Welcome to March: month of wind and women. I’m not sure where that takes us. Historically, March has always been windy, just as women have struggled to be recognized as serious musicians and composers. I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and practicing and pondering “music as cooking.”
Music is a pillar of our community at UU Middleboro. We strive to build a musical community, whether that’s congregational or choral singing, sharing a musical offering, or participating in a musical workshop or activity. We invite our members to explore a variety of musical styles, to focus on excellence rather than perfection, to support Sunday Morning worship, and to carry our ministry out into the world. For more information, please contact Susan Hotchkiss at music@uumiddleboro.org.
The Chalice Choir is open to all and sings every other Sunday, making room for other solos and ensembles to share their musical offerings on alternate Sundays. Tuesday evenings are set aside for choir rehearsal from 7:00-8:30. Sunday morning is set aside for musicians to prepare for worship. As needed, we form Caring Choirs to visit members and friends who are shut in and would like to hear or sing music from our UU hymnals and songbooks. Larger Caring Choirs participate in programs for nursing homes, shelters, and community events. December caroling is always a popular activity. We support music
Installed in the chancel, we have an historic Woodberry & Harris tracker organ, circa 1890. The original manual pump was replaced with a motor when Middleboro Main Street was wired for electricity. There are two manuals (Swell and Great) plus a 27-note pedal board, and the mechanism is fully mechanical. The organ was most recently refurbished by Andover Organ Company in 2014 and is listed in the Organ Historical Society Database. In the spring of 2019, the church purchased a new Mason & Hamlin baby grand piano. This piano was hand-made in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and produces state-of-the-art depth and quality
Get ready for a special treat on Saturday evening, November 6, at 7:30 when we host “A Concert of Negro Spirituals and Art Songs” by bass-baritone Oral Moses and pianist Jakari Rush. This concert is part of a tour funded through the Massachusetts Cultural Council that has been postponed twice due to the Covid pandemic. We are delighted to be able to offer the concert virtually, filmed live from our Sanctuary. The Zoom link will be available Friday, November 5, on the church website. Our church musicians, singers as well as instrumentalists, are practicing hard to share music on Sunday mornings.
Our music program at UU Middleboro is officially launched. Singers and instrumentalists are doing what we love best – practicing, exploring new music, enjoying pieces we’ve done before, rehearsing in ensembles, and sharing with the congregation. It’s a joyful thing to be performing live again. When we perform live, we are creating an experience in real time. It’s never perfect, but that’s not the point. We perform as a part of a worship happening, moving back and forth between spoken word and song, weaving a rich experience that none of us can achieve alone. This is very different than recording
