Music
At CCC we have an Adult Choir, Evensong Choir, and Handbell Choir.
For more information on auditions, rehearsals, and commitment please reach out to Organist & Music Director David Carrier at dcarrier@cccambridge.org.
Adult Choir
The Adult Choir is the primary parish choir at Christ Church, and auditions are open to singers of all ages. The Adult Choir leads the singing and other liturgical aspects of the Eucharist each Sunday, plus special services such as Ash Wednesday, Holy Week liturgies, the Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist, and the standing-room-only Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols. Music at Sunday services typically includes two anthems, plus leadership in a psalm, hymns, and service music. The finest repertoire is drawn from the last five hundred years of choral composition around the world. Singers are required to understand musical notation to audition.
Evensong Choir
The Evensong Choir is responsible for leading the congregation and providing choral music at most of our evening services, including our monthly Choral Evensong series, , the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols, and Holy Week services. The Evensong Choir was founded by former music director Stuart Forster in 2000, and consists of singers with strong sight-reading ability. Choral Evensong is sung in October, November, Lessons and Carols in December, February, March and May. There are typically two rehearsals per month, Singers in this group are expected to prepare for rehearsals.
Bell Choir
Looking to join a choir? The Christ Church Handbell choir plays on 4-1/2 octaves of Whitechapel bells, and 3 octaves of Schulmerich handchimes. We play approximately once a month at the 10:15 a.m. Sunday morning service, as well as special occasions such as the annual Lessons and Carols service, music level 2-4 usually. We occasionally do stand-alone concerts as well!
Always wanted to try handbells? Talk to us. Reading music is helpful, but not strictly necessary—we'll teach you! It's more important to have a sense of rhythm and good concentration. And commitment is important—when a person is absent, your notes aren't there! We are willing to teach, if you are willing to learn.
Is your child learning an instrument? We welcome people of all ages—if your child is studying music and is tall enough to see the conductor over the table, they are welcome to try out the handbell choir.
Ready to try it? Contact handbell director Melissa Hirshson at lissarh@gmail.com. Ring out your joy!
The Organs
Christ Church was dedicated in 1761. A year later an organ by John Snetzler of London was installed in the rear gallery. In the Revolution the pipes were melted down to make bullets; decades of neglect followed.
In 1845, the Senior Warden presented the Church with a new instrument, by the local builder George Stevens. An organ by G. D. Simmons replaced it in 1860, to be moved to a new chamber at the front of the Church in 1877. This location suffocated the sound, and six years later a two-manual instrument, built by the Boston firm of Hook & Hastings, was installed. The possibility of moving it further into the Church and adding a third manual was immediately tabled. When no action had been taken by 1940, the Æolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston designed a four-manual console to play a three-manual-and-pedal organ in the front chamber, supplemented by a two-manual-and-pedal organ in the rear gallery to aid congregational singing. The latter section was never installed, and many attempts were made to modify the front instrument in compensation.
In 1999, the Director of Music at that time initiated studies to address the growing deficiencies of this organ. A series of education segments and organ tours followed. An Organ Study Committee researched a range of solutions for the Music Committee, the staff, and the whole parish to consider. Finally, Schoenstein & Co., Organ Builders of San Francisco, were commissioned to build a new organ for Christ Church. Founded in 1877, and now under the direction of Jack Bethards, Schoenstein has gained a reputation for unqualified success in difficult acoustics. The diverse color palette and dynamic range of their instruments are ideal for accompanying congregational and choral music. These same qualities also facilitate superb interpretations of both organ repertoire and transcriptions of orchestral works.
one-manual organ by William Gray of London (1805)
Schoenstein & Co., Organ
The new instrument at Christ Church was dedicated before a packed congregation on April 30, 2006. The project, and related outreach effort, was supported by gifts from hundreds of parishioners and friends. The rebuilding of the organ chamber has achieved sound projection and tuning stability beyond all expectation. Clear choruses, warm foundation tone, orchestral voices, profound bass, and a presence in the room all contribute to renewed musical life within Christ Church.
It is our privilege to offer this instrument to the community, so that generations present and future may be lifted in song and inspired by its beauty.
The rear gallery houses a one-manual organ by William Gray of London (1805). This instrument is on long-term loan from the Harvard Art Museum. It was restored and installed at Christ Church in 1976 by C. B. Fisk of Gloucester, Massachusetts, then restored by Wissinger Organs of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1998. This instrument features a GG compass, split registers, and 8 ranks of pipes.