Career of note reaches climax

After leading parishioners and congregants in song from the Second Vatican Council to the current Jubilee Year 2000, Mr. Sheehan, slowed by multiple sclerosis, is retiring.

"I'm leaving because it's time," he said. "I will miss the great Cathedral folks, but I will continue to go down there."

Prelude

He walked to the Academy of the Holy Names for piano lessons and played so well that he didn't need to take theory or harmony classes in college. During his junior and senior years at Christian Brothers Academy, he was the organist at St. Pius X Church in Loudonville.

Family members hoped he would follow in the footsteps of his uncle -- a surrogate judge for 18 years -- and enter the law profession, but music was his calling. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in music education from SUNY/Potsdam, and taught music and science at St. Pius X School.

Introductory theme

"I was awestruck by the place, and this opportunity came and I thought, 'My God, this is unbelievable,'" he said. "I feel it was the place to be because there was work to be done here."

It was challenging to begin his career at the Cathedral around the time of the Second Vatican Council as the Church was getting away from traditional hymns sung by a choir and encouraging newer music sung by all.

"I inherited a situation where the choir did it all and the congregation sat there passively," he said. "People don't know how hard it is to run a collaborative liturgy in a church of this size."

Development

"For 10 years, the people who had been choir members were gone, and they didn't come back," he said. "Things are looking a little bit better. In the next few years, we'll see a resurgence of families."

Mr. Sheehan provided congregants with a musical mix, which sometimes required him to write songs fitting for the Cathedral.

"I try to give people a potpourri of music with the service," he said. "What I insist on is quality, which isn't necessarily what you're going to find in the leaflet missal. I think I've been a catalyst, and everybody has benefitted."

Crescendo

"People at the 11 o'clock Mass didn't come to the 9 o'clock Mass, so Masses are always new, fresh and exciting for me," he said.

The highlights of his Cathedral career include everything from the installation of Bishop Edwin B. Broderick in 1969 to the annual Lenten Rite of Election for people seeking full communion with the Church. He has also given many organ recitals at the Cathedral over the years and has conducted performances by students from the College of St. Rose, where he serves as music department chair and professor of music.

Orchestra members

"It's a solace in the midst of all this contemporary architecture," he said. "It's a great place to meditate and worship, and there's no other place in the Diocese that I'd rather be."

(07-20-00) [[In-content Ad]]