Music and Worship
Our Vision
At United Church, we believe that music sets the tone for our worship and enables us to “feel the Spirit.” For many, listening to beautiful music is a spiritual experience. It's like the Apostle Paul said: When we don't know how to pray, "the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Romans 8:26).
Our Director of Music, Caesar Storlazzi, ministers to the congregation in a wide variety of musical styles, from Handel's Messiah to Barnett's recent bluegrass mass. Not only are the standards of Bach, Mozart and Brahms presented, we also explore the music of African American composers, and women composers. In addition, guest musicians from our congregation, Yale, the New Haven Symphony and the local community broaden our musical horizons with classical, jazz, blues, and gospel sounds. But listening to music is only part of the story. As in every facet of our faith life, we believe we are called to be not only passive listeners, but working partners in music-making. And so congregational singing grounds our worship life. In partnership with God and sisters and brothers around the world, we lift our voices not only in standard 4-part hymns (drawn from the Hymns of Truth and Light hymnal, as well as a library of other resources), but also songs of prayer and praise from many cultures. We sing and perform at our very best, pouring out our hearts to God with the voices God gave us.
Caesar has a creative gift and each Sunday directs our choirs and plays the Organ, piano, harpsicord and/or the oboe. We often have guest musicians and jazz offerings, and other varieties of music.
get involved
The United Church Choir
The Hillebrand/Moore Organ
The United Handbell Choir
If you love music and love to sing, and wish to be an integral part of our worship services, we invite you to become a part of our church choir. The UCG Choir has a membership of ten to fifteen adults, volunteers as well as professional section leaders. We sing at the 10:00am Sunday Worship service September through June. Highlights of the year include wonderful choral services on Christmas Eve and on Maundy Thursday.
Our United Church Choir rehearses Thursdays at 7:00pm at the meeting house (corner of Temple & Elm). On Sunday mornings, the choir warms up at 9:00am. We would love to welcome you to our choir family!
The United Handbell Choir
The Hillebrand/Moore Organ
The United Handbell Choir
In these “post-pandemic” days, we hope to re-form our handbell choir. UCG has a four-octave set of Schulmerich handbells, as well as access for a four-octave set of handchimes. We have traditionally played three or four times each year at United, and at Center Church on the Green in December. If you don’t have the best singing voice, but yearn to be part of a choir making beautiful music, this is the group for you. Contact Caesar if you are interested in ringing.
The Hillebrand/Moore Organ
The Hillebrand/Moore Organ
The Hillebrand/Moore Organ
UCG’s organ is a stunning three-manual mechanical action organ. It was originally installed in 1966 by the Hillebrand company, and subsequently was rebuilt and enlarged by A. D. Moore (VT) in 1999. The organ comprises 53 ranks, 4 divisions, 3 manuals, and 42 stops. The instrument is a wonderful example of Baroque style organ-building, and is well-suited to supporting robust congregational singing as well as accompanying the choir. It is tuned in the Kellner Temperament and is thus a fitting organ for Bach and his contemporaries. While the organ presents the music of the 17th and 18th centuries extraordinarily well, it can also present the music of contemporary composers.