2023 Events
An Evening of American Music
Sunday, October 1, 2023 at 7 pm
You can also watch the concert on our YouTube channel.
Christ Lutheran Church offered on October 1 2023 an evening of recently composed music based on traditonal 19th Century American melodies for flute, violin, viola, piano and organ by William David Cooper and John Weaver. Cooper is a composer of opera, chamber music, and choral music, teaches in Natick at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and serves as Music Director for Wellesley Hills United Church of Christ. Composer, John Weaver served for many years as Music Director for Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York and was an internationally known concert organist.
Players included Jiyu Oh, violin, and a student at Walnut Hill; Will Cooper, piano; Anne Weaver, flute; Joan Ellersick, viola; Tom Berryman, organ/piano, and Music Director at Christ Lutheran Church, Natick.
Donations supported the East Boston Community Soup Kitchen at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church.
Donations received at our October 1 musical evening will benefit the East Boston Community Soup Kitchen at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church. Located in the heart of East Boston’s Maverick Square, the East Boston Community Soup Kitchen is the go-to place for those who are hungry for nourishment and community. On Monday’s the soup kitchen distributes hundreds of bags of groceries and fresh produce and on Tuesday’s provides hot meals and social services for the homeless. Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church was founded in 1911 by Norwegian immigrants to serve as a Seamen’s Mission. The church has historically (and to this day) served refugees and immigrants, providing a place of refuge and welcome.
William David Cooper is a composer, conductor and organist based in Boston, MA. His opera Hagar and Ishmael has been featured by Fort Worth Opera, West Edge Opera, and the National Opera Association, and has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “richly soaring vocal lines.” His St. Luke Passion and Requiem were recently commissioned by St. Peter’s Church, NYC, and his choral music has also been performed by The New York Virtuoso Singers, and C4. He is the recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Awards, including the Leo Kaplan Prize, and the American Prize. He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the Composers Conference, Brush Creek, I-Park, Ucross and VCCA. His chamber music has been featured on several recently released recordings, including Mirrors (Lysander Trio, First Hand Records, 2021) and Nong (gamin, Innova Records, 2020). An alumnus of UC Davis and the Juilliard School, Cooper serves on the faculty of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and as Music Director at Wellesley Hills Congregational Church.
John Weaver (1937 – 2021), a native of Mauch Chunk, PA, received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. He served for decades as the head of the organ departments of both the Curtis Institute and the Julliard School in New York, while concertizing across the Americas and Europe. A consummate church musician, he served as organist and choir director at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Manhattan where, with his flutist wife Marianne, he established the acclaimed Bach Cantata Vespers series; from 1970-2005, he was Minister of Music at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where he also directed the St. Andrew’s Chorale. He was a prolific composer of choral and organ music, as well as liturgical music and hymn settings.
Jiyu Oh is a violinist from Seoul, South Korea. She is currently studying with Prof. Soovin Kim at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Boston, MA. She is also enrolled in the Chamber Music Intensive Performance Seminar and Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of NEC Preparatory School. Having won first prize at numerous national competitions, Her most recent highlights include debut recital at the Kumho Art Hall as Kumho Prodigy Artist, full scholarship participation at the Chamber Music Northwest Young Artist Institute and Morningside Music Bridge and 2nd place in the NEC Preparatory School Concerto Competition, . Some of her previous performances are “A Night at the Museum” performance held at the Calderwood Hall located in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Seoul Chamber Virtuosi Concert, Music for Food Concert at the Goethe Institut, “Back to Bach” virtual concert and a commissioned piece at the Learning Courage virtual concert “Hope”.
Joan Ellersick, viola, studied at Indiana University with Georges Janzer and received her Bachelor in Viola Performance from Boston University, where she worked with Bernard Kadinoff. After graduating from BU, Joan served as assistant principal viola and personnel manager of the Grand Rapids, MI Symphony, also playing frequently with the Detroit Symphony and teaching viola at Calvin College.
Since returning to her native Boston, she has appeared with many local ensembles, including Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Ballet, Opera Boston and Odyssey Opera.
Joan coaches the viola sections and teaches lessons for Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras; she taught for many years at St Mark’s and Fay Schools in Southboro, MA.
Anne Weaver began her flute studies through the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, where she grew up, then studied with Elinor Preble at Wellesley College. She taught flute for many years in the schools and colleges of the Pioneer Valley, from Brattleboro to South Hadley, earning a Masters degree along the way. She also served as choir director at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Amherst for 35 years. At age 48 she entered medical school and no longer had time for the flute. She is grateful to Tom Berryman for encouraging her to try fluting again when she and her husband moved to Needham and joined the Christ Lutheran Church choir in 2017.
Tom Berryman is Music Director at Christ Lutheran Church, Natick and previously served as Music Director for St. Mark’s School, Southborough, where he held the Evill-Glavin Teaching Chair. A graduate of Susquehanna University (AB in Organ Performance) and the University of South Florida (MM in choral conducting), he has developed and directed music programs for schools and churches in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Florida and Massachusetts. Tom studied organ with James Boeringer, Claire Coci and Barry Wood.
Silent Movies
Imagine, a double feature for Silent Movie Night on Saturday, November 18 at 7 pm in the parish hall! Pianist, Rob Humphreville brings his brilliant improvisations for two short films from the golden age: Charlie Chaplin’s A Dog’s Life and Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr.
A Dog’s Life premiered in 1918 with Chaplin starring as the Little Tramp with his adopted dog, trying to make a life for themselves in the city. Buster Keaton and Kathryn McGuire star in Keaton’s 1924 film, Sherlock, Jr. Keaton, playing a movie projectionist becomes a detective in order to clear himself after being accused of thievery.
Our silent movie night is offered to all at no charge. Donations are gratefully received for the Metrowest Asylee Family Coalition, a faith-based organization formed in 2021 to accompany asylees by providing support for food, clothing, housing, medical care, legal services, transportation and incidentals. Coalition congregations include Christ the King Lutheran Church (Holliston) Peace Lutheran Church (Wayland) Christ Lutheran Church (Natick) UU Area Church (Sherborn) Wellesley Village Church and UU Wellesley Hills.
Rob Humphreville is a freelance pianist and organist. For the past thirty-five years, he has accompanied silent movies on piano and organ all over New England, and the Boston Globe has praised him for his inventive improvisations. A composer of independent film scores, he has also been active in the music programs of Brooks School in North Andover; Buckingham, Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge; Bethany Convent in Arlington; the Apollo Club in Boston; the Society of St. John the Evangelist monastery in Cambridge; and Temple Isaiah in Lexington. He graduated from Harvard College in 1980 and splits his time between New London, CT, and Cambridge.
