Music Ministry
“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” – Psalm 96:1Music is integral to our church’s history and mission. Our musical traditions provide a strong foundation, while our enthusiasm and innovation inspire us to express our devotion to Christ through song.
Music brings beauty and joy to worship while also giving voice to emotions of the heart. Our music program enriches our church’s vision of welcome, inclusion, and diversity by featuring a wide range of choral, vocal, and instrumental music. This includes traditional and contemporary anthems, sacred motets, and choral masterworks.
Our congregation’s music program is a community bringing together church members and friends who have been singing or making music for many years alongside those who are just beginning their musical journey. Our dynamic 25-voice Chancel Choir enjoys singing a blend of traditional and contemporary music. Through the guidance, teaching, and mentorship of professional musicians and experienced singers, our choir learns and grows together, creating an environment where everyone can develop their gifts and contribute. The diverse repertoire that is offers a variety of musical styles and genres so that all may feel welcomed, included, and represented.
Soloists and instrumentalists further enrich our worship, while the congregation itself remains an essential part of our musical offering through the hymns and songs we sing together. In many ways, we express through music what words alone cannot say, uniting our voices and hearts in faith, gratitude, and hope.
For more information about our Music Program or to join the Chancel Choir, please contact Music Director, Joe D’Eugenio.
Special Music Programs
Memorial Music Sunday
Held on the 1st Sunday of November, The First Congregational Church of Cheshire warmly invites the community to join us for Memorial Music Sunday, a worship service led by our choir of beauty, hope, and comfort. For several decades, this cherished tradition has offered a space to honor and remember loved ones who have passed, while uplifting hearts through the gift of music.
We welcome all members of the community to gather in our historic sanctuary for this most meaningful service – a time to memorialize, to find comfort, and to be renewed through the power of music and worship.
Festival of Carols
A service of Festival of Carols is always a greatly-anticipated annual Christmas festival in December that tells the story of Christ’s birth through readings and music. The 60-voice festival chorus is comprised of the Chancel Choir and members from the GMChorale and Cheshire community. The service fills the church to capacity with all in attendance joining in singing festive traditional Christmas carols. The service ushers in the fullness of the season through pageantry, beautiful Christmas decorations that adorn the historic sanctuary, and music that can not only be heard, but felt by everyone in attendance!
Organ
Our recently-renovated Aeolian-Skinner organ, one of central Connecticut’s finest, enhances Sunday worship and choral festivals with its exceptional tonal resources and grandeur.
The Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston, Massachusetts, built the instrument that has graced this choir loft and sanctuary since 1953. The organ was installed in part by Henry Sieberg, a noted organ builder who installed and worked on such famous organs as the Aeolian-Skinner organ found at Riverside Church in New York and the organ found at the Mormon Tabernacle in Utah
When originally installed in 1953 for $18,000, the organ had two manuals and a pedal board—as it still does today—with 13 stops,16 ranks, and 941 pipes. An added feature then and now is the fact that both the Swell and Great divisions are enclosed each in their separate chambers thus allowing for greater tonal flexibility and expressiveness. Special attention was given to the design of this organ to provide ample volume for the most enthusiastic congregational singing as well as clarity and brilliance so desirable in the playing of organ music. In 1953, heavy curtains were draped in front of the chambers covering the pipes, as this was aesthetically pleasing at the time.
After three decades passed since the organ’s installation, smaller projects were performed to maintain, upkeep, and clean the instrument. In 1984, a combination action was installed, as was a new tilting stop tablet assembly, and console lighting and music rack. Also, two of the four bellows were rebuilt and releathered. In 1999, a more extensive project expanded the organ’s tonal possibilities by adding three ranks of pipes: 8’ Bourdon, 4’ Choralbass, and 8’ Hautbois or Oboe.
A new electronic switching system to make the new stops playable from the organ console was added. The curtains were replaced with an attractive colonial facade of woodwork and metal grills in front of the chamber, making the organ better heard and effective in sound. Mahogany groove doors and moldings were added to frame the openings of the chamber. All moldings were primed and painted white except for the mahogany. This continues to be how the organ looks and presents itself in the choir loft today.
In 2015, after two years of intense work, the organ had its first major overhaul and rehabilitation since its installation in 1953. All the pipes were cleaned and the windchests inspected and repaired. Tonal experts voiced each of the organ’s pipes, an effort taking months of work. A new Peterson pipe-valve system replaced all the preexisting leather windchest components. A Classic Organ Works computer-based electronic switching system and rebuilding of the organ console to accept the new system was added. Additional sounds through a MIDI system also were added, and a system of several very high-quality digital organ stops by Walker Technical Company were installed. The additional Walker stops nearly double the tonal possibilities of the organ by essentially adding an additional 10 ranks of sounds.
Literally, without any more room in the organ chamber to expand the organ’s tonal capabilities by adding ranks of pipes, the Walker sound samplings have done so by combining virtual ranks of pipes with those that are already there. It is a tonal marriage between old-world craftsmanship and the benefits of modern-day technology. Because of this technology, the Swell, Great, and Pedal divisions are tonally complete, are rich and full in color and volume, and support the most exuberant and robust congregational singing. Now, for example, on a Sunday morning, one may hear a soaring hymn tune introduced with a Walker-produced 8’ Fanfare Trumpet and feel the vibrations from the now lowest pitch 32’ Contre Bourdon.
The organ as an instrument is considered to be the “King of Instruments.” Fortunately, due to the work to refurbish and expand the AEolian-Skinner organ in 2015, current and future generations will gather and be inspired by the sounds produced by this magnificent opus for decades to come.