Tom has offered a variety of events throughout the world since 1980. His appearances have taken him to much of the US and Canada, as well as Ireland, Japan, South Korea, and the Caribbean. He brings his 30 plus years experience in parish music ministry to his work on the road, and offers a hands-on approach to the topics he offers to all of his audience. Comfortable in parish settings as well as diocesan and larger events, Tom's passion and enthusiasm for music and worship is evident in his work for the Church, both in his own compositions and in his live appearances.
All of Tom’s workshops and retreat events are specifically suited to your own needs, ensembles, choirs, teen bands, kids choirs, cantor training.
The Choir as the Leader of Song: A single to multi –evening event offered to make the assembly song the priority of the music at liturgy. All key elements to make this become a reality in your parish from sung prayer experience with your music ministers to creating a music program that pulls the community into sung prayer.
The biggest obstacle is often the choir itself, based on a pre-Vatican II model of the choir’s role in the liturgy. Styles of music, accompaniment skills, and misuse of amplification are all key elements in this process. Singing together at mass is key to the experience of becoming the Body of Christ. The process to achieve this is the essence of this workshop.
Workshops: Tom's workshops draw on many years of practical experience, and address a wide variety of topics concerned with liturgy, music, and catechesis. His engaging style makes his workshops enjoyable for all who attend, and brings fresh insight to the many issues that confront parish ministers in their work as musician, catechist, and all liturgical ministries. While Tom has many diverse workshop titles that he has offered in the past, his preference is to create specific events based on the needs of the host community.
Concerts: Tom offers a variety of different concert formats. While he is comfortable performing alone, he also enjoys using local choirs/musicians for his concerts. Tom's choir from Christ The King Church sometimes perform with him when the location is near his home in Rhode Island.
Retreats: These events can be an evening, a friday night/saturday, or a few evenings in a row (Parish Mission style). Tom has given retreats for all ages, and can be specifically geared towards confirmation, youth events, choirs, cantors, liturgical ministries, or whole community.
Keynotes: As a featured speaker at most US national conferences and conventions since 1980, Tom enjoys speaking at Diocesan events and can bring a unique dimension to a given topic as seen through the lens of a noted composer/liturgist/catechist/professional musician.
Parish Consulting: A hands on offering of observation of liturgical effectiveness and practical responses to all issues relating to the ordinary liturgical life of your parish. From PA systems to affective placement of musicians cantor skills, accompanists' abilities, tempo of music, singing of clergy/assembly, parish repertoire, environment; this process is a complete look at what is going on at mass in your parish with concrete and specific feedback to help you assess just what is experienced by the "person in the pew".
Commissions of original music: A number of Tom's published works began as commissioned pieces of music to help a parish celebrate an anniversary or some other major event.
For all information regarding any of the above, contact Tom directly at: tjkendzia@gmail.com
For information about booking an event with Tom, contact the Events Department at OCP. (1-800-LITURGY)