Family Music Ministries
Make a Joyful Noise to God!
The Family Music Ministries at First Presbyterian engages the entire congregation in making a joyful noise to God. Children of all ages are encouraged to explore and befriend their voices as they gain the skills to be worship leaders in the congregation. Emphasis is placed on music making as an act of praise and worship that extends from our gratitude for all of God’s gifts. Singers learn theologically rich pieces from around the world that reinforce their skills, as well as familiarizing themselves with hymnody.
Children’s Music Ministry
The Children’s Music Ministry (second through fourth grade) rehearses each Sunday following church school (from 12:00-12:45 p.m.) in the Assembly Hall and sings in worship about every other month.
Youth Music Ministry
The Youth Music Ministry (fifth through twelfth grade) rehearses before church each Sunday (from 10:00-10:45 a.m.) in the Assembly Hall and sings in worship about once a month. They often sing combined pieces with the Children’s Music Ministry, and also sing as an independent choir.
Music with Preschoolers through First Graders
Three to four-year-olds and Kindergartener and First Graders participate in a fifteen minute long music time that takes place during Church School. Younger children sing about twice a year in worship.
Emily Scott, Director of Family Music Ministries
A liturgist and musician, Emily is committed to encouraging congregational song. After training as a trombonist at Sarah Lawrence College with performers such as Jim Markey and David Taylor, Emily earned her Masters of Divinity at Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music. Emily’s studies focused on liturgy and the relationship between worship and the arts.
Emily is the New Music Project Coordinator at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Founded in 2005, the New Music Project is an association of church musicians and clergy from around the country dedicated to promoting “paperless” music—music that can be taught and sung by rote—in a congregational setting.
From 2007-2009, Emily served as the Director of Worship at The Riverside Church in the City of New York, where she continued to work to bring diverse groups of people together to pray and praise God. Emily is also the founder and Pastoral Minister of St. Lydia’s, a new congregation in Manhattan that gathers each week for “dinner church,” a Eucharistic meal patterned after worship in the early church.
Contact Emily at escott@fpcnyc.org for more information.