Lourdes Montgomery is not resting on her laurels and has already left the idea of being a one-hit wonder long behind.
As music director for St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Rogers since 2005, Montgomery has not only nurtured the music program and played piano and organ for countless Masses since then, but she has also kept her creative juices flowing by writing and working to publish her music.
One shining moment came in April 2008 when a song she wrote called “Bienaventurados” was played for Pope Benedict XVI at the papal Mass in Washington, D.C. This hymn about the Beatitudes, the words of Jesus at his Sermon on the Mount, was the piece that got her recognized and put her on the liturgical music map. Additionally, in 2012, the third edition of the song hymnal, “Flor y Canto” (“Flower and Song”) was published. Originally, in the earlier editions she had only 13 of her original responsorial psalms and hymns included. The third edition has 20.
“De La Cruz a la Gloria” (“From the Cross to Glory”) is a collection of Spanish-language music for the Lenten and Easter seasons debuted by Montgomery when she first began with Oregon Catholic Press.
If congregants and choir members are drawing a blank on her compositions, it is because her music has been published, thus far, only in Spanish. Considered one of the top Hispanic composers by Oregon Catholic Press, Montgomery’s music is even being recognized and played a continent away.
“A company in Madrid chose my collection after listening to it,” she explained, “and now it is being distributed in Spain.”
English speakers need wait no longer as this year her work will be published in English for the first time.
It all started when Montgomery began studying the Psalms and understanding they needed to be sung. The Oregon Catholic Press, one of the oldest providers and publishers of Christian music, contacted her and asked her to compose responsorial psalms using all of the words from the Psalms. Three of them are being distributed this fall and she has nine others in the works.
The three psalms she has written for are Psalm 118, Psalm 104 and Psalm 113. This past summer, the company asked her to perform a concert featuring music from her collection and some of her new pieces.
“It is all a blessing,” she said, “I’m just doing what God wants me to do and when he chooses you there is no stopping him. He makes things happen.”
Montgomery said she is thrilled that other people are taking notice of her music but attributes her measure of success to staying positive.
“I feel my success has been because of my attitude and that has helped me get along with people,” Montgomery said.
Born in Havana, Montgomery immigrated with her family to the United States at an early age. Her childhood was divided between Miami and New Jersey until the fourth grade when the family moved to Little Rock. It was this transition that made a lasting impression on her life and her music.
“From the time I was little, I knew I wanted to study music,” she said, “I knew that was my calling, I wasn’t interested in anything else.”
While living in Little Rock and attending Our Lady of the Holy Souls School, she also took lessons from a venerable piano teacher at Mount St. Mary Academy.
“Sister Celine is the one who really taught me how to compose,” Montgomery recalled. “She taught me scales, theory and how to understand music.”
When she was in eighth grade, the family moved back to Miami and this is where she stayed while finishing high school, going to college, falling in love, marrying and having her children until 2005. But her memories never faded of her time in Arkansas. In 2005, at the suggestion of someone in a Little Rock church, she landed a job as music director at St. Vincent de Paul and settled in northwest Arkansas.
“Lourdes is a genius,” Kristi Brackett, music teacher and children’s choir director at St. Vincent de Paul, said. “She can hear a melody and within moments, turn it into a full piano piece. Because she is bilingual, she has also brought the Anglo and Hispanic community together at St. Vincent de Paul in ways I never thought possible. With her guidance, we have the continuity, experience and talent that we need in our parish.”
