The Evensong Choir

The Evensong Choir is a collaboration of Christ Church Portola Valley & Woodside, Christ Church Los Altos, St. Mark’s Palo Alto, and St. Bede’s Menlo Park. Our clergy, music directors, organists, and choirs come together to plan four Evensong services per year, one at each collaborating church.

Evensong is a traditional Anglican service that typically takes place near sunset. Unlike Sunday morning worship, the service does not include communion or a sermon, but instead focuses on scripture, prayer, and music. Evensong services are approximately one hour long.

Our October 5th service at St. Bede’s highlighted the feast of St. Francis and included works by Unterseher, Ayleward, Rutter, and Gabriel Jackson. The second program of the year on November 23rd celebrated our shared feast day with Christ Church Los Altos and featured works by Hogan, McDonald, Harris, and Webster. Our most recent Evensong, on February 22nd at St. Mark’s, centered Black composers and arrangers including Wilbur Held, Florence Price, and Eurydice Osterman.

Our upcoming services are:

April 26 at 5:00pm at Christ Church Portola Valley & Woodside. This Eastertide Evensong will be a joyous celebration of the resurrection.

May 14 (time TBA) at Stanford Memorial Church. We celebrate our communion with the Lutheran church via a Eucharist service at Stanford. Other Episcopal and Lutheran churches join our cohort at this yearly service, resulting in a powerful 60-person choir backed by the amazing Murray-Harris organ of Mem-Chu.