Music is a very important element of Sunday Service, more so than at many churches. Our full choir and dynamic organ lead us with hymns and provide interludes as we transition through the many areas of our Order of Service.
Music also forms an important backdrop during the non-verbal times that we set aside for contemplation.
Twice each year we host an “All Music Sunday” that forms a music ministry for us. We collect our thoughts as we sit in our sanctuary surrounded by the music of angels and Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, and other great composers and musicians.
Our Music Leaders for 2024 feature:
TJ Rufo-Curran, Music Director
TJ Rufo-Curran has been making music at First Parish Weston since September 2011, when he was hired as Tenor section leader and soloist during the tenure of director Bill Sano and organist Terry Decima. He sang with the choir for ten years before being selected as Interim Music Director for the 2022-2023 season, and permanent Music Director in 2023. TJ studied voice at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he was a student of William Hite and sang in the University Chamber Choir under the direction of Deanna Joseph and Tony Thornton. During his time in Amherst, he also participated in the Five College Opera Project and the UMass Theatre Guild.
A versatile performer, TJ’s first love was musical theater, and some of his favorite roles include Enoch Snow (Carousel), Harry (Company), and Seymour Krelborn (Little Shop of Horrors). He has also conducted the orchestra for several high school productions, including The Addams Family, Matilda, and Big Fish. These diverse musical experiences have influenced TJ’s programming choices, which seek to draw upon a variety of genres, languages, and time periods to enrich the worship experience. A native of Natick, TJ currently resides in West Roxbury with his spouse, Sean, and their French bulldog, Lola.
Rose Hegele, Soprano section leader
Canadian soprano Rose Hegele (she/her) explores the extremes of human vocal and artistic expression in 20th and 21st-century music. Active across genres including avant-garde, contemporary opera, and chamber music, Rose creates healing spaces for audiences to embrace their complexity and humanity. Highlights include performing as “Helen” in Amber Vistein’s opera Dark Exhalation in October 2023, “Gloria (Double)” in Tod Machover’s opera VALIS at MIT in September 2023, and Arnold Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” with Lowell Chamber Orchestra in October 2022. Dedicated to education through artistry, Rose has presented masterclasses at Brown University, Roger Williams University, Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, University of Texas in Austin, Berklee College of Music, Clark University, Wildflower Composers Festival, and Boston Singers Resource. She holds an M.M. in Contemporary Classical Music Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and a B.M. in Voice Performance and Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music.
Nathaniel Bear, Tenor section leader
Nathaniel Bear, tenor, from Melville, NY excels in operatic, concert, and choral repertoire. He will soon begin his second summer as a Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellow. He finished his masters degree at Northwestern University and his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music. During his time at Eastman, Nathaniel performed the roles of Strephon in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Gérard in Eastman Opera Theater’s production of Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles. He also sang the tenor soloist in Britten’s War Requiem. In the fall of 2018, he sang the role of Alfred in Oswego Opera’s production of Die Fledermaus. With Northwestern Opera, Nathaniel played Ferrando in a virtual Zoom production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, David in the midwestern premier of Jake Heggie’s If I Were You, and Rodolfo in La Bohème. Nathaniel has recently appeared with the Boston Opera Institute singing the roles of Giovanni in Daniel Catán’s La hija de Rappaccini and Oronte in Handel’s Alcina, as well as with Seaglass Theater Company where he portrayed Don José in La Tragedie de Carmen. Nathaniel resides in Boston where he maintains the position of Tenor Section Leader for The First Parish Church of Weston, and also teaches a private studio of voice students.
Benjamin Doyle, Tenor section leader
Benjamin Doyle has been singing with First Parish Church Choir since 2016 He graduated from Muhlenberg College in 2013 with a dual bachelor degree in Neuroscience (BS) and Music (BA), and completed his Master’s degree in Biology at Northeastern in 2015. He has previously sung with Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus and is a current member of the Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline, the latter of which he serves on the governing Board as treasurer. He is also a founder and violinist in the Charles River Trio, a local string ensemble. Outside of his musical pursuits, Ben is a preclinical scientist at a biopharmaceutical company in Cambridge, MA where he researches therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders.
Nathan Savant, Bass section leader
Nathan Savant, having been praised for being a “charismatic baritone” with “vocal power”, is a Performance Diploma Candidate at Boston University: Opera Institute. Nathan recently performed the Baritone role in Philip Glass’s Hydrogen Jukebox and portrayed Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Opera Institute.
This summer, Nathan will be returning to Opera North to perform John Styx in Orphée aux enfers, Rapunzel’s Prince and the Wolf in Into the Woods, and Count Monterone and covering Rigoletto in Rigoletto.
In the summer of 2023, Nathan served as a Studio Artist at Chautauqua Opera Company, covering Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen and singing in the Ensemble for Sweeney Todd. As a Resident Artist at Opera North in 2022, he sang Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata.
Nathan holds a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he performed various roles, including Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Marcello in La Bohème. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Geoff Wieting, Organist
Geoff joined the staff of First Parish as organist in September 2018.
He grew up in York Harbor, Maine, and first learned to play the Wicks organ at Trinity Church in York Harbor, under the tutelage of then music director Ernest Fiske. Geoff went on to study organ at Phillips Exeter Academy and Oberlin Conservatory, where he won the Selby Houston award for organ performance.
Join Us!
Want to join the choir? Speak to Music Director T.J. Rufo or call the Church Office and we can get you connected!
Members of the First Parish Choir
Sample Music
All Music Sunday Concerts
Twice each year we host an “All Music Sunday”. Ever since COVID, we have recorded these services. Click here to view the recordings for the past few years.
First Parish Weston Virtual Choir
During the COVID pandemic, the FPC Choir converted to a virtual operation. Choir members learned and practiced music at home, listening to organ accompaniment via headphones, watching the conductor on a tablet, and recording themselves. They then submitted their recordings to our wonderful Tech Crew for editing and insertion into our virtual worship services.
Click here to watch and listen to a collection of every song performed by the First Parish Weston Virtual Choir during the time of COVID-19.
Special Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Larry Shaw, President of Boston Light and Sound, for his invaluable assistance in acquiring the necessary technological equipment, setting up and problem-solving in the virtual conversion for worship services, and to Mary Shaw, choir member and former Music Committee Chair, for her ongoing help in coordinating music distribution and section leader recordings.
OUR MAIN ORGAN
Our Hooks and Hastings organ is an important part of our worship service. Installed in 1919, it was fully restored in 2010 and encompasses 38 pipe stops, 56 digital stops, and 20 audio channels with more than 2,000 watts of power. It is capable of performing music from any period and style and will allow for the evolution of our music program through the incorporation of new technologies as time goes by.
A brass plaque is installed on the side wall with these words: Organ console and restoration in honor of Barbara and Frederick Coburn for their years of devoted service and their love of music in this church from their family.
OUR SEARS CHAPEL ORGAN
The Sears Chapel is graced with a 1930 organ that was rebuilt in 2002 by Timothy Smith of Nobscot Organ Company. At the rededication, Mr. Smith advised:
My goal was to create a versatile instrument of wide dynamic range, suitable for leading hymn singing, playing weddings and funerals, and rendering a significant body of organ repertoire. With only fifteen ranks speaking into a small space, I did not expect to embrace any one European school of organ design. Instead, I drew on the work of the Roosevelts in late nineteenth-century New York City, and a basic American philosophy of eclecticism.
A brass plaque is installed on the back wall with these words: The Chapel Pipe Organ, installed 2002, is given in Remembrance of Bill and Margaret Rousseau and their love of music.