Sing On! Anniversary Series: Mary Beekman, Musica Sacra

Creating a chorus that drives like a Maserati: Mary Beekman celebrates her final season with Musica Sacra

In this special edition of GBCC’s “Sing On!” series, we speak with Musica Sacra Artistic Director Mary Beekman, who is celebrating her 48th and final season with the ensemble this year. We were joined by Paul Ogilby (bass since 2015 and board member), Terry Halco (associate conductor, accompanist and bass since 1983), and Kyra Saltman (executive director since 2021).

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. (Published: October 2026)

 

Alison LaRosa (General Manager, GBCC, she/her): Mary, how did you first come to know Musica Sacra? I understand you were in the Boston area well before you became its artistic director.

Mary Beekman (she/her): I came to the Boston area for college (Harvard) in the fall of ’71. I had the wonderful fortune of singing with John Ferris, who was the University Choirmaster and Organist at that time, and he put me on this path. I sang every day in college – morning prayers and Sunday services. And I took organ with John’s assistant, Lenora McCroskey, who was also the director of Musica Sacra at the time. After she left Musica Sacra, I served as the group’s accompanist during an interim year. The next year I was one of four candidates who auditioned for the permanent position and was offered it. 

AL: Was there anything in particular, about the group that really made an impression on you when you first became associated with it?

MB: People cared about the product and worked hard to achieve that product. And also, the repertory was very interesting to me. I was very into Baroque music (I had gotten my master’s degree in that at NEC). Lenora did Monteverdi and all sorts of pieces that intrigued me, and even though it was called Musica Sacra,they performed sacred and secular music by that time.

AL: Let’s expand on that – Boston’s music scene at the time – and Musica Sacra’s place in that, with others on the call.

Terry Halco (he/him): I arrived on the scene in Boston in the fall of 1981 as a grad student at NEC, and I was young and naive. Boston was the first big city I’d lived in, and I remember being absolutely amazed looking at the (Boston) Globe calendar section on Thursdays and seeing all these choral groups listing their auditions and performances. I had sung in choirs since I was a little kid and loved it. Without deliberately or consciously doing it, I ended up in a really great place for choral music. And I came to realize that I liked working with singers and making music with others, and the accompanist role at Musica Sacra might be a pleasant way to earn some income. And I loved Mary’s repertoire. We did a lot of early music that I hadn’t done before, like Heinrich Schütz, and I fell in love with his music. The variety was also very pleasing to me – the mix of sacred and secular, of old and contemporary music.

Kyra Saltman (she/her): It’s interesting that the identity of the group has stayed so consistent from the very beginning; that’s very much  what it is now.

AL: Has the size of the group changed?

MB (pulling out a picture of the group from her shelf; see end of article): In 1978, we had 20 singers. When I took over, I had a strong drive to make the group at least 28 singers because I really love polychoral music, and I wanted to be able to do subdivided music and also pieces with two choruses. One time, we even did a Palestrina Mass with three choruses! So over the years, we finally got to that nirvana of 28 singers. We purposefully have always rehearsed in Harvard Square, because I recognized that a lot of people pass through Cambridge in their 20s, either as graduate students, or attached to a graduate student, or wanting to live in the Boston area. At that time, Somerville and Cambridge were still affordable. But when COVID hit, we really suffered.

Paul Ogilby (he/him): COVID really disrupted the college-choral-singing-to-after-college-choral-singing pipeline. Musica Sacra often recruits new people who sing in college. But from 2020 to 2022, you didn’t have that first half of that pipeline of people singing in college. It’s only in the past two years that we’re starting to see the beginnings of that pipeline coming back.

MB: We were extremely lucky during COVID  because one of our tenors is a very talented engineer who engineered four virtual concerts, which the board felt was important to do to keep our audience engaged. And so we did four concerts where we recorded virtual performances and interspersed them with  recordings of past live performances accompanied by visuals. It was just beautiful! And when we came back in person – I’ve never admitted this to anybody in the chorus – their singing was so much more responsive, because they had to listen to themselves before they sent in their final clips. It was notable to me how much people had integrated that sense of what they needed and wanted to do with the music.

AL: Kyra, Paul and Terry: How would you describe Mary as a person and as a director, particularly for our readers who may not know Mary?

KS: I think that one of the things that drew me to the group was Mary’s strength of personality. I come from an instrumental background, and when I was playing cello in Chicago, there were some artistic directors who felt that we were in the midst of this huge crisis in amateur culture, because people weren’t playing  instruments anymore, people weren’t singing anymore – the culture seemed to have changed. It’s a major problem for our profession, because amateur musicians are the people who support us, are our audiences and all of that, and I’ve watched it happen over the years, too. So in my interview for the Executive Director position with Musica Sacra, something immediately clicked with me that Mary had the right personality and the right approach as a musician, that she was willing to ask for a very high standard from amateurs. She’s created that culture and held it consistently over many decades.

TH: I agree with what Kyra said. Mary does not waste singers’ time in rehearsals. She’s direct with what she wants, and she generally has a very good idea of what she wants even at the beginning of rehearsing a piece. That is refreshing. And she’s very musical! I’ve learned a lot about shaping phrases by working under Mary. A lot of what I do when I’m rehearsing a choir is based on what Mary has taught me over the years. 

PO: I think one of the things that’s great about Mary is she pretty much always knows exactly what she wants. If we make an error in rehearsal – and it’s generally not a note or rhythm error but a phrasing error, a micro-dynamic error, a breath error… Mary will pause, we’ll go back, and we’ll fix the mistake until it meets with the expectations that the group has of each other. We’ve joked that Musica Sacra might have the highest concentration of graduate degrees in a chorus in the greater Boston area. And so we have a lot of people who have opinions about the music – musical opinions, and pronunciation opinions, and phrasing opinions. Mary not only has her own opinions but has the humility and the ear to listen to other people’s thoughts and then make a decision.

MB: You all are too kind. May I add one thing? John Ferris, when asked by a critic how he achieved a certain sound from the Harvard University Choir – a sound I just loved – John said, “You don’t necessarily have their voices, but you have their minds.” I think one of the things that makes me effective is that I’m able to articulate what I want in a way that people can understand and realize. That is why I love this profession – working with singers is the only time I am totally immersed. 

AL: So we talked a bit about some of the ways in which the chorus has stayed consistent over the years, but it would be wonderful to hear from all of you about some of the ways in which Musica Sacra’s programming and mission have evolved under Mary’s leadership.

PO: In the ten-plus years that I’ve been in the group, Mary has made a real effort to program composers of color and women composers, and pieces that are not just the standard choral repertoire. Like, we did a concert recently that was music from film, video games, and TV shows. 

MB: I had a fiat from the board to do that one, but it actually was a really fun concert to prepare, and we all enjoyed it.

KS: I remember we did that as our May concert, which can sometimes be challenging to promote because there’s so much going on in May, but we got people to come. We even ran out of program books!

TH: I would say, from my longer perspective, that as we grew our funding sources we were eventually able to do more pieces with orchestra – Bach B minor Mass, Mozart Vespers, Bach Magnificat, Handel’s Israel in Egypt – all sorts of wonderful things! There were also a couple of times that we collaborated with other choruses. 

AL: I’d love to hear from everyone about a favorite performing experience that they’ve had with the group.

TH: One of the great things about working with Musica Sacra and with Mary is the real excellence, sometimes approaching perfection. In rehearsing and performing, we just attain these heights that are rare. One of my strongest performance memories with Musica Sacra was performing a short a cappella arrangement by Jan Sandstrom of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming.” It takes the Christmas carol, slows it down with a double chorus, and the harmonies sort of blur against each other and interact in the most wonderful, mystical way. At the end there’s a soprano part that’s just sitting there at the top of the staff, just… just being, and it was so beautiful in rehearsal that I found myself just tearing up and not being able to sing. I think I controlled myself for the actual performance .But that kind of emotion while I’m singing… it doesn’t come to me very often. It’s wonderful because, let’s face it, in a lot of our lives we have to do a lot of boring things. And to get to participate in an experience where it taps into our deepest emotions and we feel grief, or ecstasy, and all the things that we can experience but often don’t… that’s irreplaceable for me.

PO: I can’t do favorites, but I’ve really enjoyed our concerts that we’ve done with string quartets. From an auditory and timbre standpoint, the interplay between a string quartet and a chorus, I think, is really on point. Your strings can get really quiet and be under you, or the strings can get really loud and be present there with you.

MB: My motto has always been, “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.” I tend to pick pieces out of curiosity, or because I know them, but then while working on them, I just become totally involved. And after every concert, I’m like, “I miss that.” I so agree with what Paul and Terry have said. There have been moments… I remember in the (Frank) Martin Mass for Double Choir, for example, where I was just totally transported. There was a singer in the group who loved the Martin, and during the performance of the Osanna I locked eyes with her, and communed together thinking, “There’s nothing better than this. This is amazing.”

AL: Mary, what is one moment with Musica Sacra outside of performances that you’ll never forget? 

MB: Eight years ago, we were invited to do the Mozart Requiem with the Cape Cod Symphony, and because they gave a performance on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, people had to commit for the whole weekend. We rented at least two AirBnbs and were all together over the weekend. And people were playing games, and we were having conversations… that whole weekend was really very special. I didn’t have to conduct – I had prepared the chorus – so I could relax and be with people.

AL: Tell me more about the community Musica Sacra has created, as well as how the chorus’s relationship with the wider community has evolved.

PO: We’re a community who enjoys spending time with each other, beyond being a bunch of really committed singers. I think that adds to the musicianship. Every week after rehearsal, some collection of singers goes to a local pub down the street to have some beverages.

MB: I’d like to build on what Paul said. One of our members who sang alto with us for several years moved to San Francisco. About ten years after she had left the group, I was in San Francisco, and we got together. She has been singing in many professional groups in the San Francisco area and being paid, because that’s the caliber of singers we have. Anyway, she volunteered that she had been in many groups since she left Musica Sacra,but that this was the only group she had ever sung in that really felt like a family. We care about people, we look after people. We try to make new members feel very welcome. 

KS: I remember right when I joined (in 2021) that one of the members was arranging COVID vaccine appointments for everybody in the chorus. That’s the family.

MB: Regarding the wider community, one of our supporters is married to a man who ran a transitional housing program, and there were several years that we would go and perform there. I remember a woman who was unable to stand. She was crawling along the floor, and after the performance she crawled over to me and said, “I so enjoyed the Brahms.” And it kind of made you realize that music crosses all borders. And then for another four years, we did a fundraiser for different organizations that operated out of Old Cambridge Baptist Church, including Spare Change newspaper and Rosie’s Place. That was a wonderful experience as well. We invited anyone from those organizations to come to the concerts for free.

AL: 47+ years leading an organization is an incredible accomplishment. What do you owe to this success?

PO: Mary keeps this going. She shows up, she knows what she wants, she picks the repertoire, and she keeps us in line. But she does it in a way that’s always respectful to the singers. It can be a big ego boost for a director to stand in front of a chorus and have all these people forced to pay attention to them. But Mary comes into it with humility, friendship, and all the things that keep the group on track to create awesome music. 

KS: Organizationally there is consistency to the way we work. What we do is sustainable, and that’s really important. It means that people can use their energy on the music and not other things. We do make adjustments and try new things, but we try not to do it all at once because it can take a lot out of everybody and distract us from the music. 

PO: The phrase I’ve heard is “blossom, not growth.” Growing forever is unsustainable. But you can flower for years, and years, and years.

MB: I have tended Musica Sacra like a garden. As a result, I have a chorus that I like to describe to guest conductors as a Maserati. They are so responsive, because I’ve worked with them for so many years. Since I announced my retirement, I’ve been grappling with the loss I will feel when I no longer lead this group. I’m not likely going to work with a less committed group. Why would you go back to driving a Pinto when you’ve been driving a Maserati?

AL: Mary’s departure is certainly a change that everyone in the chorus is going to take time to process. What are the imprints of Mary’s leadership that you hope will continue beyond her?

TH: Certainly the group’s devotion to really refining music in our rehearsal process and striving towards excellence. And, the wonderful familial spirit that we talked about. There are some nice friendships I’ve formed over the years with folks in Musica Sacra. And I hope and pray that that will continue.

KS: I hope that the next director is with us for a long time. I’m not sure that we live in a world where people have jobs for 48 years anymore, you know? We will be absorbing a lot of change and trying to roll with it…

TH: Let’s start small – let’s ask for a 27-year commitment!

KS: Exactly! But you know, in the real world when somebody retires, it’s incredibly joyful, like, “Oh, you finally don’t have to show up at the office anymore.” It’s a very different thing in music. It’s more difficult.

MB: Yes, the board asked me to announce I was retiring at the Christmas concert last year. We had a reception afterwards, and everybody kept coming up and saying, “Congratulations!” And I kept thinking , “What is there to be congratulated for?” I have probably received as much from this chorus as I have given to them. It has been an extreme honor to be conducting this group and interacting with them musically and personally.

Musica Sacra performs Mozart’s Requiem under the direction of Mary Beekman on October 24, 2026, at First Church Congregational in Cambridge to open Beekman’s final season as Artistic Director. Click here for more information.