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Music at First Parish 2011-12
A Message from Director of Music Vivian Montgomery:
A New Face and a Great Year Ahead
I’m thrilled to announce that Rachel Carpentier has joined the staff as Music Associate (part-time) for Choral Directing. Over the past year, the choir and staff have grown familiar with Rachel, and she has enlivened several of our services as a guest musician. Rachel graduated from Harvard with a focus in early music and Indian studies and is currently a graduate student in conducting at Boston University. She has a strong background as a keyboardist and singer, and has considerable experience as a conductor and teacher. Above all, she’s energetic, lovely to work with, and has a great sense of humor.
Rachel will take on substantial responsibility for choir preparation and leadership in regular Sunday services. The choir will maintain its more-or-less every-other-week schedule. When Rachel is leading the choir, she will be the primary keyboardist. I will also be keyboardist for some services, and Sue Lorimer will be on call if needed.
As many of you know, I’ve been looking for ways to make things more sane and manageable in my fragmented professional life while still maintaining my full engagement in First Parish and the impressive musical offerings we’ve come to expect. With the addition of Rachel and Kate Campe, our magnetic Youth Music Director, we have a marvelous team that will rise to those expectations.
I will remain the Director of Music, overseeing all music activities and planning, playing frequently for services, working with guest and community musicians, and I will be leading the choir for special music services (see below). I will also be working with Cynde Hartman, staff, and volunteers on another church-wide musical production (tentatively Children of Eden, Part II) to take place in June.
I know that we will have another wonderful year musically — Rachel outlines some of what's planned below. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you’d like to talk about these changes. Thanks for your understanding and patience as our structure for supporting a bold and encompassing musical culture at First Parish evolves.
Wishing you peace and pleasure for the start of the year. With love and appreciation,
Vivian Montgomery
Director of Music
A Message from Rachel Carpentier
Music Associate for Choral Directing
Greetings to the First Parish community! Let me begin by thanking you all for making me feel so welcome at First Parish over the last few months. I have deeply enjoyed each collaborative musical process I have participated in at First Parish this year. What a wonderfully rich and diverse musical life thrives in this congregation! As I learn more from you and Vivian about the aspirations of our music program, I hope we can share a wide variety of musical styles with the congregation. As Vivian mentioned, I am particularly interested in early music and hope to bring more of this a cappella repertoire to Sundays at First Parish.
Vivian, Kate, and I are working on the year's music calendar, and we'd like to mention a few important dates and events that are right around the corner:
- Our first Sunday as a choir will be September 18. Adult choir rehearsals are from 7:30–9:15 pm on Thursdays in the Music Room. We extend a warm invitation to anyone who is interested to join us — even if you can't make a weekly commitment. We hope to involve as many people as possible in the musical life of First Parish.
- First Parish choir members will be part of the interfaith choir at the remembrance of the 10th anniversary of September 11th, a town-wide interfaith event will be held at 5 pm at Memorial Park. Two choir anthems (When Sudden Terror Tears Apart and Let There Be Peace on Earth) will be sung, as well as two hymns.
- November 20 will feature an Interfaith Thanksgiving service at 4 pm and two morning multigenerational services — a busy day for the choir! In the morning, we hope to perform Famous, a commissioned work by Eva Kendrick, with the children’s choir.
- Down the road, we'll have a Baroque Advent and Christmas music service on December 11. And in the Spring we will have special music for John Buehrens' farewell (April 29) and a music service on May 13.
Thank you again for welcoming me with such flexibility, hospitality, and musical ambition. I look forward to the coming year immensely.
Sincerely,
Rachel Carpentier
Music Associate for Choral Directing
A Message from Kate Campe
Assistant Music Director for Youth
and Intergenerational Programs
To all of the Families of First Parish, welcome back from summer vacation! I'm excited to get started with this year’s Children’s Choir, and another year in this faith community is a wonderful blessing. I have planned some wonderful opportunities for the children to perform alone, alongside the adult choir, at multi-generational services, and hopefully with guest artists as well. Also I am looking forward to joining forces with our new Interim Minister Christian Schmidt and the Youth Group.
We are ALWAYS willing to welcome new voices and spirits to our choirs. There is no audition or preparation needed to have your child join Children’s Choir — any child age 5-13 who loves music is WELCOME to join. Children’s Choir rehearsals will begin this Sunday, September 11th at 9:30 am. This is a change from last year, but previous choir parents and I have decided that the morning will prove to be a more focused and productive time for the children.
I am looking forward to our first rehearsal; PLEASE contact me with any questions regarding the exciting Youth Music opportunities we are looking forward to this year.
THANK YOU!
Kate Campe
Assistant Music Director for Youth and Intergenerational
Programs