As part of the Xavier Ateneo community, it is widely known that the school has various groups and organizations that cater to students’ interests, skills, and capabilities. Not only that it also opens doors to its employees who go beyond their designated institutional obligations to form a group that serves the school and has fun at the same time. One great example of this is the Xavier Ateneo Chorale (XAC) “ a group of Xavier Ateneo employees who sing during Sunday Masses and university celebrations.
Humble beginnings
“It all began when Fr Roberto “Archie” R Carampatan SJ, our beloved founder, approached me that he will be forming a group of Xavier Ateneo employees who are willing to serve and sing at the eleven o’clock Sunday Mass,” says musical director Loel Von Castrodes. “As the conversation continued, he asked me if I could lead the group into singing, so without any hesitation, I said yes.”
Fr Carampatan shares that the main reason why he thought of forming the group was to provide a venue for administrators, faculty, and non-teaching personnel to share the gift of music to the community, and particularly to the church community of XU. Along with that, he also wants the staff to have an outlet for their talents as well as to bond with each other. He assigned Castrodes to initiate the practices and performances, thus the beginning of XAC’s fruitful journey.
Castrodes narrates: “March 2018, a week after the commencement exercises, we started the audition and classification of voices for the proposed chorale group. Our first major event was the first-ever Fire & Magis Awards held last May 25, 2018. We rendered the invocation and one of the intermission numbers. It was also the time that the Xavier Ateneo Chorale was officially recognized. After that, we were tasked to sing in the 11 am Mass at the University Church every first Sunday of the month. We were invited to sing for the 11 am third Sunday mass, to which we gladly accepted.”
To date, XAC has already performed in major university events which are Fire & Magis Awards 2018, the 2018 Marian Concert, the 2018 Christmas Concert, University Mass of Society of Jesus Superior General Fr Arturo Sosa’s Visit, Fire & Magis Awards 2019, and Marian Concert 2019.
Although it has been quite a challenge for the group to find a common time for their practices, they were still able to manage and make it happen through cooperation and active participation. (xu comm)
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