Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, TN, will debut its official school Mass May 2, which is a tribute to the late Brother Vincent Malham. Bro. Vincent was a renowned concert pianist who was serving as president of Christian Brothers University (CBU) in Memphis when he died in a car accident in 2008. The high school band performed at his funeral.
The choral and band directors worked to incorporate into the Mass the school’s traditions in a way that would encourage students to participate while building pride and tradition. In the search for inspirational material, they found compositions from Bro. Vincent in the songbook This is the Day.
“Bro. Vincent was a very inspirational Brother to all those that he encountered and had a strong passion for the arts,” explained band director Patrick Bolton. “In memory of the life of Bro. Vincent, I began using his works as root material in the composition, including his ‘Mass of Thanksgiving’ and the hymns ‘This is the Day,’ ‘Take and Eat,’ and ‘Brothers Rejoice.’”
Over the years, Bro. Vincent served as a teacher, administrator, and Visitor of the former St. Louis District. He served as president of both CBU and Bethlehem University. An accomplished pianist, Brother Vincent traveled with the late Brother Laurence Walther and performed in the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
The performance will take place at St. Peter’s Church which is staffed by the Dominicans, with whom the Brothers lived when they arrived in Memphis in 1871. It is coincidentally scheduled for the fifth anniversary of Bro. Vincent’s death on Thursday, May 2 at 7:30 p.m. CDT. It will be streamed live at www.cbhs.org.
