.png)
“Passing on the secret of music to young people is our greatest task at the moment..”
-Kurt Masur
.png)
Supporting one emerging musician at a time
At All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Harrison, music brings worship, artists, and community together. The Kurt and Tomoko Masur Sacred Music Residency provides one emerging musician at a time with a paid opportunity to become part of the musical life of our congregation.The resident may be a singer, instrumentalist, composer, conductor, collaborative pianist, or other developing professional. College students and recent graduates—including musicians from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College—are encouraged to apply.Through regular participation in worship, individual artistic work, mentorship, and a public performance, the resident develops practical professional experience while helping All Saints share exceptional music with the wider community.All are welcome to participate in the life of the program, regardless of religious background, musical experience, identity, or where they may be on their spiritual journey.
About the Residency.
The Kurt and Tomoko Masur Sacred Music Residency is built on a simple idea: a small congregation can make a meaningful investment in one promising artist.
Each residency supports a single musician for an academic semester or another defined period. The resident is selected for musical excellence, reliability, generosity of spirit, and an interest in helping a congregation experience music more deeply.
The resident does not remain at a distance as an anonymous performer. The musician becomes a familiar and valued presence at All Saints—known by name, welcomed into the community, and supported in developing an individual artistic voice.
​
What the resident does...
Depending on the resident’s discipline, the musician may:
-
Help lead hymns, psalms, and congregational music
-
Offer preludes, solos, and other musical selections
-
Participate in selected Sunday and festival services
-
Introduce unfamiliar music in an accessible way
-
Develop a project reflecting the resident’s artistic interests
-
Invite fellow musicians to join selected special services
-
Present or curate one public performance
-
Contribute ideas to the continued growth of music at All Saints
Each residency is shaped around the gifts of the selected musician. A vocalist’s residency may look different from that of a cellist, composer, pianist, or jazz musician.
The resident’s work complements the ministry of our music director and the congregation's participation. It does not replace either one.
Honoring Kurt and Tomoko Masur
The residency grows from the history and living community of All Saints.
Kurt and Tomoko Masur made All Saints their spiritual home and were members of this congregation for decades. Their relationship with the parish joined an internationally distinguished musical life with the intimacy of a small worshiping community.
​
A Living Legacy at All Saints
The residency bearing the Masur name represents more than a tribute to two distinguished musicians. It continues a relationship between the Masur family and the worshiping life of All Saints.
​
Kurt Masur’s example demonstrates how artistic excellence, moral responsibility, historical awareness, and civic service can belong to one life. Tomoko Masur continues that legacy through performance, cultural exchange, mentorship, and active leadership within the congregation.
​
Together, their lives affirm that developing a musician involves more than cultivating technical accomplishment. It also means nurturing listening, collaboration, courage, curiosity, cultural understanding, integrity, and service to others.
Each resident is therefore encouraged to ask not only how music can be performed beautifully, but also:
-
What does this music communicate?
-
Whose history does it carry?
-
How can it bring people into relationship?
-
What responsibility does the artist have to the listener?
-
How can musical excellence serve a community?
-
What will the resident pass on to the musicians who follow?
These questions form the living heart of the Kurt and Tomoko Masur Sacred Music Residency.
​
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur was one of the defining conductors and musical humanists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
​
Born in 1927 in Brieg, Germany—now Brzeg, Poland—he grew up amid the upheaval of the Second World War. Music became both his vocation and his way of understanding the responsibilities people bear toward one another.
His early professional work included positions at the Halle State Theatre, the Erfurt and Leipzig opera houses, the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin, the Komische Oper Berlin, and the Dresden Philharmonic.
In 1970, he became Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, an appointment he held for 26 years. During that period, he conducted more than 2,000 concerts with the orchestra, led tours to more than 30 countries, and helped establish the Gewandhaus Orchestra as one of the world’s great musical institutions.
Masur was instrumental in the creation of Leipzig’s new Gewandhaus concert hall. Opened in 1981, it was the only new concert hall built in the German Democratic Republic. Masur envisioned it not simply as a performance venue but as a civic space where music, public life, and human dialogue could meet.
He was also a devoted advocate for the music and legacy of Felix Mendelssohn. His efforts
contributed to the preservation of Leipzig’s Mendelssohn House and to the renewed international recognition of Mendelssohn’s importance as a composer, conductor, and former Gewandhauskapellmeister.
Masur’s influence extended far beyond the concert hall during the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. As demonstrations for democratic reform grew in Leipzig and the possibility of violence increased, he joined other prominent citizens in issuing an appeal for calm and nonviolence. He opened the Gewandhaus to civic dialogue and helped create conditions in which people could be heard without bloodshed.
His role in those events made him an internationally recognized example of the artist as citizen: a musician willing to use public trust in the service of peace.
In 1991, Masur became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. During his tenure, which continued through 2002, he strengthened the orchestra’s ensemble identity, brought renewed attention to the central European symphonic tradition, led international tours and recordings, and cultivated a close relationship with New York audiences.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Masur led the New York Philharmonic in a nationally televised performance of Brahms’s A German Requiem. The concert became a communal act of mourning, remembrance, and consolation. It reflected Masur’s lifelong conviction that music can give expression to experiences for which ordinary language is insufficient.
He later served as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000 to 2007 and Music Director of the Orchestre National de France from 2002 to 2008. He conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras and maintained a particularly meaningful relationship with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which named him an Honorary Guest Conductor for Life.
Masur was especially admired for his interpretations of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and other composers of the German classical and Romantic traditions. His approach combined structural clarity, seriousness of purpose, fidelity to the score, and a belief that musical discipline should ultimately release emotional and spiritual meaning.
He also championed young musicians. He believed that musical traditions remain alive only when experienced artists pass on their knowledge while allowing the next generation to develop its own voice.
For the Kurt and Tomoko Masur Sacred Music Residency, his legacy offers several guiding principles:
-
Music requires disciplined preparation and attentive listening.
-
Artistic authority carries responsibility toward other people.
-
Tradition should be preserved by making it meaningful in the present.
-
Musicians should approach their work with humility, courage, and integrity.
-
Musical institutions should serve their communities.
-
Performance can become an act of remembrance, reconciliation, and hope.
-
Established artists have a responsibility to nurture emerging musicians.
Kurt Masur died in 2015, but his artistic and humanitarian legacy continues through his family, the musicians he influenced, the institutions he shaped, and programs devoted to forming new generations of artists.
At All Saints, that legacy is personal. He was known not only as an internationally celebrated conductor but also as a member of a particular worshiping community. In this place, music, faith, friendship, and ordinary human relationships met.
Tomoko Masur
Tomoko Masur is a soprano, instrumentalist, cultural ambassador, and longtime member of All Saints. She currently serves the parish as a member of the vestry.
​
Born in Tokyo, Tomoko received her earliest musical education from her pianist mother. She began violin lessons at seven, later studied voice and choral conducting, and served as an orchestra leader at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.
Her professional career began as a violist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro. Her years in Brazil expanded her musical outlook and helped shape the cultural breadth that would become a defining feature of her work.
She subsequently studied voice at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig, graduating with distinction. Her career has included opera, orchestral appearances, chamber music, recitals, sacred music, and performances spanning Europe, Japan, Israel, Brazil, and the United States.
Her repertoire extends from Renaissance music to contemporary composition, with a particular interest in works for soprano and organ. She has performed with ensembles including the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
Tomoko’s musical life has consistently crossed boundaries among genres, countries, languages, and communities. Her programs have brought European concert traditions into conversation with Japanese music, Brazilian influences, sacred repertoire, chamber music, and international seasonal songs.
She has also made music at All Saints itself. Her performances here have included sacred and secular repertoire, Japanese music, international song, and collaborations with instrumentalists, singers, students, friends, and members of her family.
Through these programs, Tomoko has helped All Saints use music to create relationships across cultural and generational boundaries. Her continuing service on the vestry joins her artistic experience with direct responsibility for the present and future life of the parish.
One Musician, Meaningfully Supported
All Saints is a small congregation, and we regard that intimacy as a strength.
Rather than building a large institutional program, we concentrate our resources and attention on one resident at a time. This allows each musician to receive a genuinely personal experience.
​
The resident has opportunities to:
-
Build sustained relationships
-
Be heard as an individual artist
-
Explore repertoire with purpose
-
Gain dependable professional experience
-
Receive thoughtful feedback and encouragement
-
Develop an original project
-
Leave a meaningful imprint on the program
​
At All Saints, the resident is not one musician among dozens. The resident is the central emerging artist of the season.
A Paid Professional Opportunity
All Saints believes musicians should be compensated fairly for their preparation, skill, and time.
​
The resident receives a guaranteed stipend or agreed per-service honorarium. Additional compensation is provided for substantial rehearsals, public performances, guest artists, and projects beyond the regular residency agreement.
​
The residency provides:
-
Dependable paid musical work
-
Sacred, classical, jazz, and community-music experience
-
Solo and collaborative performance opportunities
-
Guidance from three experienced mentors
-
Professional references
-
Résumé and program credit
-
Experience working with clergy, a music director, and a congregation
-
An opportunity to develop and present an original program
-
A supportive environment in which to grow as an artist
​
The resident is not required to be Episcopalian or Christian. We welcome musicians of every faith and of no particular faith who can participate respectfully in the musical and liturgical life of the church.
_edited.jpg)
Guided by Three Mentors
The resident is supported by a three-person mentorship team drawn from the musical and congregational life of All Saints.​ Together, the mentors offer complementary experience in vocal performance, classical interpretation, sacred music, jazz, recording, repertoire, ensemble leadership, artistic programming, cultural exchange, and the life of the parish.
This is not a program in which a student is hired and left to navigate the experience alone. The mentors help the resident establish goals, prepare for services, shape an individual project, reflect on professional development, and understand how excellent music can serve a particular community.
The resident remains an independent developing artist. Mentorship is intended to cultivate that individuality—not to impose a single musical style or career path.
Elina Christova
Technique, preparation, collaboration, classical and contemporary repertoire, and music in worship
​
Dr. Elina Christova is the Music and Choir Director of All Saints and an accomplished classical and contemporary pianist.
​
A Fulbright Scholar, she earned master’s and doctoral degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. Her international education also included study in Vienna, Salzburg, Sofia, Utrecht, Paris, and New York.
​
Dr. Christova has performed in the United States and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. She has a particular interest in the music of Alexander Scriabin and in contemporary repertoire, including works by living American composers.
​
Her work as a performer, educator, collaborative musician, and church music director gives her a practical understanding of how rigorous preparation supports expressive freedom.
​
As Music and Choir Director, she is the resident’s principal guide to All Saints' musical and liturgical life.
​
How Dr. Christova guides the resident:
​
Dr. Christova helps the resident develop:
-
Consistent preparation and professional rehearsal habits
-
Technical control in service of musical expression
-
Collaborative listening
-
Clear communication with accompanists, singers, clergy, and other musicians
-
Repertoire appropriate to the resident’s ability and artistic goals
-
An understanding of musical pacing within worship
-
Flexibility when plans, personnel, or liturgical needs change
-
The ability to scale a performance appropriately for an intimate space
-
Thoughtful integration of classical, contemporary, and sacred repertoire
She works with the resident to plan service participation, establish rehearsal expectations, choose appropriate music, and prepare the culminating project.
For pianists and other keyboard musicians, she may offer particular insight into touch, voicing, pedaling, structure, and collaborative playing.
For other residents, she provides the perspective of an experienced pianist, coach, chamber musician, and director responsible for bringing an entire musical offering together.
Tomoko Masur
Vocal artistry, interpretation, cultural exchange, and the relationship between music and community
​
Tomoko Masur is a soprano and instrumentalist whose career encompasses opera, orchestral performance, chamber music, sacred repertoire, and international cultural exchange.
​
Born in Tokyo, she began violin lessons at seven, later studied singing and choral conducting, and served as an orchestra leader at Rikkyo University. Her professional career began as a violist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro. She subsequently studied voice at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig, graduating with distinction.
Her repertoire extends from Renaissance music through contemporary composition, with a special interest in music for soprano and organ. She has performed with major orchestras internationally and has developed programs drawing together European, Japanese, Brazilian, sacred, and seasonal musical traditions.
​
How Tomoko guides the resident:
Tomoko helps the resident develop:
-
Expressive interpretation and musical communication
-
Confidence and presence before an audience
-
Thoughtful preparation of sacred and concert repertoire
-
Sensitivity to language, text, culture, and tradition
-
An understanding of music as cultural exchange
-
The ability to connect artistic excellence with human warmth
-
Awareness of how a musician enters and serves an existing community
-
A residency project that reflects both personal identity and shared purpose
For a singer, she may offer direct insight into breath, text, phrasing, vocal communication, and repertoire.
For an instrumentalist or composer, her mentorship emphasizes expression, collaboration, cultural awareness, and the relationship between performer and listener.
As a vestry member, Tomoko also helps the resident understand the hopes, traditions, and practical life of All Saints.
.png)
Scott Wenzel
Jazz, repertoire research, recording, producing, ensemble leadership, and preserving musical history
​
Scott Wenzel is the Senior Warden of All Saints and a jazz producer, musician, bandleader, historian, and collector.
​
A cradle Episcopalian and lifelong member of All Saints, Scott represents a multigenerational connection to the parish. His parents, John and Astrid Wenzel, were members beginning in the 1930s and were active throughout the life of the church.
Scott has served All Saints as a choir member, vestry member, Lay Eucharistic Minister, reader, committee member, and Senior Warden. His leadership gives him a close understanding of the congregation, its history, its present circumstances, and its hopes for the future.
Professionally, Scott has been associated with Mosaic Records since 1987, producing authoritative reissues of historically significant jazz recordings.
His work has earned three Grammy Award nominations in the Best Historical Album category, as well as recognition from the Jazz Journalists Association and DownBeat. He has produced or contributed archival material to releases for Mosaic, Sony Legacy, Blue Note, and Capitol, consulted on Ken Burns’ documentary Jazz, and written liner notes for numerous recordings.
​
Scott is also a performing musician. He leads the Scott Wenzel Big Band, performs on reeds and vocals, and plays with the Arcadia Jazz Trio.
​
His experience connects live performance with the less visible work that gives music a lasting life: research, listening, curation, recording, documentation, ensemble organization, and audience development.
​
How Scott guides the resident:
Scott helps the resident develop:
-
Broad and informed listening habits
-
Repertoire research and thoughtful programming
-
Respect for musical history and primary sources
-
An understanding of jazz phrasing, ensemble culture, and improvisation
-
The ability to communicate a program’s story to an audience
-
Practical ensemble leadership
-
Productive recording-session habits
-
Thoughtful program notes and artist biographies
-
Awareness of production, documentation, and archival preservation
-
A professional approach to presenting and promoting artistic work
For a jazz musician, Scott may provide direct guidance on repertoire, style, recordings, bandleading, and ensemble communication.
For a classical musician, singer, or composer, he offers an experienced producer’s ear and helps the resident consider how a performance is programmed, documented, recorded, contextualized, and ultimately remembered.
As Senior Warden, Scott also helps the resident understand how the residency relates to the larger mission, leadership, resources, and future of All Saints.
The Mentorship Process
The three mentors accompany the resident through four stages.
1. Beginning the Residency
At the beginning of the term, the resident meets with the mentorship team to discuss:
​
-
Musical background and current goals
-
Strengths and areas for growth
-
Previous experience in sacred or community music
-
Proposed participation in worship
-
Ideas for the resident’s culminating project
-
Practical needs, scheduling, and expectations
-
​
Together, the resident and mentors create a brief residency plan.
2. Developing the work
During the residency, the musician meets regularly with Dr. Christova for preparation connected to worship and musical planning.
​
Tomoko Masur and Scott Wenzel provide additional individual guidance according to the resident’s discipline and project.
Mentorship may include:
-
Repertoire conversations
-
Coaching
-
Rehearsal observation
-
Listening assignments
-
Program development
-
Recording preparation
-
Career conversations
-
Introductions to appropriate musical collaborators
3. Midpoint Reflection
At the midpoint of the residency, the resident and mentors review:
​
-
Artistic progress
-
Experiences within the congregation
-
Professional habits
-
Development of the culminating project
-
Challenges requiring additional support
-
Goals for the remainder of the term
​
The residency plan may be adjusted in response.
4. Culminating Project and Evaluation
The mentors help the resident prepare and present the culminating project.
Following the project, the resident receives a final mentorship conversation focused on:
​
-
Musical and professional growth
-
Lessons from working within a small community
-
Documentation for the resident’s portfolio
-
Future artistic goals
-
Constructive feedback
-
Professional references when appropriate
​
The resident is also invited to offer feedback so that each residency can strengthen the experience offered to the next musician.
The Resident's Project
Each resident develops one project reflecting the intersection of individual artistry, sacred music, and community.
Possible projects include:
-
A vocal or instrumental recital
-
A program centered on peace, justice, remembrance, or reconciliation
-
A new composition for All Saints
-
A jazz interpretation of sacred repertoire
-
A program exploring music from the resident’s cultural tradition
-
A community hymn-sing
-
A lecture-performance
-
A collaborative chamber-music program
-
A professionally recorded performance
-
A musical project involving local children, elders, or community members
​
The project culminates in a public event, worship offering, recording, or another shareable form.
​
The resident retains appropriate credit for original artistic work. Any recording, publication, or reuse is arranged with the musician’s knowledge and permission.
The Resident's Concert
Each residency includes a public performance featuring the resident. The program is developed collaboratively, allowing the musician to present work that is personally meaningful while responding to the character of All Saints and the wider Harrison community.
​
The resident may perform alone or invite a small number of collaborators. Guest musicians are compensated separately when funding permits. Residency concerts generally last 45 to 60 minutes and are followed by a simple reception. Admission is free or pay-what-you-can unless otherwise announced. Contributions help All Saints compensate the resident and sustain future residencies.
Apply Today
Applications are welcomed from advanced college students, graduate students, recent graduates, and other emerging professional musicians.
We particularly encourage applications from musicians studying or living in Westchester County and the surrounding region.
​
We look for a resident who demonstrates
-
Strong musicianship
-
Dependability and preparation
-
An individual artistic point of view
-
An ability to collaborate generously
-
Comfort working in a small, intergenerational community
-
Respect for the Episcopal liturgy and for people of different beliefs
-
Interest in helping others participate in music
-
Professional communication and conduct
Prior church-music experience is helpful but not always required. A musician who is new to Episcopal worship will receive appropriate guidance.
Application materials
Applicants should submit:
-
A résumé or short account of training and experience
-
Two contrasting audio or video selections
-
A description of their primary musical discipline
-
Availability during the proposed residency period
-
A brief statement explaining their interest in the residency
-
An initial idea for a residency project
-
Contact information for one musical reference
Selected applicants may be invited to an informal conversation, audition, or trial service.
Selection and Residency Terms
One resident is selected for each residency period.
​
The selection process considers:
-
Artistic quality and potential
-
Professional readiness
-
Compatibility with the program’s mission
-
The strength and feasibility of the proposed project
-
Availability
-
The needs of the congregation
-
Available funding
​
Before the residency begins, All Saints and the selected musician agree in writing on:
-
Residency dates
-
Service and rehearsal expectations
-
Compensation
-
The resident’s project
-
The public performance
-
Guest-musician arrangements
-
Mentorship expectations
-
Recording and photography permissions
-
Cancellation and substitution expectations
-
Appropriate safeguarding and professional standards
​
The residency is a paid artistic engagement. It is not an academic degree program, scholarship, internship for course credit, or guarantee of future employment.
Support the
Residency
Every gift to the Kurt and Tomoko Masur Sacred Music Residency helps All Saints provide one emerging musician with paid work, artistic opportunity, experienced mentorship, and a supportive community.
Your gift can make possible
-
$125 — One resident appearance at worship
-
$250 — Project development or concert preparation
-
$500 — Guest collaborators for a special service
-
$1,500 — A series of monthly resident appearances
-
$3,000 — A substantial residency stipend
-
$5,000 — A fully supported residency, project, and public performance
Gifts of every amount are welcome.
​
Donors may:
-
Support the residency generally
-
Sponsor a particular service
-
Underwrite the resident’s public project
-
Fund a guest collaborator
-
Give in honor or memory of someone
-
Establish recurring support for future residents
All artistic and personnel decisions remain with All Saints. Sponsorship does not confer control over the selection of the resident, repertoire, or liturgical planning.