Sing praise to the Lord

Steve Cortinas, director of music for St. Philip the Apostle Church, thinks that everybody should sing during the Mass. “In Psalm 100, it says to ‘make a joyful noise unto the Lord.’ It doesn’t say ‘sing with an angelic voice back to God.’ It’s like —when our babies are cooing and saying gaga —we, as parents just love that. That’s how God must be with us,” he explains. “So, whatever voice God gave us, that’s the voice He wants to hear —our praise back to Him.”

Steve and his wife Armida have five children; the two eldest are in college, Katie at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Noah at Del Mar College. Veronica attends St. John Paul II High School, Cecilia “Cici” attends Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory, and their youngest Teresa attends Most Precious Blood. 

Armida teaches elementary music education at two public schools and volunteers at St. John Paul II High School. Unfortunately, the Cortinas children aren’t musically inclined, but they do love to listen to music, especially music from the 1960s and 1970s, the music that Steve grew up loving. The children and Armida take turns running the Livestream and projector for all the Masses at St. Philip.

Whenever Steve would play music during a church retreat, he would try to break down the emotional walls around people’s hearts by telling them: “To sing and give it all they got. If someone next to you can’t sing very well, then sing out of self-defense, and sing louder. It’s so funny because when you start hearing all these voices together, it just sounds beautiful,” he said.

Steve has been playing, singing and listening to music as far back as he can remember. When he was a young boy, growing up in Taft, his skill as a percussionist began by beating on trash cans in front of his house. His two older brothers played the saxophone, his father sang to the radio, played the guitar and sang in a mariachi band. Music was just second nature to him.

He remembers when he and his friends would sneak onto the church grounds at Immaculate Conception Parish to practice their music in the shade. One day, Father Gregory Boensch heard them playing and recruited them to play for their church choir. It wasn’t really a request at the time.
The most significant influence in Steve’s life was his relationship with his older brother Alfredo, who was in many ways like an uncle to him. He paid for Steve’s music lessons and private tutors. His brother later became a famous bandmaster in the state of Texas.

But Steve Cortinas didn’t have it easy.

He has a history of working hard to live out his calling. He used his musical talents in his high school band while getting private lessons on the side. He put himself through college, working full time while attending The University of Texas on a music scholarship. When his grades began to suffer after his third year of college, he auditioned and was chosen to become a member of the U.S. Air Force Band.

His first duty assignment was at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, where he played in the big band. He was surrounded by people who studied music at Juilliard School of Music, Eastman School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of North Texas.

“That whole experience was huge for my musical development,” he said. For nine years, he played music wherever they sent him. After touring the eastern states, he was then stationed in Germany. “Our priorities were to provide morale for the cities and towns that had Air Force bases on them and for any kind of charity. We would play for the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society … doing free benefit concerts everywhere we went,” Steve explained.

After finding out his dad had stage four cancer, he decided not to reenlist. He went back to his hometown to be with his father and other family members. His father, Selso, was well known to his fellow choir members from Immaculate Conception Church and towards the end of his life, the choir would come to their house and sing to him. “It made me see things differently,” Steve said. 

“I said I had come back home for my mom, my sister, and my dad, but instead they helped me figure life out,” Steve said, adding, “I got to be there at the end of my father’s life, and he showed me how to die.”

About two months later, Steve moved to Corpus Christi, and while attending Del Mar College, he began playing music in jazz and blues clubs. He also worked at a recording studio, where he met many famous local musicians. 

One musician found out he was Catholic and told him to bring his drums to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish (OLPH). “That’s where I got a good education in music ministry –Learning that music enhances Liturgy,” Steve said. “I always had a strong Catholic faith, but it wasn’t until I attended ‘Alpha for Catholics’ at OLPH that music became more of an evangelizing tool.” Alpha for Catholics is an evangelization course and weekend retreat based on the Holy Spirit. It was introduced in the late 1990s.

“We [music directors] all have that same mindset,” he said of the directors he networks within the city. “God is telling us that we need to help.”

For more than 25 years, Steve has been involved in music ministry in the diocese. He was music director twice at OLPH and once at Most Precious Blood. He taught guitar at St. John Paul II High School and volunteers for the Diocese of Corpus Christi for special events, like the Feast of Corpus Christi last year.

Steve follows the three judgments presented by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship: Liturgical, Pastoral and Musical. All three judgments must be considered together, and no individual judgment can be applied in isolation from the other two: three judgments, one decision.

Steve uses Sing to the Lord to evaluate the parish’s current musical repertoire, to better understand his role in sung worship, to help prepare sacramental liturgies, and to help train other music ministers and choir members.

Like many music directors in the diocese, Steve has had challenges since he was hired as music director at St. Philip the Apostle back in June of 2019. The first challenge was simple to overcome. He had inherited a different repertoire than he was accustomed to. Choir members and parishioners were used to the older hymns, and the pastor at the time wanted all contemporary praise and worship music. They both agreed that they should have some of both or have a “blended repertoire,” he said.

After serving just seven months at St. Philip, the pandemic hit the U.S., and all Masses went online. It wasn’t until after the Masses began to reopen that a member in the choir got Covid, and both he and his wife became seriously ill from it. Even then, the music at St. Philip never stopped as the choir members from St. Philip who weren’t sick continued to show up to Mass and sing.

“I love the whole gamut of Catholic Music,” Steve Cortinas said. “But we [music ministers] are servants. The Mass is not about us. We are the sprinkles on the cake. We’re not even the icing,” he explained. “We’re there to receive Jesus —it’s really not about the music, but if we can enhance it —praise and thanks to God.”