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
Musically Speaking – February 2025
“Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard.”—Liz Fosslien This month, we explore the Practice of Inclusion. Music exudes the notion of Inclusion, defined as “the action or state of including or of...
Musically Speaking – January 2025
A very Happy New Year to you all! May our collective Story be that we are and remain a strong community through 2025 and beyond! It is no surprise that my ongoing Story, the theme for January 2025, is a song or songs that are rather a constant in my brain. We...
Musically Speaking – December 2024
So much comes together in December. Holidays we celebrate mandate bringing light to our house and to our spirit because it is such a dark time. Advent gives us a sense that something wonderful is coming. What our monthly theme of “Presence” means to me is that we...
Musically Speaking – November 2024
We all need constant repair. Thinking about the house we live in is an easy reminder of that: appliances that need repair, replacing a window here and there. Those are easy repairs. How do we take are of ourselves to maintain who we are and how we can continue to...
Musically Speaking – October 2024
Musically speaking, the practice of Deep Listening as the theme for October is just right. There are so many ways to listen. To a large ensemble playing is to hear the many parts that make the piece whole. This is true in our choir as we learn individual parts that match with other, differing musical lines. We can also be still to notice the sounds of nature. Might it be meaningful to turn off technology and notice what is left? Less can be more.