Music at First Parish of Watertown
When you attend a worship service at First Parish, music is one of the reasons you come back! We want music to engage your body, heart, and soul, and it is always performed live in our sanctuary. Hymn-singing and piano music in many styles are part of our weekly ministry.
Services are often enhanced by guest musicians who come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including Classical, folk, ethnic, world music, some jazz, as well as popular music and music composed by contemporary artists. Those artists are often part of our congregation or friends from the musical community in the Boston area.
The First Parish Choir meets weekly to rehearse, and we sing in a church service once per month. The 2025-2026 rehearsal calendar is here. Again, the music we sing reflects a wide variety of styles to uplift both choir members and the congregation. The choir music we sing reflects the UU monthly themes.
Musicians at First Parish often collaborate on their own, which speaks to the huge amount of talent and interest in the arts that exists in our church community. You need only look across the aisle to see someone who might be happy to create something with you for our annual variety show. This was exactly how our First Parish rock n’ roll band began. Now, the band provides and supports the music at select worship services.
Our music directors welcome input from our community about what they want our music program to be. Please feel free to approach us!
Hand in Hand Hospice Singers serve the wider community in Watertown and beyond. Sponsored by First Parish, this group travels to hospice sites to sing for people who are ill or at the ends of their lives, bringing joy and serenity to their days. They rehearse weekly.
Musically Speaking Blog
Updates and reflections from Charlyn Bethell, Music Director
Muscially Speaking – December 2019
Music and Hope. Perhaps there is always hope when there is music. I don’t think that there HAS to be music for there to be hope. Music just might make it easier. This makes me think of what it is like singing in a hospice choir. (Jean Gauthier started the Wayfare...
Musically Speaking November 2019
Ah, for Musical Memories! Take a moment and sing a song in your head. It can be from a Broadway musical, a motown hit song, R & B, country, jazz, hip-hop, rock n roll, or from classical repertory. It could be a song the choir sang last week or a hymn from a...
Musically Speaking – October 2019
“……….For me, it’s singing. Because when I’m singing, I’m breathing. When I’m terrified that the meeting is going to fall apart, when someone I trust and look up to is giving me feedback that’s hard to hear, or when I’m about to knock on someone’s door or engage in...
Musically Speaking – September 2019
Happy fall and welcome (back) to First Parish! At this time in our church life, we are embracing some things very new with our interim minister and in the letting go of the way things used to be. We are certainly fortunate to have Wendy Bell along this journey with...
Musically Speaking – June 2019
My first thought is gratitude for the year. The music at First Parish is happening! The choir has grown and, with the help of Guy’s practice files, has done more challenging and exciting music than ever before. We realized a dream I have had of featuring Missa Gaia...