Choir Basics:

The Choir performs in the beautiful Appleton Chapel.

Approximately 50 singers form the Sunday Choir, a group that performs a wide range of choral literature for the Sunday services of The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard. In recognition of their commitment, all members of this group are paid. Auditions for positions in the Sunday Choir are held early in the Fall Term. The choir attracts singers who like a challenge, singing a wide variety of music at a professional standard with a weekly performance deadline. This group performs in the annual Christmas Carol Services and Spring Concert, and collaborates with other musical groups, both on and off campus. The Sunday Choir also undertakes both international and domestic tours.

Choristers enjoy some free time on retreat at the St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire.

The weekly schedule of the Sunday Choir involves 1.5 hour rehearsals on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in addition to a rehearsal and service on Sunday mornings. Each weekday rehearsal is preceded by a one hour tea time when members of the choir bake fresh goodies for their compatriots. This provides a great time for people to relax and get to know each other outside of rehearsals.

Aram Demirjian ’08, Melinda Biocchi ’08, Heather Horn ’08, and Rohini Nair ’08 pose for a photo after the successful 95th Annual Christmas Carol Service.

In addition, the Sunday Choir goes on retreat to the St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire on Columbus Day weekend each year where, among other things, we celebrate “Carols in October” when we first start learning the vast repertoire for the ever-important Christmas Carol Services in December. The choir also presents a Spring Concert each year and often performs at the Harvard ARTS FIRST festival in early May.

From within this ensemble, 16 dedicated and talented singers form the Choral Fellows.

A Manual Labor of Love

Though it did lose a lovely view, in 1963 the Memorial Church gained a beautiful and versatile organ.

In 1963 Charles Fisk, a former Harvard physicist, designed the new tracker organ in Appleton Chapel according to classic principles.

When The Memorial Church was built in 1932, a visitor entering from the west end opposite Thayer Hall had a view down the center aisle, through an opening in the oak choir screen, all the way to an enormous Palladian-style window that stretched almost floor to ceiling at the east end of Appleton Chapel.

As was the style of the day, the organ pipes were hidden in the walls of the chapel and as a consequence faced each other.

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