Valois United Church

With the challenge of finding a replacement for Dr Lindsay falling to the Personnel Committee which at the moment consists of only one sitting member, it was decided that a Selection Committee would be formed to carry out the process. This consisted of Catharine Calderone (Worship Committee & Sunday School), Lynda Ecott (Choir), Harry Wainwright ( Finance and Choir) and myself representing Personel. In addition, Reverend Kent agreed to sit on the Committee in an advisory capacity.

Our first step was to get the organist / choir director job opening posted which we did by placing it on the United Church Montreal & Ottawa Conference website as well as listing it with the Montreal Musicians Union. We later discovered that by word of mouth, the job opening also became known to some members of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

Next, we met to look at and discuss where we are presently with the music program at Valois United and where we want to go moving into the future. We discussed this both from the perspective of the congregation and their expectations from an organist as well as the choir and what they were looking for in a choir director.

Initially, we had five candidates contact us about the job but one ultimately decided to withdraw their application due to a heavy study workload. In the end , the other four all went through an audition and interview process with the full selection committee in attendance. Each audition consisted of playing two prepared pieces of their choosing as well as two selections also of their choosing from Voices United, one on the organ and the other on piano. They were also asked to play a sight reading and to conduct a short rehearsal with an improvised four member choir. The interview portion we standardized by asking them set questions. These ranged from their thoughts on who should have the final say on the congregation's music program to their ideas on what criteria should be used to choose weekly hymns and anthems. We also questioned them as to their Sunday morning preparatory routines as well as their musical record keeping practices. We encouraged them to discuss their past working relationships with the congregations and ministers they had worked with as well their experience with both senior and junior choirs. We also asked them their motivation for playing the organ in church and what, beyond the obvious financial remuneration, they gained from this experience. We felt that with the auditions as set up by Catharine and the responses we received during the interview process we had as good a grasp as possible on each of these applicants as musicians and also as people.

In the end, we came to a unanimous decision that the person we wanted to offer the Valois United organist / choir director position to, is a recent graduate student by the name of Judy Hung. She is a multitalented musician with Master Degrees in both Piano and Violin performance. She is an exceptionally accomplished organist with experience in both orchestral and choral conducting. While pursuing her studies in various US universities, she has played the organ for and directed the choirs of churches in New York, Louisiana and California. We firmly believe that Ms. Hung brings the ability to not only maintain the level of musical excellence that we have come to enjoy at Valois United but also to lead us in new and exciting musical directions as we move forward at this time of challenge and change. Her personality and demeanour we believe will mesh well with the existing choir members and it is hoped that her youthfulness and obvious love of music will encourage others in the congregation to try their voices in the choir.

If you are so inclined, you can go on your computer to Youtube, type in her name Judy Hung, and you can see and hear her perform on the piano, organ, violin, harpsichord and also see her conduct the Louisiana State University Philharmonic Orchestra. As I said, she is a multitalented musician.

Judy has accepted our offer to join us here at Valois United beginning when we resume services in September. Having completed her studies, she has now moved back to Canada permanently and is residing in the West Island with her husband. She is presently in Taiwan visiting her family.