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32-614: The University Choir is the only professional choir on campus. Singers are paid a significant stipend each year. The Choir is directed by Edward Elwyn Jones , the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster at Memorial Church, and David von Behren , the Assistant University Organist and Choirmaster. In fall 2009, UChoir performed in the 100th Carols Services, the oldest carols service in the country, and in that spring performed J.S. Bach 's St. John's Passion . While

64-509: A Spring concert entitled "Choral Evolution" which featured Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms , Roxanna Panufnik’s Westminster Mass , and Libby Larsen’s Missa Gaia . The tradition of new commissions for the choir has continued under Jones; with the choir has featured a new commission each year at the Carol Services and most recently premiered three new works by Carson P. Cooman, Emma Lou Diemer , and Tarik O'Regan , written to commemorate

96-688: A master's degree in orchestral conducting at Mannes College of Music . Jones has focused particularly on conducting opera , which he has pursued with the Harvard Early Music Society , Mannes Opera , Lowell House Opera Society , and the Reykjavík Summer Opera Festival in Iceland . In April 2003, Jones was appointed Gund University Organist and Choirmaster of the Memorial Church at Harvard University . In this position, Jones

128-468: A mission — to address the religious causes and roots of homophobia... I will devote the rest of my life to addressing the ‘religious case’ against gays. Same-sex marriage advocate Evan Wolfson described Gomes as an integral contributor to the cause of marriage equality. He maintained that "one can read into the Bible almost any interpretation of morality ... for its passages had been used to defend slavery and

160-511: A select group of singers who are dependable and committed members of the University Choir. The Choral Fellows as a group are responsible for between 6 and 8 services a week and their preparation and attendance are considered a given. Their presence is intended to help the choir develop the consistency and polish that comes from singing together often. Conceived by Dr. Murray Forbes Somerville (Gund University Organist and Choirmaster, 1990–2003)

192-733: A sometime Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts . He was a former acting director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University; he was past president of Harvard's Signet Society ; and a former trustee of Bates College , Wellesley College and the Public Broadcasting Service . He was past president and trustee of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, Massachusetts . On April 26, 1998, Gomes

224-841: A two-year tenure at the Tuskegee Institute , he returned in 1970 to Harvard, where he became Pusey Minister in Harvard's nondenominational Memorial Church , and in 1974 was made Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. In 2000, he delivered the University Sermon at the University of Cambridge and the Millennial Sermon in Canterbury Cathedral , and presented the Beecher Lectures on Preaching at Yale Divinity School . Gomes

256-630: Is a Welsh conductor and organist . Edward Elwyn Jones is a conductor, organist and choirmaster. As the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster at Harvard University, a post he has held since 2003, Jones directs the music program in Memorial Church , located in the midst of Harvard Yard, and leads the 180-year-old Harvard University Choir in its daily choral services, broadcasts, tours, commissions, and recordings. Recently appointed music director of Lowell House Opera, New England's longest-running opera company, Jones also serves as artistic director of

288-509: Is still honored with an annual event. Hospitalized after a stroke in December, 2010, Gomes hoped to return to Memorial Church in time for the following Easter . He died on February 28, 2011, of complications from the stroke. Speakers at his memorial service at the Memorial Church on April 6, 2011, included Derek C. Bok , a former president of Harvard University; Drew Gilpin Faust , president of

320-545: Is the current director of the Harvard University Choir . Jones was appointed music director of Lowell House Opera in 2015. Peter J. Gomes Peter John Gomes (May 22, 1942 – February 28, 2011) was an American preacher and theologian, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard Divinity School and Pusey Minister at Harvard's Memorial Church — in the words of Harvard's president "one of

352-882: The Anglican Communion , said of Gomes's The Good Book that it "offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style", which is also "lively"; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. called it "Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people". His last work, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus , included extensive commentary and observation on the interrelations of Church and State throughout history and particularly in recent US history. In 1991 Gomes identified himself publicly as gay , though adding that he remained celibate , and became an advocate of acceptance of homosexuality in American society and particularly in religion: I now have an unambiguous vocation —

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384-515: The Democratic Party (United States) , supporting the candidacy of Deval Patrick , who was that year elected the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. (Gomes and Patrick had become friends during Patrick's undergraduate days at Harvard.) According to a book on Martin Luther King Jr. , Gomes "was never easy to label. Conservative evangelicals, for instance, were quick to criticize

416-725: The Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra . Jones studied music at the University of Cambridge , where he was Organ Scholar of Emmanuel College . He was also the conductor of three university orchestras. Upon moving to the United States in 1998, Jones served firstly as Organ Scholar and then as Assistant Organist in the Memorial Church at Harvard University . Jones was the Assistant Organist of Christ Church United Methodist on Park Avenue in New York City from 2000 to 2003, while earning

448-745: The 75th anniversary of the Memorial Church. Jones has also led the Choral Fellows on two spring tours to Montreal, Quebec and San Francisco, California, and took the Sunday Choir to Mexico City, Querétaro, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in the spring of 2007. Approximately 40 singers form the Sunday Choir, a group that performs a wide range of choral literature for the Sunday services of Memorial Church in Harvard Yard. In recognition of their commitment, all members of this group are paid. Auditions for positions in

480-540: The Harvard Radcliffe Chorus, and is a frequent collaborator with Yale's Schola Cantorum. He served as the guest conductor of the Harvard Glee Club during the spring academic semester of 2024. As a conductor, he has guested with such organizations as Boston Modern Orchestra Project , Grand Harmonie, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston , Boston Camerata , Emmanuel Music , Longwood Symphony Orchestra and

512-489: The Sunday Choir are held early in the Fall Term. The choir attracts singers who like a challenge, singing a wide variety of music at a professional standard with a weekly performance deadline. This group performs in the annual Christmas Carol services and spring concert, and collaborates with other musical groups, both on and off campus. The Sunday Choir also undertakes both international and domestic tours. The weekly schedule of

544-557: The Sunday Choir involves rehearsals from 5 to 6:30 PM on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons in addition to a rehearsal and service on Sunday mornings. Weekday rehearsals are preceded by an hour-long tea. In addition, the Sunday Choir goes on retreat to the St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire on Columbus Day weekend each year where, among other things, they celebrate "Carols in October" and begin to learn

576-491: The Sunday Choir who additionally perform in the daily Morning Prayers services in Appleton Chapel; this is one of Harvard’s oldest traditions. This ensemble also represents the University Choir on tour and at special events. These singers are appointed for the full academic year after extensive auditions held the previous spring and receive free voice lessons as well as a significant stipend. The Choral Fellows program employs

608-663: The United States and the United Kingdom . In 2009, he represented Harvard University as lecturer at Cambridge University on the occasion of its 800th anniversary. Gomes published a total of ten volumes of sermons, as well as numerous articles and papers. and two bestselling books, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and Sermons, the Book of Wisdom for Daily Living . The Right Reverend Lord Robert Runcie , 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury , England, ecclesiastical head of

640-596: The University; and Deval Patrick , Governor of Massachusetts. On April 20, 2012, as part of the Harvard Foundation Portraiture Project, artist Stephen E. Coit unveiled his portrait of Gomes standing in the library of the Signet Society , where it now hangs. Listed by Time Magazine in 1979 as one of "seven stars of the pulpit", Gomes fulfilled preaching and lecturing engagements throughout

672-575: The choir began touring and recording CDs on the Koch International, Northeastern, Naxos, Centaur, Gothic, and ASV labels and, with the Boston Camerata under Joel Cohen, for Erato Records of France. After his leadership during the 2003–2004 academic year, during which he served as Acting University Organist and Choirmaster, Edward Elwyn Jones was appointed the seventh Gund University Organist and Choirmaster. The first year of his appointment saw

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704-481: The first mention of choral performance at Harvard comes from the eighteenth century, a formal constitution of the University Choir was not seen until 1834; the constitution makes it clear, however, that the choir had existed before this date. One of the attractions of joining the choir at the time was the lack of supervision during compulsory Morning Prayers services. The Choir sat in the Gallery and were left alone until it

736-603: The great preachers of our generation, and a living symbol of courage and conviction." Gomes was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts , the only child of Orissa, née White, and Peter Lobo Gomes. His father was from the Cape Verde islands and his mother was African American . DNA testing revealed that he was likely descended from the Tikar from Cameroon and Fulani and Hausa peoples of West Africa , and that his patrilineal line likely leads to some Sephardic Jewish kohen ancestry. He

768-630: The liberalism he sometimes displayed during his long tenure as the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University—and yet a photograph of Reverend Billy Graham, hero to evangelicals across the world, towered above all others on the shelf behind Gomes’s stately office desk." He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society , the Colonial Society of Massachusetts , and

800-511: The liberation of slaves, to support racism, anti-Semitism and patriotism, to enshrine a dominance of men over women, and to condemn homosexuality as immoral" as paraphrased by Robert D. McFadden in the New York Times (March 2, 2011). Gomes was a registered Republican for most of his life, and offered prayers at the inaugurals of United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush . In August 2006, he changed his registration to

832-654: The program is designed to provide a select group of students with a performing opportunity they would not find elsewhere as well as raise the standard of musical performance within the choir. The Choral Fellows program was made possible by a gift to the Memorial Church at Harvard University, with the support of the Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes (1942–2011), Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church. Edward Elwyn Jones Edward Elwyn Jones (born 27 April 1977)

864-581: The repertoire for the Christmas Carol services in December. The choir also presents a spring concert each year and often performs at the Harvard ARTS FIRST festival in early May. Sixteen selected singers from this ensemble form the Choral Fellows. The Ferris Choral Fellows (formerly known as the Choral Fellows and before that as the Morning Choir) are a group of sixteen dedicated singers drawn from

896-417: The women of Radcliffe College to participate, a tradition maintained by Davison's successor, Professor G. Wallace Woodworth. John R. Ferris, who served as Choirmaster from 1958 to 1990, won high praise for performances of a wide variety of sacred choral literature by incorporating women into the previously all-male University Choir. Under the directorship of Dr. Murray Forbes Somerville between 1990 and 2003,

928-982: Was a guest preacher at Central Congregational Church in Providence, Rhode Island . New England College; Waynesburg College; Gordon College; Knox College; University of the South; Duke University; The University of Nebraska; Wooster College; Bates College; Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion; Trinity College, Bowdoin College; Berkeley Divinity School at Yale; Colby College; Olivet College; Mount Holyoke College; Furman University; Baker University; Mount Ida College; Willamette University; SUNY-Geneseo; Westminster Choir College of Rider University; Ursinus College; Wagner College; Lesley University; Williams College; Virginia Theological Seminary; Morris College; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Hamilton College; Union College; Tuskegee University; Lasell College; General Seminary of

960-619: Was also a visiting professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill . Profiled by Robert Boynton in The New Yorker , and interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes , Gomes was included in the premiere issue of Talk magazine as part of its feature article, "The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up." Gomes was a long-time and well-loved member of Plymouth's Old Colony Club , where his memory

992-510: Was baptized as a Roman Catholic , but later became an American Baptist . Gomes, a Plymouth High School graduate, worked as a houseman to help pay for his education. After earning his AB from Bates College , a coed liberal arts institution, in 1965, and a BD from Harvard Divinity School in 1968, Gomes was ordained by the First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Massachusetts , (where he occasionally preached throughout his life). After

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1024-481: Was time to sing; often they would sleep or read, paying little attention to the service. After the appointment of John Knowles Paine as the first University Organist and Choirmaster in 1862, the Choir attained the status of a professional performance choir. The annual Christmas Carol services, the longest continually running services of their kind in the country, were founded in 1910 by Archibald T. Davison, who soon invited

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