Music at South Church

With music we connect to our deepest, innermost selves, we connect to each other, making a community, and we connect to something larger than ourselves.  At South Church we connect to music through singing, chanting, playing instruments and listening.  We express our joy, our sadness and our gratefulness.  

Be part of music at South Church; sing in the choir, join South Church Folk, chant, sing out the hymns, listen to the piano, the organ, our guest musicians... We invite you to get involved.

If you are interested in being a guest singer or instrumentalist, please email us at info@southchurch-uu.org. 

The South Church Music Committee supports the music program at South Church. We work together to host guest and member musicians, fundraising and community events like the St. Patrick's Day dance and our ongoing Coffeehouse, and to inform the congregation about music here at South Church. We also support the technical side of music making with a committee to run our new sound system.

For any music related questions, please reach out to our Director of Music Ministry, Jonny Peiffer. 

The South Church Choir

If you enjoy singing, meeting people, and forming a community around music please join us! South Church choir is a lively group of singers who meet to sing, express themselves with music and then share it with the congregation at South Church. There are no auditions, non-music readers and readers alike, are welcome! The goal is to enjoy the music making and then sing for services. The South Church choir is led by Music Director Jonny Peiffer and accompanist, Susan Adams. 

South Church has a pick up choir that meets on Sunday mornings at 9am before Worship to learn the songs for that day! 

Contact us to find out more! 

South Church Folk

South Church Folk has been playing together since 2009. We are a group of members and friends who sing and play folk instruments. We offer our gift of music once per month during service. Our group welcomes anyone who sings or plays a folk instrument. No auditions necessary; just a love of music. Many of us do not read music. We play songs with guitar chords. If you are interested in joining us, contact June Bernard. or come to a rehearsal on Thursday nights at 7pm in the sanctuary.

Guest And Member Musicians

South Church is a diverse community of people having many different religious and spiritual beliefs, and just as our beliefs are rich and varied so are our musical tastes. This is a wonderful attribute of South Church, and we express ourselves with our musical tastes in much the same rich and varied way. South Church invites both guest and member musicians to share their talents with the congregation.

Over the course of a few months of Sundays you will be able to hear the piano compositions of Chopin, the great Bach organ pieces, a Bob Dylan tune, a saxophone quartet, some piano jazz, the Indian shruti box, classical violin as well as Irish fiddle, African drumming, Native American flute and much more.

Chant From Different Traditions

South Church is a community that embraces differences with respect and appreciation. The 1st Sunday Chant from Different Traditions has been gathering since 2010 to explore the chants and short songs of different spiritual traditions and how we might integrate those into our own spiritual journeys and practices. 

We hum, chant and sing in English, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Latin, Arabic, Spanish & Gaelic and draw on sources that are Hindi, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Sufi, Native American & Pagan

This is not a performing group though becoming familiar with different chants that might be used in Worship Services or at Retreats helps to support and share the communal experience.

We meet each 1st Sunday of the month at 9:00 on the balcony (or on the front steps if the weather allows!) for an “educational moment” exploring different languages, holidays and traditions represented and then share a practice of chanting together for 20-25 minutes.

All are welcome. No musical or singing experience is needed – just a heart open to the sounds of being in community and the gifts of different spiritual traditions.
 
For more information, or to be added to the email reminder list please contact Cathy Okhuysen at cathomusic@gmail.com. 

South Church invites all to participate.....as active listeners and appreciators, or singers in The South Church Choir or South Church Folk or members of the chanting group! “Be the music program you want to be at South Church.....get involved!”