Catholic Music Express / GrapeVine

There's a new website on the internet devoted to Catholic music.

The Canadian Catholic Recording Artists Organization has set up their new webiste, Catholic-Music.biz, which will feature a variety of information on Canadian Catholic artists.

Canadian Catholic artists are invited to join this organization. According to the website, "We envision a national Catholic organization of recording artists who will get to know each other, share songs, support each other, learn from each other and eventually attend an annual get together to meet, learn, pray and sing and play.

We plan to provide solid teaching on Catholic music, the history of church music, workshops, concerts, get togethers, retreats and so on. We hope to find a Catholic bishop in Ontario who has a heart for Catholic music who will act as our spiritual advisor. Eventually we will develop more of an online presence in Facebook. Journey with us! God bless. - Pete and Cyndie Mason

The website is still being updated, so check back often.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Canadian Catholic Recording Artists Organization website

On Saturday 10th March, in the middle of London's noisy and bustling Trafalgar Square, the electro-pop British band ooberfuse stopped the traffic long enough to tell otherwise indifferent Londoners the harrowing story of persecuted Christians throughout the world. To mark the 1st anniversary of the assassination of Pakistan's Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti, murdered in cold blood for courageously speaking out against Pakistan's blasphemy laws, a peace concert amplified the barely audible voices of minority communities throughout the world subjected to daily terror on account of their religious beliefs. You can watch their tribute video to Shahbaz Bhatti below.

One passer-by Joshua Sanders remarked "I had come to central London to do a bit of shopping and happened to be walking through Trafalgar Square. I heard the unexpected sound of rhythmic Indian drumming and followed my ears to a small stage set up at the foot of Nelson's column. I was captivated by the music and the powerful accounts of the silent persecution faced by millions of Christians throughout the world. It is staggering that this kind of intolerance exists in the 21st century."

During the interludes between musical performances speakers, including John Pontifex from Aid to the Church, Wilson Chowdhry from the British Pakistani Christian Association, Father Tim Finnigan from the Hermeneutics of Continuity blog-site and Irshad Manji from the USA-based Moral Courage Project, gave stirring reflections on the ugly reality of religious intolerance and persecution.

Cherrie Anderson of ooberfuse says, "It turned out to be an amazing day! I never expected so many to people to stop what they were doing to check out what was happening on the stage. It was an emotionally charged moment when we sang our tribute song in memory of Shahbaz Bhatti." Hal St John of ooberfuse adds, "We felt blessed to be part of this initiative to make the voices of the voiceless heard in the midst of the roar and loud noise of London life."

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Ooberfuse Website

Dr. Russ Rentler and a team from St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Orwigsburg, Pa. travelled to Haiti again this February to aid in the medical needs of the native people. The volunteers have been traveling to Haiti for many years, even before the earthquake that caused so much damage.

Thanks to nurse Patricia Milot who provided the photos below of the people and the scenes in Haiti.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Russ Rentler's Website

The 2012 Rocking Romans Best of New Catholic Music Competition Runs from Ash Wednesday to April 15.

With the help of God and many supporters, numerous Catholic artists will find their way to this contest. Because Catholic Music continues to grow in quality and variety, we look forward to hearing new music from new and familiar competitors from around the world. The finalists from the competition will be the featured performers on the 2012 Rocking Romans Best of New Catholic Music compilation.

This year's contest will be the 5th of the series, so we ask for your prayers and support in promoting this annual effort. There would be no album without the spiritual and material help of hundreds of the faithful working around the world. We thank all of our supporters.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Rocking Romans Website

Kitchener, Ontario…
Faith FM’s Shining Star 2012 Christian Vocal Talent Search Call for Contestants is on now ending at Midnight on Thursday March 1st!

Anticipation is high for Shining Star 2012! Faith FM runs this event every two years and is seeing that the community is anxious to participate once again!

This is an exciting opportunity for those with singing talent to advance their skills and potentially win the title of Shining Star 2012. Every person who enters will have a chance to perform at the preliminaries in front of an audience and an experienced team of judges who will evaluate on a number of criteria. Whether they move on or not, this will provide the contestants with valuable experience.

"I saw the Shining Star competition as an opportunity and I figured I had nothing to lose! It's amazing how God has worked through this." says Dana Marie Hoekstra, the Shining Star 2009 winner. She has gone on to become a Canadian gospel recording artist being played across Canada as well as a 2011 GMA Canada Award Nominee.

The final event that determines the Shining Star will be held this year at Calvary Pentecostal Assembly in Cambridge on Saturday May 12th. Dave MacDonald, General Manager of Faith FM says, “We're reconnecting more strongly to our base in moving the final event into a church setting. This also means we can offer a much larger and broader prize package, to really help the winner take their singing to the next level.”

This year the grand prize package valued at over $20,000 consists of a professional recording session at Revelation Sound in Guelph for a full album with a completed CD, along with promotion and marketing expertise that includes professional photography, video, and the launching their own website!

The preliminaries, open to the public, are the evenings of March 23 to 25 and April 13 to 15. They will be held at various churches in our community. Semi-Finals run the weekend of April 13th.

Tickets for the final will go on sale in April. With an average attendance of 1,000 each year, Faith FM looks forward to a strong turn out this year! “A key component of our mission statement is to encourage, support and promote the development of Canadian Christian talent. We have a terrific opportunity to do that again this year with the amazing prize package!” says Barbara Dowling, Account Manager at Faith FM.

Faith FM is pleased to have D.A. Kurt Insurance Brokers and Financial Services as the Platinum Sponsor this year.

For more details contact Barbara Dowling at 519-575-9090 ext. 30, bdowling@faithfm.org, or visit www.faithfm.org.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Faith FM website

Catholic radio veteran Gary Gersin has started up the Sacred Heart Radio website again, playing a variety of Catholic music online.

Sacred Heart Radio offers 2 streaming stations - "Heart Radio" and "Beat Radio". There is also artist info, music news, artist spotlight, and more.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
SacredHeartRadio.net

Catholic band Ooberfuse has composed and recorded a new song, "Blood Cries Out".

Lead singer Cherri Anderson said, "we wrote the song inspired by Shahbaz Bhatti's life and how the blood of Jesus cries out for peace, mercy and love (Hebrews 12:24)." For info on Shahbaz Bhatti, please see this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12617562.

Shahbaz Bhatti was Pakistani Minorities Minister, and was a Christian. He was shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car in broad daylight in the capital, Islamabad, in 2011.

Ooberfuse will be performing this song in Trafalgar Square, London on March 10th as part of the peace rally to commemorate Shahbaz Bhatti's life. View information about the concert and the British Pakistani Christian Association here..

Ooberfuse is recording a music video that should be available by March.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Ooberfuse Website
British Pakistani Christian Association Blog

From Sean Clive:

Well the time has come! We are ready to begin our next CD project for everyone to enjoy. We have six songs completed and are hoping for several more in the next few months. But, we couldn’t wait to get the first set of songs into people’s hands. So we have created a short-run CD called Softly and Tenderly. This CD will serve two purposes… to give people the music they have been requesting at concerts, and to help us complete production on a full-length project. The full-length project will cost over $6000 to complete with final music production, artwork (including a booklet), and CD replication (making enough to sell and give away).

As we said, we have six songs so far, I Heard The Voice Of Jesus, Turn Around Slowly, I Come To The Garden Alone, Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling, I Will Carry You (new version), and Goodbye Old Friend (written for our former pastor Rev. Edward Hayes and dedicated to so many people to whom we have had to say goodbye). We will be putting several more songs on the full-length CD to round it all out.

What we need from you to join us in our work, are the following: Your financial support in the form of a gift. This can be in check or cash or credit card. If you send a gift under $200, please make sure we have the proper spelling of your name so we can acknowledge you in our CD credits.

If you are giving an amount of $200 or more, please also provide a photo of the loved one you would like remembered / memorialized in a special way. The photo can be scanned and emailed (sean at seanclive dot com) or it can be sent to us and we will scan it and return a copy to you. The best quality photo will look best in the CD artwork. But we will try to work with whatever you send us.

Visit Sean Clive's website below for details.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Sean Clive's Website

Congratulations going out to Vincent Pace, Alexander J. Keller, amd Stephen Pace, winners of the 2011 Songdoor Award from the Instrumental Category.

The song that won was Vincent's song "Stormfront", available on his new album "Graft".

Vincent Pace worked in the past with Portico77 and is a freelance musician, composer, and music educator through his company, "Graft Productions".

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Songdoor Website

Catholic-worship.com is offering a guide to help those interested in starting or enhancing a Catholic music ministry.

The ebook is entitled "The Spirit of Worship: A Guide for Renewing Catholic Music Ministry". You can get the guide for free by registering for their newsletter.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Catholic-worship.com

ROME, OCT. 21, 2011 (Zenit.org).- When thousands of pilgrim youth descend on Brazil in 2013 for World Youth Day, they will find a Church in the midst of renewal, despite momentous challenges.

José Correa, director of the Brazilian office of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, spoke with the television program "Where God Weeps" of the Catholic Radio and Television Network (CRTN), in cooperation with Aid to the Church in Need, about what is happening in the Church in Brazil today.

LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Read the entire article here on Zenit