Union Presbyterian Church

Music Program

UPC offers a variety  of music opportunities.  The congregation can participate in Chancel Choir, Children’s Choir, or Orff Consort. Rehearsals are every Sunday at 9am.  Opportunities are available for solo or small group vocal or instrumental music of many varied styles.   

Adult Choir

The Adult Choir is made up of adults and high school aged singers of varying ability who love to share their gift of song. Rehearsals are Sunday mornings, 9:00 am - 10:15am from September through June. Singing in choir offers members many opportunities to explore different styles of music for worship... contemporary, classical, multi-cultural, and spiritual.

Our choir director, Corine Salon, is a graduate from Carnegie-Melon University with a BFA and an MFA. She has also done graduate work towards a second MFA in Opera at CMU. She has taught locally at Union College, Siena College and The College of St. Rose. She is a very versatile musician and music educator trained in vocal music with background studies of violin, choral conducting, dance and many other instruments. Corine has performed extensively in the US and abroad in recitals, operas and music theater. Locally, she is a founding member and special events director for the Opera Excelsior.

Organ

UPC welcomed our organist, Trevor Kahlbaugh in 2011. Trevor began his musical calling since childhood. He began to study piano at the age of six. He went on to study piano and organ from Dr. Carl Lloyd E. Cast, Jr. As a young boy, Trevor sang in the Men’s and Boy’s Choir at the Cathedral of All Saints Episcopal Church in Albany. As a teenager, Trevor was serving as assistant organist and choir master for the church. With Trevor’s outstanding music accomplishments as a teenager, he was accepted into the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He studied organ with Dr. Marilyn Keiser, Chancellors Professor of Organ at Indiana University, and graduated from IU with a degree in Organ Performance in 2001.

Trevor’s philosophy of church music: “Music of the church is unique because it is for the sole purpose of glorifying God. The church musician, unlike other musicians, does not ‘perform’ for an audience but makes music to the glory of God. In accordance with this belief, the church musician should not be the center of attention during worship and congregational song, but should be a leader striving through music for the adoration and praise of God. People worship God in different ways, through prayer, some through spoken word, some through music, and some through all these and more. The role of the church musician is to make the people’s song meaningful so that all who worship through music may have the most intimate, moving experience possible. Music should have meaning for the people: they need to examine the words of the hymns and liturgical settings that they sing and understand how these words relate to them and their faith.”

UPC’s organ is a 3 manual 34 rank Wick pipe organ installed in 1969 and rebuilt in the early 1990s.

Children's Choir

Children's choir is available to all children K-6th grade. Under Jean Foster's leadership, children gather on Sunday mornings at 9:15am to sing. Monthly children's choir prepares and sings their special music for worship service, and there are opportunities during the year for some musical drama.

Orff Consort

Orff Consort, under the direction of Lillian Roe, is a musical ensemble of instruments played by an intergenerational group. UPC has the largest instrumentation in the capital district. Generous donors gave these instruments to the church. Instruments which make up the consort include soprano, alto, and bass xylophones, bass metalophones, soprano and alto glockenspiels, two large tympani, 8 large bass bars, and many other hand-held percussion instruments. The Orff Consort adds rich wonderful sounds to music in our worship services. Introits, benedictions, responses, anthems, scripture and psalm stories are just some of the many ways the Orff instruments are used to enhance worship at UPC.