Oakland Christian Music - ChristianMusic.com

We are an open, inclusive community where we celebrate: Social Action, Art, Music and Drama, Intellectual Challenge, Spiritual Growth, and Children & Youth.

Worship at Montclair Presbyterian Church is designed to be vibrant, transforming, comforting, inspiring, and challenging. It is a time when each person can discover the presence of God in his or her life and in the world. We seek to create celebrations which have shape and purpose, a sense of drama and a narrative flow, and which move each person through a cohesive and integrated experience.

Sunday Celebration
Music is an integral part of our Sunday Celebration.

The MPC Choir
Montclair Presbyterian Church has a dynamic, versatile music ensemble that performs every Sunday in the fall, winter and spring seasons. Our repertoire ranges from Mozart to Menotti to Mancini to Monteverdi. Our choir may sing an easy, familiar hymn one week and perform a challenging major work, complete with orchestra, the next. Our selections range from a traditional hymn to a song from a hit Broadway musical.

MPC Chestnut Choir
This is a supplemental choir that comes into action when the choir does "chestnut" or familiar, easy to learn songs.

The Music
Each year, our choir performs two or more major works. One major work is always a celebration of the Advent Season and oftentimes includes our children and youth. Past selections have included: The First Nowell - A Nativity Play, a medieval celebration and drama of the Christmas Story; Messe de Minuit pour Noel (Midnight Mass for Christmas) by the French composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643 - 1704); and The First Noel by Ralph Vaughan Williams, a Nativity play with the MPC Choir and MPC children and youth. Other major works performed by the MPC choir during celebration have included: "Songs of Democracy" from the poem by Walt Whitman with music by Howard Hanson; "Somewhere" by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim from West Side Story; and "Requiem" by Maurice Duruflé.

Guest Ensembles
Soloists, quartets, musical groups and Ensemble groups enliven many Sunday Celebrations. The Barrelhouse Jazz Band, a foursome from our congregation, appears regularly for our Easter service and our courtyard celebration on Labor Day Weekend. The Pacific BoyChoir sings during our Celebration of Epiphany. Other groups who regularly add to Sunday Celebration include The Exeter String Quartet, the women's vocal ensemble, "Cecilia", The Brazilian Drum Corp, Voices Lesbian Ensemble, and the Oakland/East Bay Gay Men's Chorus. Soloists, both singers and musicians, from within our congregation and from without, contribute to our Sunday service.

Musical Performances
Because our congregation has such a wealth of musical talent and a broad appreciation of these gifts, our Sanctuary is often blessed with evening performances by those soloists and groups who have enriched our Sunday service. These performances are open to all.