Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Our first rehearsal of 2025 is Sunday, January 5th. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

*We sing at the 11:15 a.m. service on January 26th. There is no rehearsal that afternoon, but Brian is giving a concert at the Cathedral of St. Philip and we will provide transportation to all who would like to attend.

Coventry Collegium is open to all youth in 6th through 12th grade. Previous musical experience is not required, and musicians of all types - not just singers - are welcome. Coventry students grow as musicians, individuals, and community members while rehearsing and learning musical skills, enacting direct-impact service, providing leadership within the children's music education programming, participating regularly in Sunday morning worship, and adventuring out on exciting expeditions.

Primary Contact: Brian Parks (Co-Director), brianparks@mariettafumc.org

Sundays are the primary rehearsal day. Wednesdays are for small-group work on particular pieces, learning musical grammars and syntax, and improving vocal technique. Both rehearsals are not expected, but are certainly an option and many students do participate in both. If a student absolutely cannot attend on Sundays, they may attend Wednesdays only instead.

*For everyone's safety, the exterior doors remain locked unless staff is manning the entrance. If you have missed the entry window, call Catherine at 404-914-2353 and someone will be sent to let you in as soon as possible. 

Anyone may participate in Coventry at any attendance level that works for them! Additional activities such as singing in service, doing off-campus service activities, and going on off-site trips (including tour), require increasing degrees of commitment and participation. If interested in these additional opportunities, please check the Coventry contract or talk with one of the instructors to find out what you need.

The contract for the 2024-25 school year will be available at the parent meeting in September. This gives the students for this current year a chance to discuss it and make any changes that they deem appropriate.

Service Opportunities

Throughout the year, we serve communities such as MUST Ministries, the Men's and Women's Extensions, Murphy-Harpst Children's Center, and others through our partner organizations. We also help inside this community of faith through children's choirs assistance, clean-up and set-up for events, and wherever else we are called (spiritually) or called (literally) to serve. On annual tours, we have partnered with God's Pantry, Clean the World Foundation, Give Kids the World, the Orlando Union Rescue Mission, Cathedral in the Night, and other worthy places of need. 

Rehearsals for Youth Instrumentalists 

Youth instrumentalists are invited to rehearse on Sundays from 3:30pm to 4:15pm in Room 263. Contact Brian Parks (brianparks@mariettafumc.org) for information on accompanying the choir in service or at service activities and/or playing pieces in worship services. 

Men's Ensemble Rehearsal

Coventry men are encouraged to attend the men's ensemble rehearsals and to sing with them in worship. They meet on the last Wednesday of each month from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. in room 251. They will join the regular Coventry rehearsal after the men's rehearsal ends. 

Musical Theatre Class

Not currently being offered. We will consider reinstating the class if students are interested.  

Alelluia 

by Ralph Manuel

for future singings

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis

by Brian Parks, for Evensong Services including May 31st at Trinity Church

William Smith Preces and Responses

Irish Blessing/May the Road Rise to Meet You (Parks Arr.)

And Remember

Abide With Me (Arr. Parks)

 If Ye Love Me

by Philip Wilby

Carry Me, Don MacDonald

I Believe, Mark A. Miller

Come Healing, Leonard Cohen and Patrick Leonard

Every Praise, Arr. Dan Galbraith

Pelotsa Rona

Total Praise, Arr. Patsy Ford Simms

We Will Take What You Offer

Preces & Responses - Thomas Tallis

Carol of the Outcast

(10 December 2023 - Youth Choir Men with Chorister Choir)

Away in a Manger (Parks)

(Typically sung at Lessons and Carols)

This Little Babe

(24 December, 11pm Service)

Doxology (Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow)

I Believe (string parts only)

Choir Tour 2024 - a story told through internet video, by Forrest Cate

Retreat - 2025

While not all members may wish to fulfill the tour participation requirements, or simply may not be able to go on tour each year, we don't want any member to miss out on the opportunity to travel away together to serve, rehearse, cook, and build community. We are offering a retreat over MLK weekend to provide such an experience - leaving Friday the 17th right after school and returning the evening of Monday the 20th. More details available soon.

Tour Documents

The *contract is required of all members, even if you have been on tour before. 

The Consent and Waiver Form and the Medical Information Form carry over from year-to-year, so after signing them once, you are good to go. New members will need to turn these items in. Both forms are mentioned in the contract that you must sign in order to go on tour.

Please note: The contract was provided at the first parent meeting, and in an email after that meeting, back in November. Sabrina has had hard copies available at the last few weeks of rehearsals (and announced that information), and an email went out recently reminding all tour-goers that it needs to be turned in before getting on the bus. If you've missed it (and the other documents) over this time, please let it be a valuable learning experience that helps to inform your planning (and reading) in the future. 

(*It is sometimes also referred to as the Code of Conduct form.) 

Brian Parks

Organist/Associate Director of Music

I am a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists with separate masters degrees in Composition and Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, where I studied with Ron Kuivila, Anthony Braxton, and the late Alvin Lucier. I also spent eight years learning the drum-dances of Ghana with Abraham Adzenyah and now John Dankwa (who comes down once a year to teach an Advanced Drumming camp). Since 2011, I have embarked on five concert tours in Europe on organ and harpsichord. I maintain a private piano, organ, and composition studio here in Marietta and run an experimental and early music ensemble called Quadratum for auditioned children and adults (quadratum.online). I also do Ghanaian drumming and solkattu with children and young adults. From 2007-2015, I served as Director of Music/Organist for two Congregational churches (UCC) in Connecticut.

Forrest Cate                                    

Director of Program and Ensemble Ombudsman

Forrest Cate is the son of a poet and a school psychologist (two separate people). Forrest grew up in Statesboro Georgia and is a lifelong United Methodist. His parents sent him to the Georgia Institute of Technology because they thought it would afford him a more lavish lifestyle that of a poet and a school psychologist, but the engineering life wasn't for him. Forrest returned to his roots so to speak and took on a life of horticulture eventually landing a position with a small family firm growing, selling, and installing, as necessary, plants.

Forrest has been married to the former Kim Gruetter of Powder Springs for over 35 years. Forrest and Kim have two daughters and three grandchildren.

Forrest currently serves as Director of Program for Marietta First United Methodist Church where he seeks to learn and understand communities in the church, the Marietta community, and around the world. Forrest is fascinated by groups of people who work together to become the people God has created them to be.

Catherine Moulton                                       

Music Associate, Co-Director of Chapel, Director of Chorister Choir

Catherine Moulton, a native Mariettan, has worked as a performing arts clinician since 2013. Her pedagogy highlights the embodiment of music theory through vocal technique, stagecraft, confident self-presentation, and the building of other critical life skills. Currently she runs an active private lesson studio and directs Quadratum (with Brian Parks), an auditioned ensemble that strives to develop intelligent, self-reliant young people through rigorous musical training. She is also the Director of Chapel Choir (6th through 12th grade) and Chorister Choir (3rd through 5th grade) at Marietta First United Methodist Church. A graduate of CCCEPA, she holds a bachelor degree from Indiana University with additional studies taking place at Manhattan School of Music and Jacobs School of Music. During her time as Head of Education at The Strand, she directed, music directed, or production managed a vast array of shows, camps, and educational performing opportunities.