First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport will host a special Christmas Prelude concert on Sunday, Dec. 10. The concert program will include Christmas music and Christmas carols with Megan Grassi, violin, Megan’s daughter Sophie Grassi, violin, Monica Bridges, vocalist, and Joyce Painter Rice, organ and piano. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Joyce Painter Rice, Music Director and Organist, interim minister Rev. Jim Henry, and church members are pleased to welcome you and your families to this celebration of Christmas. Admission is free, donations accepted.
The concert program will include Christmas music and Christmas carols with Megan Grassi, violin, Megan’s daughter Sophie Grassi, violin, Monica Bridges, vocalist, and Joyce Painter Rice, organ and piano.
Megan Grassi received her bachleors degree in Violin Performance from Lawrence University in Wisconsin where she studied with Calvin Wiersma. She also trained at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In her postgraduate years she studied with Andrew Kohji Taylor, a student of Juilliard’s Dorothy DeLay. Megan was a featured soloist with the Merrimack Valley Orchestra and played at numerous summer chamber music & orchestral festivals including Apple Hill, Kinhaven, & the Pierre Monteux School.
She has pedagogical training from institutes at Steven’s Point, Ithaca College, Hartt School, and Concordia. Megan was a member of Boston’s New England Philharmonic & has played & taught in Germany, Italy, & Martha’s Vineyard. Most recently she worked with coach Jodi Hagen, a tenured violinist of the Boston Ballet & Boston Lyric Opera, & a former student of Roman Totenberg.
Megan currently divides her time playing with and training talented young musicians of Bowdoin’s Mozart Mentors Orchestra and maintaining a private violin studio in Kennebunkport.
Sophia Grassi began playing the violin at age 3 and is now 11-years-old. She has performed as a soloist in local recitals, Ogontz Music Festival and at Phillips Andover.
She is currently looking forward to playing Handel’s Messiah for the first time this Christmas as the youngest member of the Mozart Mentors Orchestra.
Vocalist Monica Bridges, soprano, is a member of her church choir. She began singing as a child with her siblings at church. Monica has sung the National Anthem for military and sporting events. She also sings in the Kennebunk Variety Show. Monica currently works for the NH Army National Guard.
In addition to this and other events, the Rev. Jim Henry and First Church members welcome you to attend the weekly Sunday church service which begins at 9:30 a.m. All are welcome at First Church.
First Congregational Church is located 1.5 miles south of the Seacoast Trolley Museum where Log Cabin Road becomes North Sreet. The church is next to Arundel Cemetery, and the Kennebunkport Historical Society.
Directions from Kennebunkport’s Dock Square are Spring Street left on Maine Street, bear right on North Street and follow North Street to First Congregational Church on the right.
For directions or more information, call the church office on Tuesdays at 967-3897.
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