V.com weekend vote: Have you ever played music at place of worship that was not your own?
It's Easter, and this year, as in most other years of my life, I played my violin in a number of church-related events that had to do with the holiday. And as with most other years, neither church was my own.
I thought it would be fun to do a vote this week on the subject, as a way of talking about all the various kinds of religious settings that music can take us - playing for religious holidays, weddings, funerals, etc. Where has it taken you?
I'll tell you about my recent experiences, over the last week - last Sunday I played for a Palm Sunday devotional for the Latter Day Saints that took place at the Forest Lawn Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection, which seemed like a rather dramatic name for a place - until I saw it. The hall is built around a most stunning work of art, a 195-foot-long, 45-foot-high panoramic painting called The Crucifixion by turn-of-the-20th-century Polish artist Jan Styka. The artwork is perhaps the biggest painting I've ever seen in my life, and I felt pretty awestruck. It felt meaningful to play alongside a choir, to try to create a musical expression of the grand themes in the painting.
I also played for a Good Friday service at a Presbyterian Church, which also featured a choir singing music by several living composers, including LA-based Morten Lauridsen's well-loved Lux Aeterna, as well as a very new work called Illuminare written in 2022 by Iowa-based Elaine Hagenberg, quite the up-and-coming choral composer - and piece.
As a musician, I feel like it is a real honor and privilege to be able to participate in various religious holidays, and to thereby learn about the customs and rituals of many different religions that are different from my own.
What is your experience, making music in churches, synagogues or houses of faith? Have you played in one that is not your own? Did you play for any Easter-related services this week? Please participate in the vote and share your experiences in the comments.
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Replies
Most churches in England are used for secular concerts as well as religious events. Over the years I must have played in at least 50 of them, most recently Bach's B minor Mass and most memorably the St Matthew Passion in St Paul's Cathedral on six consecutive Good Fridays.
I did once - while visiting friends in the American Northeast - not at Easter but in mid-summer. Since they would be without a voice soloist that week, the pianist invited me to team up with him. We picked a violin/piano arrangement of Franz Schubert's "Ständchen" (Serenade), D 957. Check out this rendition on YouTube. This isn't me - it's a cello/piano arrangement. The rendition is similar to my take on the piece. Run time: 3:53.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Njg1LFxFk
Since then, I've had invitations from other congregations, now here in the American Southeast, my home base since the turn of the century. I've turned them down. Not that I wouldn't be happy to play for anyone who asks - I pretty well out-bullied the nerves as a kid growing up; but I need to have the right conditions. Sunday mornings in winter, a lot of venues aren't yet warm enough; and in summer, a lot of them have the air conditioning on too strong. So I can't be sure that I'll have enough heat and moisture in my hands for reliable traction. The acoustics in these places are great, though.
For two years in high school I had a job as the pianist for a small LCA Lutheran church in my hometown. They bought an Allen organ and I became the organist. Interesting gig for an atheist.
I have played in many different houses of worship in the Judeo-Christian tradition, both holiday sevices and especially weddings. I think people who are focused on their own beliefs and traditions would be surprised to see how similar they all are.
One summer, at a chamber camp in Maine, our groups would sometimes get lent to local churches for their services. And since there wasn't a huge choral tradition we would fit into, it was so we could play what we were preparing.
A group I was in was invited in this way to play at a service for the local Baptist church-- with a very fire-breathing guest minister, whose voice could have been heard in Rhode Island without a mike when he got going.
We played the slow movement of the Franck Piano Quintet. A more French, sensual, even pornographic piece I can't imagine. They loved it, though.
When I was a lot younger, I played my lap steel in with a church band in the church I belonged to. Earlier I'd played for a group in a church I did not belong to, and managed not to stuff it up. but it wasplaying in the church band and seeing how much I had to learn, that got me - then, finally then - picking up the violin and taking lessons.
I have performed at events for my music academy at places of worship that were not my own and I am also going to be performing in the Peel music festival, which will be taking place at a church.
I do, when I can and I love it. Anytime someone is available to play and assist musically with the service we get the continued use of a beautiful recital venue. Recently played in Palm Sunday service and everyone loved it. Nothing crazy, just the soprano part with the choir and a few hymns. After I performed Tartini Sonata for recital....the place was empty, with the exception of another performer and his mother for the recital.
I take the meaning of the question to be playing in a church or mosque or temple as as part of the ceremonies going on, not in a church used as a concert hall.
When I was young I played in churches quite often. It was paid, even for amateurs and a nice way for a student to make some money (100 Swiss Francs was approximately the going rate). I played in protestant (Pachelbel canon and mostly other instrumental music) and catholic churches (masses, especially Mozart, sometimes Schubert in G-Major, once the Missa di Gloria by Puccini). One time, in a rural catholic church, the choir director asked me to play a solo piece as part of an idea he had. He wanted the solo piece to symbolize the "lost" human, to be followed by an organ piece and a chorus, the whole sequence describing the way from lost to Christmas. I looked around in the Telemann Fantasias--I didn't want to play solo Bach--but there was nothing serious enough for the purpose. I ended up with the Allemande from the d-minor Partita anyway. It is practically free of double stops and it is adequately serious. Luckily I was asked early November so there was time to practice. I doubt anyone understood the idea of the choir director though. I played the allemande twice more in church, at the funerals of my favorite aunt and before that of her husband.
I am extremely anti-religious, I think that I was banned from one orchestra for saying that I was not superstitious when they started playing religious music.
I don't think of classical music as being per se "religious" or not so it's all fine with me. God does get some of the best tunes.
Interesting topic. As an adult late starter about 40 years ago my goal was to become sufficiently proficient to play the soprano/descant music of Episcopal hymns in my home church. In a little over a year I achieved that goal. Changes in the clergy and administration of the parish led to the end of me playing during the service but taking on the role of "DJ" using midi files on floppy disks due to the lack of a trained keyboard player.
I've never attempted to play along with the disks - although I guess I could try....
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April 20, 2025 at 05:13 PM · Since I'm not Christian, anytime I play at church (which is very rare these days) is a situation where I'm playing at a place of worship not my own.