Music

The Parish Choir

The Parish Choir consists of three distinct groups: The Adult Choir, the Boys and Girls Choir, and the Junior Training Choir. The three groups work separately and in conjunction with each other to provide music for the Sunday Eucharist and other principal services of the church year, monthly Choral Evensong services, concerts and community events, and occasionally funerals and weddings. All three groups utilize the training scheme of the Royal School of Church Music.

The Parish Choir has a reputation for fine music-making in the Anglican choral tradition and a wide range of repertoire which spans the 15th century to the present day. The Choir has made four tours abroad (1986, 1991, 1996, and 2001) and has sung services at such notable places as Bristol Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, Buckfast Abbey, Glastonbury Parish Church, St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The Adult Choir is made up of Sopranos, Contraltos, Tenors, and Bases and rehearses weekly on Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Rich in experience, it provides leadership to and forms the foundation for the Boys and Girls Choir.

The Boys and Girls Choir includes children and teens from grades four through twelve. It consists of Trebles, Altos/Countertenors, Tenors, and Bases and rehearses twice weekly on Monday evenings from 5:00-7:00 pm and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, joining with the Adult Choir. The Boys and Girls Choir has sung at the Maine Center for the Arts on various occasions, most recently in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. Participation in the Boys and Girls Choir provides an excellent opportunity for musical children to make friends and advance their musical training by finding expression through the music of the church.

The Junior Training Choir is for boys and girls from grades two and up, and is the entry point for younger children beginning to sing. It rehearses on Sundays after the Choral Eucharist from 11:30 to 12:15 pm.  Basic music-reading skills, simple voice production, teamwork and Christian Education are taught.  When children are ready, they progress to the Boys and Girls Choir.

For information on joining a choir, please contact the Music Office at 207-990-1258 or music@stjohnsbangor.org.