Swan song for Pleasanton choir director of 20 years

by Jeanine Benca

PLEASANTON — Joe Hebert, the Catholic Community of Pleasanton’s
longtime choral director, is singing his swan song after 20 years.

Hebert who led the choir’s performance before a papal
audience during the group’s recent trip to Rome, will direct his
final Pleasanton concert on Friday. He said he is leaving to
conduct the choir at his childhood parish, Corpus Christi Catholic
Church in Piedmont, in part so he can be closer to his parents.

“It’s one small way I can connect to them,” he said of his
family. Still, the decision to move on has been hard, he added.

“People are coming up to me all the time about it, (asking) ‘Why
are you going?’ It’s a very loving community. I’ve watched their
families develop and grow over the years.”

As director of the music ministry, Hebert oversaw the
50-member children’s choir, 50-member teen choir, 40-member adult
choir, as well as 20 cantors at St. Augustine and St. Elizabeth
Seton — the two churches that make up the Catholic Community of
Pleasanton.

In November, he and about 90 others — a group that included
the 35-member pilgrimage choir comprised of singers ages 12 to 70s
— their friends, relatives and fellow parishioners, traveled to
Italy. During the week-long stint, the singers performed for Pope
Benedict XVI and an audience of more than 6,000 in the Paul VI
Audience Hall in Rome. The Nov. 24 concert was captured on Italian
television, much to the delight of choir members.