Hello Members and Friends of East Shore
Friendly neighborhood Director of Music here. I am looking forward to the upcoming new season of music at East Shore Unitarian Church! I feel so fortunate to be able to make music with people who share so much of their hearts and souls, both in the seats and on the platform.
I’d like to offer three invitations to you.
1) Please let me know if there are songs you’d like to hear soloists or the choir sing in services. These can be suggestions from either hymnal or from any other musical source. I will consider every suggestion offered – I really like broadening my musical horizons as much as I can.
2) If you have a musical talent you would like to share, please let me know! Do you play flute, or tambourine, or guitar, or sousaphone or theremin? I’d love to incorporate your talents in a service at some point! I can write parts for pretty much any instrument or voice. Let me know what secret talents might yet be lying in wait amongst the pews. (Okay, seats, not pews. But “pew” is fun to say, especially when making finger guns and going “pew! pew! pew!”)
3) The Mighty Choir is beginning rehearsals on Thursday September 5 at 7:00 pm in the sanctuary. Do you like to sing? Have you ever thought it might be fun to sing in a choir? (You’d be correct: it *is* fun to sing in a choir) There is no audition necessary to sing with the Mighty Choir. You don’t need to read music – although it is helpful if you do. My approach is to create musical connections in rehearsal: connection first within ourselves and our love of music, then connection with one another and our love of community, and then connection with the minister and congregation and our love of service. It is a situation where I always feel we get back more than we give. The waves of love and connection are palpable. If you would like to experience this body/soul/mind/spirit connection, please come join us!
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, or if you have any musical suggestions (a la #1 above) My email is [email protected].
I look forward to seeing you in September!
Eric Lane Barnes, Director of Music