Submitted by Brian Frazier
(May 10, 2024) — The United Congregational Church of Haddam and Higganum invites you to a free concert given by the Coventry Choir at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, at the UCCHH Higganum campus located at 23 Parsonage Road in Higganum.
The Coventry Choir, part of the Coventry Ensemble, is the youth choral assemblage of Marietta First United Methodist Church, a metropolitan parish in northwest Atlanta with some 4,000 members.
The ensemble, founded in 1966 by Lindell DeJarnett, is comprised of singers and instrumentalists in grades 6-12 and is now on its 57th annual tour. While on tour, they live collaboratively, engage in direct-impact missional work, build community through music and worship, and experience different parts of the world through the world’s living communities.
On this New England tour, they will sing at the United Congregational Church of Haddam and Higganum, First Church of Christ, Congregational of Suffield, the Church in the Wilderness in Killingworth, and the Cathedral in the Night in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Their current repertoire spans ten centuries. In Higganum, they will sing works that include the modern gospel tradition, as well as early monadic Anglican liturgical chants. Other featured composers include Leonard Cohen, Mark Miller, John Bell, Brian Parks, S.S. Wesley, Richard Smallwood, and T. L. de Victoria.
Since 2019, the Coventry Ensemble has been under the co-direction of Catherine Moulton, Music Associate, and Brian Parks, Associate Director of Music and a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists. Forrest Cate, Director of Program, supports the choir through weekly devotions, culinary pedagogy, and as a tour chaperone.
Photo provided by UCCHH