Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2010 / Local Church musician is Downriver Idol winner
Local Church musician is Downriver Idol winner
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 30, 2010
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Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Stacey Mason, music director at St. John Center in Plymouth Township, is an accomplished singer and violinist. |
PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP – Stacey Mason's musical talent is getting wider attention lately because of a regional competition inspired by television's "American Idol."
Mason, a former Miss Michigan who is now music director at St. John Center in Plymouth Township, won the Downriver Idol competition earlier this year.
Competing against three other semi-finalists in front of an audience of about 500 people at the Flat Rock Community Auditorium, she sang "Time to Say Goodbye," a song made popular by Sarah Brightman.
Mason was the unanimous choice of the judges.
Besides the publicity, the title carries with it the prize of being featured soloist at one of next season's concerts of the Southern Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra.
"I'm really hoping it will open up new doors to my singing," Mason says.
Not that there aren't plenty of doors already open to her talent as both a singer and violinist. Besides coordinating the organists and other musicians who perform for weddings and other special events in the chapel at St. John Center, she often sings and plays violin there herself.
She is also a liturgical musician at St. Regis Parish in Bloomfield Hills, where she serves as a cantor and choir member.
As a violinist, she performs with the Birmingham-Bloomfield Orchestra and the Classic Touch string ensemble, and she sings with the Jerry Ross Band for wedding receptions and corporate events.
Although a classically trained soprano, Mason's four-octave voice enables her to also sing jazz, pop and rock numbers.
Winning the Downriver Idol competition was an unexpected occasion for Mason, who entered at the urging of fellow Church musician Aaron Kaleniecki, music director at St. Aloysius and St. Patrick parishes in Detroit.
"I hadn't really competed in anything since Miss Michigan in 1993," she says.
Mason auditioned for the competition, and was selected one of 20 semi-finalists. At the semi-finals, she sang "The Prayer" by Carole Bayer-Sager, and got a call the next day telling her she had made it into the finals.
She describes the whole Downriver Idol process as "an absolute thrill."
Winning the Miss Michigan title and competing in the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City 17 years ago was an experience of a lifetime for Mason, then a recent University of Michigan School of Music graduate.
That also provided Mason the opportunity to sing before large audiences, and her year as Miss Michigan enabled her to promote a cause dear to her heart – Girl Scouting – and to deliver a motivational message to girls and young women across the state.
"I would tell them I was not the prettiest one, not the most talented one, but I did everything to the best of my ability. I'd tell them to do your best, and good things would come of it," Mason recalls.
Since that time, the former Stacey Heisler has married her high-school sweetheart, Kevin Mason, and made music her career. "Ever since I was Miss Michigan, I have only done music for a living," she says.
Mason says having children of her own "apparently hasn't been part of God's plan for us," but adds that her 20 violin students "really are like my children, I do so much with them."
"I have what I call the 100-day Club. Once they have practiced 100 days in a row, they get to have a 'Day with Miss Stacey.' I'll take them anywhere they want to go – to a museum or music performance, to a movie or whatever. The boys usually want to go to a movie, but one of girls had me take her for a manicure and pedicure," she says.
Her students range in age from 4 through high school, but she will take them as young as 2-and-a-half. Mason herself first sang in public when she was 6 and started studying the violin at age 9.
At St. John Center, Mason meets with engaged couples, and helps them plan their wedding ceremony. "I really try to take a pastoral approach, and make it a personal experience for the couple," she says.
Mason both makes suggestions about music the couple might like and also explains how some musical selections would be inappropriate.
One piece she has to repeatedly say no to is the wedding march from Wagner's "Lohengrin," known to many as "Here Comes the Bride."
"I explain that it's from an opera that is filled with murder and sorcery, and not something they should want to have at their wedding," Mason says. And while the familiar wedding music by Mendelsohn from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is not as objectionable as the Wagner, "I still try to steer people clear of that," she says.
Mason says she readily agrees to Pacelbel's "Canon," and often recommends Handel's "La Rejouissance" as a recessional. "It's all about rejoicing, and what better way could there be to start their married life than rejoicing, I tell them," she says.
And if the couple wants to engage Mason as a singer at their wedding, she is prepared to sing such inspirational favorites as the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria" and Franck's "Panis Angelicus."
"I feel that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is music, and I feel that especially strongly about sacred music. When I'm doing sacred music, for me it is almost like I'm overcome. It flows out so easily, and it just seems so right," she says.
Besides the effect it has on herself, there is also the effect it has on others. "It sends a message to the people who are hearing the music, and puts them in a special place as well," she adds.
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