Adopted by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in November 2020, a new National Response Protocol for responding to contemporary and historical concerns and allegations of child sexual abuse will be implemented from Monday, 1 February 2021.

After wide consultation across Sandhurst, the Review of the strategic consultative and administrative structures of the diocese has been completed.   Bishop Shane looks forward to feedback about the report and its recommendations and plans to respond to and act to implement recommendations in the early months of this year. 

The report titled 'Go Forth' is now available on the diocesan website.

By Kery Stone

Flipping pancakes in Hargreaves Mall on Shrove Tuesday is now a long tradition – over twenty years in fact! Everyone is welcome to attend as promote the great work of Caritas Australia. And read Caritas CEO, Kirsty Robertson’s “Welcome to Project Compassion 2021”.

Bishop Terry Brady, the Bishop Delegate for Social Justice, has written to the Prime Minister to express concern over Australia still not being a signatory to the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The treaty came into force on 22 January, and Bishop Brady has explained that the elimination of nuclear weapons would be a major step towards creating peace. Bishop Brady’s letter is the latest effort from religious leaders to encourage Scott Morrison to sign the treaty.

By Jenni Kennedy

The beginning of the school year commenced for Catholic Education Office staff on Monday, January 18. The first week of term, dubbed ‘O week’ is a time for staff to reconnect, to focus and to plan for the year ahead. It is also a chance to welcome new staff members to the Catholic Education Sandhurst team.

By Jenni Kennedy 

After 91 years of service, the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (DOLSH) will no longer reside in the Elmore Parish, yet the legacy of these remarkable religious women will continue to live on in the history of the school and parish, and within the community they have shaped and influenced over many, many years. 

28 December marked the tenth anniversary of the death of Bishop Joseph Angelo Grech, the Sixth Bishop of Sandhurst.  On Sunday 27 December, after the 11.00 a.m. Mass, Bishop Shane led prayers for Bishop Joe and gave thanks for his ministry at a well-attended ceremony in the crypt at Sacred Heart Cathedral. During the Mass, Monsignor Frank gave a Homily remembering Bishop Joe. This Homily is now published on the diocesan website.

PAUL TAYLOR – Organist & Director of Music

Following studies in piano with Isola Harvey and Nancy Sworder, and studies in organ with John Hogan in Bendigo, he majored in organ at Australian Catholic University, studying with Geoffrey Cox. In 1993, Paul completed a Master of Arts degree, specialising in liturgy, at the University of Notre Dame, IN, USA. His Master of Music degree (2000) featured a recital of the eighteen “Leipzig” chorale preludes of J. S. Bach and a thesis on Catholic hymnody in Australia. In 2010, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree directed by Dianne Gome at ACU with a dissertation on liturgical chant. From 2012 until 2022, he served a term as Executive Secretary of the Bishops Commission for Liturgy of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. In addition to his work at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Paul is Assistant Director of the ACU Centre for Liturgy. He has served as an organist at St Francis’ Church and St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne and sung bass in the choirs of both churches. He was Director of Music at St Patrick’s Cathedral from 2015 until 2019.

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ANNE BEGG – Cantor

Anne Begg is a freelance musician and educator. She studied classical guitar at university and graduated from VCA and ANU with a Bachelor of Arts (Music Performance) and Graduate Diploma (Performance). Anne’s performing experience covers a wide range of solo and ensemble activities, including concerto work with South Melbourne Symphony and regional orchestras.

Anne has extensive instrumental teaching experience in guitar and is also a qualified classroom music teacher. Anne studied cello in her adult years and played with the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra before moving to Bendigo where she now performs regularly with the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra.

Her interest in choral music began in high school and following this passion, she has been a member of Melbourne’s Gloriana chamber choir, Radcliffe Choral Society (Harvard University, USA) Tanglewood Festival Chorus, USA, the Melbourne Chorale Symphonic Chorus, and the Melbourne Chorale Ensemble as well as singing in various church choirs. Anne has undertaken choral conducting studies at Harvard University and various conducting professional development opportunities with ABODA (Australian Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association) and OV (Orchestra Victoria).

She currently teaches classical guitar and cello and performs with Allegrezza Duo (flute and guitar) and The Guitar Collaboration. Anne commenced as the Music Director of “Women of Note” community women’s choir in Bendigo in May, 2023 and is enjoying following her passion in choral music from the other side of the podium, conducting. Anne enjoys working with Sacred Heart Cathedral music team, which includes workshops with distinguished soprano, Merlyn Quaiffe, AO.

JOANNE BONAZZA – Cantor

Music has always been part of Joanne’s life. Her earliest memory of music is singing along to the ABC radio with her Mum with whom, in 1980 at age 12, she joined the Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir. The following year she was a recipient in the inaugural round of choir scholarships and quickly became worthy of many opportunities both as Cantor and Soloist. She continued her music ministry at various parishes in Bendigo and Melbourne and has been Cantor at the 8:30 Mass every Sunday since 1998.

Joanne has sung in many choirs, performed in local stage productions, recitals and concerts, weddings and funerals. She gained her A.Mus.A. and L.Mus.A. in Singing with the Australian Music Examinations Board while she undertook general nursing training in Melbourne. She was under the vocal tuition of Mavis Webster MBE, Loris Synan OAM and the very sought after vocal coach, Gary May. Being classically trained, Joanne can quickly adapt to many different genres of music. With over 40 years experience, she is available to assist with the selection of music for weddings and funerals. She also teaches voice from her private studio.

BRENDAN EGAN  - Cantor

Brendan Egan has been involved in liturgical music all his life having completed a Bachelor of Theology at Melbourne College of Divinity in 1989. For many years he sang with the Melbourne Chorale and was involved in theatrical productions in a range of community settings around Melbourne. In 2001 he completed a Bachelor of Music at Australian Catholic University and studied voice with David Ross-Smith. He sang in the chorus of Melbourne Opera Company for productions of La Traviata, Rigoletto and Pearl Fishers. In recent years he has enjoyed singing in a men's pop choir in St Kilda. Since moving to Bendigo in 2021, Brendan has been delighted to have the opportunity to sing in the magnificent Sacred Heart Cathedral as both cantor and chorister.

THOMAS HEYWOOD - Organist

The internationally renowned Australian organ virtuoso Thomas Heywood enjoys an outstanding reputation as ‘without argument one of the world’s best concert organists whose primary goal is to touch a wide public with music that stirs the soul as much as it stimulates the mind. His technique is impeccable and seemingly limitless. His command of musical style, particularly in large Romantic works, allows him to make them spring to life in the organ’s unique idiom.’ (The American Organist, March 2019).

‘An acknowledged master’, Heywood has travelled over 750,000 miles or 1.2 million kilometres performing solo concerts on the most celebrated pipe organs across the globe. He has an ever-growing repertoire of over 5,000 works and was the first Australian musician in history to live as a professional concert organist.

Also a talented and prolific transcriber, Heywood’s published solo concert organ arrangements of some the most famous music composed over the last 300 years are performed by organists around the world.

Heywood performs regular international solo tours in concert halls, town halls, cathedrals and churches throughout the UK, North America and Europe where German critics have hailed him as the ‘Ironman der Orgel. Der australische Starorganist Thomas Heywood.’

In December 2012 and January 2013, Heywood performed a sold-out solo tour of Russia from the Pacific Coast to Moscow. International solo touring since 2014 has included the UK, Europe, the USA, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Korea. Since 1994, Heywood has also performed more concerts in Australia than any other organist: to date over 1,750 concerts to over 600,000 people.

Having become the first musician in history to have transcribed the complete Beethoven symphonies for concert organ solo, in 2018 Heywood commenced a major international project to record the complete Beethoven symphonies as a solo artist in a cycle on landmark instruments across the globe. On the completion of this monumental project before 2027, Heywood will become the first musician in history to have transcribed, recorded and performed the complete Beethoven symphonies as a solo artist.

Heywood is also committed to promoting and preserving Australasia’s unique pipe organ heritage. In addition to his work as a concert artist, in 2011 he became the Founding President and Australian National Director of the Australian and New Zealand College of Organists – www.anzco.org.

As a teacher, he is on staff at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne and is Organist of Haileybury in Melbourne, Australia’s largest school, where he established and directs the Organ Scholars Program.

Born into a seventh-generation Melbourne musical family in 1974, Heywood was acknowledged to be a child prodigy giving his first public performance at five after commencing musical studies at the age of four. ‘Australia’s premier organist’ has since performed on thousands of occasions ranging from a celebrated recital in the Sydney Opera House at the age of 17 to touring in venues reading like an encyclopaedia of the world’s most famous organs from Windsor Castle to the largest pipe organ in New York City. Heywood has performed Mozart in Vienna, Tchaikovsky in Moscow, Handel in London and Beethoven in Bonn to both critical and public acclaim.

Heywood’s solo concerts are managed in the USA and Canada by Karen McFarlane Artists and internationally by Concert Organ International – www.concertorgan.com – the company he founded in 1997 with his wife Simone.

Regularly inaugurating new and restored organs since 1993, Heywood has opened many landmark instruments including the largest musical instrument in the southern hemisphere: the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ.

Since 1992 when he released Australia’s best-selling organ recording at only 18 years of age, Heywood has also become ‘one of the world’s most prolific organ recording artists’ with over thirty popular sell-out recordings receiving extraordinary praise from critics across the globe. In 2009 Heywood became the first, and remains the only, concert organist in the world to release three commercial recordings from three continents within seven months. His performances have been broadcast internationally on television and radio.

Not confined to the ‘organ world’, Heywood’s performances and success in reaching out to a vast concert-going public ‘have prompted critics to hail him as a reincarnation of Edwin H. Lemare’, the greatest concert organist of the twentieth century.

‘What a stunning player Thomas Heywood is. His flawless technique is just the platform from which truly artistic and memorable performances flow.’
(The Editor’s Choice – Organists’ Review, UK)

JOHN HOGAN - Organist & Director of Music Emeritus

John was the seventh Cathedral Organist and the ninth Director of the Choir. He was the first to be appointed joint Organist & Director of Music and the first lay person appointed Diocesan Director of Sacred Music. He was appointed in 1980 and retired in 2020.

John studied pipe organ with Maestro Sergio de Pieri, orchestral conducting with Robert Rosen and choral conducting with David Willcocks.

Before coming to Bendigo he had been successively assistant organist at St Carthage’s Parkville, then assistant organist at St Joseph’s South Yarra. He was then organist of Sacred Heart (St George’s) Carlton where the renowned Pariah Priest was Rev Dr Percy Jones, and then to Our Lady of Victories Camberwell as both organist and choirmaster. He was also assistant to his teacher Sergio de Pieri at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne.

John was also Principal Study Organ teacher at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music as well as playing piano, organ and keyboard with the Australia Felix Ensemble frequently recording for the ABC.

In 1986 John was elected to the Fellowship of Australian Composers. One of his sponsors was George Dreyfus. In 2005 he was given a five-line entry in A Dictionary of Composers for Organ, an international publication.

John has given many concerts and worked with many of the world’s leading choir directors at summer schools. He has written many Mass Settings, Motets and set all the Responsorial Psalms for the three-year Lectionary cycle as well as seasonal psalms. He enjoys playing the organ repertoire and specializes in improvisation.

Lunch in Honour of John Hogan’s Retirement as Organist and Director of Music (1980-2020) on Sunday 2 May 2021

Caption: Past and present members celebrate with John Hogan at a luncheon at the All Seasons Motor Inn on Sunday 2 May 2021 in honour of John’s 40 years of dedicated ministry as Organist and Director of Music at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo (1980-2020).  Photo: Chris McCormack

Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir Members with Bishop Shane Mackinlay, Palm Sunday 2021
Photo: Frances Mills & Sarah Gould

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir is more than 100 years old. The Choir began as the pro-Cathedral Choir of St Kilian’s Church, Bendigo. The first priest on the Bendigo goldfields, Rev. Dr Henry Backhaus (1811-1882), was a talented musician and began a choir at St Kilian’s Church in 1857, when the church was dedicated by Bishop James Alypius Goold, OSA, the first bishop of Melbourne (1848-1886).

It seems that this choir became the choir which continued to become the pro-Cathedral choir when Bishop Martin Crane, OSA (1818-1901) was installed as the first Bishop of Sandhurst (1875-1901), and then became the Sacred Heart Cathedral Choir when the choir moved from St Kilian’s to sing the liturgy at the newly opened cathedral in September 1901.

Just a few years later (1906), the Cathedral organ built by Bishop & Son of Ipswich in the UK [Bishop & Son Organ Builders (bishopandsonipswich.co.uk)] in 1904 was installed in the rear gallery beside the great “west” stained glass window. For further details of the history of the organ and its specification, see Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral, cnr Mackenzie & Wattle Streets, Bendigo (ohta.org.au)

Fr Henry Backhaus conducted the choir at St Kilian’s, giving performances of Cherubini’s Requiem Mass and Haydn’s Masses, and was responsible for importing the fine German pipe organ built by Randebrock of Paderborn in Germany around 1871-2. For more details about the instrument at St Kilian’s and its specification, see St Kilian's Bendigo (ohta.org.au).

THE CURRENT CHOIR

TTo breathe new life into the Cathedral Choir, Mr John Hogan (Cathedral Organist and Director of Music from 1980-2020), together with Bishop Noel Daly (1929-2004), instituted a system of Choral Scholarships in 1981. Since then, there have been choir scholarships so that talented young students attending a Catholic school in Bendigo may be encouraged to become part of the Choir. Originally the Cathedral Choir sang once a month. Now the choir sings most Sundays (except during school holidays) in addition to solemnities, and for special Cathedral/diocesan celebrations (e.g. Chrism Mass during Holy Week, and Ordinations).

The choral repertoire ranges from Gregorian chant to modern liturgical music, some of it especially written for the Choir. The aim is to keep the best of the past tradition alive and to sing the best of today’s liturgical music in ways that foster the full, conscious and active participation of the people, the central aim of the Catholic Church’s Conciliar liturgical reforms (1962-1965).

The choir’s musical ministry is more than a musical performance. The choir facilitates the prayerful participation of the people of God, leading the assembly in its prayers of praise, thanks and petition and accompanies God’s challenging and comforting words, particularly during the Liturgy of the Word. The Choir’s role is to clothe the scriptural, liturgical and religious texts, and to serve the liturgical rite, with the hope of offering due glory to God and the edification and sanctification of God’s people at prayer.

Source: Adapted from 150 Years of Harmony: The Choir and Organists of Sacred Heart Cathedral Bendigo (1857-2012) by John F. Hogan (Bendigo: Sacred Heart Cathedral, 2012).

Given that the music ministry in Catholic Churches is meant to be provided by “live” musicians, as an expression of their prayer and ministry to God and the congregation, the playing of music through electronic means (e.g. CDs, IPADs or other electronic means) is not permitted, except with the expressed approval of the Administrator of the Cathedral and the Director of Music.

Paul Taylor
Organist & Director of Music
Sacred Heart Cathedral
Bendigo
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