Music Sunday: First Unitarian Choir 2026

Dr. Allegra Martin lives in Worcester, Massachusetts and serves as the Director of Music at First Unitarian Worcester; the Music Director for Convivium Musicum, a Renaissance choir in Boston; and as an Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of Music, where she teaches conducting. She previously taught at Lasell College and was the Director of Choral Activities at the College of the Holy Cross for five years. Allegra holds degrees from Williams College, Westminster Choir College, and a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she wrote her dissertation on the cantatas of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes. Allegra is also an active Boston-area singer, performing regularly with the Schola Cantorum of Boston.

The First Unitarian Adult Choir, located at the historic First Unitarian Church in downtown Worcester, sings three Sundays a month, providing three anthems and all service music. Our 25-voice adult choir embraces a diversity of musical styles and cultures. Our repertoire includes everything from Bach and Bonds to gospel, folk, world music, and more. Our choir, which welcomes all singers, rehearses every Thursday evening. We offer two Music Sundays per year, featuring major choral works. In the past two years, we have shared Bach’s Cantata 61, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Margaret Bonds’ Credo, Handel’s Chandos Anthem No. 4, and Adolphus Hailstork’s Shout for Joy! The choir is also at the center of our annual luminous Christmas Eve service and our large and inclusive performance of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” on Easter morning, which welcomes any orchestral instrumentalist or singer who wants to join in. Two years ago we began an annual tradition of hosting Summer Sings on Thursday evenings in June, when any singer from the community can join us and sing through a major choral work. Past sings have featured the Fauré Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, Bach’s Cantata 61 and Magnificat, an evening of works by Margaret Bonds, and an evening of works by Alice Parker. The adult choir is one of three choirs at the church – we also have a Children’s Choir, open to grades 3-8, and a Youth Choir, open to grades 8-12. First Unitarian is a vibrant and welcoming Unitarian Universalist congregation committed to living out our mission to honor the sacred, connect with one another, and serve justice within our community and our world. Music truly is at the heart of our worship life as a congregation. All are welcome to join the choir; there are no auditions. The choir rehearses on Thursdays from 7-9pm and on Sundays from 8:45-9:45am. Contact Director of Music Dr. Allegra Martin for more information or to join the choir.