St. Anselm Parishioners, who attend the 8 a.m. Mass on Sunday mornings, have for the past five years been lifted up in song by the inspirational playing of organist RickMeditz.
Rick began music lessons on the organ at the age of twelve. In college he switched to piano, which he studied under international scholar John Graziano. At the City College of New York, he studied composition under his primary teacher and mentor, renowned composer and American Master David DelTredici. Rick holds a Master of Arts degree from the City College of New York.
He likes many contemporary hymns, but is also drawn to such traditional works as, “Lift High the Cross” and “To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King”, which he feels express the need for the faithful to take a stand against many of the trends popular in today’s social environment.
Rick’s taste in non-liturgical music runs from Beethoven, whose intellect and emotion, power and passion never cease to amaze him, to The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Contemporary Christian, and many things in between. As a composer, he admits to a fondness for his own music as well.
Rick, whose family has a history of worship at St. Anselm, came to the parish as the organist at the 8 a.m. Sunday Mass in 2010. He has been the musical director at St. Genevieve’s in Rockaway and at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. He is also the music director at Holy Rosary Church, Staten Island. It is the change in Mass schedules at Holy Rosary that makes it necessary for Rick to leave St. Anselm.
Parishioners at St. Anselm will miss Rick’s beautiful organ playing, which has enriched our liturgical celebrations and helped worshippers to place themselves in a proper devotional frame of mind. We wish Rick well at Holy Rosary and know that he will not only continue to enjoy success as an organist, but also continue to lift up the faithful in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and making music to the Lord”. (Ephesians 5:19)