By Rachel Curry
“He’s really one of our lead singers at the cathedral. Whenever our Principal Cantor is away he steps into her shoes formidably.”
If you are one of the hundreds of parishioners who enjoy the powerful voice of Cantor Joshua Adams at St Mary’s Cathedral each week, you had better enjoy it while you can.
In an interview with The Record Magazine journalist Rachel Curry, Mr Adams said he was considering his next move in pursuit of a career in music and may follow previous cantors by testing his talents overseas.
“I’m not sure what I want to do; it’s quite hard to progress anywhere in music. A lot of my peers have gone to England to do further study, so maybe I’ll go to Europe,” he said.
Luckily for local music lovers, Mr Adams is not going anywhere just yet, as he is partway through a degree in voice at the University of Western Australia.
He balances his studies with his role as Cantor – a soloist who leads the congregation in common sacred song and responsorial singing – and as a member of the St Mary’s Cathedral Choir.
Today the 19-year-old doesn’t get nervous before Mass, but it was a different story when he first joined the choir as a treble at the tender age of 10.
St Mary’s Cathedral Director of Music Jacinta Jakovcevic was tipped off about his talents after he sang at the Fremantle Eisteddfod music competition, although Mr Adams said he had already been considering trying out for the choir.
“I was going to audition for St Mary’s as a boy because I was doing singing in Church and having lessons at the time,” he said.
“I always went to Mass with mum and sang at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Hilton Parish.”
Aside from his mother, who plays the guitar, Mr Adams said he didn’t come from a particularly musical family.
However, he clearly has the musical gene, recalling that he felt a passion for singing at an age when most kids are more interested in playing chasey.
“I wanted to do it when I was six or seven. Mum told me that I wanted to do music lessons and from there it’s continued on,” he said.
Joshua joined the St Mary’s Cathedral Choir at an interesting time, when restorations to the 140-year-old Cathedral had forced them to relocate to St Joachim’s Pro-Cathedral, Victoria Park Parish, and he sang there for a couple of years before the historical re-reopening.
Another history-making event had occurred only a few months after he joined the choir, when the group travelled to the 2008 World Youth Day in Sydney and sang for Pope Benedict XVI.
Miss Jakovcevic said his talent and dedication were apparent at a young age.
“Even as a young boy, he really was like our lead treble. He did all the big solos and he applied himself so fabulously to it,” she said.
As he grew up, Mr Adams’ voice developed into a cross between a baritone and a tenor, and Miss Jakovcevic said she was still noticing changes as he matured.
“He’s getting a sense of real power in his sound, which is really wonderful…It means that he’s got a fuller spectrum of colour in his voice,” she said.
“He’s really one of our lead singers at the cathedral. Whenever our Principal Cantor is away he steps into her shoes formidably.”
Reflecting on his musical progression, Mr Adams said Miss Jakovcevic had been “quite a big inspiration” for him, along with Principal Cantors Carly Power and Daniel Mullaney.
He revealed that his favourite time to sing during Mass was Holy Communion, because of the reflective nature of the music and the creative possibilities it offered.
As for the relationship between his music and his faith, he said it was something he had spent a lot of time contemplating.
“We’ve had those discussions at school and on retreat and I feel like it’s special to be involved with Mass and to participate in that way. It’s the same as the altar servers and the readers,” he said.
While Mr Adams does not know exactly what the future has in store, for now St Mary’s Cathedral has a particular hold on him.
He has sung at many venues throughout the city but said there were not many that measured up to its brilliance.
“Singing in the building of St Mary’s is wonderful acoustically and there’s not many places like that to sing in in Perth,” he said.
From pages 20 and 1921 from Issue 5: ‘Christmas 2016 – Looking forward to the Birth of Christ & Reflecting back on the Year 2016?’ of The Record Magazine