On the evenings of Friday, May 10th and Saturday May 11th, join the UUCB HoUUse band and soloists for “It Takes Two!!”- fun evenings of food, drink, atmosphere, and entertainment. The evenings’ musical program will feature a variety of musical theatre and pop/rock duets – with the occasional larger ensemble number thrown in for extra pizzaz. Narration from emcees Music Director Jessie Downs and UUCB Tenor Soloist Shaun Doyle will lead the audience through a comedic yet insightful exploration of the nature of twoness. Food will be prepared by amazing chefs Jeff Lowry and Nate Muka, and drinks will be available at a cash bar. All ticket sales and other proceeds go to support the UUCB’s Operating Budget, and this year our goal is to raise $10,000. Enjoy a night out on the town with friends and support a good cause while you’re at it! Tables are available for 4, 8, and 10 people and seating will be first come, first serve. Doors open at 6:30pm and the show begins at 7pm. Get your tickets now!
Past Music Weekends
Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem
UUCB’s Spring Music Weekend 2024 featured a presentation of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem on Sunday, April 7th at 10:30am. Eastman DMA organist Augustine Sobeng will accompany our choir on Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, a meditative half-hour of music that explores the impact of grief. For this special service, our choir will also be joined by 5 guest vocal artists from the Sotto Voce collective – altos Jamie Gangemi and Erin Alexander, tenors Tyler Huk and Zane Merritt, and baritone Ky Ver Hoef. In addition to our group’s lush ensemble sound, audiences will also be treated to solos by our Soprano Soloist Taryn Goehrig and guest baritone Ky Ver Hoef.
Prayers for Peace
The UUCB’s MUUsic 2023 Fall Weekend (November 17th to the 19th) performances of “Prayers for Peace” presented a stirring trio of music to both celebrate Ukrainian culture and the healing power of cross-cultural music sung together.
The UUCB Choir collaborated with the University at Buffalo (UB) Choir, Mriya Ukrainian Women’s Choir, and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir to produce two evening concerts and a morning service featuring powerful reflective music in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. These events showcased music by a variety of Ukrainian choral composers and included spoken information on the music’s origins and meanings in both English and Ukrainian. The UUCB service on Sunday included musical excerpts from the two previous evening events, and information about the history and lived experience of the war in Ukraine, as well as how we in the U.S. can help.
Dido & Aeneas
On May 5th 2023 the UUCB Choir, staff, and guest musicians from around the country presented Henry Purcell’s baroque opera Dido and Aeneas for our first ever MUUsic Weekend.
This expansion of our traditional Music Sundays began with a full operatic performance on Friday, May 5th at 7:30pm (with pre-show talk at 7pm) and was followed by a presentation of choral excerpts from the opera on Sunday May 7th at our usual service time. The Friday evening performance was open to the public on a pay-what-you-will basis. If you missed it, you can now watch a recording of the event on our YouTube channel (link to the left).
Dido and Aeneas tells the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, as first told in Virgil’s epic The Aeneid. The widowed and exiled queen is master of her own domain until the widowed and exiled hero Aeneas arrives on her queendom’s shores. Through the meddling of the gods, the two rulers’ fates are bound together, only to then be forced violently apart with horrific consequences for Dido. The opera is known for its tragic ending, but this mythic tale is also full of humor and insight into what it means to be human. Its hour-long duration is crammed full of stunning singing from both the soloists and Greek-style chorus. Our production also featured period string and keyboard instruments as would have been used in the opera’s original productions in the 1680s.