Music & Choir

We are blessed at Grace Church that our worship life is inspired and
enriched by a vibrant music program which draws from a wide range of
sources and styles.  One week the choir might sing contemporary
gospel; the next week a traditional Episcopal anthem, the following
week folk or pop or classical or Renaissance.  Our intrepid and
faithful choir loves to prepare and sing so many different types of
music, and the congregation is appreciative of their offering which so
deepens the spiritual experience of corporate worship.  Our festival
services during the Christmas and Easter seasons are especially
powerful and beautiful, but there is special music every Sunday of the
year, in addition to the organ/piano preludes and postludes, and the 5
hymns sung each week drawn from ancient, classic, and contemporary
traditions.

The adult choir rehearses most Thursday evenings, 7:30-9, September
through June, and again on Sunday mornings at 9 am to prepare for that
morning's 10 am service.  New members are always welcome!  Any young
adults who are able to sit through the rehearsal and want to be there
are warmly invited to join the adults.  Singers of all musical levels
are equally welcome -- the more experienced musicians in the group
help support those with little or no musical background, and within
weeks beginners find their musical fluency growing.  (Hymns are a
wonderful way to learn to read music!)

On occasion, vocal or instrumental soloists or ensembles from the
congregation and community bring their gifts to Sunday worship.  And
the young people of Grace bring joyful song several times each season,
preparing during Godly Play, Sunday School, and at special rehearsals.

Our Director of Music, Ruth Roper, has worked in Congregational (UCC),
Unitarian Universalist, MCC, and American Baptist churches, and was
Coordinator of Music and Worship Programs at the Harvard Divinity
School, where she received her Masters of Theological Studies.  Her
undergraduate degree from SUNY Binghamton was in Music History and
Performance, studying organ, piano, flute, and choral conducting.  She
has directed or accompanied numerous vocalists and choral ensembles
around the Boston area over the past decades, most notably the lively,
popular 250+ voice Mystic Chorale.  She has a personal interest in
music by women, in revising the language of traditional sacred music
to include all people ("inclusive language"), and is a passionate
hymn-lover, always eager to share musical, historical, and poetic
notes to draw the choir and congregation into the magic of this
incredible body of song.