Sacred concerts and special observances build upon church services conducted throughout the year here at Christ Church. Evensongs, All Saints Day observances, Lenten programs, Advent programs including Services of Lessons and Carols and community choral singing are among the events sponsored by Christ Church. Christ Church hosts the East Carolina Diocesan convention for the Diocese of East Carolina each February.
Choir concerts at Christ Church occur occasionally and are always always are open to the greater New Bern community. They feature our Parish Choir supplemented by volunteer guest choristers and accompanied by chamber orchestras. The choir offered John Rutter’s Requiem offered in November 2010 and Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna offered in November 2012. Both of these concerts played to enthusiastic standing room only audiences.
Our Lenten Concert Series includes three or four short weekday concerts offered between Ash Wednesday and Maundy Thursday. The concerts feature both local and out-of-town artists. In recent years these artists have included instrumentalists and professors from the school of music at East Carolina University, vocalists and instrumentalists from New Bern and talented musicians from our own parish. All of the concerts are open to the public and are very well attended.
Choral Evensong is sung two or three times per year. These services typically are preceded by an organ recital offered by the Director of Music or by a guest organist.
Several times during the church year our youth choirs offer special musical events. These include a celebration of the Nativity during Advent and a special musical celebration woven into the Great Vigil of Easter. Youth who are members of our cherub, chorister and King George choirs all participate in these events. The music features solo and group singing as well as instrumental performance.