Have you heard the Higher Word? NYC grown Catholic orchestra going from strength to strength

A few days before Higher Word’s first concert in October 2024, co-founder Spencer McIntosh went to mass at St.Anthony of Padua in Soho where the performance would be held.The newly formed orchestra, which plays classical music through a Catholic lens, had sold about 80 tickets for their inaugural performance.

And during mass, McIntosh counted attendees to get a sense of the space —about 150 people.“It was so sparse,” said the 39-year-old.He was “distraught.

I was like, ‘this is the biggest mistake I ever made in my entire life’.”They had to pay musicians, vendors and the restaurant for the afterparty.The way things were going, they were looking at a loss of thousands of dollars.He and his co-founder Nick Sam sought counsel from their friend, Fr.

Jonah Teller, a charismatic young priest from St.Joseph’s in Greenwich Village.

Teller advised them to write in sharpie that they would “fill the church” and hang the sign on their wall.They did as instructed.Then they prayed and marketed their tails off.

At showtime, 400 people showed up.“The whole thing was a miracle,” said McIntosh.Two years in, those miracles keep happening.Only with bigger audiences, more ambitious programming and even recognition from legendary composer Bill Conti  — who wrote the iconic “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)” among other Hollywood scores — who has tapped them, along with sax playing priest Fr.James O’Reilly, to record his new original composition.On Friday night, they’ll be performing at St.

Jean Baptiste with a program based on the Feast of the Guardian Angels (no word on whether Curtis Sliwa will be in attendance).Such sustained growth would suggest there is far more than divine intervention at play.Perhaps a group of elite musicians led by Juilliard educated composer and conductor Jacob Beranek and Christa Dalmazio, who attended the Manhattan School of Music, is resonating because it’s an experience for the mind and soul — something reso...