By Henry M. Holden       

Joshua (Josh) Coyne, grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Alessandra (Allie) Altieri, grew up in Randolph, nearly a thousand miles apart. Yet music would bring the two together. That music first formed a bond, then a friendship and then love and marriage on October 23, 2022. The link that brought them together was the Manhattan School of Music. The same school that the former Director of Music at Resurrection Parish, Rick Edinger, and Assistant Giovanna Reyes-Mir attended. In fact, the four knew each other while at the school. 

With a major in Composition and a minor in violin/viola, Josh embraces skills at the organ, the piano, and with the violin and viola. He has served in ministry as a director and assistant director at churches in New York City. He also works as a Conductor, Composer and Orchestrator in musical theater throughout the northeast United States.

With her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance, Allie has sung in churches in New Jersey and New York City. Her operatic performances include singing with the Bronx Opera Company, the dell Arte Opera Ensemble, and Opera in the Ozarks.

The Coyne family was involved in the local arts community, with Joshua participating at Theatre Cedar Rapids, and the Cedar Rapids Symphony. Early on he expressed interest and showed an aptitude in music. He took his first lessons at the Cedar Rapids Symphony School. 

“I don’t know if I had an aptitude for music, but I do know that I just loved it. It was a natural fit. It is part of me. I think many musicians would describe it the same way.”

Joshua talked about his early music motivation. “That first influence for me when I was young was a teacher named Peter Shepherd. He was a black man, and it was the first time I ever saw a black man playing a violin or any classical music. The symphony had a music school, so I started taking lessons with Peter Shepherd.” 

In 2006, Joshua and his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where he continued his violin studies with Lya Stern and began composition study. 

“Lya Stern and I both went to the Manhattan School of Music. She had lived in Hungary and then Romania, and she came to the states to study the violin with a group of teachers including noted violinist, Jascha Heifetz. Lya Stern, herself was a student of Jascha Heifetz, and she played in many musical scores for different shows.”

After moving to D.C., Joshua performed for the then presidential candidate, Barack Obama at the Stand for Change Rally in February 2008, and later as well for the Haitian Embassy.

Joshua composed the score to Anne and Emmett, a play about Anne Frank and Emmett Till. It explores an imaginary conversation between Emmett Till, an African American, and Anne Frank, a German-Dutch Jew.  They were murdered as young teenagers because of racial hatred. The play recounts the lives of Emmett and Anne, comparing the events in their lives and deaths.

 “The premiere of the play was to be held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in June 2009, but was canceled due to a shooting earlier that day,” said Joshua. 

In the summer of 2011, Joshua was one of the subjects in a series of articles describing the difficulties students have getting scholarships, loans, and grants, to be able to afford college. As a result of these articles, Joshua earned a scholarship which allowed him to attend Manhattan School of Music.

“When I was younger my mom was involved in the arts. She worked for several artist’s organizations.” At one point, Joshua’s mom worked for a theater company and there were some connections there that were helpful. “It was like all of these DC parties I’m invited to so I go to play and I meet people with connections. Some of this was a little weird since I was so young.” 

Allie Altieri’s parents moved from Rockaway to Randolph when she was four years old. 

“I was able to join the children’s choir at St. Matthew’s when I was five. I did not have to be in kindergarten to join the choir, I just had to know how to read words, not music. I am very grateful because that exposure led to a career as a singer.”

Allie moved through the children’s choir, the youth choir, and the adult choir, and they let her occasionally direct the children’s choir. She stayed in Saint Matthew’s choir until she graduated high school.

“They had an arrangement like we had here at Resurrection, a children’s choir, a youth choir, and an adult choir.  While I was in high school, I got to be a cantor occasionally then I went on to co-direct the children’s choir.” Later at Resurrection Parish she became the Soprano Soloist assisting at the Christmas and Easter Masses. 

Allie met Charlene Stepnowski, who co-directed the children’s choir. “Charlene is a neighborhood institution. She was my piano teacher. I started private lessons when I was 13. It was through her and Pam Kane, the former organist here at Resurrection, that I became more involved with the choir.” 

Most of the parish know Allie and Josh as two loving and caring people. That was illustrated with the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony on October 30 followed by a reception celebrating their union where more than 125 people attended.

(Photo credit Henry M. Holden)