Mary Bopp, Director of Music
A Year in Music
It’s hard for me to believe that it’s near the end of the second year of the pandemic. As music director, this has been a tremendous challenge, managing a steep learning curve while working to keep music going at Unitarian Universalist Society: East. I am happy to say that music has not only survived but thrived! Below I’m going to review the high points AND, most especially, my hopes for the future.
Sunday Services and Beyond
Music at services has, if anything, been more inclusive than ever before. Many congregants who have never participated in previous years contributed videos of their performances and even their own compositions. The level of participation has been truly inspiring.
- Dan Thompson has collaborated with many UUS:E musicians to create videos of amazing creativity. Most recently we collaborated on an original composition using samples of my piano playing and Dan’s technology: View Video
- This year we have also been featuring many different live vocalists as hymn leaders. Again, many of them have never taken this role in previous years. It is wonderful to see so many spread their musical wings!
I look forward to continuing this trend as we move into hybrid services. We will be able to use and hone the skills we learned presenting virtual services to continue offering people opportunities to participate as musical/video artists, while we return to offering our live performances. Remember – music program inclusion goes beyond our services.
- The musical salon has continued to be popular. We have been virtual since the beginning of the pandemic and many people from UUS:E and beyond have been participating as musicians and audience members. Many thanks to Peggy Webbe for her musical and organizational skills. I am so excited that we are now back to live salons.
Concert Series
Three virtual concerts were presented during the second pandemic year: Handler and Levesque duo, Kareem’s Covid Café and Lara Herscovitch. I am thrilled to announce upcoming live events for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic – New World Trio on April 10th and duo-guitarists Mark and Beverly Davis in an outdoor concert on June 24th!
In the future, I hope to focus on live events that will be presented as fundraisers for UUS:E.
Holiday Choir
It was so moving and inspiring to conduct the choir in person with Dorothy Bognar at the piano for the first time since March of 2020. The masked choir sounded wonderful and we had so much fun. We will continue masking for the Easter music, and it is my fondest hope that we will be back in full force in the fall.
