Rehearsals: most Wednesdays 7-8:30pm. Open to all; no experience necessary! Contact Naomi or see below for rehearsal schedule.
Music is at the heart of our church – it is this ministry that involves the greatest number of our members. Our fall “Choir Blast” was the most successful to date, and continues to develop its own audience beyond our church members. Through this concert we have been able to express some of the deepest aspects of our faith to the community.
The BMUC Choir joyfully sings God’s abundant love! We believe each and every member has a voice to worship through song. Through sacred, classical, gospel and contemporary works we serve ourselves and the congregation with the love of Jesus Christ. Our upbeat fun rehearsals are filled with joy, hard work, laughter and fellowship.
The choir sings on the first and third Sunday of the month, as well as Holy Week, Christmas and the annual Choir Blast in September. Join us in Song!
Director: Naomi Sanchez-Varney, , M.M. (in Music); Faculty, American Conservatory Theater; Life Member, NFMC; Director, Berkeley Academy of Music
Many of our Adult and Junior Choir songs are on YouTube. Check it out!
Wesley’s Directions for Singing from the United Methodist Hymnal
Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can. Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a slight degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.
Sing lustily and with a good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan.
Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.
Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing too slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.
Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.
