The St. Paul’s Adult Choir
The St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Adult Choir is a semi-professional choir made up of volunteers and four paid choristers. This choir sings for the 10:00 a.m. Choral Eucharist and special services at St. Paul’s.
Annually, the choir presents an extraordinary Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols in the Kings College, Cambridge style on the fourth Sunday of Advent. It is one of the seasonal music highlights in New Orleans. The choir also participates as part of the well-attended and vibrant annual Epiphany Feast of Lights service with the St. Paul’s school and community.
The St. Paul’s choir has participated in annual holiday concerts with Rachel van Vorhees & Friends at St. Louis Cathedral, has collaborated with First Baptist Church New Orleans and orchestra to perform John Rutter’s Requiem, and has participated in the annual The Gathering, which features many local choirs coming together to perform sacred choral repertoire. St. Paul’s choir has the high honor of collaborating with the excellent choir of Christ Church Cathedral, under the direction of Jarrette Follette, for special services, ordinations, and more. The St. Paul’s Choir has been invited for a 2013 residency at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Ensembles
Adult Choir – Wednedays 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Directed by Caroline Carson | EMAIL
Children’s Choir – Wednesdays 5:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Directed by Natalie True | EMAIL
Handbells – meets seasonally,
Directed by Mr. Myers McAlister| EMAIL
St. Paul’s Children’s Choir
The St. Paul's Children Choir is comprised of children in Pre-K through fourth grade. The ensemble is directed by Natalie True, St. Paul's organist, and Margaret Albert, adult choir member. Both Natalie and Margaret have extensive experience working with young children's choirs.
The children meet to rehearse every Wednesday from 5-5:45pm, when we spend most of our time learning challenging choral repertoire while also having fun and working on our proper singing technique. They sing on the second Sunday of each month, usually the same day as our Children's Chapel service.
Margaret Albert
Margaret Albert has been a member of St. Paul’s Church for 8 years. She has worked in New Orleans area independent schools as a vocal music educator and holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Southeastern LA University (where she also studied choral conducting) and a Bachelor of Music Education from Loyola University, New Orleans. Margaret also has a Master’s Certificate in Orff Schulwerk from the former Memphis State University (now University of Memphis).
During her years as a vocal music educator she served as Chair of the LMEA Elementary District VI and Junior High Honor Choirs, District VI Vocal Chair, and is the immediate past treasurer of the LA chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.
Dr. Caroline Carson, Director of Music Ministry
 Caroline Carson is currently the Director of Choral Activities at the University of New Orleans, Director of Music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a conductor for the New Orleans Civic Symphony, Repertoire & Standards Chair for Ethnic and Multicultural choirs for Louisiana ACDA, and Co-Founder/Director of the New Orleans Festival Brasileiro.
Dr. Carson has prepared choruses for concerts, workshops, national and international tours, and a year 2000 Carnegie Hall performance. Dr. Carson taught in the Georgia public school systems for seven years. While in Atlanta, she participated in four Grammy-winning recordings with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Robert Shaw and Yoel Levi. She founded the Milledgeville Singers Guild, now in its eleventh successful season.
Dr. Carson received her Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of South Carolina, a Masters in Conducting from Emory University, and the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from USC in Columbia, SC. She has worked with such distinguished American conductors as Larry Wyatt, Manuel Alvarez, Alfred Calabrese, Dale Warland, and Robert Page. Dr. Carson has also worked overseas with Boris Tevlin (Moscow Conservatory), Helène Guy (Paris Conservatory), Professor Marin Tchonev and Maestro Milko Kolarov, both from Varna, Bulgaria. Dr. Carson serves as an ACDA and LMEA adjudicator.
In 2006, she founded the New Orleans Summer Chorus, an annual summer performing choral ensemble open to anyone. Dr. Carson is a singer with the NOVA Chorale, Jefferson Chorales, and Inconspicuous 8. She is an avid space science geek, was invited by NASA to attend the Mars Science Laboratory launch, and she adores her 16 yr old cat named Sasha. Caroline is the owner of the music resource website: www.choralnut.com
Caroline Carson's photos of St. Paul's windows on Facebook.
Natalie True, Organist
 Natalie E. True holds a B.M. in Violin Performance and an M.A. in Music Education from Mansfield University. A Pennsylvania native, Natalie relocated to New Orleans in 2007 to teach at the Louise S. McGehee School. Her duties include general music for PreK through 2nd grade, Lower School choir and 4th-10th grade strings. In addition, she coordinates the McGehee Private Lesson Program, which provides weekly private lessons to more than 50 students in strings, woodwinds, piano and guitar. During the summer she is the co-director of McGehee's Summergate Camp, offering local girls in PreK-4th grade an exciting camp experience filled with sports, crafts and drama.
Outside of school Natalie is very active in the local theatre community as a music director. Her musical theatre background is extensive, having participated in numerous shows at the community, collegiate and professional levels around the country and abroad. Local credits include "tick,tick...BOOM", "Songs for a New World" and "Leader of the Pack" (Two Left Feet Productions), "The Fantasticks" (Ensemble Arts), "The Sound of Music", "Goodnight, Moon" and "Footloose" (JPAS), "Rent" (Southern Rep) and Pinkalicious (FourFront).
She is also a founding member of the local female vocal ensemble "Inconspicuous 8". Natalie maintains active membership in the American Choral Directors Association (currently serving as the state treasurer), American Orff-Schulwerk Association, American Guild of Organists and the international music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota. Although often too busy to think, Natalie usually spends her down time fixing up her house, attending a weekly pottery class, reading the latest issue of "Real Simple" and trying to keep up with her two crazy cats, Merlin and LuLu.
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