Music

Choirs

Our Music Director is Sharon Rambo, who provides organ and piano accompaniment at our services as her predecessor, Margaret Gries, did for many years.

Our space has wonderful acoustics.  Many parishioners sing in our choirs and play a variety of instruments during our worship.  We are blessed to have a 2004 Brombaugh tracker organ that is used both at worship and to offer special concerts throughout the year.

Adult Choir:  This choir sings at our 10:30am liturgy and on other feast days during the year.  The music drawing they sing draws on the breadth of the Church’s musical heritage, including traditional hymns, the best of contemporary works and hymns, Taize, chants, Anglican chant, early Church music, Gospel and world music.  The choir rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7 pm to 9 pm September through June.  It is open to any one of high school age or older who is able to match pitch.

Choristers:  Choristers was our young persons’ choir for ages 6-17.  They prepared an offertory anthem for the third Sunday of each month and joined with the adult choir on special occasions.  Choristers’ (and their families) also gathered regularly for fun social activities.  This ministry is not currently functioning.

If you’re interested in participating in our music ministry, or using the space for a concert or recital, please call the church.

Our Brombaugh Organ

The organ at Church of the Resurrection is a tracker organ, meaning each key is connected directly by a thin flexible wooden strip called a tracker. When a key is struck the tracker activates the air valve under the corresponding pipe, to sound the pipe. There is no pneumatic or electrical assistance to the keyboard action. Tracker organs which respond directly and sensitively to the touch of the organist are noted for their clean, crisp sound. Hundreds of tracker organs in Europe are still in use, some of them over 300 years old. J.S. Bach played a tracker organ.

Image: Brombaugh Organ, front view, showing 5 sets of pipes, brustwerk, and case. Photo: Bob Sogge

The pipe arrangement is based on an organ of Italian Renaissance design that the Brombaugh shop made for the chapel at Duke University. The groundwork to replace a temperamental 1897 Estey reed organ was laid by music director Betty Jean Bartholomew in 1997, supported by the Rev. Jonathan Weldon, Vicar at the time. An Organ Committee sponsored a series of fund-raising events and a contract was signed on April 19, 1999 with John Brombaugh & Associates for delivery of an instrument in 2004.

A large dormer had to be constructed in the front roof of the church to provide room for the longest pipes. Acoustics were improved by removing all the carpeting in the nave and replacing the baffle design of the underside of the balcony by a hard, surface; also a large panel over the organ was erected to reflect its sound out into the nave.

Bishop Johncy Itty dedicated the organ at an Evensong on November 14, 2004. The organ’s inaugural year featured a dedicatory recital by David Dahl (December 5, 2004); a duo recital by Julia Brown and Barbara Baird (March 6, 2005); a concert by Liuwe Tamminga and Marc Vanscheeuwijck, cellist (May 8, 2005).

Recitals continue to be given by visiting artists. Contact Church of the Resurrection for dates.

Read more about the organ and John Brombaugh’s work.