Music

The Redeemer Adult Choir currently meets on Sundays from 12:00-1:30 PM from September through June. If you enjoy singing, please join us!

Whether you learn music by note or by rote, your participation is accepted and welcomed.  Youth in sixth grade or above are welcomed and will find diverse styles of music and a community of support.  The adult choir sings musical offerings most Sundays, and its repertoire honors many styles including Episcopalian liturgical traditions and works from denominations, cultures and traditions beyond our own.  Each year the choir prepares additional programs for Special Music Days such as All Saints Sunday, Advent Candlelight Service of Lessons and Carols, Christmas Eve, Easter, Blessing of the Animals, Music Appreciation Sunday, and Pentecost.

Guest instrumentalists and vocalists often join us for such special occasions. Guest musicians invited to our sanctuary have included the Celtic band Fellswater, the Renaissonics, the Tradewinds Woodwind Quintet, the Guilded Harps Trio,  a New England Conservatory’s Masters String Quartet, Boston’s Back Bay Ringers hand bell choir, sopranos Lisa Correnti, Mary Storandt, and Christina DeVaughan, organists Geoffrey Wieting and Joyce Painter Rice, harpists Judith Ross and Nancy Hurrell, Celtic harpist Kate Chadbourne, mandolinist-clarinetist Richard Yospin, violist Theresa Cleary, Gospel pianist & worship leader Tyronne Sutton, and numerous accomplished musicians from Lexington High School.

Each year, Redeemer’s Adult choir participates in the Lexington Choral Festival, an ecumenical collaboration of 10-15 Lexington faith-based choruses who each present for the public a short individual program, and then join forces in a culminating combined performance of a major choral work. As a community outreach project one year our Adult choir joined forces with the chorus of Brookhaven-at-Lexington retirement community in a program celebrating “Life’s Journeys.”  The combined 60-voice choir sang a Sunday morning service at Redeemer and a full length public concert at Brookhaven.

The Atrium Singers rehearse Sunday mornings from 11:10 AM-11:30 AM, September through mid-May, as an integral part of Redeemer’s Christian Formation program.  All children in Grades 1-5 participate, and all are invited to sing in the Singers’ presentations during Sunday morning worship, and in the Advent Lessons and Carols Candlelight procession. The Atrium Singers learn from memory a variety of music from the American, Anglican, ethnic, and folk traditions in a range of styles and languages, while developing confidence and skill in singing. Their repertoire currently includes selections in English, Latin, Spanish, and Xhosa.

The Redeemer Roster is comprised of congregation members of any age who voluntarily play instruments or sing on special occasions, or during the summers when our regular singing ensembles are on break. Rehearsals are arranged with Music Director Bernadette Colley 2-3 weeks prior to the Sunday presentation, as necessary.  Redeemer’s musicians’ roster includes a wide spectrum of instruments, among them clarinet, acoustic and electric guitar, bass, violin, flute, trombone, saxophone, recorder, and accordion. Any congregation member is welcomed to arrange instrumental participation directly with the music director, and members are often tapped to supplement particular music selections for worship, as repertoire dictates.  Styles have ranged from Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” to classical standards.

Sanctuary Pipe Organs
Church of Our Redeemer is fortunate to have a grand piano and two pipe organs in its sanctuary, and our lovely chamber organ, built by renowned English organ builder John Avery (1755-1807), is historically noteworthy. We are hoping to soon resume pre-pandemic discussions regarding the replacement of our Gress-Miles pipe organ.  For descriptions, photos, and sample recordings of Redeemer’s two sanctuary organs, please visit these links prepared by the Pelland Organ Company:

Please contact the church office at (781) 862-6408 for further program information and program calendars, or Music Director, Bernadette Colley.

See also:

In 2021, the choir began to rehearse together outside. By that winter we had also found a way to gather safely indoors to rehearse together again. In the Fall of 2022, the choir returned to singing LIVE during indoor services. All rehearsals and services follow recommended Covid-safety guidelines set by the Church of Our Redeemer’s Regathering Committee.