A Candlelit Concert of Celtic Music

Nov 10, 2024
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

A Cello Recital

Aug 3, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

First Parish in Lexington presents

A Cello Recital 

with Nathaniel White, cello and Shaylor Lindsay, piano

Saturday, August 3, 2024, at 7 PM

7 Harrington Road, Lexington, MA 02421

At 7pm on August 3rd, cellist Nathaniel White will be playing a free recital at First Parish in Lexington, alongside pianist Shaylor Lindsay. The program will consist of the Fourth Unaccompanied Bach Cello Suite in Eb Major, Grave and Metamorphoses by Lutoslawski, and Beethoven’s Fourth Sonata for Cello and Piano. Nathaniel White is a Lexington resident, and currently studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Jennifer Culp. He started playing cello at four years old, and this is his first public recital at age 21. An avid chamber musician, he has participated in the Zodiac Music Festival in southern France for the past three summers. Growing up in the Boston music scene he played in BYSO, and was later a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra at NEC Prep. Nathaniel’s past teachers include Barbara Paschke, Michael Reynolds, Greg Hesselink, Ariel Barnes and Jennifer Kloetzel. Once he finishes his studies in San Francisco, he plans to pursue a masters degree in Europe, and form a career performing chamber music. The concert is free and open to the public. Public parking is available in the rear of the church. For more information, email admin@fplex.org.

Village Harmony

Jul 19, 2024
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

First Parish in Lexington 

presents a concert featuring 

The Village Harmony World Music Ensemble

Friday, July 19, 7:00 PM

7 Harrington Road, Lexington, MA 02421

Donation at the door

Vermont-based Village Harmony, the remarkable teen world music ensemble, presents its first concert program of the summer. The group is led by Sinead O’Mahoney, Bongani Magatyana from South Africa, and Polina Shepherd from the UK. The 22 brilliant teen singers come from seven states plus Canada and France. Village Harmony, a non-profit umbrella organization based in Vermont, promotes the study and performance of ethnic singing traditions from around the world. For more than thirty years they have organized teen ensembles each summer in New England and ensembles for mixed-age and adult singers in numerous foreign countries. Each Village Harmony ensemble develops its own unique sound with a different team of leaders. All share common traits: a powerful, natural, unrestrained vocal sound; a remarkable variety of vocal styles and timbres appropriate to the ethnic and traditional music; and a visible, vibrant community among the singers and audience as they share in a joyful celebration of music. Admission is by donation at the door. For further information visit www.villageharmony.org or email villageharmony@gmail.com.

A Bel Canto Soirée

Jun 9, 2024
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

First Parish in Lexington presents

A Bel Canto Soirée:
Songs, duets and instrumental compositions by Maria Malibran and 

Pauline Viardot, sisters-extraordinaires of the Romantic Era. 

Sunday, June 9, 2024 at 7:00 PM

7 Harrington Road, Lexington, MA 02421

This June, you are invited for an elegant soirée where you will be able to experience first hand some of the most admired compositions by the ingenious sisters Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot as performed by Julia Jaffe (mezzo) and Yunona Tabala (soprano), in collaboration with Rip Jackson (piano) and John Rogler (cello). Dashing vocal performers, brilliant composers, elegant socialites, intellectuals, friends of Liszt, Chopin, George Sand, Turgenev and Saent-Saens – without these two women, American and European artistic scenes as we know them today would not have been the same. Sisters, and daughters of the imposing Spanish pedagogue Manuel García, Malibran and Viardot each left an indelible mark on nineteenth-century opera with their virtuosic performances. A free-will offering will be received, and public parking is available in the rear of the church. For more information, email music@fplex.org.

Access the livestream here.

An Evening of Sacred Chant: A Millennium of Soaring Mystical Sound

Apr 28, 2024
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

An Evening of Sacred Chant: A Millennium of Soaring Mystical Sound

Directed by Rip Jackson

Sunday, April 28, 2024, at 7:30 PM

First Parish in Lexington

On Sunday, April 28, 2024 the music program at First Parish presented a very special candlelit evening of sacred chant music inviting the large audience to come and center inward, touching their deepest, truest self, as they were enfolded in the peaceful, healing, transcendent mystical music ancient and modern from Western, Eastern, and African traditions—performed by the First Parish Festival Choir and guest soloists, and directed by Rip Jackson. The evening’s program included Gregorian chant, antiphons by Hildegard Von Bingen, Medieval polyphony, Renaissance masterpieces, Russian Orthodox hymns, Hebrew Sephardic chants, Hindu mantras, African sacred music, and modern mystical a capella music.

A Winter Solstice Experience

Dec 22, 2023
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Jams for Justice

Nov 12, 2023
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Jams for Justice

A Concert of Inspirational Music for Voices and Jazz Band

With the First Parish Sanctuary and Youth Choirs and Soloists

Directed by Rip Jackson

Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 3:30 PM

First Parish in Lexington
7 Harrington Rd. Lexington, MA

Free will offering to benefit the Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music and Arts

First Parish in Lexington presented a concert of Gospel, Broadway, Jazz and inspirational music on Sunday, November 12, at 3:30 PM. The concert, directed by Rip Jackson, featured the First Parish sanctuary and youth choirs, vocal soloists, and an 11-piece Jazz band (piano, drums, electric guitar, electric bass, saxophones, woodwinds and brass) performing inspirational solo and choral Gospel and Jazz music and selections from Broadway including Godspell, Miss Saigon, Wicked and The Lion King.  The concert took a free will offering with 100% of the proceeds to benefit the Hamilton-Garrett Center for Music and Arts, a Boston-based non-profit, committed to the development of Boston’s next generation of innovative artists through the celebration and preservation of Black music. This vital arts organization provides high-caliber formal music instruction to youth throughout Greater Boston, preparing them for a future in music that challenges inner-city youth to see themselves as positive producers of culture, music, and the arts as a whole, rather than merely consumers of it.

Rutter's Requiem and Orchestral Works

Nov 6, 2022
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

First Parish in Lexington 

presents 

Rutter’s Requiem 

and

Orchestral Works by Wagner, Vaughan Williams and Beethoven

Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 7 PM

On Sunday, November 6, 2022 at 7 PM, the 40-member First Parish Festival Choir, soloists and a 25-member chamber orchestra, under the direction of Rip Jackson, will perform John Rutter’s deeply inspiring choral work “Requiem.” Richard Wagner’s beautiful “Siegfried Idyll,” Ralph Vaughan Williams’s ethereal “Fantasia on Greensleeves” and Beethoven’s powerful “Benedictus.” (from the Mass in C) will also be on the program. Suggested donation of $20.

Ukrainian Relief Concert

Jun 5, 2022
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

First Parish Ukrainian Relief Concert

Sunday, June 5, 2022 at 3:30 PM

Free Will offering to support the Global Disaster Relief Team

Our sanctuary choir, children’s choir, and soloists, directed by Rip Jackson, will present their first concert in more than 2 and 1/2 years on Sunday, June 5 at 3:30 PM. They will perform heart-centered choral music, solos, duets and trios from diverse genres of music including classical, contemporary, gospel and even disco! They will be accompanied by a pit band consisting of piano, bass, guitar and drums. A free will offering will be taken to support medical relief for the Ukrainian crisis through the Global Disaster Relief Team (GDRT).

Global Disaster Relief Team, Inc. (“GDRT”), located in Medway, MA, is a non-profit organization that provides emergency response to crisis and disasters domestically and internationally. Formed in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early March 2022, GDRT has helped hundreds of thousands of refugees at the Poland-Ukraine border. Currently their mission is to help Ukrainian refugees gain access to medicine and basic medical care, evacuate crisis areas, and provide critical medical supplies to hospitals in Ukraine. To Learn more about them, please visit: www.gdrt.org.

Village Harmony World Music Concert

Jan 10, 2020
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

The Village Harmony Alumni Ensemble, a world music choir of 16 voices, led by Larry Gordon and Carl Linich, presents traditional harmony singing from throughout the world as well as a set of Spanish Renaissance works. The repertoire includes songs from Caucasus Georgia, Bulgaria, Corsica, and South Africa, contemporary and traditional American shape-note tunes and villancicos by Francisco Guerrero. Village Harmony is an organization dedicated to the study, teaching, and performance of harmony singing traditions from across the world, and sponsors an extensive program of traveling singing camps both in New England and abroad. The young alumni singers, ages 19-26, are all veterans of many years of these Village Harmony programs, including overseas tours in South Africa, Macedonia and Georgia. A free will offering will be taken.

Winter Solstice Experience

Dec 20, 2019
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

On Friday, December 20, 2019, First Parish in Lexington will present a Winter Solstice Experience at 7:00 pm.  With music, ritual, candles, dancing, and darkness, we will experience the quiet of the longest night, and welcome the sun as we wait for her return. Led by Rev. Anne Mason and Music Director Rip Jackson, this will be a worship service exploring earth-centered imagery, with an invitation to cherish the darkness. You are invited to set aside your frenetic everyday concerns and take this hour for your own inward journey.  The Solstice is honored by indigenous religions around the world and we will have music, dance and poetry which honor many traditions.  A diverse group of musicians will provide beautiful Solstice-themed music including soprano sax, vocal soloist Natalie Brierre, string bass, piano, organ, synthesizer, rain stick, gong, Tibetan singing bowl, and other atmospheric musical instruments. We will present music from diverse genres including music by Hildegard Von Bingen, Paul Winter, and Loreena McKennitt, and original music by Rip Jackson. Also participating will be Lisa Maria Steinberg, Director of Religious Education and Family Ministry, with other youth and adult volunteers. Free and open to the public. Parking is in the rear of the church.  For more information call 781-862-8200 or visit www.fplex.org.

I Go On Singing: Paul Robeson's Life in Word and Song

Dec 7, 2019
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway Cabaret

Nov 10, 2019
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

First Parish in Lexington presents
A Broadway Concert celebrating the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Directed by Rip Jackson
with the First Parish Festival and Children’s Choirs, Soloists and Pit Band

Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 3:30 PM – Free Will Offering

First Parish in Lexington proudly presents an inspirational concert of Broadway music by Andrew Lloyd Webber on Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 3:30 PM. Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the most celebrated Broadway music composers of all time. This concert, with music from Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Phantom of the Opera, Requiem, and Sunset Boulevard, will feature the First Parish festival and children’s choirs, soloists, and a full pit band consisting of brass, woodwinds, keyboards, drums, guitar, and electric bass.  A free will offering will be accepted. For more information call the church at 781-862-8200 or visit http://bit.ly/fp-webber.

Mezzo Soprano Julia Jaffe in Concert

Oct 6, 2019
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

On Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 3:30, First Parish in Lexington will present Belarus native mezzo soprano Julia Jaffe in a concert of Baroque arias, Russian Folk songs, spirituals, Broadway ballads, 19^th-century art songs and instrumental trio sonatas. Ms. Jaffe will be joined by Rip Jackson on piano and harpsichord with baroque violinists Asako Takeuchi and Emily Hale and baroque cellist Jennifer Morsches. Some of the featured works include “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen, “Erbarme Dich” from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion” and Handel’s Trio Sonata in G Major.” A free will offering will be taken.

Julia Jaffe was born in Minsk, Belarus where she attended a specialized music school. She immigrated to the USA as a teenager and studied voice and literature at the University of Utah. In Boston, Julia had a career as a linguist and pursued post graduate studies in voice at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has performed as a soloist with the Lowell House Opera and Commonwealth Lyric Theatre as well as an ensemble member of Utah Opera, Opera Tampa, and the Odyssey opera. Julia experiences singing as direct conduit between the spiritual and corporeal realms. She feels blessed to sing at the First Parish UU in Lexington where she has had opportunities to sing music of dizzying variety under the leadership of Rip Jackson. Julia has found her niche in creating original thematically organized programs. She performs as a guest soloist throughout the USA and was a featured artist at the 2019 Assisi Music Festival in Italy.

Natural Rhythms Concert

Sep 7, 2019
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

Natural Rhythms

With Elise Witt, Terry Garthwaite and Becky Reardon

Saturday, September 7, 2019 at 7:30 PM

Free Will Offering

Imagine Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, Annie Ross and Edith Piaf taking a turn from Barbara Kingsolver and Dr. Seuss and you’ll have some idea of these mad and moving musical adventures! Whether it’s a plaintive cry for families at the border, a polyrhythmic improvisation on the physics of sound, an anthem to the preservation of wild rivers and oceans, or a musical ride on the love train, Terry, Becky & Elise cook from the minute they hit the stage. Bringing three radically different voices to the blend, their voices find each other in that mysterious world of harmony in diversity. The trio’s concerts are also famous for getting the audience singing, and even self-professed “non-singers” find themselves part of an Impromptu Glorious Chorus. Elise Witt, who has sung with Bobby McFerrin, along with Terry Garthwaite and Becky Reardon, will also collaborate with Rip Jackson and the First Parish sanctuary choir during part of the concert. A free will offering will be taken to defray concert costs. For more information call the church at 781-862-8200 or visit www.fplex.org.

The amazing vocal trio Natural Rhythms consists of 3 dynamic singer/instrumentalists. Becky Reardon’s voice is familiar to the millions of people who heard her sing on the Charlie Brown TV specials (Charles Schultz called her his favorite singer!). Becky’s songs and rounds are treasured for their ability to move singers and listeners to ancient places of pleasure and healing. Terry Garthwaite is an internationally known singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and teacher and has shared the stage with BB King, Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, The Band, Allen Ginsberg, Santana, Rosalie Sorrels, and many others. Elise Witt is a singer, composer, musical ambassador, and community activist and has sung with Bobby McFerrin. She has been a cultural ambassador to South Africa, Italy, Nicaragua, Switzerland, China, and Bosnia.

Vivaldi's "Gloria" - Spring Concert

Apr 7, 2019
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Vivaldi’s Gloria on period instruments

Vocal and orchestral music by Bach, Handel, Hertel, Purcell and Vivaldi

Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3:30 PM – Freewill Offering

First Parish in Lexington

7 Harrington Rd., Lexington, MA

First Parish in Lexington will present a concert of Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and other vocal and orchestral music on Sunday, April 7, 2019 at 3:30 PM. The concert will feature the First Parish sanctuary choir, soloists, guest singers, and a baroque orchestra playing on period instruments directed by harpsichordist Rip Jackson with Christina Day Martinson as concert master. Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 Violins and Concerto for 2 Violins, Johann Hertel’s Concerto for Oboe and Trumpet and arias by Handel, Purcell and Bach will also be presented at the concert.

Hearing baroque music with period instruments is a very special experience. The members of the orchestra will perform on original instruments of the eighteenth century or on reproductions of them. The stringed instruments use predominantly gut strings and are fitted with sound posts and bridges which are thinner than those on their modern counterparts. These aspects, along with the lighter Baroque bows, produce a more articulate sound. Baroque woodwinds are equipped with a minimal number of keys whereby chromatics are achieved with different combinations of fingerings. The baroque trumpet (natural trumpet) is valveless and has a sweet, pure tone. The low pitch (A-415 Hz.) enhances the dark sound of these instruments, which blend in a manner quite different than that heard in a modern symphony orchestra. The harpsichord and positive organ are built in the style of 18th century instruments and tuned in an 18th century unequal temperament. The orchestra and vocalists will also perform a Concerto Grosso by Corelli, arias by Handel and a double violin concerto by Vivaldi. A free-will offering will be taken to benefit the music program at First Parish.

Austin Burns in Concert

Jan 27, 2019
3:30 pm

Come celebrate the New Year and your Scottish heritage with New England’s premier tenor, Austin Burns and special guest Allison Flanagan. Settle in for a rollicking night dedicated to Scotland’s beloved poet Robert Burns who first discovered and transcribed the ultimate New Year’s song, “Auld Lang Syne!” Sets will include songs about the beautiful countryside, wild men like Burns himself, some toe tappers, and sweet ballads. The arrangements featured are by Maureen McMullan (professor at Berklee), Arthur Foote, Franz Haydn, and Austin Burns. What is Burns Night? Burns night is an annual tradition celebrated around the world with various events throughout the month of January to celebrate the birth of Robert Burns (January 25). It is a celebration of Scottish heritage where participants are encouraged to read poems by Robert Burns and other authors. The poems are often of a lighter nature and can contain salty language on rather bawdy subjects. The celebrations also include a salute to the haggis (a savory meat pudding) listening to a bagpiper, dressing in kilts, dancing, and of course plenty of drinking. To truly celebrate Burns night I need you to come prepared to have a good time. All are optionally encouraged to wear kilts, tartan colors and dancing shoes!

Austin Burns is a tenor, arranger, and composer known for his themed programs and conversational performance style. His expanding repertoire includes Scottish songs, Irish songs, Neapolitan songs, songs from the Gilded Age, A Three Tenors Tribute Concert, and many more. Austin performs throughout New England at various historic homes and social clubs. Notable performances include concerts at Marble House in Newport R.I., Hamilton House in South Berwick ME., and Eustis House in Milton MA. Austin has also performed at The Harvard Club, The St. Botolph Club, and the Boston Public Library. There will be a freewill offering to defray expenses. For more information, visit www.fplex.org or call 781-862-8200.

Solstice Service

Dec 21, 2018
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

On Friday, December 21, First Parish in Lexington will present our first Winter Solstice Experience. With music and candles, dancing and darkness, we will experience the quiet of the longest night, and welcome the sun as we wait for her return. This will be a worship service exploring earth-centered imagery, with an invitation to cherish the darkness.

Led by Rev. Anne Mason and Music Director Rip Jackson, the service will include Skyloom Inter-generational Dancers as well as music by Katie Runde, sax and clarinet, and Marybeth McCaffrey, soprano. Also participating will be Lisa Maria Steinberg, Director of Religious Education and Family Ministry, and First Parish members Amy Johnson and Elisabeth Jas. Our special guest will be Alberto Taxo, an indigenous Ecuadoran shaman.

The Winter Solstice Experience is free and open to the public. First Parish is located at 7 Harrington Rd, Lexington. Parking is in the rear of the church.

Fall Concert: Jams for Justice

Nov 4, 2018
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

First Parish in Lexington will present a concert of Gospel and Broadway music on Sunday, November 4, at 3:30 PM. The concert will feature the First Parish sanctuary and children’s choirs and soloists, guest singers, and a 10-piece jazz band performing solo and choral Gospel music and selections from Broadway including Godspell, Les Misérables, and Oliver. The concert, titled Jams for Justice, will take a free Will offering with 100% of the proceeds to benefit LexRAP (The Lexington Refugee Assistance Program). LexRAP is a Lexington-based non-profit organization focused on making Lexington a welcoming place for refugees and helping them directly.

7 Harrington Road, Lexington, MA
Open to the public. Admission is free.
A free-will offering will benefit the Lexington Refugee Assistance Program
Wheelchair access via elevator at rear entrance.

Graphic is “Jazz Makers 1” by Eric Waugh. Used with the artist’s permission.

13th Annual Lexington Choral Festival

Apr 29, 2018
3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

A dozen choral ensembles from Lexington, including the First Parish adult choir, will be raising their voices together in the 13th^th Annual Lexington Choral Festival on Sunday, April 29th at 3:00 p.m. hosted by St. Brigid Church. This year’s Festival features over 200 singers participating from 12 area churches, temples, and religious communities. Admission is free and open to the public.

“This year, the festival seems more crucial than ever,” says Festival organizer Mark Morgan, the Director of Music at Hancock Church, “in this time of seemingly ever increasing division in our country and across the world, the Festival sets an important, and very public, example of how we can come together and share our gifts and traditions with one another, rather than treat everyone as “the other.” This year’s festival encompasses a wide array of Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Unitarian communities. Each community shares songs of their own choice, then all will join together as one massed choir in the singing of The Heavens Are Telling from Haydn’s The Creation.

The Lexington Choral Festival was first held February 26, 2006 at the First Baptist Church of Lexington.  Minister of Music, Dr. Robert Eaton invited Lexington choirs to participate in an afternoon of sharing their musical talents and worship cultures with others in the community.  It featured performances by five area choirs, a combined performance of “The Gift of Love” and audience participation. The event was so well received it was decided to make it an annual event with different houses of worship hosting the Festival each year.

Participating this year are choirs and ensembles from the Bhakti Center of Lexington, Church of Our Redeemer Episcopal, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, First Baptist Church of Lexington, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, Hancock United Church of Christ, Pilgrim Congregational Church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, St. Brigid Catholic Church, Temple Emunah, Temple Isaiah, and Trinity Covenant Church. A reception will follow the show, and all are invited to attend.

The concert will take place at St Brigid Church, 1981 Massachusetts Ave in Lexington. Admission to the concert is free and open to the public. Free parking is available and the church is handicap accessible.

Missa Gaia at First Parish

Apr 13, 2018 - Apr 14, 2018
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Click here to order tickets.

First Parish in Lexington will present Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia: A Mass for the Earth on Friday and Saturday, April 13-14, 2018 at 7:30 PM. This profound work, under the musical direction of Rip Jackson and theatrical and dance direction of Maris Wolff, will be a collaboration between the First Parish sanctuary and children’s choirs, the Vermont Dance Collective and a world music ensemble of percussionists, guitar, piano, electric keyboards, soprano sax, oboe, cello and bass. Integrating world music with songs from the Wild to celebrate the whole earth as a sacred space, the Missa Gaia was commissioned by the Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as a contemporary ecumenical Mass for the Earth. Paul Winter has “achieved a distinguished triumph in combining divergent music styles and imaginatively wedding voices, instrumentation and recorded sounds of a tundra wolf, canyon and musical wrens, harp seals, a flight of loons and singing humpback whales.” There will be an Earth Fair and reception featuring Lexington environmental organizations in Parish Hall after both performances. Tickets will be on sale through the office at First Parish and online.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 seniors and $15 for students. Reduced ticket prices are available for those in need.

Click here to order tickets.

For more information, visit www.fplex.org or call 781-862-8200.

Pre-concert drumming at 7:15 pm.

60-second promo:

6-minute featurette:

Sound Journey with Nirmal Chandraratna

Feb 24, 2018
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

First Parish welcomes Nirmal Chandraratna, a New York City-based Kirtan artist and composer with a passion for nurturing connection – to spirit, to community, and to one’s deeper self – through music. Using the voice, the harmonium and the cello, he creates music for Kirtan and meditation, and works for communal performance. He will collaborate with our director of music Rip Jackson. In this evening experience, set in a dynamic, meditative environment, you are invited to connect with your intentions, both for yourself and for the world, and to let them take flight using the transformative power of sound. Layered textures of the human voice, cello, and percussion will weave a tapestry of music and mantra. Though sound vibration works on subtle levels, even at the level of human perception, we are able to receive and interact intentionally with vibrations, not only through our ears but also through our bodies: we respond viscerally to beauty in the form of harmonics, rhythm and melody, and we can work in this space to align our lives with our vision for a better world. At the beginning of the evening, we’ll come together as a community, singing together and sharing our intentions. We’ll raise the intensity, and then you’ll be invited to settle into a comfortable position to meditate in a darkened, candle-lit environment as a concert of expansive music and textures unfolds.

Nirmal Chandraratna was born to Sri Lankan parents in Rochester, New York. He began studying cello at 9 years and continued until the end of his undergraduate years at Brown University. There he received his BA in Music, led a jazz a cappella group and arranged music for a 24-member cello choir. Nirmal found his passion in music composition and received his Masters in Music in 1998 from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he concentrated on vocal composition and opera, and then further explored dramatic music at the BMI Lehmen Engel Musical Theater workshop in New York City. In 2010, Nirmal discovered Kirtan, a call-and-response practice of singing mantra, and fell in love with Kirtan’s intentionality and immersive nature. He began studying Sanskrit, Eastern philosophy and mantra, and has been leading Kirtan ever since; he has sung Kirtan in the Netherlands, Quebec, Boston, New England, upstate New York and New York City. Kirtan and mantra have influenced his other compositions in his desire to continue to include the audience into a musical experience in an intentional manner, and he also offers guided meditations on the chakras, Sound Journeys, live music for yoga classes, and other creative offerings.

Free will offering.

Music from the Gilded Age with Austin Burns

Jan 28, 2018
2:30 pm

On Sunday afternoon, January 28 at 2:30, tenor Austin Burns and pianist Rip Jackson will present a concert of music from the “Gilded Age.” The Gilded Age was a term coined by Mark Twain and refers to a society which is “gilded” or thinly coated with a gold layer while under the surface lies the poor working conditions of the lower class. This is a program that draws striking parallels to today’s economic and political climate. Sets from the program reflect not only the struggle of the 99% but also the forgotten voices of women, African Americans, and refugees. It confronts the history of oppressed groups but it also acknowledges the white privilege that so many of us take for granted. A freewill offering will be taken. For more information, call 781-862-8200 or visit www.fplex.org.

Freewill Donation

A Springboard to the Sublime: Boccherini and Mozart - POSTPONED

Jan 21, 2018
3:30 pm

THIS CONCERT IS POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS. IT WILL BE RESCHEDULED.

Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble is delighted to launch the new year with the sublime music of Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its new concert series at First Parish in Lexington. Led by the “interpretive eloquence and technical sparkle” of violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock, Sarasa will explore the brilliance of Boccherini and Mozart through the guise of their string sextet repertoire. It will be a great opportunity to hear a live, big string sound in this combination of two violins, two violas and two cellos. Don’t miss the chance to hear this sumptuous music performed on original instruments. Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 3:30 pm, First Parish in Lexington (7 Harrington Road, Lexington, MA 02421). For more information, please visit sarasamusic.org or telephone 617.429.0332.

Winter Solstice Celebration

Dec 17, 2017
10:30 am

On Sunday morning, December 17, First Parish in Lexington will present a special worship service celebrating the winter solstice at the 10:30 AM service. Through beautiful music, hymns, sermon and poetry, the powerful transformation from darkness to light will be uplifted. Artist and soprano sax player Katie Runde and pianist Rip Jackson will play some of the music from the Paul Winter Consort that can be heard at St. John the Divine during the Winter Solstice Concerts there each December, including the rousing piece “Dancing Day.” The sanctuary choir will also sing deep and mystical settings of solstice poetry and other seasonal music. For more information call the church at 781-862-8200 or visit www.fplex.org.

Christmas Music Through the Ages

Dec 9, 2017
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

On Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 PM, Munroe Saturday Nights will present a concert of “Christmas Music through the Ages.” Performers Austin Burns, Rip Jackson, David Meharry and Elizabeth Walsh will present beautiful seasonal vocal and keyboard (harpsichord, piano and organ) music from the medieval, renaissance, baroque, romantic and modern eras. Many well-know carols will be sung in their original form. “Stille Nacht.” “Coventry Carol,” “O Holy Night,” “White Christmas,” music from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and many other beloved carols will be sung and played. For more information, visit http://www.munroecenter.org or call 781-862-6040 for more information.

Presented by Munroe Saturday Nights

Freewill Donation

Spring Concert - A Broadway Cabaret

May 7, 2017
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

A Broadway Cabaret

Sunday, May 7, 2017, at 3:30 PM

First Parish in Lexington
7 Harrington Rd. Lexington, MA

Suggested Donation: $20/adults $10/Students and Seniors

(More if you can and less if you can’t – all are welcome!)

 

First Parish in Lexington will present a Broadway Cabaret on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at 3:30 PM. The concert will feature the First Parish sanctuary and children’s choirs and soloists, guest singers, and a pit band (piano, drums, electric guitar, electric bass, trumpets, horns, flute, saxophone and clarinet) performing solo and choral music from Broadway including selections from Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, Annie, West Side Story and Show Boat. Suggested donation: $20/adults; $10/students and seniors (more if you can and less if you can’t – all are welcome!). For more information call the church at 781-862-8200 or visit www.fplex.org.

Winter Solstice Music Sunday

Dec 18, 2016
10:30 am - 11:30 am

2016 Folk Concert

Nov 6, 2016
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

First Parish in Lexington will present a free concert of traditional folk music on Sunday, November 6, 2016 at 3:30 PM in the sanctuary. The famous folk duo, John Kirk and Trish Miller, will join the First Parish sanctuary choir, along with an ensemble of guitars, fiddle, banjo, accordion, string bass, piano, mandolin and other folk instruments. The musicians will perform folk music featuring Appalachian fiddle tunes, Irish and Scottish folk songs, music from the ’60s, shape-note choral pieces, folk trios and solos, and other Celtic music. Suggested donation $10-$20 (more if can, less if you can’t). For more information call the church at 781-862-8200, ext. 4.

Music from the African Diaspora

May 15, 2016
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

On Sunday, May 15, 2016, First Parish presented a concert of Music from the African Diaspora, featuring African music and drumming, Jazz, Spirituals and Gospel Music. The concert featured the First Parish Sanctuary Choir and guest singers, African drummers, flute, piano, electric bass and percussion. The program included: “Kothbiro” (Kenyan cattle song), “Indonga Se Jeriko” (a South African freedom song), William Dawson’s “There Is a Balm in Gilead” (spiritual), Claude Bolling’s “Jazz Suite for Piano, Flute, Bass and Drums” and other powerful music from the African Diaspora.

A free will offering was taken.

2015 Folk Concert

Nov 8, 2015
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

On Sunday, November 8, 2015, First Parish in Lexington presented a free concert of traditional folk music. The famous folk duo, John Kirk and Trish Miller, joined the First Parish sanctuary choir, along with an ensemble of guitars, fiddle, banjo, accordion, string bass, piano, mandolin and other folk instruments. The musicians performed folk music featuring Appalachian fiddle tunes, Irish and Scottish folk songs, music from the ’60s, shape-note choral pieces, folk trios and solos, and other Celtic music.

A free will offering was taken.