parish choir sings a variety of traditional hymns and anthems of a wide range of historic and modern styles; Anglican and Taize chants, along with more contemporary praise songs and responses. We enjoy trying new music as well as old favorites. We are blessed to have both a very talented organist/choir director as well as a classical guitarist. We welcome new singers and instrumentalists! For more information, please contact the Church office or our choir director.
St. Mark’s is richly blessed with a 1927 M.P. Moller Pipe Organ which was built in Hagerstown, Maryland. The organ was donated by Miss Anne Maddox, daughter of Dr. James Thomas Notley Maddox, who donated the land upon which the historic church was built in 1849. Church records describe the console as being built from walnut stored on Dr. Maddox’s farm which was adjacent to the property. The price, installed, for this organ was $2,550. The organ is a small organ of 7 ranks (individual sound qualities). Though relatively small, the organ was built in a manner that with careful registration, the organ can be made to sonorously fill the church to support congregational singing or provide quiet, calming sounds for more meditative purposes. The historic church also has a Schulmerich Carillon that sounds the Westminster Chimes from the bell tower on the hour as well as hymns several times a day.
St. Mark’s is also in possession of a two octave set of Whitechapel Handbells that are on loan from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Brownsville, Maryland.
The Fellowship Center has a Rodgers Insignia Digital Organ with a two manual draw knob console and a specification equivalent to a 35 rank pipe organ. This instrument was built in Hillsboro, Oregon and installed in 2016 by the R.A. Daffer Church Organ Company of Jessop, Maryland. The Fellowship Center is also home to a state of the art Yamaha Clavinova which came from Taylor Keyboards in Hagerstown. We also are blessed with a recent donation of a baby grand piano. The Fellowship Center is ideal for concerts and musical performances and is available for event rental. Please contact the church office for further details.
