We would like to thank all the volunteers and members of the committee from Saint Jude and Saint Mary Magdalene Parishes for the success of the Mary Lou Williams' Jazz Concert. We are grateful for each one who were able to help making the concert happening. Special thank you to Fr. Joe and Fr. Tom for their support. Thank you to (in alphabetical order) Lisa Anselmo, Linda Atkins, Cheryl Begandy, Nancy Blankenstein, Rosemarie Collenberg, J R Daniels, Bobbie Ferguson, Christy Gualtieri, Jennifer Gorske, Buffy Halle, Donna Jeffrey, Jann Johnston, Mary Claire Kasunic, Kathy Kegarise, Andrew Kintner, Sue Mackie, Angie Maher, Maggie Marquette, Mary Lou McLaughlin, Keith and Sheila Morris, Lauren O’Donaghue, Andy Parker, Manon Proulx, Leslie and Alex Sciulli, Christopher and Monica Scoletti, Paulette Silver, Jeanine Sismour, Helen and John Sysko, Joe and Christine Wingenfeld (our apoligies if any name is missing!). 

Above all, thank you to all of you who were present and contributed of making the event a real success. 

Deanna Witkowski's book Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul by Liturgical Press is available at the following webiste: https://www.deannawitkowski.com/

Saint Jude Parish along with Saint Mary Magdalene Parish present
Mary Lou Williams’ Music for Peace - “Mary Lou’s Mass” in Concert
featuring jazz pianist Deanna Witkowski

“There’s not enough prayer anymore. That’s why we need jazz. It’s something from the mind to the heart, to the fingertips.” – Mary Lou Williams

When jazz pianist, composer, and convert to Catholicism Mary Lou Williams (1910-81) was a child, she began playing piano in the homes of her East Liberty neighbors. Quickly, she became a big part of Pittsburgh storied jazz history in the hot bed of talent that found its home in the Hill District while arranging, composing and jamming with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, Billy Strayhorn and others. This success took her to New York City where she became recognized as one of the “best of jazz”. Years later and while enjoying this huge success, she followed some of the “jazz greats” moving to Paris where the “scene” was bursting wide open, playing nightly at the exclusive “Le Boeuf sur le Toit”.
At the very height of her career, she left the stage mid performance without an explanation, entering into a period of reclusiveness, and intense refection of her life and its meaning. She didn’t return to the piano for three years. She moved back to her apartment in Harlem, still searching. While wandering the streets of NY, she saw poverty all around her and was compelled to do something about it. She found the church of Our Lady of Lourdes, that was open all day: it was there that she found solitude and peace, reading the psalms, and it was there that she was befriended by a young Jesuit, Fr Peter O’Brien, who helped her understand that her music was her gift from God and to Him! With his gentile encouragement she returned to the Baldwin upright that had been sitting in her Harlem apartment for three years and her powerful voice in jazz was back. With Fr. O’Brien’s guidance, she converted to Catholicism and began composing secular and sacred music including three Jazz Masses.
Like Dorothy Day, she opened her home to musicians who were addicted to drugs, alcohol, and those who were out of work. She cared for the poor and, like Day, chose voluntary poverty in order to save money, and rehabilitate the sick in her community especially jazz musicians.

Deanna Witkowski is an accomplished composer, arranger, and an amazing jazz pianist, known for her adventurous, engaging music that heals the soul. Witkowski is also an adult convert to Catholicism and is intimately involved with the life and work of Mary Lou Williams. Her book Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul by Liturgical Press will be available at the concert and on her website.Witkowski examines how Williams created networks of support and friendship through her decades long letter correspondence to Dorothy Day and others and her tireless efforts to perform jazz in churches, community centers, concert halls, and schools. Throughout this fascinating story, Witkowski illuminates Williams’s passionate mantra that “jazz is healing to the soul.”

Please, join us on Sunday evening, October 24th at 7:00 at Sacred Heart Church for this remarkable and inspirational concert, which will enflame your heart and spirit.

Click HERE for Advance Reservations (requested)

Suggested Donations: Open Seating in the Nave of the Church $20.00
Preferred seating in the Choir Stalls or first five rows of the Nave $50.00
Students are our Guests
For more Details and the Advance Reservation Form, see our website at www.saintjudepgh.org
Please note Masks are required