First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh has been providing a liberal religious presence in Pittsburgh since 1890. We are located at the corner of Morewood and Ellsworth Avenues in Shadyside.

The heart of our mission is to promote love, reason and freedom in religion, to foster lifelong spiritual growth, and to act for social justice. We encourage seekers of all faiths, nationalities, races, genders, ages, abilities and sexual orientations to visit our congregation. We hope that you will find the spiritual home that you are seeking.

The Music Program at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh

The music program at First Unitarian Church serves our members through joyful celebration both in our worship services and in the larger community. We nourish congregational music-making by offering a variety of ways for members to make both instrumental and choral music together. We also work with musicians from the community to present rich, meaningful, and diverse musical offerings that support our wider mission of "celebrating life and its stages."

Sanctuary Choir
Lift your hearts and voices with the forty-voice Sanctuary Choir, as they offer a wide variety of music for presentation during the 11:00 AM service. In addition to singing twice per month from September to June, we present one or two major works a year.

Family Choir
The Family Choir provides an opportunity for families to sing together and to create a friendly, informal, supportive community. The Family Choir provides music for the 9:30 AM service about once each month and for the Family Christmas Eve Service.

Folk Orchestra
The Folk Orchestra plays instruments such as flute, recorder, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, electric bass, and percussion, join together to play music by various songwriters and folk composers. This unique musical group performs once per month at the 9:30 AM service.

Guest Musicians
First Unitarian frequently utilizes the talents of guest musicians within worship services providing a unique performing opportunity for many of Pittsburgh's very finest soloists & ensembles.

Recorder Ensemble
Members of the Recorder Ensemble, who play all different recorders from bass to soprano, share a love of early music & play for Sunday services from time to time.

Allegheny Passage
The music of the five-member folk group Allegheny Passage is characterized by superb instrumental playing, fine vocal harmonies, and solid rhythm. Members of Allegheny Passage write some of their own songs and draw the remainder of their repertoire from a variety of sources. They perform at the 11:00 service from time to time.

Musical Instruments
First Unitarian Church has several very fine musical instruments. The organ in the sanctuary was built by Phillipp Wirsching and was given to First Unitarian Church by Andrew Carnegie in 1904. It has 1,721 pipes in thirty ranks. It is the subject of an article written by local organ historian Jim Stark, which was published in the January, 2003, issue of The Tracker: The Journal of the Organ Historical Society. The nine-foot concert grand Steinway piano in the sanctuary was purchased in 1981. The harpsichord was built in 1978 by James Herndon, the father of Rev. Herndon. The seven-foot Hardman grand piano in the Undercroft Gallery was recently rebuilt by Eric Nelson. Three upright pianos elsewhere in the church building are used for various purposes, including music lessons.

Missed one of our services? MP3 recordings of recent sermons is available on our web site.

Visit: first-unitarian-pgh.org

First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh
605 Morewood Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
Phone: 412-621-8008