Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Music and Worship

With music at our services, we are guided by three goals:

1. to enhance the meaning of the service with music;
2. to provide good (and perhaps inspiring) experiences to the congregation; and
3. to provide an enjoyable and meaningful experience to the members of the choir and guest musicians.

Choir

The choir is led by Bruce Olstad and accompanied by Veronika Agranov-Dafoe.  We sing an anthem in the 11:00 a.m. Worship service every Sunday and provide choral, often 4-part support to the hymns and other sung parts of the worship service.  Anthems may be drawn from a wide range of musical styles, including all periods of classical music, jazz, gospel, spirituals and pop.  We try to bring music from many other cultures and sources of sacred journeys, so you may hear us sing in Latin, Spanish, Hebrew, German, Hindi, French, Swahili, and of course, English. 

Sunday Special Music

Talented musicians from the church or local community and the peninsula region or visiting from even farther afield provide special music for the Prelude, Offertoring and Postlude in every service.  We seek representatives of many different musical genre including jazz, blues, new age, and classical. Many church members tell us that the UU principles are what initially attracted them to our doors but the special music is one of the main reasons they come to worship every Sunday.  Perhaps you would like to share your musical gifts with us or you've heard a musician or group that would make our services that much more meaningful to you.  We ask our guest musicians to play for both Sunday services, and to choose pieces that are 2 1/2 to 3 minutes long, in keeping with the theme of the service as much as possible (or at least complementary).  We offer an honorarium to non-members.  If you are interested in performing, or if you have a suggestion for a possible guest musician, please contact Pat Thomas.

Children's Choir

The UUCPA Children's Choir is open to children in grades 3-6. The choir rehearses twice monthly in room 9 from 10:45 -11:30 a.m.  They occasionally they sing for the worship service. Children do not have to know how to read music to sing in the choir.,
If you know interested children please encourage them to try it out.  

Director: Lena McCleary