Patricia Brady-Danzig didn’t return to Secaucus this year empty-handed. Although she stepped down from being music director at Immaculate Conception Church in 1997, she has made a point of stopping back in Secaucus to stay hello to her friends, offering a sampling of her wide range of musical tastes.
While she made a brief stop off here last year, she failed to make an appearance at the town’s 100th birthday, something she made amends for this year with her return engagement at the Elms, bringing to the town’s senior citizen population a song written to help celebrate town’s century mark.
Brady-Danzig, who over the last three years conducted what she called a “Music Potpourri” as part of the Community Education program at the high school, wanted to share the song with the whole town.
“Secaucus has always been my second home,” she said. “I wanted to make sure I helped the town celebrate.”
Brady-Danzig has also brought news of her skyrocketing career. In the year away from Secaucus, she has hooked up with Maestro Charles Dutoit of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She also has performed in the Rose of Tralee Festival in Ireland, in a chamber music recital in Sicily and another recital in Romania. In the United States she served as a guest commentator for a video recording and did guest lectures at Columbia University and Duke University.
On May 20, she presented the World Premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s musical trilogy: “Peonies at Dusk,” a work written specifically for her.
On June 10, she said she will be appearing with the Garden State Philharmonic in a production of Mozart’s “Requiem” held at the Ocean County Community College.
She will also be appearing on New Jersey news channel 12 on several Monday mornings during the year.
Brady-Danzig was music director for Immaculate Conception Church in Secaucus from 1980 to 1997.
Over the last four years, she has also released three CDs, “A Women’s Life in Love,” “Romanian Melodies,” and the just-released “Sharing,” a portion of which is featured in the film “The Yoofu Club.”
As well as having a music resource center named after her at Caldwell College, Brady-Danzig has also appeared on the NBC Today Show, The CBS Morning Show and various radio programs, featuring her Irish selections from her first CD, “Irish Jubilee.”
A classically trained soprano, Brady-Danzig toured more than 11 countries to become an international singing star, after taking 15 years off to raise a family. Her mother said Brady-Danzig could sing a whole song by age 2. And over the course of the last 20 years, she has performed from Carnegie Hall to equally impressive international stages in Germany and Romania. Her busy schedule was part of the reason she decided to retire from the church.
Happy birthday song for Secaucus
Patricia Brady-Danzig wrote and performed this song to Dear Secaucus earlier this year as a belated celebration to the town’s 100th birthday celebrated in 2000.
Nestled in the heart of Hudson County
Sits our very much loved busy town
Here in dear Secaucus, generations
Growing and on-going; much renown
Hail to you, our dear Secaucus
Politics and civic proud
Talent, hard work are the by-words
Reputation far and wide
As we celebrate our anniversary,
filling all our hearts with glowing pride
Hundred, hundred, hundred years completed
we continued forward side by side