Sam Schwarztrauber, choir director at St. Paul Church in Highland, will be honored for his 50 years as the parish choir director at a reception following the 11:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, May 17.HIGHLAND - Sam Schwarztrauber likes his part-time work. You can hear it and witness it at liturgical celebrations at St. Paul Church in Highland, where Schwarztrauber is in his 50th year as choir director. The parish is honoring Schwarztrauber at a celebration on Sunday, May 17, after the 11:30 a.m. Mass in the parish hall.

Although retired for 14 years from his full-time work at General American Life Insurance Co., in St. Louis, he is not retiring as choir director. "I have a lot of fun with the choir," Schwarztrauber says. "I enjoy doing this so much, I guess, because it is the gift that God gave me, and I want to use it. I really enjoy it."

After graduating from eighth grade at St. Paul Grade School, the Highland native went away to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and remained there for seven and a half years, before deciding to leave the seminary.

Music was always an interest in his life. He began piano lessons when he was in third grade and continued them through eighth grade, plus he played in the St. Paul School band. At the Josephinum he was in the band, and played piano and a little organ. When he returned to Illinois, he finished college at St. Louis University, earning a degree in history.

"I enlisted in the Army to get out of the draft, and after basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, I got into the Army Band, and was sent to Fort Dix (N.J.) for additional training, then spent the rest of my two-year tour at Fort Knox (Ky.), playing in the Army Band."

While he was at Fort Dix, its Army Band was chosen to be on the Ed Sullivan All Army Talent Show. "So there we were on television that year, on Ed Sullivan," says Schwarztrauber.

Back home in Highland after the Army, Schwarztrauber ran into a friend who told him St. Paul needed a men's choir. "I said, ‘That's fine, but who is going to do it?' ‘You are,' was his response."

Msgr. William Whalen was St. Paul's pastor then. Father Robert Meyer was an assistant. After talking with them and seeking the help of a music director he knew at the Josephinum, Schwarztrauber began St. Paul's choir in 1958. It lasted until 1973. The only woman in the organization was the organist.

Choir members at St. Paul Church in Highland lead parishioners in song at Mass. The massive 23-rank pipe organ behind them was build by Wicks Organ Company in Highland. "When her husband got a job in California, she moved away, and we lost our organist and the men's choir kind of fell apart. For a few months we didn't have a choir, then two women from the parish approached me and said they wanted to get a mixed choir started. I told them ‘I will help you get it started.' That was in 1973. It is now 2009 and we are still starting."

Schwarztrauber trained in the Latin Mass, then went through the transition following Vatican II to the use of the vernacular language. "I was still in the seminary when the present St. Paul Church was built. When we started the men's choir we were upstairs in the choir loft at the back of church. When the downstairs church was remodeled, the altar moved out from the back wall and the new organ installed at the back of the sanctuary, we were a mixed choir. That is when we moved downstairs in front of the organ."

Each priest has his own style, says Schwarztrauber. "They never really dictated what kind of music we should sing. It was kind of left up to me. When I sit down to prepare for the Masses, I read the readings of that Sunday, try to get hymns and anthems that fit."

The years right after Vatican II he says were a challenge. "We subscribed to the various sources, and built up a pretty good library of hymns and anthems. With this choir I use more traditional four-part music. Occasionally we will sing - for lack of a better term - more ‘modern' hymns. But choir members like the more traditional works."

Two of the current choir members were members of the original men's choir.

Today's 32-member choir has 19 women and 13 men. Their age range is from late 20s to 70s. Over his 50 years there have been 148 choir members. The choir only occasionally sings in the summer. On June 28 the choir will sing at Mass celebrating the closing of the Year of St. Paul. The choir practices September thru May on Wednesdays for an average of an hour and a half.

Choir members wear royal blue robes with white collars. Schwarztrauber and Bill Bust, the choir organist, wear white robes with blue collars. "Bill is the service manager at Wicks Organs here in Highland," Schwarztrauber says. "He has helped me a lot. He has been an inspiration to me with the choir. We welcome new members, people who like to sing, and who are disciplined enough to stay with it for a while and learn."

The Small Society, a high school singing group which sang in the style of the Up With People group, was started by an assistant pastor at St. Paul, and Sister Mary Ann Linhoff, SSND, who taught at St. Paul High School when the parish had its own high school.

"For seven years I was a drummer with the Small Society," says Schwarztrauber. "We got to be well known, and traveled to a lot of meetings to perform. I learned from them. I think they learned from me."

Sam and his wife Joanne have two grown and married sons and they have four grandchildren. "Joanne helped me get the choir started. Without a lot of help from my family, I probably wouldn't have lasted so long as a choir director."