Music
The FPC Worship Ministry exists to create intentional worship spaces and events that invite the Body of Christ to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ and worship God through quality music, teaching, and physical space, drawing on liturgical practices and traditions from the Church across time and place, including the present day.
The First Presbyterian Chancel Choir is under the direction of Alla Keoppel, accompanied by organist Larry Blackburn. The Chancel Choir consists of 20-30 singers and offers choral pieces and arrangements that express the meaning of faith in Jesus Christ, the Christian life, and worship to the Lord. One week you may hear The Heavens Are Telling by Haydn and the next week a spiritual, such as Soon and Very Soon. The Chancel Choir also performs concerts at Christmas and in the spring, featuring both traditional and contemporary choral literature and guest artists. Selected recordings of past performances can be found in the Music playlist of our YouTube channel.
Chancel Choir
The First Presbyterian praise band leads the congregation in worship through contemporary-style music twice a month. The band seeks to offer a space for everyone to engage with songs that are singable, lyrically rich, and familiar across generations and styles. We regularly use guitar, drums, bass, and two vocals, occasionally adding violin, piano, organ, and other instruments. This playlist includes many of our best-loved contemporary worship songs.
We are always looking for new instruments and new band members. For information on how to get involved, please contact tleung@fpcslc.org.
Praise Band
The first organ at First Pres was a three-manual, 45 stop instrument built by the Bennett Organ Company of Rock Island, IL, and had over 2,000 pipes. The organ was dedicated on April 10, 1911 in a concert described as “the social event of the year”, with some 900 people in attendance. The chimes visible above the choir loft were added in 1969 and dedicated in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Bowe.
In 1999, much of the pipework was removed and the organ was replaced with an all-digital Rodgers instrument, equivalent to a 130-rank pipe organ. The stop list of this instrument is available at this link. Previously recorded concerts can be found in the Music playlist on our YouTube channel.
Though the 1911 Bennett instrument has been disassembled, we still have many of the pipes in storage, and are hopeful that they can soon be put back in the organ chamber to create a new, hybrid instrument. For more information on this project, please contact organist Larry Blackburn via the office.
Organ
Connect with us
To get involved in choir at First Presbyterian, please contact Alla Keoppel.
